Buying real estate can be one of the most stressful endeavors in modern life. The search requires soul searching first, and looking within is always troubling. You never know what demons will be uncovered when you ask yourself “What do I REALLY want?” Everything gets put on the table, everything can be reconsidered, even the aspects of life we love and take for granted. And in this case it is clearly a frivolity, a luxury, a self-imposed stress.
But I am determined to make this fun. I don’t HAVE TO HAVE a getaway house in the mountains, but I want one. It does give me a little advantage in the current overheated Colorado real estate market. The market around Denver is so active that listings are snapped up as soon as they hit the market. Decisions have to be made quickly, often on limited knowledge other than the info in the listings. There are bidding wars. But I am determined not to succumb to the frenzy. I repeat my mantra “I don’t have to have a place in the mountains.” And on the flip side, I have the luxury of looking until I find the right place, or until the realtors won’t return my calls, or I exhaust my enthusiasm, or until the prices rise beyond my budget.
The Real Estate market in the mountains, the “Front Range” or eastern slope of the Rockies near Denver is slightly different from Denver. It is still hot, but not as crazy as Denver. And the price range I’m looking in isn’t as hot as the more expensive stuff in the mountains. And then my search is also starting in the summer and continuing into the fall and winter when it literally and figuratively cools off considerably. Of course the RE agents won’t admit to that, but I’ve been watching prices and in October the price drops are all over the place. I’ll confess it makes me gleeful.
So when the Jersey Girl and I go to Denver in October for a wedding we schedule a time to drive around with Agent 007. I have narrowed down the area that interests me to Evergreen, Conifer, and Pine – does something give you the impression that the people who named the towns were not too imaginative? Or is it that I am limiting my self to towns named for non-deciduous trees?
We have a list of candidates that range from suburban houses in the mountains to log cabins and even a passive solar modern mess. Passive solar sounds great, and would be great, but not this one. Most of the houses have serious flaws, some we don’t even get out of the car, the candidate is killed by the lack of curb appeal. Others are simply too tough to get to, way up a winding switchbacked road and a treacherous driveway, all of which are common characteristics of places with a good view. Sometimes the nicest house is plopped into the worst possible location with no privacy. I remind myself that it only takes one. Keep looking.
Finally our search that day brings us to the one that Agent 007 has warned us is rough, probably a tear down, but with a great view and privacy and easy access. We call it “The Dome” because it has a hippie-dippy geodesic dome on the property. The owner insists on being there when we visit, and is genial and strange. But you would expect strange when you see the dome. Most buyers would not even get out of the car, but since I am a crazy artist “with vision” we check it out. The Jersey Girl likes the easy access, the nearby horse properties on both sides of the road. I find it intriguing, but when I get a tour of the dome and use the bathroom it is abundantly clear that it is definitely a “D-9’er” which means you come in with a D-9 bulldozer and flatten it and then build from scratch. Not a problem if the price is right. I resolve to wait until there is snow on the ground and make a ridiculously low offer. The Jersey Girl has seen what my unabomber shack looks like. But she is game.