Colorado Home Search Worksheet: Must-Haves vs Nice-to-Haves

A Colorado home search runs on two columns: must-haves that remove a home from the list when missing, and nice-to-haves that raise the price you are willing to pay. Front Range buyers set the must-have column with Colorado items national lists skip: commute minutes at 7:30 a.m., a basement or none, a garage for snow, sun orientation, HOA or none, metro district or none, and radon mitigation. The worksheet below is the one the Kenna Real Estate Group fills out with every buyer before the first showing.

The Colorado must-have versus nice-to-have worksheet

Mark each row M (must-have), N (nice-to-have) or X (dealbreaker) before touring. Score every home on the M and X rows only; the N rows decide between two homes that both pass.

Commute: set minutes, not miles

The Denver metro commute is the item buyers get wrong most. A home in Castle Rock is 30 miles from downtown Denver and 55 to 70 minutes at 7:30 a.m. on I-25. A home in Englewood is 8 miles and 20 minutes. Set the must-have as a number of minutes to the office, then test it by driving the route at the real time before writing an offer. Buyers who split the week between an office and home set the limit at the number of days in the office.

The explore pages for Castle Rock, Englewood, Lakewood and Broomfield show where each city sits on the map.

Basement: finished, unfinished or walkout

Most detached Front Range homes have a basement, and it is where a Colorado home gains its second half. An unfinished basement is a lower purchase price and a $40,000 to $80,000 finish later. A walkout adds light and a second entrance and sells at a premium. A crawlspace or slab home has no basement to finish and no basement to flood. Buyers who need the square footage now mark a finished basement M; buyers who want the lower price mark unfinished N. The guide to what Colorado buyers want in a finished basement lists what a finish adds.

Garage: the Colorado snow and hail question

An attached two-car garage is a must-have for most Front Range buyers for two reasons: hail from May to September, and scraping ice at 6 a.m. from November to April. A detached garage protects the car and not the walk to it. A carport covers hail and not snow drift. Street parking covers neither, and in Denver's older neighborhoods it is the norm. Mark the garage row honestly, because a garage is the one item you cannot add to a 1920s Baker or Berkeley bungalow lot without a permit and $30,000 to $60,000.

Sun orientation at 5,280 feet

A south-facing driveway and front walk melt after a storm by mid-afternoon on most sunny winter days, which Colorado has about 300 of a year. A north-facing driveway holds ice for a week. West-facing windows and a west-facing deck run hot in July and August with the UV at altitude, and the air conditioner runs harder. East-facing bedrooms get the morning sun. Stand in the driveway at the showing with a compass app and mark the row.

HOA or no HOA

An HOA delivers shared snow removal, a pool and exterior rules, at $30 to $600 a month depending on what it covers. In Highlands Ranch the HRCA covers four recreation centers. In a Denver condo the fee covers the roof, exterior and building insurance. No HOA means no fee, no approval for a fence color, and no one plowing the cul-de-sac. The Colorado contract gives an HOA documents deadline to read the budget, reserve study and minutes and terminate for any reason found in them. The Denver HOA rules and fees guide covers what to read.

Metro district or none

A metropolitan district is a separate taxing authority that built the roads and water lines in a newer subdivision and repays the debt with its own mill levy. It is a bill, not a dealbreaker, until the buyer runs the payment. Pull the county treasurer's bill for the exact parcel and put the real tax into the monthly payment. Older neighborhoods in Denver, Littleton, Arvada and Lakewood have no district; most subdivisions built after 2000 in Douglas, Arapahoe, Adams and Weld counties do. The Denver metro suburbs guide to HOAs, metro districts and taxes names the communities with the highest mills.

Radon mitigation: present, passive or none

Colorado is an EPA Zone 1 radon state. A home with a working mitigation system, a sealed sump and a fan on the vent pipe, is a plus. A passive rough-in in new construction is a pipe with no fan and does not count. A home with nothing is tested for 48 hours during inspection, and when the result is 4.0 pCi/L or higher the seller installs the system or credits $1,200 to $2,500. Mark radon N with a note to test rather than X, because the fix is cheap and predictable. The Denver radon guide explains the test.

Community features and mail delivery

Trails, parks and a pool are visible on a showing. Mail delivery is not, and it changes daily life for buyers who order online. New subdivisions in Colorado are built with centralized cluster box units rather than a mailbox at each curb, and the units include parcel lockers. Locked compartments and durable parcel lockers are among the benefits of cluster mailboxes over individual mailboxes. Buyers who prefer a box at the door mark it N and look at neighborhoods built before 2000.

When two buyers disagree on the must-haves

Two buyers on one purchase fill out the worksheet separately, then merge. A row both mark M is a must-have. A row one marks M and the other N goes to the M column unless the budget cannot carry it. A row either marks X is a dealbreaker. That rule ends the debate in ten minutes and keeps the Kenna Real Estate Group showing homes that both buyers will write on. The guide to co-buying a house in Colorado covers the contract side for unmarried buyers.

What to give up first when the budget is tight

Give up nice-to-haves in this order: finished basement (finish it later), updated kitchen (cosmetic), lot size (water bill goes down), then commute minutes (add 10). Never give up the inspection, the sewer scope, the radon test or the three numbers: the full monthly payment, the cash to close and the reserves after closing. The Colorado mortgage pre-approval guide sets the budget before the worksheet, and for financing questions the Kenna Real Estate Group works with Mike Oswald, VP of Mortgage Lending at Rate, NMLS 261003, Equal Housing Lender. You are free to use any lender. See the Colorado financing page.

Where to go next

• Search every home for sale in Colorado
• The Colorado home buyer's guide
• First-time home buyer guide for Colorado
• How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps buyers
• 5 first-time home buyer mistakes in Colorado, with the fixes
• Meet the agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group, Keller Williams DTC in Centennial, fills out this worksheet with every Colorado buyer before the first showing, builds the search on the must-have column, and scores each home on tour so the offer goes on a home that passes. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Then search every home for sale in Colorado.