In addition to weather (more in a moment), there are just a few comments to make in this post.
Weather:
Denver and the high country received national attention due to a storm that continues today. Here in the western part of the state we received some rain and wind; we can see the snow line up higher but the storm had little effect on us. Denver is a couple hundred miles away and on the other side of the mountains so the weather is often quite different than what we experience here in De Beque. It has been a cold and wet couple of days, though, which curbed some of our normal weekend activities. Our furnace, after not being used for a couple weeks, has been running occasionally overnight. A warm-up is forecast for later next week so conditions will improve.
The improvement will come at a good time for us as we plan another “home visit” trip this coming Wednesday. Pam and I have identified 4 homes that we would like to have our realtor show us. (Links will take you to the Realtor listing.) The first is a small house with a garage and pond (biggest attraction is the pond). Address is 15977 6100 Road in Montrose. The second is an orchard property near Austin, 21761-59 Weaver Road. With 600 fruit trees (a full working orchard), we are hoping the property has views and a roomy house — the fruit trees, not so much (but trees are trees, plus the acreage is totally deer fenced). The third possibility is the Marshall’s Road property I have mentioned in an earlier post. This one has a variety of trees, nice yard, and a few storage buildings plus a view of the West Elk Mountains. Street address is 8903 Marshall’s Road. The final house is also a property I have mentioned before, a newer house in foreclosure on Tulip Circle in Montrose. With a large lot and closer to town, this property has some attractive features, including an attached garage and an underground sprinkler system. Buying a $420,000 property for closer to $250,000 could be a prudent investment, but we’d need to wait for the bank to keep lowering the price. The address is 20391 Tulip Circle.
We also plan a drive-by to take a look at a total “fixer-upper” property in Cedaredge. In town but with a large lot and independent well to supplement city utilities, this 1930s-era bungalow features a dilapidated but salvageable shop, trees, and a low price point. Again, we would consider buying low and fixing up over a couple of years before we retire. The street address on this place is 820 W. Main Street, Cedaredge, CO.
Look for many photos of these places as well as our reactions in my next post!
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
The Winter’s retirement home search is winding down. Viewing the interiors of two of the homes we have been watching, plus two more, may be [close to] the conclusion of this round of house hunting. Sellers/realtors are anticipating more Buyer activity as the weather improves, and may be less likely to lower their prices and “deal.” Unless we find a property we cannot refuse, it may be the end of Summer/Fall before we start up the active search again. Our Summers are always busy with high country trips to Sanderling and De Beque yard maintenance anyway.
Happy Trails.
An interesting set of home possibilities. The Cedaredge house intrigues me — quite a lot for minimal money, though an engineering report would be necessary on both house and shed. Then, its how much value can be added in upgrades for a minimal cost.
Cedaredge seems like a nice little town — actually has a full-size grocery store in-town, which would be a change! Closest hospital appears to be in Delta.
A working orchard — a lot of work in pruning, spraying, irrigation, and picking. Still, I’d think 400 cherry trees and 200 peach trees would provide some income over cost. ‘could always start a “Mrs. Fields bakery”, though I think the name has been used…
The bank property would have a “cautious flag”, cost and otherwise.
The pond — a nice addition though I have a feeling that it might need an aerator, probably solar powered. It looks like it’s been used as a holding pond for lawn watering, etc.
Fortunately, Colorado is at the opposite end of the property tax spectrum compared with Wisconsin. I’m thinking that the bank property is evaluated quite high, whereas the Cedaredge property is probably in the $600-700 range…
Larry:
Thanks for the comments.
The “pond” home (6100 road) already has an offer so is off our list. The pond did have water flowing though it as it was part of an irrigation system but a fountain would have been a nice addition.
Orchard: Your sister was more taken with this property than I was, not keen on taking on an orchard, but we will se what the house looks like inside.
Cedaredge: There are more places in our price range here and the location is not that far from Delta, 15 – 20 minutes on a good day. We may look at more places in this area.
Tulip Circle place is an odd duck; the bank puts the house up for auction and either accepts a bid or rejects all bids and starts another auction. There may be an offer on the place as the last round of bids just ended the bank has yet to decide if they will accept one. We are going ahead with the viewing but it may turn out to be a dead end.
Colorado real estate is expensive for sure. Since we are looking at doing this on a retirement budget the prices necessarily reflect the low end of the scale out here.
Jerry