My experience house hunting in Centennial / Highlands Ranch (Denver, Boulder: rental car, real estate)

[fsufezzik]

Since I've learned so much from reading and lurking on this forum the past few months as I've prepared to move from San Francisco to Denver, I thought it would be nice to give something back. So, I'm sharing my experiences of the house hunting / buying process in the hopes that it might help future forum visitors. And of course, if anyone out there has some tips for me, I'm happy to hear them!

My wife and I started looking at real estate online (using Realtor.com and COHomeFinder.com as our main sources) in October. We found an agent (via a referral), and he also sent us listings. We ultimately put together a list of houses that interested us in Google Docs (we could share it with our agent), and ranked them - 5 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars (2 or 1 star didn't make the list). I believe the final tally was four 5-star houses, seven 4-star houses, and about twenty-five 3-star houses. We planned to focus on the 4s and 5s, but visit 3s if we had time.

We arrived at Denver International Airport Sunday afternoon, picked up our rental car, and drove to our hotel in DTC (about a 30 minute drive). We checked out Park Meadows Mall for dinner, visited a King Soopers (note to those not from around here: King Soopers is the local version of Kroeger's, with Kroeger's generics), and drove through a neighborhood of interest to us (though with the dark and the ice on the side roads, that wasn't very productive).

On Monday, we began by meeting up with fellow City-Data denizen formercalifornian for coffee to discuss the area. She's been helpful in the past, giving us insight about the neighborhoods in Centennial that interest us, and it was nice to meet her and her husband in person.

From there, we met our real estate agent at his office, signed some paperwork, and then started visiting houses. He had arranged for us to see all 11 of our 4 and 5-star houses on Day 1 - that's a lot of houses for one day (but we managed it enthusiastically). He had printed out a little spiral-bound book for us, with one page per house, containing the vital stats for each house. I took notes in this book as we went through each house, with my wife taking photos. We focused in Centennial near I-25, but also visited a few places in the eastern section of Highlands Ranch (we're trying to stay within a short commute of my office, which is near Centennial Airport).

Our impressions of the area were very favorable, and in line with what we expected from our research. Centennial has a good feel to us. The neighborhoods are well-established and seem well-maintained. Highlands Ranch does feel more like a bunch of McMansions, with the houses seemingly more on top of one another as you drive down the streets. We still may end up there, but we do like the feel of Centennial better.

Some of the homes in Centennial are in HOAs that provide access to neighborhood pools and tennis courts. Others are not in that sort of HOA. By contrast, every home in Highlands Ranch is in the Highlands Ranch HOA, which provides access to the rec centers in Highlands Ranch (which have indoor pools, tennis, etc.). We haven't checked out the rec centers yet, but we plan to try to visit before making on offer on a Highlands Ranch home.

We've now finished two days of house hunting, with one more day of seeing previously-unseen houses (today) and one day of re-visits of the finalists (tomorrow) before we plan to make an offer (also tomorrow). The homes have been very nice for the most part, although the majority have wood shake / wood shingle roofs, which we understand can be a fire hazard and therefore hard to insure. We may have to ask for a roof replacement in our home buying negotiations, depending on the house. Our hope is to be under contract by the end of the day Friday so that we can have our inspection on Saturday (we have an appointment with an inspector Saturday morning, even though we don't have a house yet - I'll let you know how that ends up going). More updates to come!

[vegaspilgrim]

I agree with you that wood shingle roofs are a mistake. Plus after a few years old they start looking like crap.

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by fsufezzik

On Monday, we began by meeting up with fellow City-Data denizen formercalifornian for coffee to discuss the area. She's been helpful in the past, giving us insight about the neighborhoods in Centennial that interest us, and it was nice to meet her and her husband in person.

Ah, thanks. I'm blushing. It was nice to meet you, too.

the majority have wood shake / wood shingle roofs, which we understand can be a fire hazard and therefore hard to insure

We have a wood shake roof, and it is on our list of things to replace/repair in the next few years. Our homeowner's insurance was quite a bit higher because of the wood, but not outrageous. Fire risk is significant for those who live in the foothills, and I believe that wood shake is prohibited above 6500 ft. here in Colorado for new builds. I'm not sure about re-roofs. City-Data user Noahma, a house designer, would know more. Hail can also be a problem, particularly if the roof is old enough to have significant curling, like ours. On the plus side, one nasty hail storm and our insurance company will pick up the tab for the replacement, which I think is perfectly reasonable based on the amount we're paying! When we bought our house, tree limbs were laying on the roof, which made me wonder about insects and wind damage, but an independent inspection showed that the roof was in fairly good condition and had a few years of life left in it. I like the look of shake, so we'll probably go for dimensional shingles, fiber-cement tile or stamped metal when the time comes.

[steveindenver]

I agree with you that wood shingle roofs are a mistake. Plus after a few years old they start looking like crap.

That entire area is a mistake.

[formercalifornian]

Which entire area is a mistake?

[SheridanL]

I also have wood shingles. I have them on our home, separate garage/shipping area and, the cabanna building on our tennis court ( don't say a word treedonkey!! I will throw in a rusty bathtub to keep you from blasting me!!!!)
My shingles look horrible!! We had them oiled in 2007......moved to Florida for a year and came back to an even worse look!!!!!!!!!
To replace them will cost a fortune!! Our insurance isn't bad at all but, we are waiting for a hurricane type wind!!Hahaha!!
I remember (back in the day) when shake shingles were the only option for a new home build ( especially on the front range and mountain homes) I guess they blended in better with the enviroment!!
When the Hayman and Iron Mountain fires came about, so did the need to replace them.
I understand the insurance risk because of fires and such but dang, it used to be an expensive roof, looked nice and then POW!! Reality set in!
I wish I had a different roof/roofs,sp? now!!
If I wasn't afraid of heights, I would learn how to roof on my own,....it certainly would be worth it!! Of course, so would learning to be a Plumber, Electrician, Mechanic, Landscaper, Dentist, etc etc... HA!!!

[formercalifornian]

On another note, once those shakes started curling, Christmas lights become a thing of the past unless you can do everything on a ladder. One wrong step and you'll crack them right in half.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

I agree with you that wood shingle roofs are a mistake. Plus after a few years old they start looking like crap.

Too true! Our house had a shake shingle roof when we bought it. The covenants said that all roofs had to be shake. The house was 9 yrs old when we bought it, and shingles would blow off in a bad windstorm, which living on top of a high hill, was a fairly frequent occurrence. Then several things happened around the same time, though I can't remember the exact order: Boulder County prohibited wood roofs in new construction and said that all existing roofs had to be replaced in a specific time period (this did not apply to the cities within Boulder Co, just to homes under county jurisdiction); some of our neighbors replaced their wood roofs with other materials literally under the dark of night; and someone petitioned the covenants committee to change the requirement. The vote passed and we replaced our roof with some stuff that looks similar to the shake roofs, but is fire resistant. Most other roofs have been replaced lateley as well.

[cabolissa]

Thanks fsufezzik, what a great post! I can't wait to hear what area you decide on...

[fsufezzik]

I think it's time for an update. Amazingly, this week has gone according to plan - check out a whole bunch of houses on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, re-visit a few finalists on Thursday and make an offer that day, get under contract, and get an inspection on Saturday before heading home on Sunday. We narrowed our list to five finalists (three in Centennial, two in Highlands Ranch) and brought some additional family by to visit them with us on Thursday.

While we do prefer the feel of Centennial, we ultimately decided on a home in Highlands Ranch. It has composition shingles rather than wood, a great floor plan, and nice features (kitchen, bath, etc.). It's also within walking distance of all sorts of shopping and the Eastridge rec center (one of the four rec centers Highlands Ranch residents can go to, though it's the only one that doesn't have tennis courts - oh well). The price was good, too - Highlands Ranch seems to be about 10% cheaper than Centennial for an equivalent home (maybe not quite 10%, but close). We made an offer that was about 3.5% below asking price on a house that had been on the market for five months at the same price; basically, we found some clear comps, figured out exactly what the house should be worth, offered that amount and got a quick acceptance, which is exactly what we wanted (since we wanted the inspection done before we go home).

Now I'm in the process of finalizing the paperwork for the lender, insurance, etc. Fun times! I'm looking forward to being able to contribute to these boards as a resident in the not-too-distant future.