Category Archives: News/ Events

Real Estate Broker Bogus “Awards”

Posted on by
Best of Lakewood
 “Stanbro Real Estate LLC has been selected for the 2016 Best of Lakewood Awards for Real Estate Agents.”
I’m flattered, or I would be if it was based on something real. Unfortunately, even though I received a very convincing email to the contrary, this is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Even the fine print at the bottom says “If you would like to stop receiving advertisements please write to…”
 
Five Star Professional is another marketing firm that publishes its “awards” in local magazines, giving the illusion that actual journalists have vetted the winning real estate broker/wealth manager/doctor/dentist/ etc. Not so.
 “…a “Five Star” award from Five Star Professional. It sounds good but candidates are nominated by peers and firms, not their clients.” -Consumer Reports
 
“It is such a joke of an award. You almost feel bad when you are selling this award to the customers.” former Five Star Professional employee via Glassdoor.com
 
As always, my mission is to inform and protect consumers. Unless the award is given by a reputable Consumer Protection or Advocacy Group, it is probably only worth the $150 the broker paid for the plaque.

Not Finding Your Ideal Mid-Century House? We Revisit Why it May Not Be in the MLS or Online.

Posted on by

UPDATED 
June 17, 2016

The following post was originally written in June of 2013.  And now with our unprecedented Sellers’ market and Multiple Listing Services no longer sharing information with sites like Zillow and Trulia, no doubt you are finding it even more difficult to find midcentury modern for sale homes online. (Especially one for $165K!)

” I don’t think many people pay a real estate company to ‘find’ homes as much when many can search them for free.”

A 5280mod follower gave us this feedback recently. True, the internet is full of websites with homes “for sale” making it easy for home buyers to search for themselves. What many consumers may not realize, however,  is that agents are not required to put their listings online, or even make them available to other agents and the general public.

We won’t bore you here with the myriad of reasons why owners and agents choose to keep properties out of the traditional market. Instead, we wanted to show 6 examples of mid-century homes sold in the past 3 months that either never showed up for sale online, or were already under contract when they did. Prices of these homes range from $160k to $465K.

…and there are more where these came from.

How do we know?

For more than a decade, we work full time every day investing time and money researching the MLS, driving neighborhoods, volunteering for preservation projects, and cultivating relationships with homeowners/ architects/ preservationists, etc. Thanks to our  network and our catalog of homes, we can provide our clients with more options than the MLS  and online real estate sites.

Please contact us when you’re ready to benefit from our extensive catalog and in-depth knowledge of Metro Denver’s vintage mid-century and historic modern architecture!

720.279.4884

shannon@5280mod.com

Investors Please Don’t Do This to Your Mid-Century Modern Fix ‘n’ Flips!

Posted on by
Reply

We scour our sources daily looking for mid-century homes that retain their original charm. These include historic modern architecture and any other well designed mid-century homes.

Today we spotted this recent and unfortunate fix n’ flip of a modest mid-century modern home located in a very small enclave of MCMs. Here’s the house “before” with the integral wall of glass:

6700 S Grant Before

Here’s the house after, wall of glass removed in favor of a smaller vinyl replacement:

6700 S Grant After

 I don’t have any “before” shots of the interior and there’s no point including the current “after” pics because it looks like every other neutralized investor flip currently on the market.

Of course, we’re happy that the market is starting to improve, but it means more investors are looking for projects. Unfortunately, as we pointed out in this post six years ago, investors take the “keep it generic to appeal to the most buyers” approach no matter what style of home they’re working on.

Investors! You can improve your ROI in these unique homes if you “fix” them in a way that compliments the original architecture.

Looking for an unmolested mid-century house? Please contact us when you’re ready to benefit from our extensive catalog and in-depth knowledge of Metro Denver’s historic modern architecture!

 

720.279.4884

shannon@5280mod.com

Bastien’s makes history!

Posted on by
1

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_2798zz

On Thursday, Bastien’s Steak House on East Colfax became the first ever Googie-style building to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places!

It was preceded by the first Googie sign to be listed, Welcome to Las Vegas, in May. While other Googie buildings have been approved for National Landmark status, the buildings’ owners have not wanted the distinction.

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_2795zz

We were lucky enough to attend a lecture on Thursday at the Grant-Humphries Mansion by Alan Hess, author of the ultimate book on ’50s coffee shop architecture, Googie Redux, where this historic Bastien’s announcement was made.

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_2796zz

Googie Redux is Alan Hess’ expansive rework of his original 1985 book Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture.

Alan Hess is an architect, prominent architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury Newsand writer. He has written books on mid-century ranch houses, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Frank Lloyd Wright, Oscar Niemeyer and John Lautner (the main reason why he is in Denver.)

Friday, the Denver Art Musuem is showing the film Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner. John Lautner designed the famous coffee shop actually named Googie’s.

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_1913zz

The folded-roof on this building has 24 sides! The Bastien’s family built it 1959 on the site of the Moon Drive-In, which they opened in 1937.

If you have not eaten here, Bastien’s has great food and cocktails with a beautiful interior. Stop by the bar and see for yourself!

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_2800zz

You may have noticed the missing letters on the sign when you drive west on Colfax, but it has been that way for 35 years! Zoning regulations preclude them from making any changes to the sign.

Denver_E.Colfax_Bastiens_IMG_2836zz

Aside from the building, the Bastien’s sign is possibly on of the best Googie signs in Denver.