Greenwood Village
January 16, 2013
Contact: Melissa Gallegos, Public Information Officer Greenwood Village
303-486-5749; Cell: 720-849-9910 mgallegos@greenwoodvillage.com.
Greenwood Village Welcomes Fidelity Investments
The Greenwood Village City Council and staff are pleased to welcome Fidelity Investments to Greenwood Village. Fidelity Investments has leased 100,000 square feet of office space in Fiddler’s Green Center located at 6501 South Fiddler’s Green Circle to operate a new customer contact center. Fiddler’s Green Center is owned and managed by the John Madden Co. Fidelity Investments new Greenwood Village location will add 500 new jobs to the Village economy.
“We are ecstatic that Fidelity Investments chose our beautiful city of Greenwood Village as their new location in the Denver metro area to grow and thrive,” said Mayor Ron Rakowsky. “We would also like to extend our appreciation to the John Madden Company for taking a primary role in attracting this premier company to the Village Center.”
Fidelity Investments, also known as FMR LLC, has $3.8 trillion in assets under administration and $1.6 trillion in managed assets, as of October 31, 2012. It was founded in 1946 and has more than 40,000 employees globally. Fidelity Investments, with headquarters in Boston, provides investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to more than 20 million individuals and institutions.
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You’re ready to remodel but you want to make sure you get the best contractor for the job. Here’s what to ask the candidates before you decide.
1. Would you please itemize your bid?
Many contractors prefer to give you a single, bottom-line price for your project, but this puts you in the dark about what they’re charging for each aspect of the job. For example, let’s say the original plan calls for beadboard wainscot in your bathroom, but you decide not to install it after all. How much should you be credited for eliminating that work? With a single bottom-line price, you have no way to know.
On the other hand, if you get an itemized bid, it’ll show the costs for all of the various elements of the job—demolition, framing, plumbing, electrical, tile, fixtures, and so forth. That makes it easier to compare different contractors’ prices and see where the discrepancies are. If you need to cut the project costs, you can easily assess your options. Plus, an itemized bid becomes valuable documentation about the exact scope of the project, which may eliminate disputes later.
The contractor shouldn’t give you a hard time about itemizing his bid. He has to figure out his total price line by line anyway, so you’re not asking him to do more work, only to share the details. If he resists, it means he wants to withhold important information about his bid—a red flag for sure.
2. Is your bid an estimate or a fixed price?
Homeowners generally assume that the bid they’re seeing is a fixed price, but some contractors treat their proposals as estimates, meaning bills could wind up being higher in the end. If he calls it an estimate, request a fixed price bid instead. If he says he can’t offer a fixed price because there are too many unknowns about the job, then eliminate the unknowns.
“Have him open up a wall to check the structure he’s unsure about or go back to your architect and solidify the design plans,” says Tampa, Fla., attorney George Meyer, who is chair-elect of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry. If you simply cannot resolve the unknowns he’s concerned about, have the project specs describe what he expects to do—and if he needs to do additional work later, you can do achange order (a written mini-bid for new work).
3. How long have you been doing business in this town?
A contractor who’s been plying his trade locally for 5 or 10 years has an established network of subcontractors and suppliers in the area and a local reputation to uphold. That makes him a safer bet than a contractor who’s either new to the business or new to the area—or who’s planning to commute to your job from 50 miles away.
You want to see a nearby address (not a PO box) on his business card—and should ask him to include one or two of his earliest clients on your list of references. This will help you verify that he hasn’t just recently hung his shingle—and will give you perspective from a homeowner who has lived with the contractor’s work for years. After all, the test of a quality job, whether it’s a bluestone patio or a family room addition, is how well it stands the test of time.
4. Who are your main suppliers?
You’ve found a few potential contractors, you’ve talked to the happy former clients on each of their reference lists, now it’s time for one additional bit of homework: talking to their primary suppliers. There’s no better reference for a tile setter, for example, than his preferred tile shop; for a general contractor than his favorite lumberyard or home center pro desk; for a plumber than the kitchen and bath showroom where he’s on a first name basis.
The proprietors of these shops know a contractor’s professional reputation, whether he has left a trail of unhappy customers in his wake, if he’s reliable about paying his bills—and whether he’s someone you’ll want to hire. The contractor should have absolutely no qualms about telling you where he gets his materials, as long as he’s an upstanding customer.
5. I’d like to meet the job foreman—can you take me to a project he’s running?
Many contractors don’t actually swing hammers. They spend their days bidding new work and managing their various jobs and workers. In some cases, the contractor you hire may not visit the jobsite every day—or may not even show himself again after you’ve signed the contract. So the job foreman—the one who’s working on your project every day—is actually the most important member of your team.
Meeting him in person and seeing a job that he’s running should give you a feel for whether he’s someone you want managing your project. Plus, it gives the general contractor an incentive to assign you one of his better crews since you’re more likely to hire him if you see his A Team. If the contractor says he’ll be running the job himself, ask whether he’ll be there every day. Again, he’ll want to give you a positive response—something you can hold him to later on.
The subtleties of how to hire a contractor
It’s not only the answers to these questions that will help you judge potential contractors—it’s the way they answer them. Were they easy to talk to and forthcoming with details or did they hem and haw and make you ask more than once? Difficulty communicating now means difficulty communicating on the job later. But clear, timely and thoughtful responses—combined with terrific references, great completed work that you’ve seen, and a smart take on your project—may mean you’ve found the right pro for your job.
Let’s thank Oliver Marks Published: September 30, 2009 for this valuable information.
Here is this week’s foreclosure list, please click on the date for the report.
This is a list of all homeowners who have had a Notice of Election and Demand (NED) filed on their home in the last week. These properties are in the initial stage of foreclosure. For past weeks lists please scroll down to the end.
Current Week Foreclosure List:
January 11, 2013 in Excel
January 11, 2013 in PDF
Other Foreclosure Resources:
Foreclosure Timeline
Foreclosures in Colorado
Basics of a Short Sale Transaction
Past Foreclosure Lists:
January 4, 2013 in Excel
January 4, 2013 in PDF
December 28, 2012 in Excel
December 28, 2012 in PDF
MyTownCryer’s World
Residential Highlights:
Condo Highlights:
Click here for Full report of entire MLS
For individual MLS area reports, please scroll to the bottom of the eNewsletter.
Here’s how to get the bathroom of your dreams without making your budget a nightmare.
A mid-range bathroom remodel is a solid investment, according to Remodeling Magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value Report. An average bath remodel of $16,500 will recoup about 62% of those costs when it’s time to sell your home, and a more extensive $52,200 job returns about 55.5%. In addition, you can maximize the value of your investment by using these smart strategies, which will create a stylish yet budget-friendly bathroom.
A bathroom remodel is no place for improvisation. Before ripping out the first tile, think hard about how you will use the space, what materials and fixtures you want, and how much you’re willing to spend.
The National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) recommends spending up to six months evaluating and planning before beginning work. That way, you have a roadmap that will guide decisions, even the ones made under remodeling stress. Once work has begun—a process that averages 2 to 3 months—resist changing your mind. Work stoppages and alterations add costs. Some contractors include clauses in their contracts that specify premium prices for changing original plans.
If planning isn’t your strong suit, hire a designer. In addition to adding style and efficiency, a professional designer makes sure contractors and installers are scheduled in an orderly fashion. A pro charges $100 to $200 per hour, and spends 10 to 30 hours on a bathroom project.
2. Keep the same footprint
You can afford that Italian tile you love if you can live with the total square footage you already have.
Keeping the same footprint, and locating new plumbing fixtures near existing plumbing pipes, saves demolition and reconstruction dollars. You’ll also cut down on the dust and debris that make remodeling so hard to live with.
Make the most of the space you have. Glass doors on showers and tubs open up the area. A pedestal sink takes up less room than a vanity. If you miss the storage, replace a mirror with a deep medicine cabinet.
Multiple shower heads and radiant heat floors are fabulous adds to a bathroom remodel. But few items make a bathroom more satisfying than lighting designed for everyday grooming. You can install lighting for a fraction of the cost of pricier amenities.
Well-designed bathroom task lighting surrounds vanity mirrors and eliminates shadows on faces: You look better already. The scheme includes two ceiling- or soffit-mounted fixtures with 60 to 75 watts each, and side fixtures or sconces providing at least 150 watts each, distributed vertically across 24 inches (to account for people of various heights). Four-bulb lighting fixtures work well for side lighting.
Bathroom ventilation systems may be out of sight, but they shouldn’t be out of mind during a bathroom remodel.
Bathroom ventilation is essential for removing excess humidity that fogs mirrors, makesbathroom floors slippery, and contributes to the growth of mildew and mold. Controlling mold and humidity is especially important for maintaining healthy indoor air quality and protecting the value of your home—mold remediation is expensive, and excess humidity can damage cabinets and painted finishes.
A bathroom vent and water closet fan should exhaust air to the outside—not simply to the space between ceiling joists. Better models have whisper-quiet exhaust fans and humidity-controlled switches that activate when a sensor detects excess moisture in the air.
Bathroom storage is a challenge: By the time you’ve installed the toilet, shower, and sink, there’s often little space left to store towels, toilet paper, and hair and body products. Here are some ways to find storage in hidden places.
Shave labor costs by doing some work yourself. Tell your contractor which projects you’ll handle, so there are no misunderstandings later.
Some easy DIY projects:
A “soft scheme” adds visual zest to your bathroom, but doesn’t create a one-of-a-kind look that might scare away future buyers.
Soft schemes employ neutral colors for permanent fixtures and surfaces, then add pizzazz with items that are easily changed, such as shower curtains, window treatments, towels, throw rugs, and wall colors. These relatively low-cost decorative touches provide tons of personality but are easy to redo whenever you want.
Let’s thank John Riha Published: March 4, 2011 for this valuable information!
Kitchen Countertops
How to Save 20% to 40% on Your Kitchen Remodel Without Even Trying
You can picture your new, beautifully renovated dream kitchen. But your budget won’t allow it unless you cut costs. Here’s how to save on your kitchen remodel.
Below are 7 great recommendations for ways to shave costs off your kitchen remodel. Each recommendation includes a percentage of the savings you can expect to trim off the overall cost of your kitchen remodeling. Because of variables, such as the price of materials in your area, the percentages are given as a range.
If you do all the recommendations, you’ll knock 20% to 40% off the cost of your project.
1. Skip the custom cabinet shop. All of the major cabinet manufacturers offer a range of styles and finishes in their stock product lines. The only compromise you’ll make is that you can’t get cabinet widths sized to the exact fraction of an inch.
“Stock cabinets come in 3-inch increments, so you may need to get something slightly smaller than the space you have to fill,” says Cambridge, Mass., kitchen designer Jean Courtney. But nobody will ever notice. “Your contractor will use matching filler pieces and moldings to hide any gaps and make everything look custom fitted.”
Your savings: 5% to 12%
2. Keep the sink and appliances in their current locations. That avoids having to run new electrical wiring, natural gas lines, plumbing pipes, and hood-vent lines, knocking thousands off your construction costs.
Your savings: 5% to 10%
3. Select a simple cabinet door design. A classic shaker door, which is plain and elegant, comes at about half the cost of something more complex, such as an arch-top panel with intricate moldings. And you’ll get a more timeless, never-go-out-of-style look.
Your savings: 2% to 4%
4. Choose a stock stain or paint finish on the cabinets instead of a trendy two-tone glazed finish. Most cabinet manufacturers offer an array of good-looking, durable stock finishes.
Your savings: 3% to 4%
5. Keep the existing window locations. Using the current openings — and resisting the temptation to increase window size — reduces construction costs considerably because the contractor won’t have to frame out new openings.
Your savings: 3% to 6%
6. Simplify the edge profile of your countertops. A waterfall, ogee, or other fancy edge choice can add hundreds to the fabrication costs of your countertops. Trim that cost by opting for a square or simple round-over treatment.
Your savings: 1% to 2%
7. Shop for discontinued hardwood flooring and backsplash tiles. “When a particular line of subway tile or oak flooring is going out of production, stores slash the prices to move the merchandise — but it’s perfectly good stuff,” says Courtney.
Another option: Look for salvaged building materials, such as sinks, faucets, and lighting fixtures.
Your savings: 1% to 2%
Let’s thank Oliver Marks Published: September 11, 2012 for this valuable information!
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