VAIL — As any good real estate investor knows, location is key.
So while the real estate market was cooling across the country over the summer, some new, exclusive, ski-in, ski-out properties in this resort town actually sold for as much as double their original prices, according to statistics from Land Title Guarantee Co. and area Realtors.
The reasoning for buyers? There aren’t going to be many more slopeside properties built in this upscale ski town, said Matt Fitzgerald, a Realtor with Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate in Vail.
For instance, one investor snapped up a two-bedroom unit in the Arrabelle at Vail Square in Lionshead for $1.2 million in 2005, before construction started, Fitzgerald said. Last winter, it resold for $2.6 million.
In fact, at least 21 buyers paid a premium in recent months for new homes at the Arrabelle, a Swiss-looking, five-story building in a renovated “ski village” surrounded by restaurants and shops.
Six new Chalets at the Lodge at Vail, just up the ski hill from the Vista Bahn, have been sold — and three are already back on the market for up to $15.5 million, an average of 50 percent more than the original price.
“These people made a leap of faith and bought with very little to go on in terms what they would be getting,” said Pete Seibert, a co-listing broker of the Lodge Chalets. “They took the risk.”
Go-go mountain real estate boom
Rod Slifer, a founder of Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, and his wife, Beth, chief executive of Slifer Designs, paid $9.75 million for one of the “chalets.” Now that it’s finished, they have put it back on the market for $12.5 million, according to county records. Neither of the Slifers could be reached for comment on the property.
As other Vail homes appreciated into the double digits in the go-go mountain real estate boom of recent years, buyers of the new properties waited impatiently for theirs to be finished, Seibert said.
“It’s a combination of things not available anywhere else in the village. It’s ski-in, ski-out, the Gore Range view, the Lodge at Vail services, new construction, and you can walk into the village for dinner,” Seibert said.
Such a speculative market indicates just how many people want to see what they’re getting before they put their money down, Fitzgerald said.
“Resale buyers really like to go through the residences and touch them and feel them,” Fitzgerald said. “They want to see what the view is going to be before they buy.”
That was certainly true for a doctor from Florida and his family, who recently bought a south-facing, three-bedroom Arrabelle unit for $4.75 million that looks out on the gondola, Fitzgerald said, declining to give the purchaser’s name. The condo originally presold for about $3 million, Fitzgerald said.
“That was $1.65 million over what they paid for it, but it’s a unique purchase that they plan to keep in the family for the next generation,” he said.
Such speculative “flips” have continued to drive the Vail market in recent months, according to statistics from Land Title Guarantee Co.
Of the 66 new Arrabelle units, there have been 79 sales this year totaling $286 million. That’s almost one quarter of all real estate sales in the county for the year, said Trevor Theelke, a Land Title spokesman.
Ford’s home most prestigious “flip”
Speculation has also run rampant at the uncompleted Solaris development on Vail Road in the center of town. Original sales were in the $1.5 million range. Some later resold for up to $2.8 million, Fitzgerald said.
Possibly the most prestigious “flip” on the market at the moment is the remodeled home of former President Ford in Beaver Creek, which is priced at $14.9 million.
Newport Beach developer Kevin Hayes insists that when he bought it in 2007 for $6.65 million, he didn’t know whether he would resell it or keep it for his family’s use. Hayes says he spent more than $4 million on the 18-month remodel.
Any speculative real estate “flip” is worth the money to the right buyer, said Byron Koste, executive director of the Real Estate Center at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife have bought and sold “fixer-uppers” for the past 38 years.
“If somebody pays X, and you’re paying 2X, in their world, it’s a reasonable amount for something they want,” Koste said. “It’s a unique league.”
Current investor skittishness in international financial markets, however, may slow down “flip” sales in and around Vail in the future, Koste said. But a one-of-a-kind property such as Ford’s house will always be in vogue.
“People are willing to pay for the right look, so if they did a good job, maybe it’s not as crazy as it seems for $14.9 million,” Koste said.
