Razing Colorado
Got $160 million?
Mortgage article from the Rocky Mountain News:
A German bank has pulled the plug on its deal to lend $160 million for a 41-story condominium project under construction downtown - the largest example in Denver so far of how the turmoil in international lending markets affects a local market.
Read the full story: Downtown highrise project loses lender
Lets go fry a turkey
Frying a turkey has always intrigued me. The people who fry their turkey every year for Thanksgiving swear by them. They say the turkey is juicier and it takes less time to cook. There is the down side that turkey fryers can cause a fire.
This Thanksgiving I got a wild hair and decided to give turkey frying a go. I did some research and found a relatively inexpensive ($60) fryer at Sears. The fryer is made of three components, a base, a connection to propane, and a 30 quart aluminum pot. Moreover, the fryer is made by a company, Masterbuilt, that’s fairly reputable and the construction was welded together so it seemed fairly stable. I picked up the requisite peanut oil and marinades at the grocery store.
I got off to a late start (3 PM) putting the turkey fryer together. After putting the fryer together, I realized that the propane tank was empty. Off to the gas station I went to get propane. When I returned I realized that there was still a lot to do. It was now 4 PM and the sun was going down fast. I put the oil in the 30 quart pot and started lit the fire. I thought the fire was full bore but halfway through I realized it was only at 50% fire power. It took almost an hour for the oil to hit 350 degrees.
Once the oil was hot enough I finally put the 13 pound turkey into the container and lowered the container into the pot very slowly. The last thing I wanted was a massive fire. The instruction manual says that you should cook the turkey 3 minutes for every pound. I followed the directions and 39 minutes later I pulled out the turkey. One problem. The internal temperature of the turkey measured a paltry 150 degrees. It needs to be 180 degrees for it to be considered cooked. Other than sushi I hate undercooked meat and I’m not a huge fan of beef so I don’t dig rare steaks. I threw the turkey back in the fryer for 10 minutes. When I removed the turkey the second time, it was 168 degrees internally. After 15 minutes of standing time and the internal temperature of the turkey was 177 degrees.
After carving up the turkey, I now know why people fry their turkeys. It’s definitely juicy. It’s definitely flavorful. It’s definitely something I’d do again and I definitely recommend that everyone give it a go.
Raising your “Profile”
Last year, I met a real estate agent by the name of Ron Buss with Coldwell Bankers. He was referred to me by a friend. I rarely go out of my way to meet with real estate agents mainly because my time is limited and I just don’t want the brain damage. Ron was different. He was a nice guy who seemed to actually care about his clients and the community. It was a good meeting but we went our separate ways.
From time to time, I’ll pick up the Washington Park Profile a local publication when I’m at coffee shops in the Wash Park area. Much to my surprise Ron Buss was featured in an article entitled You Can’t Stop Ugly, But Can You Slow Density? by Paul Kashmann. According to the article, Ron is taking a stand against re-zoning of properties to combat scrapes in the Wash Park area.
Many people have voiced concern in recent years that the accelerated real estate values in South Denver are changing the very nature of the communities in which we live.
Once coveted bungalows are being pop-topped, scraped and replaced by homes that are not only much larger than their predecessors, but also built in a different style, using materials foreign to our early 20th century streetscape.
For well over a decade, community meetings have been called to consider first a plague of haphazardly-designed second and third story expansions (pop-tops) offensive to the eye and disrespectful of neighbors’ sunlight; and more recently, scrape-offs of (frequently) viable homes to allow for construction of much larger residences that often contain multiple units where a single family home once stood.
Rather than continue bemoaning such changes without acting, Ron Buss - a realtor and West Washington Park resident - has decided to take matters into his own hands. Buss is spearheading a movement that could lead to the downzoning of a large portion of 18 blocks of his neighborhood from R-2 to R-1, to prevent construction of multiple-family units: the duplexes, tri-plexes and even four-flexes that have become commonplace in the area.
“The problem is the rate at which change is occurring - and the accompanying change in character and increase in density,” said Buss, noting that, “from December of 2005 to now, duplexes under construction and permitted are equal to the number from the past three years.”
Keep up the good work Ron!
Weekend Highlights
Are you underinsured? explores the amount of insurance coverage you need on your home. Often called HAZZARD or HOME OWNERS insurance, this type of insurance needed to replace your home. However, most people don’t carry enough insurance:
About six out of 10 homeowners carry less insurance than what is needed to replace their homes, estimates MSB, a Los Angeles company that provides data on construction costs.
The article uses the “La Grande Cannoli” the prized home of this year’s Parade of Homes to further their point on undersinsuring a home. The 8755 square foot home has a list price of $2,000,000, however,all the upgrades and features typically won’t be covered under most policies.
Weekend Highlights
Al Lewis of the Denver Post discusses the glut of condos in Colorado:
“Colorado’s inventory of unsold condos is at an all-time high,” said Gary Bauer, an independent real-estate analyst in Denver. According to Bauer’s analysis:
* Condo sales have slipped 1 percent year-to-date, compared with a year ago.
* The average price of sold condos year-to-date is down 1.5 percent to $185,000, compared with a year ago.
* Condo owners are increasingly renting their pads instead of selling them in a depreciating market.
Great article in Sunday’s Denver Post entitled Man’s dream house wasn’t dream project. The home was based on Frank Lloyd Wright design principles and carries a $1.4 million price tag. Includes a do’s and don’ts of home building.
DON’T
Be your own contractor. “People often think they can save 15 percent on a house by being their own contractor,” said Formissano. “What they don’t understand is the time and frustration involved. Besides, subcontractors rarely give their best bids to homeowner/contractors.”
Make a decision based on price-per-square-foot costs. “It’s an inaccurate way to decide what you can afford,” said Formissano, “because it doesn’t factor in all the project costs, like landscaping, driveway, septic system, etc.”
Get caught in the trap of multiple “small” upgrades. People tend to drive the budget up with “a little change here, a little change there,” because they rationalize that this is their one shot at building a dream house. “Most budgets are broken by $100 changes,” said Formissano, “not $1,000 changes.”
Pick a floor plan that has lots of angles or a complicated roof design. You can have an interesting house by aligning spaces on an axis, but as LeChevalier learned, the more complex the design, the higher the costs. And ultimately, construction complexity doesn’t add to resale value.
DO
Carefully select a builder. You want someone who listens to you and explains things to your satisfaction. Ask for references and check them out.
Make sure you have 5 percent to 10 percent of the project costs set aside for contingencies or extras. “If you’re building a $500,000 house, make sure you have $25,000-$50,000 set aside for an upgrade you really want or a problem that hikes the cost up,” said Formissano.
Make sure the floor plan works for you. Is the kitchen so far from the garage that carrying groceries will be like a marathon? Is the only way to access your closet through the steamy master bath?
Make decisions in a timely manner. As the house gets closer to completion, homeowners are asked to make more decisions in a shorter amount of time. Since time is money, dragging out a choice - for fear that a better one will appear tomorrow - will drive the budget skyward.
Weekend Highlights
This past weekend the articles on real estate were slim. Sally Stitch of the Denver Post had a great article on the Sloan Lake neighborhood: Downtown proximity, views lure diverse mix
History of Sloan Lake:
The neighborhood was settled before the turn of the century. By the 1920s, a large group of Orthodox Jews had moved in, wanting to live near the synagogues they had built.
In the 1970s, many of those same families moved to southeast Denver, and a strong Hispanic population replaced them in the small red-brick bungalows and ranch-style houses.
Today, the neighborhood is a rich mixture of young professionals looking for starter homes, aging boomers looking to downsize, old-timers who never left, a smaller-but-still-present Jewish population and a large group of Hispanic residents. People like Larry Ambrose, president of the Sloan Neighborhood Association, say the neighborhood offers great urban living with rich ethnic and socio-economic diversity.
Facts on Sloan Lake:Sloan’s Lake:
Boundaries: West Colfax to West 29th avenues, Sheridan Boulevard to Irving Street
Who lives here: Young couples; older, long-time residents; professionals; Orthodox Jews; Hispanics
Why it’s cool: Million-dollar views of Sloan’s Lake, Front Range and the downtown skyline; proximity to downtown and the mountains; more R-2 lots than anywhere else in the city; predominantly brick construction; more bang for the real-estate buck in Denver
Why it’s not: Small houses (1,000-square-foot average), often not updated; low-performing public schools; rental properties (duplexes, triplexes) that often are poorly maintained by absentee landlords
Schools: Denver Public Schools, including Cheltenham and Colfax elementaries and Brown elementary, which has a new International Baccalaureate program; Lake Middle School; and North High School
Rentals: A house on the lake: $2,200/month; half a duplex: $900-$1,200/month
Housing: Median home price $247,050; average price per square foot: $212.90
Weekend Highlights
Here are the real estate and mortgage highlights over the weekend:
- With rates on the rise and a cooling housing housing market, this article discusses how builders are switching their focus from Single Family Residences to Townhomes and Condominiums.
The cooling housing market has homebuilders throughout the nation girding for fewer sales, larger inventories and stiffer competition for people in the market for new homes.
Rising mortgage rates and overbuilding are largely to blame, yet the pace of construction continues as builders rebalance their holdings, move from single-family to attached-home projects, and search for lucrative niches to fill.
- The cooling housing market is also a reason for apartments increasing their rent and their occupancy rate.
The Denver area’s vacancy rate was 7.4 percent for the first quarter, compared with 7.9 percent for the fourth quarter last year, according to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. The rate has been steadily dipping since the end of 2004, when it hit 10 percent.
…
The surge in apartment rents and occupancies in the West is the result of rising mortgage rates and home prices, which have pushed potential buyers to rent instead, said Caroline Latham, owner of Novato, Calif.-based RealFacts. Read more - Al Lewis’ column discusses short selling your home when foreclosure is around the corner.
Crack park gets a makeover
When I read the Denver Post this morning, I needed to do a double take.
One of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods on downtown’s northern edge is experiencing a renaissance as new housing lures young professionals.
Hundreds of housing units are planned or are under construction in Curtis Park, a historic urban neighborhood that, until recently, was known more for its notorious public housing project than for its upscale urban pioneers.
Apparently Curtis Park aka Crack Park is a hotbed for development. I recall fondly the days when vagrants, bodegas and the buses headed for Mexico, were the main attraction to Curtis Park.
Why use a mortgage broker
Here are some reasons why you would use a mortgage broker:
There are many reasons that you should use a mortgage broker and many advantages to using a mortgage broker. One reason to use a mortgage broker is because a mortgage broker has access to all kinds of different home loan programs.
A mortgage broker’s job is to assess your situation and then shop your loan via 100 different lenders in order to find you the most beneficial loan for your situation. We have access to over 1200 different loan programs and are able to obtain wholesale rates which can save you $100,000 plus over the life of your loan.
Here’s something to keep in mind. As a mortgage broker, I’m completely independent. I’m not employed by or work for any bank or lending institution. I work for my clients. The bank is going to look out for its best interests, isn’t it nice to have someone working for you, the borrower, and looking out for your best interests?
Many mortgage brokers have expertise in certain types of loans, such a construction-to-permanent loans, poor credit loans, or reverse mortgages. If your situation has special obstacles a mortgage broker may be the best answer.
A mortgage broker is an individual or firm that acts as an independent agent for both the borrower and the lender of a mortgage loan. Mortgage brokers are the middle man between you and the lending institution, which can be a bank, trust company, credit union, mortgage corporation, finance company or even an individual private investor. A mortgage broker will analyze your financial situation to determine which lender is the best fit for your loan needs.
Mortgage brokers have the advantage of being able to access dozens of rates quickly for similar loan programs from different lenders. Although banks have similar programs, their rates can vary widely. Mortgage brokers, through experience and through searching rates, can find which lenders are offering the lowest rates at any given moment.
Mortgage brokers have more options than banks. For example. if you have poor credit and need a sub-prime loan, your bank may have access to one option. A mortgage broker would have access to dozens. Other situations where mortgage brokers would be able to provide you with more options than a bank include manufactured homes, rural properties, commercial properties, first time home buyers, and special credit situations, such as bankruptcies and foreclosures.
Working with a mortgage broker has many benefits. Just to name a few: we discuss and explain the programs that are available to you in your particular situation. We inform you in writing that you loan interest rate is locked and wont change. We explain all the documents in plain English so you understand what you are signing. We explain all the costs involved in closing the loan. We give you a time-line of the loan process. We provide you with a good faith estimate. We also coordinate the final closing of your loan.
Mortgage brokers have access to wholesale rates, where as your local bank only has access to the rates that they offer. This can save you money on your monthly payment, especially if you have a unique situation that your bank will not be able to handle.
Mortgage brokers are also familiar with the area in which they operate. Using someone local has big advantages. With so much mortgage information online, it’s hard to know who to choose. If something goes wrong along the way with your loan, it is easier to deal with if you have a loan officer you can meet with face to face rather than a website or 800 number.
A mortgage broker is also able to move your file to another lender should a better deal appear. Or if there is a problem with your file in underwriting your mortgage broker can switch lenders within minutes and ensure you meet your close date. Local banks cannot do this.