All About Denver

About the Denver Neighborhood of Hilltop

Hilltop, my childhood home, has so many wonderful memories. Throughout my lifetime Hilltop has always been a popular neighborhood because of the great location on the top of the hill, east of Cherry Creek shopping district in the heart of the city with beautiful landscaping and beautiful views and because of the charming, diverse architectural styles built in the 1920s and continuing today.
In 1997, Alice Millett Bakemeier wrote a wonderful book about the rich history of the neighborhood of Hilltop called Hilltop Heritage. It starts with the history, tells about life in the 1920s and 1930s and about the famous people like George Cranmer, who Cranmer Park was named after along with the history of another popular neighborhood park, Robinson Park. It started out as Robinson Brickyard in the 1920s. This fascinating book has many other stories of famous people and stories of the unique and beautiful homes that are located in Hilltop.

In 2005, Montage Development continued the Hilltop tradition of excellence in architectural design and built this beautiful French Chateau that I currently have on the market. For more details about this home please click here.

If you live in Denver, you go to Red Rocks. You can go there for Easter Services, Symphony Concerts and Rock Concerts.  Our last two visits were this year.  We saw Jethro Tull where I shot this photo of Ian Anderson and Martin Barre.

Jethro Tull Band Rocking at Red Rocks

The band, Kansas, opened for them and I shot this photo of Robby Steinhardt.

Violins Rock at Red Rocks

Our next concert was Peter Gabriel along with The New Blood Orchestra.  The music was passionate and was accompanied by a brilliant thunderstorm and short shower.

Watching Denver city lights, the lightshow on stage and the summer storm.

The visitors center at Red Rocks is also worth seeing.  It has historical lists of all the concerts since the very beginning.

I missed this great concert in 1910

My most memorable concert at Red Rocks, if I had to pick would be The Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead Photo in Visitors Center

My husband’s favorite concert was The Beatles.

Beatles photo in visitors center

Watch  this story of how the Beatles picture with the American Flag came to be one if their most famous photos.

Red Rocks is the absolute best place to see a concert.  We are so lucky to have this in Denver, my home town.  It rocks.

Tags: Denver, Red Rocks

Google map of my favorite ride

In Denver, Colorado we have the best bike paths.  I got a great cruiser bike last year and my favorite spots to cruise are along the highline canal and the Cherry Creek bike path.  As I was riding along last weekend I spotted a home for rent that was just perfect for someone who had just asked me that day about rentals in my neighborhood.  I am constantly amazed at how many homes I have found or sold while riding my bike.

My favorite find on a bike was a few years ago when builders were scraping small homes off of large lots and building homes ranging from 1 million and more.  I happened to be showing homes in that price range to Buyers who wanted to be near their children’s schools in southeast Denver.   They didn’t really like many of the nonconforming central neighborhoods with a very large home right next door to a rather small home.  They wanted a conforming neighborhood in a gated community.  After looking at many neighborhoods with them, I took an afternoon off and went for a bike ride.  On that ride it all of a sudden hit me.  Cherry Creek Country Club!  This true story ended happily for them and for me.  I smiled at that memory today as I rode my cruiser by and stopped to snap this picture.

Cherry Creek Country Club from bike path

Call me if you want to buy a home in this neighborhood or to find out more click here

From cell phone to blackberry to iphone to android to ipad to multiple apps.  Go online and see millions of homes or take out your handheld device, point it to a house with a For Sale sign and immediately get all the information that comes from MLS.  With information so readily available why have so many people made such poor decisions in the past few years about real estate?  Perhaps they made their decisions too quickly.  Maybe they didn’t have an experienced Realtor. There is a lot of value in seeking out an experienced real estate broker who is a Realtor who will take the time to help buyers make good real estate decisions.  There is a lot of value in slowing down to take the time to make one of the most important purchases of your life.  If you know a Realtor contact them.  If you don’t have a Realtor, contact me.  I know how to help people make good decisions about where to invest. 

Thank you for all the complimentary comments on my blog.  I have received more than 5000 comments since I began this blog in the summer of 2010.  I have only approved about 15% of the comments because reading them all is quite time consuming.  To reach me the most quickly please contact me by phone or e-mail.

Drive a fast car, have a fast computer, go slow with real estate investments

Sell this House

Downsizing and DoubleNesting

I was reading statistics on The National Association of Realtors website about people who own second homes, these days also known as “double nesters, splitters or dualers”.  Since 2006 there has been a trend to live in more than one home.  Because we can take our business with us via The Internet at any time we can actually live in more than one place while working.  Why not?  Why not have a home in the mountains or on the beach?  As the largest group of our population, the baby boomers, begins to decrease their family size from four persons to two people it seems logical to decrease home size as well.  So why not downsize and double nest?  I think I’ll try it.  But first I need to sell that 4404 square feet dream home that we custom built in 2000.  It’s really a great house for entertaining and family living in a fabulous location.  It also has great potential for finishing the basement.

A view from the patio

What is a view worth for residential real estate?  My fellow realtor, Daniel Webster Johnson, who works in Summit county Colorado, writes that it is worth 10-20% more in a really good market and in a slower market a good view means that the home will sell.  I have a listing on the golf course with a fabulous view.  While I was there working with the photographer I sat on the upper patio, quietly and peacefully.   The only sounds I could hear were the trickle of the two ponds on this home’s lower level and an occasional Ping of a golf ball being hit down the 15th fairway.  I was happy that my phone wasn’t ringing so I could daydream and relax.  I was thinking, “I could live here.”  Could you?  Check this out!  For more details about this home click here.

Tags: Denver, homes with views, Littleton, Lowry homes for sale, patio home

From Denver to Breckenridge:

Denver is a wonderful place in the summer, however many Denverites like to head up to the mountains. My favorite mountain place is Breckenridge.

I like the National Repertory Orchestra in the Summer.

I like the skiing in the Winter. 

I like the history in the Spring.

I like the autumn colors in the Fall.

I like Breck so much I invested in a condo that I rent out short term through Vacation Rentals by Owner

Breckenridge is a town that is rich in history.  It was established in 1859 when gold was discovered along the Blue River.  Visitors can see buildings that are over 100 years old, find out about the history of Breckenridge by going to the Visitors’ Center or visiting one of the many museums and art galleries in the charming town with Victorian homes, horse drawn carriages, beautiful flowers all set in the valley of the popular ski resort.

The Breckenridge Ski Area officially opened in December of 1961.  People from Denver and all over the world come to Breckenridge to ski and ride every winter because of the great snow, terrain, and the fabulous views from the 12,840 feet above sea level chairlift, the Imperial Express.  Visitors also come every summer to Breckenridge to hike or bike and to experience the Victorian charm and vivid history cultural events.

Tags: Bev Emery, Breckenridge, Denver

 Saturday June 5th was the annual Lowry Yard Sale.  Residents of the entire subdivision of the Denver neighborhood of Lowry found unused items that they could sell to others.  Are you a people watcher?  It was fun to sit on the porch and watch the stream of cars and walkers filling the neighborhood.  Watching them show their buying signals and interest levels in the junk that I put out to sell was equally as interesting.  I noticed that if they looked at it but did not touch it they were not very interested.  If they picked it up they were more interested.  If they picked it up and held it for awhile they were most interested.   We had a lot of great deals so some people couldn’t resist buying because it was such a deal.  We made $36.00 in our 4 hours of work.  I think I’ll stick to selling real estate.  I’ve always loved the homes that I have sold in Lowry.  I have a Lowry home on the market.  Speaking of “price it low and it will go” this home is the least expensive home in the exclusive Park Heights neighborhood of Lowry. and it has one of the largest backyards in all of Lowry.  Check it out

In the mid 1800s the land that is now Lowry was a prairie that was inhabited by the Plains Indians.  In the 1950s Lowry became an Army post, then an Air force base.  There is a wonderful book that was written in 2002 about the history of Lowry.  It is supported by the Lowry Foundation with the assistance of Historic Denver.  It is called Lowry: Military Base to New Urban Community by Thomas J. Noel and Chuck Woodward with photography by Carole D. Cardon.  The redeveloped Lowry neighborhood has continued to appreciate in value because it has an excellent location.  It is in the center of Denver, close to downtown, the Denver Tech Center, the developing Fitzsimmons Health Facility and Cherry Creek Shopping District and fun bike trails.

Tags: Bev Emery, Lowry, Lowry homes for sale, Lowry Yard Sale

My website, BevEmery.com, that I created in 2007 has now become a Blog.  I am really excited to be on the cutting edge of a great way to provide information about real estate online.  I am working on putting up all the useful content that I had on my old website including service providers, (Service Providers is now up)school information, second home ownership and investment property.  You can still do a home search and link to information about a short term rental of  my investment property in Breckenridge.   Find me at www.BevEmery.com or www.AllAboutDenverColorado.com Please continue to visit as I add my content and photos.

Tags: Bev Emery