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In the Western Suburbs of Denver there is a city named Arvada. Now, Arvada has about 12, maybe 15 different neighborhoods in it and there’s even smaller neighborhoods beyond that. There’s really too much information to cover all of Arvada but let me give you some general guidelines and, as always, if you’re interested in more information you can call me directly at 303-526-2606 or drop me an email Sam [at] SamWilsonGroup.com

Here’s some good information about Arvada.

First of all, the average sales price is right around the low $200,000’s. You can find properties in Arvada from the high $100,000’s all the way to the million dollar range. It just depends on what area you want to be in. Arvada runs from about I-70 on the south, all the way up to Stanley Lake and about 100th Avenue on the north end. Then it runs from the east side of Wadsworth all the way over to the West at Simms.

You can see this is a very big city on the map and there’s obviously a lot to choose from. There are foreclosures all over Arvada in all different price ranges. There are neighborhoods that are extremely stable – they haven’t had any foreclosures in the past 2 years. These are holding their values quite nicely.

Again, there’s just too many neighborhoods to get into, but I often get requests for Arvada and would love to take you through the city and give you ideas, based on the different price ranges. It features:

• a great little old town area right at 58th and Wadsworth – you just head to the West at 58th
• all kinds of great little shops
• restaurants
• coffee shops
• art

It’s just a great little community, especially on the weekends!

If Arvada is a city you’re interested in you can use www.EasyDenverHomeSearch.com to search for homes by the map area, using the streets I described or you can just put in the city of Arvada and price range you prefer.

Until Next time

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Applewood is in the western suburbs of the Denver Metro area and actually spans across 3 different cities.

It hits:

• Lakewood
• Golden
• Wheat Ridge

Nevertheless, this area is bordered by I-70 to the West all the way over to Kipling on the East. It goes from the North at about 32nd to the South at about Colfax. So, you can see it’s quite a large area on the map. That’s why it’s broken into 3 different parts of Applewood. There would be too much to get into all the different parts of Applewood right now, so I’d like to just go over it in general.

The average sales price is about $328,000 and the prices are only down about 9% in the past 15 months. This is well ahead of the decline in the rest of the market. This neighborhood does hold its value very well and it’s a great community with:

• good schools
• parks
• lots of recreation
• easy access to the freeways to get downtown to work
• up to the mountains to play

The area also features a nice little retail community in the center of Applewood with local shops and restaurants, all the way to the big national chains like Walmart and Walgreens.

This is really a terrific area and you can find homes in here anywhere from the $200,000’s all the way up to the $500,000 and $600,000’s, even more in certain areas. But in this particular neighborhood, it’s important to know that there’s a lot of properties that are coming of age. What I mean by that is there’s a lot of older sellers who have taken very nice care of their properties but just may need your touch and your love to update and upgrade them to the perfect home for you and your family.

So there’s lots of good deals over there in that regard. There’s also lots of homes that have already been fixed up and updated that are ready for you to buy and move right in. It’s a great area! It’s still up and coming. It’s holding its value and it’s  a super location for the West side of Denver.

If this is a neighborhood that might interest you, go ahead and search for a home using www.EasyDenverHomeSearch.com. You can use the map search feature or just put in ’Applewood’ under the neighborhood feature. You can also contact me directly, anytime, at 303-526-2606 or Sam [at] SamWilsonGroup.com to go out and look at any of these homes in the neighborhood.

Until Next time

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How do you know if you’re getting a good deal on the house you’re about to purchase?

That’s a great question. It’s probably one of my Top 3 questions I get from buyers. You know,

• you want to search in all the best neighborhoods in Denver,

• you want to search for all the best properties, and

• you want to make sure that you’re getting the best deal after you’ve put in all that hard work.

I can easily give you advice on the best neighborhoods in Denver:

• How to search the MLS

• How to find the homes that meet your needs.

And then:

• we go out and see the homes,

• we look them over,

• we might have a 2nd, or even a 3rd showing to make sure it’s the one you want,

• we get all the details down, and then

• we go ahead and prepare to make an offer.

Well, the #1 thing is price.

Little things, like, whether the refrigerator is included and washer and drier, those can be negotiated. The bigger picture is the price to make sure you feel like you get a good deal.

So, here’s how we do that:

• We simply look at all the recent sales on the neighborhood over the past 3 to 6 months.

• Sometimes we’ll even go to a close by neighborhood or go a little further back in time (just like an appraiser would do).

• We’ll look at properties that truly compare to the one that you’re making an offer on.

• how many bedrooms and bathrooms?

• How much square footage?

• Does it have a basement?

• Is the basement finished?

(We want to make sure we compare the exact same type of property to the property that you’re about to purchase.)

• From there, I can do a complete analysis for you that shows you everything from:

• the average size of price to

• the average price per square foot,

• whether somebody paid more for a home recently that had additional features.

• Or perhaps, the home that we’re looking at is really priced aggressively and we’ll need to make an offer at the price that it’s listed at to make sure that we beat anybody trying to buy the home at the same time.

• Finally, I’ll look at what is a good price for this home in this current market relative to the overall market. Has this home been on the house for a longer period of time than the average? If it has, that could be motivation by the seller to need to sell that home a little more quickly.

• I’ll also look and see if there’s been price changes along the way. Did it start at $469,000 and it’s already down to $445,000?  There might not be as much room to negotiate but chances are that property’s already priced below the market.

• We’ll make sure that you’re getting a good deal and it’s at or below the market and then ultimately, you’re protected by an appraisal anyway (and I can explain that when we talk).

I provide a free 1-hour consultation to buyers, to give you all this information upfront, to make sure you have a comfort level and can make an informed decision.

Just give me a call (to set that up) at 303-526-2606 or email me  Sam [at] SamWilsonGroup.com
In the meantime, check out all the current listings at www.EasyDenverHomeSearch.com Search the entire MLS whenever you want.

Until next time