While Colorado may be headed toward loosening its restrictions on real estate visits, buyers are taking advantage of low interest rates to shop and buy homes right through the virus crisis, according to KB Home, with some of the Denver area’s most attainably priced new home offerings.
“We’ve already converted to the virtual environment so effectively that buyers are getting pretty much everything they would get from seeing model homes on-site,” says Randy Carpenter, Division President at KB Home Colorado.
Sales over the last two weeks of Colorado’s shutdown on tours and visits have still yielded numbers of sales in all parts of the metro area, Carpenter adds. “It speaks to how badly people need to buy, at a time when home inventory is low and when mortgage rates are giving much more buying power,” he notes.
Meanwhile, KB Home is readying to welcome buyers back to its communities, some offering homes that are ready to move in right away. “The important thing is that we make people feel safe, whether they’re ready to get out and shop by making an appointment, or if they would rather keep things virtual,” says Carpenter.
KB Home has five steps to purchasing while the restrictions are still in place. Step one is to explore KB Home on-line, in locations from Berthoud, Firestone and other north metro areas, to Southeast Aurora, Parker and Castle Rock. In prepping for the virus crisis, KB Home had 3D Matterport tours created to give buyers a tool for touring homes.
Step two is to meet virtually with KB Home’s staff. “We’re arranging Skype and Zoom meetings every day,” notes Carpenter. “Buying a home is an emotional commitment, and buyers want to know who they’re dealing with.”
Contract signings are carried out by DocuSign, Skype or Zoom and following that, KB Home Studio designers meet virtually with buyers to select upgrades and selections to personalize their home. Finally, KB Home’s on-site construction and sales staff provide a buyer with live updates every week while a home is being built and can deal with warranty issues if they arise.
At several KB Home communities, buyers can pick from move-in ready homes that were started for the spring market and are already nearing completion – meaning buyers can virtually tour the actual home itself. That includes at Copperleaf, south of E. Quincy Avenue at Picadilly Street in Aurora, where KB Home has new single-family homes ready from the mid-$500s and its popular paired home designs ready from the high $300s.
At Stone Creek Ranch in Parker, S. Parker Road at Scott Road, there’s a move-in ready single-family ranch waiting at $500,000 and a few miles west of there, KB Home has its paired-ranch villas at Terrain in Castle Rock, just south of Highway 86 east of Founders Parkway, including ready-to-go homes from the mid-$400s. In the north metro area, you can find paired homes ready at Painted Prairie, near E. 56th Avenue at Picadilly Road, from the low $400s and at Barefoot Lakes in Firestone, Barefoot Lakes Parkway at County Road 9-1/2, from the low $400s. At Hammond Farm, north of Longmont on Highway 287 near Berthoud, there are a few remaining homes from $409,000, including a designer model of the Chaucer ranch with a finished basement at $525,000.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.