Thanks for the detailed post. Would you be willing to talk or email offline?

dbtexasag@yahoo.com

Give me a shout anytime.

Excellent Post!

And update your profile - it still says Casper, WY

agdaddy04 said:

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If you've already been successful and have "made it" where you're living - whether that be Houston, Austin, Dallas, etc., and you are looking for the next challenge and think that moving to Colorado will allow you to have your cake and eat it too, you're probably going to wind up frustrated. And will definitely be susceptible to moving back to Texas when you eventually decide that trying to force yourself into Colorado doesn't make financial sense anymore.

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I guess this is where I land but I'm curious why you say that. What would make that frustrating? In Houston we're not getting to enjoy much of the outdoors, I work from 6a-7p, sometimes 6 days a week, and the company in CO seems to value a work life balance much more. It does come with a slight bump in pay, but not as much as I was thinking, I'm guessing because of the Denver discount.

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dbtexasag05's post really hit the nail on the head.

As an example, I have lived less than 1 mile from the beach during most of the past 11 years that I've lived in Australia. I still haven't learned to surf. I did take some visiting guests to the beach last week but otherwise, I haven't even gotten in the water since January. And that's a lot easier for me to do than throwing the family in the car and driving up I-70 to Summit County in ski traffic. It's not the environment per se, it's most likely your work habits. I'm certainly guilty.

With respect to pay, Denver suffers from the same problem that Austin suffers from. People want to be there and are willing to sacrifice $$$$$ to be there. There are a lot of good paying jobs but, you have to hustle to stay in one.

Colorado also has a 40+ year history of having a Boom/Bust economy. I arrived during a Boom, weathered a Bust and then left before the next Boom but, couldn't sell my house for about 9 years after I left. I wish I could have held on a little longer because prices have soared during the past 5 years. Oh well. It's just money.

Even if you only survived in Colorado for let's say 5 years, it would still be worthwhile. Especially if you're from Houston. You already know what Houston is going to be like in 5 years. It will be more populous and more spread out. Same for Denver in a way. Except in Denver, you've got The Front Range limiting building on one side.

As far as house prices, Denver doesn't have the same building situation you have in Texas. Our house in Round Rock was built in 4 months. In Denver, they told us if we wanted to build, it would take at least 12 months. Also, when we moved there, 1/4 of Colorado's residents had arrived during the previous decade. Since 2000, Colorado's population has grown from 4 million to 5 million in 2010 and certainly will be close to 6 million by the 2020 census. Most of those folks will be in the Front Range - probably Denver.

Anyway, back to the job side of it. You might have better success than my and my cohort did. I wound up working for 4 different companies in the span of 4 years. I found there were a lot of factors that made the job prospects what I would consider to be unstable. I did have a few friends who wound up starting their own businesses with varying degrees of success. Most folks just took the easy route and went back to Texas to what they knew.

Obviously wife and kids will play a factor. One of the big appeals for me moving to Denver was the fact that I never had to work weekends. I had to travel a lot during the week - all over the USA but, I was home every Saturday and Sunday. Back in Austin, I wound up having to work a lot of weekends. Slightly different job role but, with respect to work/life balance, that was better for me in Denver. And just to describe some of the crazy reality - multiple times, I had situations where I might be at the beach in Santa Cruz on Friday afternoon, fly back to Denver, go snowboarding on the weekend and then be at the beach in Miami on Monday. So, I didn't do that much work in Denver necessarily but, it was home base with the family for two days/week. Whereas in Austin, I would frequently get home after everybody went to bed and leave for work before anybody was awake.

So, it is what you make of it. Just don't think that because you're now a two hour drive from the Ski Resorts that you'll be a pro skier in no time. But, if you want a state of nirvana experience that Texas can't even come close to - a summer concert at Red Rocks. That's it.

agdaddy04 said:

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40%? That's wild, and certainly depresses me some. When I moved to Spring in '13 they had recently seen similar appreciation and now it's been pretty flat 6 years later.

I think you said before, but are you in Parker?

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Yeh I'm in Parker town limits in 80134.

We purchase in '12 at $390k, it's valued in low/mid $500s now. It ramped up really fast from '13-'16, and has had more realistic appreciation since then. Example, my next door neighbor bought when we did, sept. '12, (moved in May '13) for $400k, and sold in summer of '16 for $550k, so 37.5% in 3.5 years. But that house is probably worth $600k now, so just 10% appreciation in the last 3 years. (But still 50% in 6 years..) So it def. has slowed.

We bought a new build, empty lot. Put money down in Sept '12, broke ground Oct '12, moved in mid May '13. So it doesn't take a year like Hollywood pointed out.

When we put money down, the base price for our model was ~$320k. By the time we moved in 9 months later, it had risen to ~$360k. 12% in 9 months. They were increasing the base price literally every few months for a while. It continued until summer of '14, base price was almost $400k, 25% higher than summer of '12. Our hood was built out then, so we didn't have any more builder set base price to gauge, just resells, which kept creeping up.


My wife is bugging me all the time now to sell and buy a house cash back in Texas.. so damn this appreciation! To me, even with a 'free' house in Texas, it ain't worth moving back!

HollywoodBQ said:

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agdaddy04 said:

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Quote:

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.

If you've already been successful and have "made it" where you're living - whether that be Houston, Austin, Dallas, etc., and you are looking for the next challenge and think that moving to Colorado will allow you to have your cake and eat it too, you're probably going to wind up frustrated. And will definitely be susceptible to moving back to Texas when you eventually decide that trying to force yourself into Colorado doesn't make financial sense anymore.

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I guess this is where I land but I'm curious why you say that. What would make that frustrating? In Houston we're not getting to enjoy much of the outdoors, I work from 6a-7p, sometimes 6 days a week, and the company in CO seems to value a work life balance much more. It does come with a slight bump in pay, but not as much as I was thinking, I'm guessing because of the Denver discount.

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With respect to pay, Denver suffers from the same problem that Austin suffers from. People want to be there and are willing to sacrifice $$$$$ to be there. There are a lot of good paying jobs but, you have to hustle to stay in one.

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Joking but not really joking, learn to code to anyone who cares about the money wanting to come to denver. Lots of great high paying jobs in that arena here with pretty reasonable work/life balance.

My telcomm analyst salary is what has made denver great. Would be tough coming straight out of college here and making 50k or less. The amount of older people (30's) with roomates still blows my mind having lived in kc/texas before this.

Lived in Denver with the same career in banking for a few years now. Looking to leave the banking industry.

Any advice on pivoting? Spent a few years as an analyst and a lender.

I work at a regional bank, in IT, but we have positions for all kinds of different roles. Project Management, analysts, security, development, banking (of course), etc. I came here from OKC for my job and it's been a great company with a good work/life balance.

https://efirstbank.dejobs.org/

The Pilot said:

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Another one moving up north. Wife and I are moving to the Cory-Merrill neighborhood next month. Our dog, Bernese mt dog, would love the weather y'all are having today.

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Brisket is moving to Colorado!?!?!?!

Yes, he's going home!

Yeh I don't know if we compare to the Swiss alps!

Well the offer just came in. Wasn't expecting this to move so quick.

agdaddy04 said:

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Well the offer just came in. Wasn't expecting this to move so quick.

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Congrats! Welcome to paradise.

Well we'll still need to work out a few details, but pretty excited

Congrats and welcome. Let us know how we can help

COAg15 said:

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Lived in Denver with the same career in banking for a few years now. Looking to leave the banking industry.

Any advice on pivoting? Spent a few years as an analyst and a lender.

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What do you want to do?

Won't you be my neighbor?!

https://www.recolorado.com/listing/233742621-151082055/10297-joseph-drive-highlands-ranch-co-80130/

https://www.recolorado.com/listing/234281111-151082055/10281-nickolas-avenue-highlands-ranch-co-80130/

https://www.recolorado.com/listing/231331922-151082055/10158-stephen-place-highlands-ranch-co-80130/

My price range is maybe half those amounts if the dollars stack up right.

We'll take a look. Thanks

Can anyone recommend a local landscape architect? Looking for some comprehensive residential lot drainage work.

Diz139 said:

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COAg15 said:

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Lived in Denver with the same career in banking for a few years now. Looking to leave the banking industry.

Any advice on pivoting? Spent a few years as an analyst and a lender.

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What do you want to do?

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Phenomenal question. Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer! Like every millennial, I don't think I've quite figured out what it is I should be doing.

A little more context than my original post:

26 years old. Majored in finance back at Mays. Started out in banking after graduation, and have been with the same company since. I work for a regional bank headquartered in Tulsa (should be enough of a giveaway). Spent 3 years as an analyst, doing modeling, forecasting, and other analysis. For the last year I've been doing the lending/sales side. This includes manufacturing, some CRE, some oil field services, municipalities, and nonprofit.

Culture wise, the bank has been great, and I would not want to switch to another banking institution. The reason for wanting to change industries lies in personal preference. It's been hard to envision myself doing this for the rest of my career.

Back to your original question. Being in Denver, tech is a logical option, I have interest in CRE (might be a scary time to jump in), O&G, or even healthcare (the 100 pound gorilla Davita is headquartered here). But honestly, open to anything, as demonstrated by my saved jobs on Linkedin.

Know it's a long-winded answer, but felt it deserved more than what I originally posted.

Weather is getting nice. Any guys here play golf? Want to get a golf group going?

FightinAg13 said:

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Weather is getting nice. Any guys here play golf? Want to get a golf group going?

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I'd be down to join depending on when and where rounds were being played. About the only time I get south of Broomfield these days is for a round or a visit to TopGolf. Can't wait for the TopGolf in Thornton to open!

I always play Bear Dance and Fossil Trace at least once a year.

Proud and Inuswd to play a lot.

Kids will stop that...But I would be more than happy to find time to play.

Does anyone here belong to a club?

I'm looking at joining meridian.

However, I am playing a lot of CGa tournaments this year and thinking it will be a huge waste.

There are plenty of deals to be had with munis. What part of town do you live in?

That's still what we're trying to figure out. We'll probably be moving in June.

Speaking of... does someone recommend a realtor they know / or have used in the past?

I've recommended Trish Hopkins before and she's helped a couple of people on this board. She took very good care of us and continues to be a resource for our family.

Trish Hopkins - ReMax

Okay....two Aggie sighting today.

Who played golf at Twin Peaks in Longmont?

Who was having dinner at Casa Caliente in highlands Ranch?

It's official now, will be moving up over the summer. Thanks for the help.

Where did you end up deciding to live?

Ha, haven't yet. Flying back up next weekend to try and finalize that. Looking at Erie and Parker.

Congrats!

If the office is in Stapleton....Erie is a haul.

Make sure to make that drive at both rush hours.

May give you a call again in the next week or so.