Kristal Kraft ~Denver Real Estate~303-589-2022

Getting to Know Denver

100 Real Estate & Relocation Tips in 100 Days (Day 75)

Getting to know a new city is always difficult for new residents. The familiar byways are left behind, new ones are undiscovered; you become frustrated because you know shopping is close, you just can't find it. Not knowing the old familiar short cut to avoid the freeway at rush hour, or the fast way to the park or school; streets that start and stop, and start again, all of these things lead to a sense of angst as you work to discover the best ways to navigate your new city.

Future Denver residents can take heart. Denver is very easy to discover and finding your way around easy. The first thing to know is, the mountains are in the west. Always! Denver is not in the mountains, but rather lays out on the plains east of the Rocky Mountains. There are very few days in any given year that you will find the mountains obscured by weather, so orientation is pretty easy. Stand facing the mountains and your right side is pointing north, left is south, and east is behind you. Pretty easy so far, right?

Downtown Denver, where all the really tall buildings can be seen, is pretty much in the geographic center of the Metropolitan Denver area. Also, Downtown Denver really is a mile high. This is important to know, in that travel in every direction away from downtown takes the traveler up in elevation. Downtown Denver is at the bottom of a bowl (which is why winter pollution can be visible).

Denver's streets are laid out on a grid, actually 2 grids. Early Denver's street patterns were laid out in relationship to the Cherry Creek, which flows northwest. So the Downtown Denver grid is turned 45 degrees away from true north. Beginning in 1864, Denver's streets were laid out north-south, east-west. This clash of grids is most recognizable in the Five Points Neighborhood, where 3 streets coming together create a five-point intersection.

So, all of Denver streets area laid out on a grid, what's the big deal? Getting around becomes easy. Consider that Broadway, running north and south just east of Downtown, is numerical "0" for address purposes. Streets run north-south, avenues run east-west. The first street east of Broadway, Lincoln, is the 100 block, the second street, Sherman, is the 200 block, Grant is the 300 block, etc. all the way east. The airport, Denver International (DIA), is about 270 blocks east of Broadway. Heading west from Broadway, the first street is Acoma, at the 100 block. The Denver Mint is located at Elati Street, the 500 block west of Broadway. Near the mountains, the block numbers reach as high is 22000.

In Metro Denver, byways running east and west are known as Avenues. The Center line for Avenues if Ellsworth Avenue, with the number of "0". If you stand in the center of the intersection of Broadway and Ellsworth, you would be at the numerical center of Metropolitan Denver, or "zero". Avenues north of Ellsworth are numbered, 1st avenue all the way to about 170th avenue at the extreme north end of the Metro area. Avenues south of Ellsworth are named, such as Mississippi, Hampden, or Princeton. The numerical indicators still apply, with Mississippi being 100 south and Hampden being 3500 south, as examples, and avenues extend as far south as 12000.

Most of the Denver suburbs follow the grid and street pattern laid out by Denver. Some parts of Littleton, Broomfield and Golden have their own street names, but for the most part, the grid holds true all over the Metro area.

Most of the major league sports facilities are located in or around the periphery of downtown. The performing arts center (DCPA) is located downtown, as is the convention center. Nightlife is best found in LODO, or Lower Downtown. Shopping malls, really big ones are found in very quadrant of the area, so a Denver area resident does not have to drive more than 15 minutes to a shopping complex. Food stores and convenience shopping can be found with 2-3 miles of every house in the area. Hospitals, schools, and transportation are seldom far away.

Methinks you just ride your horse on in!

About the photo: The house is located in Crested Butte a mountain town in Colorado where the entire town is a historic district. Crested Butte is also named, "The Wild Flower Capital of Colorado." If you are wanting to find it on a map look in southwest Colorado, it's just north of Gunnison by about 20 miles. Or find Aspen and Crested Butte is sw over the mountain.

The town has a distinct personality, very family friendly, sports oriented place. While we were there, the townsfolk played baseball everynight on 3 different ball parks. Now that might not seem so unusual, but this is at 8085 feet above sea level. For some (like me) just walking and talking (without getting winded) was a feat!

They also have a delightful custom of using bicycles to travel around town. The bikes, which I refer to as "beach cruisers" are referred to as "townies." They are found everywhere around town. I heard many are owned by the city and are available to whomever needs transportation.

The locals have their own and find on occasion the bike turns up missing, assumed to be used to ride home from the bar, but found later on.

If anyone is looking to refer to Crested Butte, I meet a great agent, Trish Giassa who sells Crested Butte Real Estate. She's also on Active Rain.

Denver Zoning Survey Poll

100 Real Estate Tips in 100 Days (Day 74)

by Larry D. McGee, guest blogger

In March of 2009, The Denver Board of Realtors commissioned a survey of Denver resident homeowners as a first step in trying to understand
the desires of Denver residents regarding zoning and redevelopment issues. The results of that survey, conducted by the Kenny Group, were presented to the Government Affairs Committee of the Denver Realtors on May 7, 2009.

The survey was made of 451 Denver resident homeowners, in a week long time frame in mid-March, and was carefully constructed to sample the 4 quadrants of the city, and every council district. The data is very representative of the population. The results are considered to be accurate to within a 4.6% +/- degree of accuracy. It should be understood that this is a snapshot in time, and impending changes in the zoning
code may offer citizens reasons to offer very different results in a as little as a few months.

While much of the survey data is still in a “raw” format, with final results coming along in late May, there are few things that can be presented to the readers at this time:

Denver residents are very concerned about the “character” of their neighborhoods. Character can be interpreted to mean the physicality of a given neighborhood, as opposed the cultural attributes of a neighborhood.

64%of Denver resident think that Denver is “going in the right direction” when it comes to such issues as zoning, private property rights, and property value support. This is consistent with most other surveys conducted at a local level in many cities.

Respondents are somewhat conflicted about just what character means, and just what character attributes are meaningful, but a simple explanation seems to involve a certain amount of “nimbyism”, and a resistance to change. At the same time, residents seem to think that redevelopment is generally good for improving property neighborhoods, as long as the redevelopment does not affect the respondent personally.

Denver residents consider that satisfaction with their neighborhood is very high as a quality of life factor, with 2/3s of those polled indicated a positive level of satisfaction with their neighborhood.

Later in May, more refined and specific results of the survey will be posted on this blog. For now, the reader is urged to contemplate the prediction that the City and County of Denver will add 75,000 new residents in the next 25 years. For a city that is essentially landlocked, with very little open ground to develop, those 75,000 people will be housed in residences that will be created as a result of redevelopment. The challenge for Denver’s leaders and citizens will be to accommodate redevelopment housing without affecting the “character” attributes that are so important to Denver residents.

Selling Your Denver Home

100 Real Estate Tips in 100 Days (Day 73)

When it comes time to sell your home many comfort zones must be crossed. Yes, strangers need to come visit when you are not home. You will be asked to leave at the most inconvenient times. Frequently you will be invaded with little or very short notice.

Selling one's home is not an easy task, unless you are ready to "let go." As a homeowner letting go means more than just letting go of your house, you must also let go of the normal controls and swim against that tide of annoyances if you really want to get to the next stage in your life.

One of the controls many people wish they can keep is not having a sign in the yard. On some levels I can understand this, it seems a little sign is hardly a strong marketing factor, but a quick look at the stats redeems a signs value.

Homes sell as a result of the buyer seeing the sign are significant. According to the National Association of Realtors (the folks who make it their business to track statistics) 64% of buyers found the home they purchased, due to the real estate sign!

It is hard to ignore an high percentage like that! So the next time you want to sell your home, but really hate the thought of having a sign in the yard advertising your property, think of 64% that's more than half of the buyers may stumble across that old yard sign.

Grin and bear it!

Story of the Photo: On a trip to Phoenix I spotted this yard full of signs. I insisted my hubby go around the block so I could shoot it. Fortunately it's a collector who loves political signs and not real estate for sale signs! I'm just glad he's not my neighbor!

100 Real Estate Tips in 100 Days (Day 72)

Just back from the trenches after a few days of trying to find the perfect house for my buyers, I've got to speak my mind! We spend so much time trying to gain access to homes that it made me wonder if the sellers who are trying to sell these homes had any idea of how difficult it was on our end!

Let me state, my clients are motivated, qualified and soon to be homeless. This was not a fire drill for them, they came prepared to buy with a checkbook in hand.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller if you are anxious to sell your home, please take notice:

• Ask to review the MLS Listing sheet as soon as it is available. Check your agent's work. That means don't just look for mistakes but look for what is missing. We love to know lot sizes and whether or not you have a basement, fireplace or other desirable goodies. Your agent most likely will appreciate your added suggestions, I know my buyers will also.
• Brochures in the box are very helpful, particularly when we find a neighborhood we love and we want to know if we can afford your home. Yes, I can call or use my iPhone to access MetroList, but jumping out of the car is not only quicker it gives us some exercise!
• Please don't play "Let's Make a Deal" with the showing time. I so wish I could honor your privacy and show up within a small window of time, but I have little control over clients who go either too slow or too fast and also decide to look at several unscheduled homes along the way. I promise to do the best I can. Remember the wise saying that goes like this, "Make it easy to business with me and I will do business with you."
• Don't lock the storm door when the lock box in on the interior door. Houdini I'm not.
• Shovel your walk. Park your pooch. Hide the kitty. We love them, but we want to be safe.
• Some real estate showing services are awesome and others well we wondered if they exist. Be a secret shopper and try to set a showing on your home. If you have a problem, you can just imagine we are too. With the amount of homes on the market it is easy to skip over yours if the service isn't up to par.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest there are quite a few things we appreciated...

• Bottled water is always a hit. Often times we hadn't had a drop to drink in hours.
• We love the aroma of fresh baked cake/cookies. Sometimes dishes were even left out for us. Not required of course but duly noted. Thank you!
• Full brochure boxes and all the disclosures are very important and helpful. Everyone likes to read about what they are buying.
• Clean homes.
• Parked dogs, kitties and shoe covers.
• We enjoyed viewing the home's photo albums from the variety of seasons.
• Utility bills are oh so critical when crunching the numbers.

Selling your home is not an easy thing to do, but when you consider the customer needs you may end up selling it quicker and ending the pain sooner. Mr. & Mrs. Seller I wish you well!

Kristal Kraft sells Denver Real Estate