Neighborhood and Property type help

[Jason Job]

Backstory: My wife and I are looking for ideas on where to purchase, and could use some assistance in terms of a long term investment (with the possibility of renting the unit instead). 

Our budget, 450k, wouldn’t effect our retirement or other current investments, though naturally that doesn’t include maintenance, something we conveniently ignore with renting. The caveat of course is that we live in a luxury complex in the Baker neighborhood. This puts us super close to the light rail, allowing us both to easily commute to our jobs in opposite directions. Plus, the perks of a modern kitchen with nice looking appliances.

My trouble is that I definitely don't know the Denver market or the general geography of the many neighborhoods. Thus far I've kept my research limited to downtown and baker. I've found a lot of condos downtown that have absurd HOA's and appear to be appreciating more slowly than their lower HOA siblings. Conversely I've also found plenty of houses that are over 100 years old, and I'm not sure I'm up to that level of maintenance.

TLDR: Looking for class A-B listing in a safer neighborhood for a buy and hold strategy, owner occupied for at least a couple of years or potentially renting out (I'm not even going to try multi-unit with all of you sharks out there gobbling up all the goodies). Would like to be within a 15-20 minute commute to downtown VIA rail, public trans, or bike.

• Would I be looking at a condo, SFH, or otherwise?
• What neighborhoods would you recommend investigating?
• Finally, what calculation methods are you folks using to determine good / bad investment? I've seen IRR thrown around a fair bit in this sub.

I’d also be willing to entertain the idea of a class C. I’m somewhat handy and we might have a few months in between lease expiration and the move, depending on how long the process takes.

P.S. I’ve also been considering just staying in my apartment and buying a smaller mountain house as a short term rental and vacation property. Because. Mountains and stuff.

Thoughts?

[Matt M.]

You said jobs in opposite directions via the light rail. Where about roughly are you two commuting to? $450k would give you a decent amount of options especially now that we are entering our slow season. Englewood/Littleton might have a few options or Southeast Denver if you are that way. Arvada/Westminster if you're up North.