Light, Layout and Outdoor Space: What Denver Buyers See First

Colorado buyers decide how they feel about a home in the first 90 seconds, and three things drive it: where the light comes from, whether the main floor flows from the front door to the kitchen to the yard, and how the house meets the outdoors. At 5,280 feet each of those has local rules. South light warms a Denver home in January, west light cooks it in July, a covered patio is the only patio used from May to September, and a walkout basement turns below-grade space into a daylight floor.

This post states what each feature does in this climate and what to verify at the showing. Sellers deciding which of these to add before listing use the preparing and adding value before selling page.

Light at 5,280 feet: which way the windows face

The Front Range gets about 300 days of sun a year and the UV at this elevation is stronger than at sea level. That changes what a window does.

• South-facing windows bring low winter sun deep into the room and warm it. In summer the sun sits high and a 2-foot roof overhang keeps it off the glass. This is the exposure a living room, kitchen and primary bedroom want.
• West-facing windows carry the mountain view and the 4 p.m. July heat. Without Low-E glass, exterior shades or a covered patio outside them, the room runs 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the house and the floors fade in two summers.
• North-facing windows give even light with no heat and no view of the mountains from most of the metro. Good for offices and studios; a north-only living room reads dim at 2 p.m.
• East-facing windows light a kitchen at breakfast and go quiet by noon.

At the showing, open the blinds in every room and note the time. A home toured at 10 a.m. with east windows and toured again at 5 p.m. is two different houses. Solar tubes ($600 to $1,200 installed) and a replaced slider with Low-E glass are the cheap fixes a seller makes; a new window opening in a brick 1960s ranch runs $3,000 to $6,000.

The main-floor layout Denver buyers walk through first

Buyers in the metro walk the same path in every home: front door, kitchen, back door. When that path is open, with the kitchen visible from the living room and the yard visible from the kitchen, the house feels bigger than its square footage. When it runs through a hallway and a closed dining room, the house feels older than its year.

• Kitchen open to the living space. Removing a non-bearing wall between a 1970s kitchen and dining room runs $3,000 to $8,000; a bearing wall with a beam runs $10,000 to $25,000 with a structural engineer's letter and a permit. A full kitchen renovation that opens the wall and re-plans the room runs $50,000 to $90,000 on the Front Range, which is why buyers pay for one that is already done.
• Primary bedroom on the main floor. The single most requested layout by downsizing buyers in Highlands Ranch, Centennial and Broomfield. Ranch homes and main-floor-primary two-stories sell at a premium to the same square footage with all bedrooms upstairs.
• A mudroom or drop zone off the garage. Snow boots, ski bags and dog towels need somewhere that is not the kitchen floor.
• A three-car garage or a deep two-car. Bikes, skis, a paddleboard and a second fridge.

Covered patios: built for hail and sun

Hail season on the Front Range runs May through September, and the May 2017 storm that hit Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and Denver was the costliest in Colorado history. An uncovered patio with a glass table and cushioned furniture is a patio nobody uses in July. A covered one, under a solid roof tied into the house, becomes a second living room for eight months of the year.

• Solid roof cover, $12,000 to $30,000 for a 14 by 20 foot patio with a shingled or metal roof matching the house. Blocks hail, blocks the 2 p.m. sun on a west yard, and lets a ceiling fan and lighting go in.
• Pergola, $4,000 to $12,000. Shade in stripes, no hail protection. Louvered aluminum pergolas at $15,000 to $35,000 close for storms.
• Surface. Stamped concrete cracks and heaves on bentonite clay; pavers on a compacted base move with the soil and go back. The stone, brick or concrete patio comparison post covers the trade-offs for Denver soils.

At the showing, look up. Hail dents in a metal patio roof, cracked polycarbonate panels and torn shade sails tell you how the last storm went. Ask the seller's agent for the date of the last roof claim.

South-facing yards and north-facing driveways

A south-facing backyard gets sun all winter, melts snow within a day, and grows tomatoes. A north-facing backyard holds snow for weeks, stays muddy in March, and needs shade plants. Buyers pay for the south yard; sellers with a north yard put the money into a covered patio and lighting.

The driveway works in reverse. A north-facing driveway in Arvada or Westminster holds ice from December to February and needs shoveling every storm; a south-facing one clears itself by noon. In Highlands Ranch, HRCA and the metro district enforce sidewalk clearing within 24 hours of a storm, and in Denver it is the city ordinance, so the exposure of the front of the house is a chore calendar.

Water is the other factor. Denver Water's summer rules bar watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and most metro utilities run tiered rates that make a large bluegrass lawn the most expensive thing in the yard. A yard with drip-irrigated beds, a smaller lawn and native plantings reads as lower maintenance to the buyer and costs less each July. Drainage matters on every lot: the grade needs to fall away from the foundation, because expansive clay under the slab swells when a downspout dumps next to it.

Walkout and garden-level basements

Where the ground slopes, the basement gets a real door and full windows on the downhill side. Walkout lots sit on the ridges and drainages of Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, Parker, Lone Tree, Ken Caryl and Golden, and on the bluffs above Clear Creek and the Platte. A garden-level basement, with the floor half below grade and windows above it, is the flatland version in Centennial and Aurora.

• Why buyers pay for it. A walkout basement with a rec room, a bedroom with egress and a patio under the deck reads as a third floor, not a basement. Appraisers still count it as below-grade space, so the premium shows up in what buyers offer, not in the appraisal.
• What to verify. Radon: most Front Range counties sit in EPA Zone 1, and a walkout has more soil contact and more openings. Ask for the test result or order one. Water: check the downhill wall for staining and the window wells for drains. Egress: a basement bedroom needs an egress window or door under the building code every metro city adopts.

The finished basement guide for Colorado buyers covers the finishes.

Mountain views: what counts and what to check

From the Denver metro, the mountains sit to the west. A view means a west-facing lot, a second-floor or walkout vantage, and nothing tall in between. Buyers pay a premium for it that shows up in every sold comp on the west sides of Arvada, Golden, Lakewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock, and the premium climbs with the width of the view.

• Is it protected? A view across Jefferson County Open Space, a Douglas County conservation easement, a golf course or a Denver Mountain Park stays. A view across a vacant lot zoned for two-story homes goes away. Check the parcel to the west on the county assessor map and the city zoning map before paying for the view.
• What time is it best? Sunset light on the peaks is the photo in the listing. Tour at 6 p.m. in summer to see it, and at noon to see the haze.
• West glass needs help. The view window is the hot window. Low-E glass, exterior shades or a covered deck outside it keep the room usable in July.

French doors, sliders and the indoor-outdoor line

The door between the kitchen and the patio is the feature that decides whether the yard gets used. A 1980s aluminum slider that sticks reads as a wall. A wide glass slider or a set of French doors onto a covered patio reads as more square footage. In this climate the door needs a low-E, double-pane unit with a thermal break, a threshold that sheds meltwater, and a screen, because summer evenings at altitude drop 30 degrees and the whole house wants to be open. Replacement runs $2,500 to $7,000 installed. The indoor-outdoor flow for Colorado summers post covers the rest of the connection.

What to verify at the showing

HOA and metro district rules apply to most of these in Douglas, Arapahoe and Adams County subdivisions: patio covers, fence height, shade structures and even paver color go through an architectural review committee. Ask for the covenants before writing an offer on a home where the plan is to add a cover.

Seeing these homes with a verified budget

The homes with south light, a covered patio and a walkout basement draw multiple showings the first weekend, and a seller reviewing offers reads the pre-approval before the price. Mike Oswald, VP of Mortgage Lending at Rate, NMLS 261003, Equal Housing Lender, issues a full pre-approval for Colorado buyers before the first showing. You are free to use any lender. The Colorado mortgage pre-approval guide and the Colorado home financing guide explain the steps. Buyers who want a view and a walkout together filter the Highlands Ranch homes for sale and Golden homes for sale pages by lot and basement type.

Where to go next

• Search every home for sale in Colorado
• The Colorado Home Buyer's Guide
• How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps buyers
• What to check before offering on a renovated Denver home
• Why Denver's outdoor lifestyle keeps housing demand strong
• Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group at Keller Williams DTC tours homes with a compass, a radon report and the zoning map for the lot next door, so the buyer knows which of these features is real before writing the offer. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Start with the map: search every home for sale in Colorado.