“Test drive” of home offered in hopes of finding buyer

Desperate times call for desperate measures – or at least experimenting with “out of the box” methods for finding buyers for a luxury home, such as allowing potential buyers to spend the weekend in it.

Built in March 2008, the $1.65 million home at 2309 S. Columbine in Denver’s Observatory Park neighborhood has 6,200 finished square feet, four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a media room/home theater, hardwood flooring, five fireplaces and a state-of-the-art mechanical system. But such amenities haven’t resulted in a sale. “We have had a fair amount of showings and a fair amount of open house traffic,” says Dan Polimino of Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty in Greenwood Village. “People love the house – they’re just not ready to pull the trigger. I think that has more to do with the economy than the house.

“Do you remember that old real estate saying that only a handful of buyers are in the market? Never has that been more true than now,” he says. “In this marketplace, you as a seller need to get together with your friends, your family and your Realtor and throw your ideas up against the wall and make your property stand out in the crowd.”

Here’s how the “test drive” will work: The interested family will check in to a fully finished home at 3 p.m. Friday. Chef Kevin Mooney will prepare two dinners and two breakfasts for them over the weekend. The family will then check out by noon Sunday. “Hopefully what it does is give them an opportunity to decide if feel comfortable in this house, on this lot, in this neighborhood,” Polimino says.

The process takes about 10 days, but potential buyers interested in the test drive must:

• Be in the market and working with a Realtor;
• Provide a letter from a lender saying they are preapproved for the loan amount;
  
• Sign a form saying they are responsible for any damage that may occur to the home while they are staying there and provide a credit card number;
• Pass a background check.

Boulder market slow but remains strong in the face of adverse economy

January’s residential real estate statistics held no surprises for Ken Hotard, but they did include some positive points that continue to support his belief in Boulder County’s ability to weather these tough economic times.

“I think it’s consistent with what we’ve been seeing, what we’ve expected,” says Hotard, the senior vice president of public affairs for the Boulder Area Realtor Association, of the most recent figures. “Most of our market areas continue to see stability, moderate pricing.”

Only 146 single-family Boulder and Broomfield County homes sold in January; a significant drop compared with the 191 that sold during the same month last year. The nearly 24 percent decline in sales "continues the trend we observed in the fourth quarter of 2008," he says.

One of the highlights of the totals for 2008 was the fact that Broomfield experienced a 14.6 percent increase in its median sales price compared with the previous year, as well as saw a 7.8 percent drop in the average number days a home is on the market before it’s under contract and a 5.1 percent increase in average sales price.

Hotard described Broomfield as a “pretty strong market” with an economy that’s moving forward. Its neighbor, Superior, is sharing in its growth with a 3.2 percent increase in median sales price, a 29 percent drop in the number of days to contract and a 6.5 percent increase in its average sales price.

Another highlight is that, as a whole, many Boulder homes were selling in less time in 2008 than in 2007, and many communities saw an increase in median sales prices or just slight reductions last year compared with the previous year.

“I think there’s growing demand out there,” Hotard says. “The properties in good condition and priced to sell are going to move relatively quickly. There’s still competition even though sales are down.”

The reduction in inventory of homes for sale across the county will hold up real estate values, but Hotard expects to see the number of properties on the market to increase through the end of this quarter and into the second quarter.

Hotard says he is hearing from managing real estate brokers that Realtors are “going back to basics” by educating their clients on economic conditions and how to prepare their properties for the market, and providing a high level of service and information. "That’s encouraging,” he says, noting he’s also hearing that more buyers are coming into the market.

"As credit eases in the weeks ahead we expect to see competitively priced jumbo loans become more available. That's really important in high-cost markets like ours," Hotard says. And the recently approved federal tax credit of as much as $8,000 for first-time home buyers will also stimulate the market.

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Survey says Denver is most popular city in the U.S.

In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, respondents said Denver was the city they would like to live in the most, according to an article on Forbes.com.

When listing the country’s 30 biggest metropolitan statistical areas, Pew asked if respondents would want to live in each one or its surrounding metropolitan area or not want to live there. Denver, known for its culture, winter sports and nightlife, received the most “would’s.”

San Diego, Cali.; Seattle, Wash.; and Orlando and Tampa, Fla., rounded out the top five most popular cities.

The researcher found that geographical location and weather played a major role in where people want to settle down, with the five top-ranked places in the West or South, while the five least-popular cities were all in the Midwest. The article attributed that fact to current economic conditions: Detroit, which ranked the lowest, had a 9.5 percent unemployment rate and a murder rate 5.16 times higher than the national average at the time of the survey.

However, despite their choices of where they would choose to live if they lost their jobs, their homes or needed a change, doesn’t mean the respondents were ready to move. A little more than half of those surveyed told Pew that they are living in their ideal community, while 45 percent would rather live elsewhere, according to Forbes.com.

Here’s a look at the top 5 most popular cities and the bottom 5, according to the Pew survey:

Top 5 Most Popular Cities

1. Denver, CO
2. Sandiego, CA
   
3. Seattle, WA
4. Orlando, FL
5. Tampa, FL

Bottom 5 Least Popular Cities

1. Kansas City, MO
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Cincinnatti, OH
4. Cleveland, OH
5. Detroit, MI

Source: Fortune.com/Pew Research Center

Four Colorado companies among Fortune’s Top 100 in nation

Fortune magazine recently named Qualcomm of Boulder, CH2M Hill of Englewood, PCL Construction Enterprises of Denver and MITRE of Colorado Springs to its 2009 Top 100 Companies to Work For list.

The magazine considers business and job growth as well as benefits, turnover, child care, job sharing, telecommuting, onsite fitness center, diversity, paid sabbaticals and other perks companies offer their employees.

Qualcomm, ranked 16th overall with its headquarters in San Diego and a site in Boulder, was among the 15 companies recognized for paying 100 percent of their employees’ health-care premiums. Fortune noted that Qualcomm keeps its creative juices flowing with an award-winning recruitment program, hiring 750 interns a year from 38 countries. However, it dropped eight slots in the rankings from 2008.

General Contractor PCL, which built Denver International Airport and Mall of America, added more than 860 people to its payroll in the last year and has a healthy backload of projects for this year. The company is 100 percent employee-owned, but no one owns more than 5 percent. PCL jumped from No. 77 in 2008 to No. 28 this year.

Fortune recognized MITRE’s CEO for a reasonable salary and the company’s excellent retirement plan, while CH2M Hill welcomed 4,000 new employees from its acquisition of Velco with $2,500 each in stock and cash, making them instant owners in the company.

Here’s a look at the top 10 Best Companies to Work For nationwide as well as where Colorado companies ranked: