Me and my SO are looking for a home to buy in Denver. We both work right off I-25 (one of us just off of 58th, the other near 6th). I want to keep our commutes under 15 mins, we also want to be near a future/current rail station (under 20 min walk to station). 3 bed 2 bath and 1200-1500sf is around what we are looking for.
Our combined income is 106k plus about 5-6k in bonus. We have about 35k for a downpayment. We are both under 25 and were pre-approved for over 350k.
We have been looking and it is frustrating to say the least. We would just continue renting but as anyone who lives in Denver knows, rent is insane and increasing year over year at a crazy pace. I know when our lease is up in October our rent is all but guaranteed to go up 100-200 bucks and it is already 2k a month for a 2bed 2 bath 1k sf place, plus parking at 140 a month and other erroneous fees.
There have been a couple places we have seen and thought were a decent place and we inquire about them only to find out they sold after being on the market less than a month. People put in offers day one of listing and the owner/realtor basically waits a month or so fielding multiple offers. The places that are on the market longer are way overpriced.
We have also had problems getting any kind of good customer service from realtors/agents. I don't know if it is because we were not pre-approved for more, we are young, the market is crazy, or what.
I know it is generally not advised to go after a new construction home but many of the older homes in the areas we are looking would end up costing somewhere close to the same with a reasonable price to renovate. They also do not have some of the things we want and are difficult to add on like a 2 car garage.
I am basically just looking for some advice from someone who knows the Denver real estate market. Some of the realtors have some ideas I don't agree with, like talking about buying a place and getting tons of appreciation only to buy a bigger place 6-7 years later... The market is so crazy and it seems like they go after and only help those that are the biggest suckers.