New Town Builders (Denver, Victor, Coal Creek: relocating, foreclosures, condominiums)

[rkma]

We are interested in a New Town home (resale) and are hoping for some brief reviews of their quality.

[2bindenver]

What do the neighbors say?

[Bradburn1]

I live in a New Town in Bradburn Village. Overall, we've been very happy with our house and have had few problems, just normal small house stuff. A few of our neighbors with New Towns have had problems of varying sorts, especially with the furnace (igniters going out). If you are buying a home that's less than a year old, know that the warranty is non-transferable.

No one in Bradburn that I know of has had major problems with their New Towns. The biggest one I can think of is in one particular model, the Heritage. New Town didn't put an air return on the second story of many of those homes in here, so the upstairs would get super hot in the summer. They said they have fixed that in the newer models, but if you are buying one of those (it's 1700-2000 sq feet with a main floor master) make sure to check for that.

I love New Town's designs, so I would purchase a house from them again in the future.

Good luck!

[steveindenver]

NewTown builds some condominiums in Stapleton. I have heard mixed reviews.

[Noahma]

The homes they built are all 5-star energy rated, which is not easy nor cheap to do. They have some pretty good customer service, and the build quality seems to be average. They are a local company. Which sub-division were you looking into? Belle Creek (they have pulled out of) Coal Creek (restarted construction not long ago) Stapleton (not sure of their current status) Bradburn (still building)

Belle Creek is a unique situation. The overruling company for the sub-division asked them to leave because the volume of sales was not very high (when the whole housing mess started) They packed up their stuff and left reluctantly. The sub-division has taken a dive since then. The house we were under contract for was contracted to us for 217, it eventually sold for 176, this was a price drop within three months. So I would avoid Belle Creek at the moment, but the others seem to be stable in my eyes. Bradburn fyi had one of the lowest foreclosures in the front range.

[rkma]

Thanks for your responses. We are comparing build quality, eco-friendly, green etc., etc. of the above companies now. We like that McStain is putting in solar panels in some of their houses but for comparisons sake we are trying to ignore that when comparing these builders. Does anyone have any more feedback regarding these builders?

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by rkma

Thanks for your responses. We are comparing build quality, eco-friendly, green etc., etc. of the above companies now. We like that McStain is putting in solar panels in some of their houses but for comparisons sake we are trying to ignore that when comparing these builders. Does anyone have any more feedback regarding these builders?

I would ask Mcstain how much they are putting into these solar systems. We were in bradburn today, and from the look of it they have 10 panels, and if they are 200W panels they are giving you 2kw worth of solar. A typically home is going to need somewhere in the range of 4-6 kw's to be grid independent. So it seems to me that the Mcstain homes however being partially off grid, will still rely on grid power for a good chunk of its power usage.

I would also ask them what the energy efficiency rating is on the homes they built. 5-star rated houses are not easy to get to, but if they are going to pour money into solar systems, they should also be building them as high of quality as they can. If they HERS rate the houses, make sure the rating is under a HERS rating of 80 (which is 5-star energy star compliant)

There is alot more to Green building than just if the home has a solar system or not.

It it actually against the law to do rain water collection, so you will not find that type of system on the homes within Colorado.

If you are concerned where Mcstain or others get materials ask them if they use locally produced items, My guess is they do not, nor will many of the home builders in the U.S. But they might be able to substitute items like counter tops or various other items for locally produced stuff if you are able to find what you want.

Good luck, and I am around if you have further questions. I do know we have several people that frequent the Colorado forums that have a background in Architecture like myself.

[rkma]

We are relocating from CT, so we have to buy a house from far away. . . We liked Bradburn when we were out there. Looked at the McStain homes they are building there and with their "green" pitch liked what we saw but we are unsure if that architecture style in clover and yarrow houses is what we want. Then we saw two resales. This would be the New Town home and one on Quitman (who I forget who built). The one on Quitman doesn't have window well drains and has a lower ranked furnace into it. Haven't checked out the New Town house yet. We also liked a house in the Broadlands that is on pier and beam??? foundation made by Laing but we don't like the neighborhood that much for us. Hmmmm.

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by rkma

We are relocating from CT, so we have to buy a house from far away. . . We liked Bradburn when we were out there. Looked at the McStain homes they are building there and with their "green" pitch liked what we saw but we are unsure if that architecture style in clover and yarrow houses is what we want. Then we saw two resales. This would be the New Town home and one on Quitman (who I forget who built). The one on Quitman doesn't have window well drains and has a lower ranked furnace into it. Haven't checked out the New Town house yet. We also liked a house in the Broadlands that is on pier and beam??? foundation made by Laing but we don't like the neighborhood that much for us. Hmmmm.

there are MANY types of foundations we use in Colorado depending on the soils quality. I wrote a pretty extensive explanation of the different types in the the general Colorado forums. Brad burn is a mix of production builders and custom builders. I have 5 homes I had designed within the subdivision, and Two of the work / live loft buildings there. If I remember correctly the soils conditions in Bardburn allowed for standard footer and slab on grade construction. There were pockets of Broadlands that required to use poured concrete caissons with structural slabs due to low expansive soils. (although this can differ from lot to lot) if you have an address of the house you do not know the builder, I can attempt to find out for you. There are some I believe 3 styles that are allowed within Bradburn (although I have seen some builds that can technically fall into another style) You have, Craftsman, Farm house, and Denver Square. They may have added some since our last project finished construction out there. The design guidelines for Broadlands required a certain % of masonry used on the elevations, a minimum pitch, and set colors. This might differ from one area of the sub-division to the next my designs out there were all large custom homes.

I personally do not like the John Lange homes, not because of build quality. I just dont find the floor plans particularly comfortable, but to each there own

[Bradburn1]

McStain has a very good reputation as a builder. Everyone who has purchased a McStain home in Bradburn that I know of is very happy. The solar photovoltaic array provides only about 1/2 of the energy to run the house. I wonder if they would expand the system if you were willing to pay for it, which I bet they would.

Some of the McStain lots in Bradburn are the largest in here, so the yards are bigger (but still small by suburban standards). My only real beef with McStain is their exterior colors--they are very bland and boring (too much brown/beige), but I hear they are allowing people to pick custom colors if they don't like their selection.

You will pay significantly more for a new McStain than a resale New Town. The resale New Towns really are the best deal in Bradburn at the moment. You can also get new built New Towns as well, but they lack the solar panels.

As far as styles of house, you can have quite a few--pretty much anything that fits in with "traditional" house styles will be approved in here, and also modern designs. Right now we have a French country house going up and a Tudor (both custom). New Town has some new Victorian and Colonial elevations going up in their new designs. We also will shortly have a builder break ground on a very modern building with condos for the downtown area.