Employer moving to the Lakewood area, housing advice needed. (Denver: real estate, rentals)

[nutterfuddy]

Hi City Data - Denver!

My employer is moving to Lakewood, CO (Marston Lake) and I'm inclined to go with them, but I would prefer to test the waters because I'm not fully committed to your city.

My current mortgage is about $820/month which would leave me about $800/month budget for temporary housing to maintain my place back home and living quarters within a commutable distance from my employer.

I'm a family of one with one small dog and one large dog, so a 1 bed 1 bath is good enough. Although I'm not opposed to the mountains, I don't care about the mountains, schools, scenery, what have you for making a neighborhood decision. I do care about having trails nearby to where I live, where I can go walk the dogs. A place on the prairie would work.

I would definitely prefer rural trashy over urban trashy, but I would be on call so I would have to have a relatively good internet connection. Verizon LTE would work, however 3G does not, if cable or dsl is unavailable.

This budget appears to be somewhat unrealistic for your area. A mobile home on the prairie would be acceptable to me, I'm just not sure 'where' on the prairie I should look. Another acceptable answer would be for me to buy an RV or Fifth Wheel, and either buy or rent a lot. I could totally live in a fifth wheel for a year, no problem.

I normally work 6AM-3PM so I think this would defeat most of the traffic, but if I'm wrong please let me know. If that is the case, I'd have no problem commuting 30+ minutes, which should actually give me around a 30 mile radius of Lakewood to work with. However a 45+ minute commute I don't want.

So where should I be looking for:
-websites for mobile home rentals?
-mobile home, RV lot maps of the areas?
-what towns should I be looking in?
-I'm sure I've missed stuff, call this the opening salvo.

[2bindenver]

Are you over 55? There is an over 55 mobile home park on Santa Fe near C-470. There is a regular mobile home park on Hampden near Federal.

Marston is more south Jefferson County the Lakewood proper. Nothing near the prairie.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Your work location is on the west side of the Denver metro area, and the "prairie" is way out east, much further than a 30 minute commute.

You won't find anything, even rural trashy, for $800 a month within 30 minutes of Marston Lake. Especially with the two dogs. You might be able to find a room share, but that wouldn't include the dogs.

I just looked up the Mobile home park on Federal just south of Hampden, and they charge $600 a month to park your own RV. No dogs allowed. The one on Hampden (called Flying Saucer) charges $525 a month. They allow two dogs under 30 pounds. So you can see, it's not cheap.

You can just Google Mobile Home Parks in Denver and concentrate on Lakewood, Golden, Englewood, Littleton, and Sheridan.

[nutterfuddy]

Thanks for the response 2Bindenver.

I'm 40 at the moment. I agree wrt the Marston Lake bit, but Lakewood itself seems a bit gerrymandered. Employer would still be in the very southern end of it less than a mile from the lake.

I seem to see that prairie might be a stretch of a commute, what wouldn't be?

Thanks!

[nutterfuddy]

Thanks for the suggestions Dreaming of Hawaii

"Lakewood, Golden, Englewood, Littleton, and Sheridan."

Disbarring Golden, the rest would be a bit too urban for this Famous Potato I would be happy to commute a bit farther.

Edit: typo

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by nutterfuddy

the rest would be a bit too urban for this Famous Potato I would be happy to commute

Do not confuse postal and municipal boundaries. They are only vaguely related. In the case of Englewood, not even close to being related.

[nutterfuddy]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Do not confuse postal and municipal boundaries. They are only vaguely related. In the case of Englewood, not even close to being related.

To be honest, I'm using the pink area defined by google maps when entering a city,state pair so I couldn't tell you if it's the municipal or a postal boundary. Winging it.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

What davebarnes is alluding to is that postal boundaries could extend way out into a "rural" area, much further than the city limit boundaries. Just to make things confusing for you. But I don't know any rural mobile home parks within a reasonable distance to Marston Lake.

[nutterfuddy]

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah that makes sense. It looks like I would be better off buying a lot myself than renting at this point. Are there any special suggestions on real estate web sites that would specialize in this, or just the tick box for vacant land, with utilities already installed?

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Originally Posted by nutterfuddy

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah that makes sense. It looks like I would be better off buying a lot myself than renting at this point. Are there any special suggestions on real estate web sites that would specialize in this, or just the tick box for vacant land, with utilities already installed?

Are you thinking of buying a lot and placing your mobile home or RV on it to live in? Sorry, but zoning codes prohibit that in the areas that are within a reasonable commuting distance to Lakewood.

I'm not familiar with all of the rural areas near Denver metro, but I highly doubt that you are going to find what you are looking for within a 30-45 minute commute. It might be possible if you head out further east onto the plains, but that would be a longer commute.