mortgage and real estate research advice (Denver: for sale, insurance, mortgage broker)

[frankurias]

1. Can anyone advise me as to a good resource to view current mortgage rates for western Denver burbs? I've looked at bankrate.com, but that doesn't seem very thorough. Also, do you prefer mortgage brokers over banks/institutions? I'm not in a credit union, so that's out.
2. What websites do you look at for housing search? REcolorado doesnt have a map search or that would be perfect. Other realtor websites (colohomefinder, easystreetproperties,....) stray from each other and sometimes require registering (annoying). Realtor just plain sucks.
3. In Jeffco (west of wadsworth, east of foothills), is it safe to say that a typical 300k house will have ~$2000/yr in property taxes (for estimating) and about the same for insurance? I realize that these figures are dependent on a lot of things, but I'm looking for averages, and I figure that those who view this forum are well versed in these kinds of questions.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[formercalifornian]

Many Realtor websites provide a link to the MLS. Look for someone associated with a large firm and check for a link. In some cases, you'll not be required to register.

[2bindenver]

I think your insurance estimate is high. But you are right - insurance premiums depend on location, property, credit history, CLUE report and contents.

Hooking up with a Realtor with ILD and registering would be ok for searching; or HomeCards would give you more, but a Realtor could give you the exact search you wanted.

Realtors are the big bad wolf. You want to use my site that I pay $100 a month or more for; I'd like to know a little about you. I am not going to call you or send you daily "use me" emails...but if you do call to see a house, I have a clue who you are and how long you've been looking.

[Denver_Maybe]

TIFWIW... I like eLoan for mortgages; I've used them four times. I expect that some on this board will dispute this opinion. I've used awesome buyers' brokers for my last few homes; each has referred me to their awesome local mortgage brokers... None has been able to beat the terms I've secured via eLoan. You need to be comfortable with self service and working online, but if you're using this board, that's a good start. Also I have excellent credit, and have always done very straight / vanilla loans - 30 year fixed w/ 20% down, nothing fancy. I'm not sure that eLoan works quite as well if you need to get into more creative financing.

As for housing search, and esp. online / from a distance... I like zillow and trulia. Both have their imperfections; in particular they don't seem to be quite up to date and I know that people dispute the valuations on zillow. But both are valuable IMO in that you can input an address and then zoom in / out to see listings in the neighborhood. In many cases you can link out to realtor.com and/or the selling agents' sites to see more detail. I wouldn't recommend either of these sites for actually buying, but they've been pretty useful, to me, just for getting a sense of a neighborhood, current inventory, etc., making me a smarter shopper before I'm actually ready to buy. At which point I'd definitely engage a competent buyers' broker. Still can't beat someone on the ground, IMO.

I'm assuming that buyers' agents exist in CO? I'm not there yet, but considering a relo...

Does anyone know if you can look up property taxes online in CO? You can in Texas; counties' maintain "Central Appraisal District" websites where you can look things up by address.

And while we're at it... Would anyone care to suggest a typical monthly utility bill for the Denver metro area? Many many factors in play; I know. Please feel free to disclaim as necessary; I'm just looking for SWAG averages. Housing's very cheap here in TX, but summer utility bills can sneak up on you (e.g. 33% of mortgage pmt). I think (?) that TX has some of the highest rates in the nation... Just curious if rates are better in CO?

That's all for now but I'll be posting more later!

Thanks in advance.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by frankurias

1
2. What websites do you look at for housing search? REcolorado doesnt have a map search or that would be perfect. Other realtor websites (colohomefinder, easystreetproperties,....) stray from each other and sometimes require registering (annoying). Realtor just plain sucks.
3. In Jeffco (west of wadsworth, east of foothills), is it safe to say that a typical 300k house will have ~$2000/yr in property taxes (for estimating) and about the same for insurance? I realize that these figures are dependent on a lot of things, but I'm looking for averages, and I figure that those who view this forum are well versed in these kinds of questions.
Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You can try readyrealestate.com -- I have no experience with the real estate agency but their website does have a map search. I use it sometimes to see what houses in my 'hood are for sale and at what price, to keep tabs on things.

I think your property insurance is way too high (think less than $1000.00).

I'm not sure about property taxes in Jeffco -- your estimate is too high for the city of Denver, but I also know that the city of Denver has lower property taxes than the suburbs. I imagine that $2000 for a 300k house is probably too high for the established areas of Jeffco as well, but I do know that some suburban areas have extremely high property taxes -- usually the newer, further out areas that need to build the infrastructure from scratch.