On our way to Colorado (Denver, Loveland: for sale, apartments, rental)

[stillsearching]

My husband has been offered a promotion that would require us to move to the Denver area. We have moved 5 times within the 6 years that he has worked for this company. The moves are extremely hard on my teenage daughters so I am hoping to make this one as smooth as possible and hopefully make it the last. We are looking for a house to rent (for now) that is as rural as possible while staying within 50-60 miles from Denver (any direction). We have 2 horses and would like to keep them if we can but we will sell them if we need to. We like to camp, hunt, hike, ride and boat. One of my daughters is an advanced league soccer goalie and also plays softball and volleyball. My other daughter enjoys music, art and fashion. We are not affiliated with any specific church or political group. I do not want to live in an apartment or other big living cluster or in an area of high gang affiliation. My search is new and I have lots of time to research - just thought I might get a starting point.

[COflower]

Sounds like you may want to look at Elizabeth, CO

http://www.elizabethcolorado.net/ (broken link)

It's not too far from Denver but it is more rural but they still have regular subdivisions along with property that is excellent for horses.

Hope that helps.

[bashep]

You may want to look into Palmer Park and Monument too. THey are beautiful areas aswell. bashep

[seekin2]

We just came back from a visit to the Front Range area to find a short term rental to help us get a feel for which area we might want to eventually buy. Folks are very friendly everywhere you go.
Though our focus was Ft. Collins/Loveland, we visited the town of Windsor. There were homes with breathing space inbetween. It took about 40 mins. from the Denver airport (using the toll roads), to get in the general vicinity. As for your girls, it looks like horse country and the sports page highlighted the Windsor Girls Softball team as division winners of a State championship. Nearby is Berthoud, a smaller family oriented community, but we didn't have a chance to get there.
Ft. Collins, further north on I25, might offer more in the way of the arts & music- but there's more of a city feel. I might add that their Visitors Information Center is a gem. There were loads of free brochures and maps & helpful staff.
Just my limited perspective from a 3 day first time visit.

[stillsearching]

Thank you for the suggestions. My husband is already living in Denver (in a hotel) and I plan to move out there with my daughters in the spring, as soon as school is out. I have a lot of time to look, so I plan to request visitor's guides from some the areas you mentioned.

Where did you find a short-term rental?
Good Luck to you!

[BusySocialWorker]

you may want to look on Craigslist.com lots of rental properties there... you may even be able to find an option to buy so you would not have to to move the kids again Good luck!

[Mike from back east]

Shouldn't be a problem finding a short term rental. There are a tons of houses for sale right now, many vacant, some brand new ones too. Simply ask the owners if they'll do a short term, typically 3-6 months, and for obvious reasons they prefer the six month. There are some apartments that actually cater to short-termers. Although we used a realtor to find us a short term rental SFH last year (June-Dec 2005), anyone can do it by asking. With the re-sale and new home sales markets so slow right now, seems there'd be a lot of people out there with mortgages to meet and needing revenue to get them through the slow winter months in the market. My neighbor is such a person, she's a realtor and an investor, has 8 mortgages to pay but only five tenants right now. She "owns" a new home that she's trying to flip, but is renting it out for six months as buyers are very scarce right now.

s/Mike