A4HB Homebuyer's Blog

Pick Your Best Investment as a Residential Buyer

Pick Your Best Investment as a Residential Buyer By Norris Minick In a recent post, we presented some data on a gap that opened up between 2002 and 2010 between condo/townhome prices and prices for small single family homes. Then we noted that this gap narrowed substantially in most local communities over the past few years. This raises a question: If buyers see a price gap opening up, does it made sense to buy a condo or townhome, rather than a single family home, to maximize the potential of their investment? How do you pick your best investment as a

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It’s a Good Time to Purchase an Investment Property

It’s a Good Time to Purchase an Investment Property Millennials are Waiting Longer to Buy In July 2016, U.S. homeownership rates hit their lowest percentage on record at 62.9%. What is the major cause of this trend? The dip in homeownership is most likely due to millennials waiting longer than ever to purchase their first home. Factors that influence the home buying decisions of the younger demographic are increased student debt, delayed marriage, and waiting to have children. As a natural result, this has impacted rent and vacancy numbers across the state. According to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs,

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 8 – Move-in

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 8 – Move-in By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. The Move In  Months later, we finally moved into our new house. We still have a stair rail that needs to be built and the back splash to install, happening soon. I have

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 7 – Electrical

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 7 – Electrical By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Electrical Issues   Most of the outlets in our house (except for the basement) were the original 1966 outlets. Since we needed to rebuild and upgrade the electrical panel, we also replaced all the

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The Fascinating World of Dryer Lint

The Fascinating World of Dryer Lint It’s not unusual for home inspectors to find dryer ducts packed with lint in the course of an inspection. When they do, they strongly recommend dryer duct cleaning. This is not a trivial issue because the lint is potentially combustible and a somewhat common source of house fires. Do Your Clothes Take Forever to Dry? But with that knowledge, it still didn’t occur to Norris to have the dryer vents cleaned at his home or the rental condo he owns. Shortly after a new tenant moved into his condo last year, they called to

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 6, Termites

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 6, Termites By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Termites! It’s a common belief that there are no termites in Colorado, right? Wrong. We have found throughout our remodeling process that inspections can only uncover so much. For example, the family room had

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 5, The Kitchen

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 5, The Kitchen By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. The Kitchen Once we closed on the house, I started going through the kitchen. The cabinets and appliances, while functional, were in much worse shape than I thought. The stove was the original

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 4, Flooring

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 4, Flooring By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Replacing the Flooring We knew from the start that we were going to replace all the flooring in the house except for the bathrooms and laundry room. As with many things during this remodel,

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 3, Water Everywhere!

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 3, Water Everywhere! By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In earlier posts, I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Goodbye Swamp Cooler, Hello A/C We bought our home knowing the previous home owners did not have A/C and used a swamp cooler instead. The swamp cooler was full of mold and had

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Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 2, Mold and Asbestos

Lindsey Buys a Fixer-Upper: Part 2, Mold and Asbestos By Lindsey Wolf Lunney Last May, my husband and I unintentionally bought a major fixer-upper. In part one of this blog I talked about some of the problems we uncovered during our routine and not-so-routine inspections of the home. I hope my story will make the process easier for others who are thinking of taking on a big project like this one. Mold Mitigation We ordered a simple air quality test for mold in the house. When it came back positive, I knew we needed to do more extensive testing and

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