selling Denver loft homes and other urban dwellings…

Hilltop in Denver is a prime location for residents that demand close proximity to the city’s center, a variety of beautiful architecture — both new and old world, expansive parks and highly rated schools.

My associate, Ann Connelly, will take us on a tour of the neighborhood giving an idea of the homes, parks and location. Currently there are 96 homes on the market in the Hilltop area, average price is about $1.2 million. In the past six months 31 homes have sold with the average days on market being 163 and price per square foot at $360.

Please enjoy our Hilltop neighborhood tour:

The downtown Denver Partnership is hosting a housing event, Center Yourself, with a long list of condo developers and new rental communities — find out the haps in the downtown housing market! The event is this Thursday, October 9th, 2008 in the Grand Ballroom at the Oxford Hotel (1600 17th Ave.) from 5-7 PM.

There is no admission fee and it’s a great event to grab a cocktail and visit with the developers of Frontview 40, 2020 Lawrence, Spire and many more. There is a lot of new residential developement in Denver’s city center come find out what’s going on.

See you there!

Last week at the annual Builder Realty Council (BRC) breakfast I got a chance to talk to some of the builders in Denver’s city center areas and get the scoop on what’s new and currently for sale.

Beleza is a new addition to Denver’s River North neighborhood that will be located at 31st Street and Brighton Boulevard.   It’s 66 well-appointed residences that will have over-sized terraces, European cabinetry and much more.  The price point begins in the $400,00 and ranges into $4 million.  Estimated completion is Summer 2010, take a look at the video for more details.

Making sure you qualify for the mortgage you want and that you can afford the mortgage you qualify for — sound like the same thing but in reality are two very different things. Smart buyers examine and find out how much home they can REALLY afford.

Lenders use a variety of items to minimize their investment risk when financing a home for a buyer. Credit scores, current monthly debt, income and assets all contribute to the equation lenders use when determining how much money they are willing to put at risk on your home purchase and the interest rate they charge to cover their risk. BUT let’s get real, there are a number of factors that you may have now or in the future that weren’t factored into the lender’s equation.

It’s critically important for a buyer to construct a realistic budget that will reveal exact how much one spends a month. It’s not uncommon to find that you can really only afford 30%, 26% or even 22% of your income on housing cost — and that’s okay — better to buy a less expensive place than be up to your chin in debt.

A good way to determine your personal spending habits is to review the past 6-12 months of your bank & credit statements to see how much is gong where each month. After review you can build a spending and savings plan — make sure it includes an emergency fund. When determining the maximum monthly mortgage payment you can afford don’t forget to factor in all the costs of owning a home:

• mortgage principal and insurance
• taxes
• insurance
• maintenance
• repairs
• homeowners association fees

Buying what you can afford rather than what you qualify for will keep you out of the foreclosure statistic and keep your credit squeaky clean.

This weekend I was in a conversation with a young professional who just relocated to the Denver area from the Big Apple.  She has always rented her place and her current living setup was no different.  Green to Denver and three months into her lease she believed that she could not afford to buy a condo in Capitol Hill.  This is a misconception that as I Realtor  hear all too often.  Denver city center neigborhoods do have properties priced below $150,000 — let’s look at some that are available.

 Not only are there properties available in Capitol Hill but there are a bunch of NICE condos.  Here’s the deal in Capitol Hill as of today — 28 available condos prices under $150,000, one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 650 square feet of living space.  around half of the 28 condos available come with a reserved parking space.

Many developers have been buying these  capitol hill art deco buildings and renovating the units with new finishes — new kitchen cabinets & counters, appliances, flooring, paint and bathroom fixtures.  The end product tends to be clean and modern and in better condition than many rental properties.  The central location is there, the updates are there and the prices — below $150,000.

Another option if space is what your searching for is to look into the units that have not been renovated.  Now you won’t find the fancy, updated kitchens and bathrooms but the average square footage will be closer to 750-800 sf.   Owners in these buildings update their individual units so a buyer will find a range of updates that have (or haven’t) been done from unit to unit.  There are a handful of two-bedroom condos currently for sale in Capitol Hill that fall into this category.

Lastly,  if you are really looking for something that will not break the bank Capitol Hill has a few condos price below $90,000!  They range from studio to one-bedroom units within walking distance of the downtown business district.  At this price you can’t tell me that your rent is cheapier than buying your own place?!

Two separate incidences happened recently that have provoked this post.

Incident one, A client of mine called me this week asking me if $70,000 was a good deal for a house. My answer was much longer than it was short but the overall answer was no. After we settled into the conversation he continued to tell me that he joined an investor group and the group was supplying him with a list of house that were a ‘good’ deal. A CMA of the market in the neighborhood established that the house was priced at market and still needed at least $15,000 of work to make it rentable (or flip). A major factor that was over-looked by the investment club ‘pros’ was historical values in the area – the house was worth $70,000 10 years ago and will probably be worth the same in another 10 years. The long of the short was the investment real estate group had given him a list of house that weren’t as ‘hot’ as they said. The investor group tried to persuade him to act quickly as the houses are such hot deals that they will be gone it you think about it too long. Of course it was sugar going in but coming out, now that’s a different story.

Incident two, A conversation with a lady who just finished purchasing an investment home through an investment real estate club she had joined and she felt she had been scammed. The club supplied the ‘great’ deal homes that could be located anywhere across the country and dealt with the contracts & negotiations. Deciding on an investment property in Colorado she bought, sight-unseen, and closed only to find out the investment property wasn’t a deal at all. The home was sold to her $50,000 over any comparable homes in the neighborhood, the neighborhood had a stack of foreclosures, it backed to a major street and the investor’s promise to transfer the property with a guaranteed 2-year lease was unfulfilled. So much for the, uh-hum – professional advice she received from her real estate investment club.

There is a reason that some investors created these clubs. If they were so very good at making millions of dollars by investing in real estate they would be out doing exactly that. They are still out making millions, it’s just coming from somebody else’s pocket. The two investors mentioned above aren’t ignorant, they were given information that sounded like a great investment. The problem was they didn’t evaluate the info source. They were dealing with people that claimed to have hot deals, in actuality the club didn’t even seem to understand the local market or know the neighborhoods of these smoking hot deals.

Real estate investing is a very hot ticket right now and there are a lot of deals to be had, I see them everyday all over Denver. However that doesn’t make it an easy game, rather one that is best played with a trusted real estate professional that knows the neighborhoods, the local market and has a good understanding of your goals with your investment portfolio. Your investment dollar is valuable so take your time to spend it to grow, know who you are doing business with and where you are getting your facts and information from. It’s disheartening hearing about these situations and having to give out the name of a good real estate attorney.

Walking down Market Street in Denver this afternoon we could not resist the smells coming from Cook Street. All of the sudden we were hungry and we entered preparing to eat some heavenly lunch — fooled! Turns out that Cook Street is a school of fine cooking. It’s a professional culinary arts school in the heart of Denver, no wonder we were drawn in by smells! Cook Street also offers recreational fine cooking classes for us amateurs.