All Forum Posts by: Kevin Grasse

@Steve K. Ya, I'm pretty sure my data was purely based on sales, no predictive analysis/Zestimate. Just an aggregate of the sales data for each neighborhood, which is still subject to the variabilities you describe, but I was just looking to find some neighborhood trends. I agree that there are too many variables to use any statistical/AI-based price prediction, though.

@Matt M. Is that just raw sales data? I was just looking to plug in a few numbers to update my spreadsheet and see neighborhood trends over the past couple years, not trying to build a whole model. 

Hi All,

I was browsing a Zillow listing today and noticed that in the Home Value vs. Time graph, Zillow is no longer showing the 2 additional lines for Denver Average Price and the specific Neighborhood Average Price. Only the individual home value estimate line is being displayed. I'm hoping this is just a bug, or is being updated. 

Has anyone else noticed this and has it been like that for a while? 

I have an old data set of average neighborhood prices that Zillow used to provide for free download, but stopped providing it, probably around the time of the iBuys when they realized it was valuable data and misinterpreted it to lose millions, lol. I'm trying to add data for today's estimates, so that I can correlate to the old and see neighborhood trends. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing an easy way to do that now. Hoping this isn't their next step of taking away data...

Kevin

Thanks for your thoughts @Matt M.. The thing that's tripping me up with it is that it doesn't NEED the repair right now, and may never need it in the future, but there's a higher risk of it happening for sure. If it were cut and dry I'd be onto the next deal already. The $50K was just an estimate from the structural engineer, but he said that he knows a company that would give a free estimate so I think I will have them check it out.

@David Chen @Scott Hibbert I'm currently under contract for my first house hack on sort of the opposite spectrum from yours in the Villa Park Neighborhood. Fixer upper (a lot of differed maintenance and some underlying issues) that I'm in a similar state of cold feet/questioning my decisions. I have contingencies in the contract that I have plenty of time to back out, but I've put down about $1,200 for a home inspection and structural engineer foundation inspection. I won't let that sway my decisions, but some of the issues (foundation settlement, old sewer lines, generally rough condition), are making it less of a straightforward numbers decision, and more of a risk evaluation. Since you're looking for more of a turnkey type situation, I think @Jeff White's advice about finding a well taken care of 60-80's home, 4-6 bedrooms, is great advice. Way more opportunity to cash flow than the new builds, but a bit more monthly maintenance that you can have a handyman take care of. If my contract does not work out, that's what I'll be looking for near Belmar.

One thing that makes me a bit nervous in the Denver county is the unrelated persons rule. Technically, more than 2 unrelated persons (or 3 with permit) can't live together in the same unit. I've heard it's very rarely, if ever, enforced, but something to consider from a risk standpoint.

Best of luck!

Hi all,

I'm under contract to purchase my first house hack and going through due diligence. The property is in the Villa Park neighborhood of Denver's West side, built in the 1960s. The home inspector pointed out a few potential foundation issues my real estate agent and I thought warranted contacting a structural engineer: 45 degree angle drywall crack on a corner of just one doorframe, trouble with opening a few different windows, "minor" cracking in the foundation, cracked tile in a bathroom, and a more major issue: one of the cast iron sewer pipes has a positive sloping portion in the crawl space.

The structural engineer completed his inspection today and I was able to discuss his findings over the phone with him. The structural engineer noted a maximum elevation difference of 1.75 inches over a distance where a maximum of 0.5 inches would be within tolerance. He explained that this is pretty extensive differential settlement and expected to find significant issues when he went to the crawl space to inspect the foundation. He was pretty surprised that the foundation was in good condition (he was able to inspect about 95% of the inside of the foundation from the crawl space) and only confirmed minor cracking inside and out. Potentially, the settlement was more uniform than the elevation differences suggests. He did note an above average seepage amount within the crawl space for the neighborhood and said that normal differential settlement where he starts to be concerned in the neighborhood is around ~1". The engineer said that no immediate repair is needed, but it is riskier than normal. 

I know foundation issues can be extremely costly (he mentioned putting in piers around the inside of the crawl space would run ~$50K if the situation significantly worsened). That would pretty much ruin the deal.

Does anyone have experience with soils/foundations in West Denver?

More broadly though, what are your tolerances for risk with foundation work? I'm concerned that if I go to sell in the future, this could be a major issue for buyers and cause issues selling. We will be trying to negotiate with this information, but I don't foresee a huge reduction in price if the foundation is passable now.

Thanks for reading and I can't thank this community enough, I wouldn't be under contract for a house hack without it!

Thanks @Kyle Doney, do you have experience with the whole process? I've see a few similar posts on BP and it sounds as though the process is:

1. Survey

2. Improvements to bring separation wall up to code. 

This is what I'm most interested in, I've seen people mention requiring improvements to new fire code, separation of attic space, ect. If anyone has any information or experience in this area, please share.

3. Lawyers: New legal descriptions and party wall agreement. I imagine this would be a relatively straight forward process for an experienced real estate attorney, but still fairly costly

4. Split with the city assessor's office

Hi all,

I'm looking for information regarding splitting a front/back duplex in Denver County. The duplex is zoned as E-SU-D1, but the property type is listed as "RESIDENTIAL DUPLEX" and has two different address numbers. It's a front-back duplex with a total of about 1500 sf between the two units. 

I've seen a number of duplexes in the neighborhood with nearly the same layout that are split on the parcel map and listed as "RESIDENTIAL ROWHOMES". So, I'm curious if anyone knows the process and legalities behind doing this?

I've been trying to contact the zoning department, although they've not been particularly responsive. If you have any tips for how to get a hold of them, that would help too haha.

Thanks,

Kevin

Thanks all, I talked with my agent about it and he ended up agreeing to view it for me. The listing agent had all my contact information (email and phone #), but never followed up after our original conversation about the property info. 

Thank you for your thoughts Wayne and Russell!

I did a bit of research online prior to asking the question. Your conclusions were what I came to also, but I did see articles about there being issues with even calling a seller's agent. I will discuss it with my agent further.

Kevin

Wow Geordy, thank you so much for replying to another one of my posts! Thank you for the additional information. It sounds like a touchy issue and I'm mad at myself for getting into it when I thought i would be doing something beneficial. Do you think my best course of action would be to ask my agent if he would work with me despite the possible procuring cause issues? Is it something he can ask the seller's agent about?

Kevin