I recently received an email from Cole Schneider, casting director for HGTV’s hit series, ‘My First Place’, asking me to post a little something about their upcoming season on our blog.  They’re on the hunt for stars for their third go-around, and are looking for �fun, interesting and energetic� first-time Buyers to film starting now through January 2008 (sorry, sounds like you boring Buyers need not apply).  For those who haven’t seen the show, it’s basically a documentary of a Buyer’s first-time home-buying experience.  They film everything from the securing of financing, to the home search, bidding, inspection and closing, finally wrapping things up with you in your happy home.  HGTV is even throwing in a special surprise gift for the new homeowners at the end of it all.  

If you think you might want your first home-buying experience to be documented for all the world to see, contact me and I’ll give you the scoop, or check out http://highnoonentertainment.com/#/casting/ for more info.  A chance to be famous AND get a free gift?  Hard to pass up if you ask me; but I’d do pretty much anything for a free gift.  Of course, on the downside, you may have to fend off your many fans on a daily basis and live out the rest of your life under the close scrutiny of the public eye.  But I suppose that’s just the price one pays for stardom (sigh).

    Job growth in Denver is still steady, says a recent report by the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. 1,300 jobs were added in Metro Denver through the first eight months of 2007, which is up 1.8 percent over the same period last year.  The report shows that even with a high foreclosure rate, the economic growth is fairly steady in Colorado and the unemployment rate is still relatively low.
    Another recent plus is that a state report just last week shows the vacancy rate for Metro Denver has dropped to its lowest in about seven years.  We’re now at 5.3 percent for the third quarter, whereas last year at this time we were at 6.7 percent, and the year before that in 2005, we were at 7.7 percent.  We haven’t seen vacancy rates this low since the first quarter of 2001.
    I’ve heard lots of theories floating around that the high foreclosure rate and the declining vacancy rate are tied to one another, which, from a logical point of view makes sense.  People are losing their homes left and right and they can’t purchase for awhile because their credit is shot; they have to live somewhere, right?  However, we have to realize that the increasing rental rate numbers are based mainly on multifamily apartment buildings and not single family home rentals, which are much harder to track.  
    But don’t negate the theory quite yet that a glut of foreclosed homes equals a better single family rental market.  Studies have shown that those people who have lost their homes to foreclosure and were in a single family home tend to gravitate toward that single-family home-rental market rather than the apartment market.
    What does this all mean from a real estate investment point of view?  Well, the multi-family market has been improving and is predicted to continue along this route in the foreseeable future.  It may be a fun time to get into the game and pick up a building or two.  Not up for an entire building?  You can buy some single family foreclosed properties at a great price right now, and will most likely be able to get the homes rented.   
Emily Bullard / Broker Associate, Investor / emily@mynewera.com / 303.903.9457 

By MELINDA MAWDSLEY The Daily Sentinel

Friday, October 12, 2007

David Posta has been on both sides of the tenant and landlord relationship.

His heart has been broken by an unreturned security deposit, and he’s been given the runaround by irresponsible tenants.

“Owning a house is so much better,� said Posta, who rented at least five places since moving to Grand Junction in 1997. He bought his first house two years ago.

But making house payments isn’t possible for everyone, and some people, for various reasons, don’t want to own. Not all renters know what it means to be a good tenant. Other renters don’t know what their rights are or are afraid to exert them in the Grand Valley’s tight rental market.

Much has been made of the lack of availability of rental housing in Grand Junction and rents that started increasing about two years ago when the market began to tighten, said Beverly Lampley, director of transition housing with Catholic Outreach in Grand Junction.

“Ten months ago, it started to get even crazier, and three to four months ago, it just got to be awful,� Lampley said. “Now, it’s worse than awful.�

The definition of “worse than awful,� Lampley said, was best seen in a three-bedroom/two bathroom rental unit on 29 Road and Orchard Avenue. Several years ago, the unit was available for $750 a month. Today, the same unit — albeit an older unit — runs at $950 a month.

The vacancy rate in Grand Junction was 2.1 percent as of last summer, based on the most recent survey conducted by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ Division of Housing. But that was before the Mesa State College students returned to seek off-campus housing.

The survey results also indicated the average monthly rental rate in Grand Junction was $591.11, and the median monthly rental rate was $609.55,

“There is nothing there, and that’s been the story for the past several quarters,� said Ryan McMaken, spokesperson with DOLA’s Division of Housing based in Denver. “There isn’t anything we can see anywhere to alleviate the low-vacancy rate right now.�

READ THE LEASE

In addition to the struggle to find available, affordable units in Grand Junction, prospective tenants must learn what it means to rent property from someone.

Posta said that as a teenager, he didn’t read the first two leases he signed. He read through the third and fourth leases, but he didn’t get a security deposit back until he vacated the fifth place he rented.

Within the lease, Chuck McIntyre said, should be a description of what a tenant will have to do and the condition the unit will have to be in to ensure a return of the security deposit. The lease should also list the rent total, when it’s due and what the late penalty is for failing to pay rent on time. Most property managers give a tenant three or four late days before charging an extra fee.

McIntyre manages hundreds of local properties for Century 21 Homestead and has lived in Grand Junction since 1981.

McIntyre likes to sit down with prospective tenants and go through a lease before they sign because many people don’t realize the ramifications of signing a lease.

“They don’t understand that they are signing a contract,� McIntyre said. “Live up to the contract, and you won’t have problems.�

Each property manager is different, McIntyre said, so each manager has different requirements and expectations for its tenants. Many tenants in Grand Junction have dealt with a variety of property managers simply by moving around and taking what units are available, but McIntyre said prospective tenants should expect several steps to be taken before they can move in to a unit, particularly by larger property management companies.

For one, expect to fill out an application, which will include credit and criminal background checks. Not every property manager may do them, but McIntyre does, and Posta, who was caught off guard when his credit was checked for a rental unit in 2004, understands a landlord’s right to do so.

“I would do a credit check and criminal background search if I was on the other side,� said Posta, who has been a landlord. “I’ve rented to somebody who wasn’t perfect.�

The credit and criminal check likely will include calls to previous landlords and a check on references, McIntyre said.

“I can be tough, but I have to be tough,� McIntyre said. “But I believe (I’m) fair.�

McIntyre said tenants in Grand Junction often are responsible. Others, for example, have been convicted of crimes, leaving the landlord to figure out what to do with the lease, he said.

“Tenants are just all over the place,� McIntyre said. “We have people who are spotless and people who just walk away. Just recently, we had a condo near Safeway on Patterson, and the tenants just left the place immaculate. They will get 100 percent of their security deposit back. I just had other tenants move out. These people had two or three dogs. We literally took the carpet out, and it was dripping with urine. There were feces on the walls.�

Those tenants will not get their security deposit back.

McIntyre said he couldn’t speculate on the basic things tenants should do to make sure they get their security deposit back, but he reiterated that specifics should be in the lease.

He did, however, offer one suggestion to help tenants get their security deposits returned.

“Make sure you do a move-in checklist,� McIntyre said, “so you can determine the current condition of the property.�

Posta did a move-in checklist at his fifth rental unit, taking pictures of everything so the landlord could visibly see the condition of the unit when he moved in and the condition of the unit when he moved out.

“I got my security deposit back,� Posta said.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

Tenants who do not follow the terms of the lease are subject to eviction, which must be done through a legal process. Tenants who are evicted will have the eviction on their rental record, which will show up when prospective landlords are doing background checks.

A previous eviction is a red flag.

“There is a lot of landlord and tenant disputes,� said Kathy Boelte, managing attorney with Colorado Legal Services, which provides counsel to low-income clients. “Many tenants won’t raise issues because they don’t dare get evicted because they know they won’t find other housing in this market.�

Boelte said she has a “soapbox� she talks from when discussing tenant and landlord relationships because she has seen her clients thrown out of their rentals.

“(Landlords) know if a tenant messes up, they can evict them and get another tenant,� Boelte said. “We have clients who have been evicted and are being housed at the Grand Junction homeless shelter. Some members of the public have poor opinions of poor people, but our clients are the working poor or people with severe mental illness. There are many who are severely impaired and just can’t participate in a competitive job market.�

It is these people, Boelte said, who suffer from an expensive, tight rental market. She also has clients who have complained that landlords won’t fix leaky faucets or landlords who turn off the electricity and water in a house with young children because payments were late.

Boelte said such behavior is like “bullying� because most tenants don’t know their rights or don’t want to spend the time and money fighting conflicts in court.

If Boelte could change any Colorado law she would make it legal for a tenant to make a necessary repair a landlord won’t, and then have the landlord deduct the repair cost from rent. But “a responsible landlord would make the repair,� she said.

The State of Colorado has been interested in the tenant and landlord relationship from a legal standpoint since 2005 when a bill concerning the matter was brought to the House floor by Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs. The bill was vetoed May 5, 2005, by then-Gov. Bill Owens.

The bill, among other things, established a grace period before a landlord could charge a tenant a late fee for overdue rent, established a maximum late fee and reduced the maximum time a landlord could retain a security deposit.

Merrifield may present similar legislation next year with Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, in office, McMaken said.

“It was never made public who lobbied for the veto, but it was considered a big deal that it made it that far and was then vetoed,� McMaken said. “The issues are the same (in 2008), but it’s reasonable to expect the advocates will be pushing for legislation more favorable for stronger tenant rights with the Democrats.�

“We have more good landlords than we do bad ones,� Lampley said. “Housing is such a basic need. We know people paying 50 to 60 percent of their monthly income on housing, so everything else becomes an issue. People have been talking about needing more affordable housing in Grand Junction for years. People are spooked by a bust.�

•

Tenant tips

1. Read the lease. Understand a lease is a legal contract, so make sure to understand the contract.

2. Pets make renting more difficult (excludes service animals).

3. Background checks will likely be done. Employers and previous landlords will be called, so one good experience with a landlord goes a long way.

4. Complete a move-in checklist with documentation and photos of condition of unit.

5. Try to avoid the eviction process because it will follow you.

6. Understand what the security deposit is, why it’s there and when it will be refunded. The information should be in the lease. Turning in the actual keys may speed up the process.

I just toured the 3 newest of Modo’s projects: Element, Verde & Epic on the Park, in the Capitol Hill and West Wash Park neighborhoods.  Epic is the newest and was mentioned in the September blog, but I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about.  Just completing this sixth condo conversion, Modo seems to have found a niche with the delicate balance of affordability and classy finishes.  In each of the buildings I saw custom lighting and cabinets, stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors.  Along with these little perks, the granite in the kitchen and Italian glass mosaic in the bathrooms helped keep these places steps above your standard Home Depot remodel.  The HOA fees were pretty average, but included water, heat and wireless internet.  Pack rats beware, as there were no additional storage areas available in two of the buildings.  The prices made up for this in my opinion, with one and two bedroom units still available anywhere from $139K – $288K.  Covered or uncovered parking was an option in each building, and the Epic and Element had super-cool rooftop decks.  The good prices actually tempted me to buy one as an investment property because you just don’t see this quality in renovation, at this price point, in these neighborhoods.  Modo is definitely filling a gap with nice places at a great price, seemingly aimed at the urban professional.  Check back with us soon, as I’ve been promised insider info on the newest Modo planned projects in Curtis Park and near the old CU Health Sciences Center off of Colorado.
Emily Bullard / Realtor, Investor / 303.903.9457 / emily@mynewera.com

Changes are coming to Downtown Denver’s Prospect district behind Coors Field. For several years, Urban Neighborhoods, Inc. has been planning a 7-building development called Prospect Place, which would have featured about 430 condominium units and ground-floor retail space centered around a central piazza. To date, only one of those buildings, the Ajax Lofts with 49 units, has been completed. Citing skyrocketing construction costs and lackluster presales, the developer has scrapped the project.

I haven’t added this to the loft and condo guide yet, but wanted to make our readers aware of it:

Epic on Grant

271 Grant, Price Range: $139k -$283k

Come check out Modo Developers latest project. Modo re-develops existing buildings in great locations through extensive renovations inside and out to transform them into modern condos that offer a strong combination of great design, convenient urban locations, and affordable prices. Live in a up and coming neighborhood, walk to the neighborhood coffee shop, grocery, local restaurants, popular bars, and downtown.

Interior finishes include, Hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, quartz counter tops, modern European lighting, brand new double pane windows, Italian glass mosaic tile, and more! Selling fast, contact us for more information or to arrange a private tour.

A new exciting historic loft is now available! A Building Like no Other. ~4000+ Square Feet per Floor Starting at $750,000 ~Full Floor lofts with Private Elevator Entries ~700 sq ft Balconies ~Unbelievable City and Mountain Views ~2 Covered Reserved Parking Spaces. Hurry Only 4 left!

First phase of residential development to be complete by May

By Kristi Arellano
Denver Post Business Writer

The Belmar neighborhood has begun to rise from the ruins of Villa Italia mall, and the first phase of residential development should be complete when retail shops open there in May.

Continuum Partners on Wednesday unveiled plans for the first 244 homes in the 103-acre neighborhood taking shape on the former Lakewood shopping mall site.

The Belmar project combines retail, homes, restaurants and offices and has been held up as an example of smart growth.

Lakewood City Manager Mike Rock called the homes the project’s linchpin. Not only will they help the city fulfill its vision of having an active town center, they’ll also help lure a coveted demographic.

“Right now, we’re under-represented on the side of the younger, high-income worker,” he said. “This provides a housing choice for people who are not heavily represented in our population.”

Continuum is handling the retail and commercial development and is building 100 apartments and 12 loft-style condominiums, some above shops and restaurants. Boulder-based McStain Neighborhoods is building another 132 rowhomes, which should be complete this fall.

“The housing component is an incredibly important part of this project,” said Eliza Prall, Continuum’s director of marketing and community development. “It provides a 24/7 aspect that is critical to the project.”

The McStain rowhomes will range from two to five bedrooms and start at $233,000. The loft- style condos will start in the mid- $200,000s. Rents have not been set for the apartment component. Continuum plans to include some affordable housing in a future phase.

The completed $750 million Belmar development will include 1.2 million square feet of retail space, 800,000 square feet of offices, a hotel and about 1,300 townhomes, condos and apartments. It is expected to generate $100 million in sales-tax revenue over the next 20 years.

Powers’ Urban Ventures LLC is adding 33 new units in its Fire Clay Lofts in the Upper Larimer neighborhood at 32nd and Blake streets.

The units are priced from $125,000 to $269,000.

The lowest-price units at Fire Clay and at Monarch Mills in the Central Platte Valley project must meet income requirements based on the area median income.

The affordable units also have restrictions on the deeds, capping appreciation.

At Monarch Mills, 56 of the 69 units are considered affordable.

The 13 market-rate units in the eight-story building at 15th and Delgany streets will be priced from $275,000 to about $375,000.

Powers said that the below-market units at Mills will be available for buyers earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually, depending on the size of their households.

“I like to call it moderately priced, because the Central Platte Valley, by definition, is a high-priced market,” Powers said. “Basically, we are building the most affordable housing for the valley.”

Monarch Mills is being designed by Denver-based Studio Completiva and will be built by Palace Construction.

David Zucker, of competitor Buchanan Yonushewski Group, an architectural, development and construction firm, praised Urban Development’s efforts.

“Downtown should not be just for the rich and famous,” Zucker said.

The city’s requirement for affordable housing is similar to, but predates, the inclusionary housing ordinance approved by the Denver City Council.

“That’s an agreement that goes back to 1997,” said Anne Warhover, president of the Downtown Partnership. “East West Partners (developer of the luxury Riverfront neighborhood in the valley) worked out a deal with the city that is basically a swap,” Warhover said.

Under the deal, East West will sell the land to Denver-based Continuum Partners, which, in turn, will sell it to Urban Ventures, Powers said.

“East West, Continuum and Susan are all known for their creativity,” Warhover said.

Monarch Mills shares a site with Continuum Partners and the future home of the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver. The museum is expected to cost about $3 million and be as large as 20,000 square feet.

The ‘lofting’ of America
Down with the yard and two-car garage! In cities of all sizes, people of all ages flock to the loft.
September 17, 2003: 4:57 PM EDT
By Sarah Max, CNN/Money Staff Writer

BEND, Ore. (CNN/Money) – Last year Bill Bertram, 50, said goodbye to his 3,000-square-foot house and sprawling lawn in the suburbs and headed downtown to a newly converted loft apartment – complete with 18-foot ceilings, skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows, even a roof-top garden.

Is the new pad in Soho? Tribeca, perhaps? Actually, Bertram lives in Wausau, Wis. (population 38,000), where the downtown is thriving, and the waiting list for new loft apartments is growing.

Because the developer of the building, Compass Properties, received low-interest loans through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there is a limit to how much rent it can charge during the next five years. Bertram is renting his place for about $600, a bargain compared with similar properties, but cheap rent is just icing on the cake.

“I don’t have the hassle of cutting the grass,” said Bertram, who lives in his “funky” digs with his 17-year-old son and would happily buy the loft if it were for sale. “And a lot of the activities I enjoy are right outside my door.”

In Omaha, Neb., meanwhile, students (“the ones who can afford to drive new Range Rovers”), empty nesters who’ve ditched their big houses, and young professionals who want to be close to the heart of the city are moving into lofts.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who want to live downtown in historical buildings or in newer buildings that have a loft feel,” said Tammy Barrett, co-owner of NuStyle Development, which has developed about 30 such buildings in Omaha.

Indeed, the same attributes that first attracted New York artists to loft apartments decades ago – high ceilings, open floor plans, natural light and great locations – are now appealing to people of all ages, in cities of all sizes.

But it’s not just about big windows and exposed beams.

“The loft symbolizes the excitement of urban living,” said Alexander von Hoffman, a senior fellow at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and author of the new book “House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth of America’s Urban Neighborhoods”

Urban Revival
The 2000 Census marked a turning point for many cities across the country. For the first time in decades, the data showed people moving into, not out of, the city.

In Atlanta, where the suburbs swelled and the downtown dwindled, the Census showed that for the first time in 30 years the city population grew. Between 2000 and 2003, according to a recent report by the Atlanta Regional Commission, 16,000 new residents moved into the city of Atlanta, a growth of about 4 percent.

“The fashion for loft living started in New York and slowly caught on in other cities, but it’s quite striking to see in Atlanta,” said von Hoffman.

Houston is another city where the once-snubbed urban center is booming. “For the first time ever,our inner city growth equaled or exceeded that of the suburbs,” said Jeffrey Brown, design principal at Powers Brown Architecture and adjunct professor of design at the University of Houston College of Architecture.

Because Houston doesn’t have a lot of historic buildings that can be converted into lofts, developers have been building what purists call “faux lofts.” The Dakota, Gotham, Manhattan, and the Strand are among the many new loft buildings with old-fashioned facades.

Unlike loft pioneers, who wanted a cheap place to live, today’s residents pay a premium for exposed brick. Rent in the Dakota, for example, ranges from $875 to $3,500 a month compared with $600 for the average rent in Houston. Sale prices in the Manhattan start at $295,000 for 1,232 square feet and top $1 million for 4,182 square feet. Not a bargain, considering that the median single-family home in the Houston area was recently $137,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Who’s buying? There are the usual suspects – single professionals. But couples with children are also staying in the city rather than fleeing to the suburbs, and baby boomers are fleeing from the suburbs, and their high-maintenance homes, to be close to shopping, restaurants, and the arts.

“I’m amazed at the number of older people moving in downtown,” said Brown. “The coffee shops are packed with people in their 50s just hanging out.”

Still, the trend of urban living isn’t necessarily driven by specific demographics, said Terry Shook, co-founder of Shook Kelley, a design firm in Los Angeles and Charlotte, N.C.

It’s a mindset.

“There are people who crave social interaction, who want to be near the center, who value the urban experience over the perceived security of a single-family house,” Shook said. He noted that Charlotte’s downtown population has grown tenfold from just 800 in the early 1990s to 8,000. “It cuts across all economic spectrums, race and age.”

Big-city living minus the big city
Not everyone can (or wants to) pack up and move to the city. So why not bring the city to them?

Small towns and bedroom communities are revamping their city centers or creating new ones from scratch.

“On a smaller scale the suburbs are reproducing what the cities have,” said Brown. “People are interested in getting away from driving everywhere and instead centralizing their life.”

There are numerous examples of communities creating mixed-use developments where residents can walk out of their loft-like apartments to the local wine bar or coffee shop, window shop on pedestrian streets and feel like they’re part of a modern Norman Rockwell fantasy.

One such place is Birkdale Village in Huntersville, N.C., about 15 miles north of Charlotte. “It’s a commuter neighborhood, but people say they are moving there to feel as if they are part of something larger than themselves,” said Shook, whose firm designed and planned the development, nominated for the Urban Land Institute’s 2003 Award of Excellence.

In small cities like Wausau, there is also an emphasis on creating a sense of community, by reviving the downtowns that already exist. Loft apartments have an important roll in bringing people back to city centers, according to Mark Craig, general manager of Compass Properties.

“I have a house and a yard, but part of me wants to move into one of the lofts,” he said.

Why? “Well, they’re just so cool.”