New business promises more affordable homeownership in Greeley

GREELEY — During a real estate forecast meeting recently in Loveland, The Group Inc. Real Estate delivered a sobering statistic: The largest real estate buying group by generation are the millennials (25-34 years old) and the median first-time homebuying age is now 38.

While some say that is a nod to a need for millennial freedom from being tied down, others say it takes that long just to afford the average entry-level home. Prices in Greeley, considered the most affordable in Northern Colorado, are now averaging more than $400,000.

But there remains some creativity in the marketplace, which has just begun to offer much softer pricing for home ownership.

That creativity helped Brandon Haas, 27, become a homeowner in Greeley for about half the cost of entry-level homes in Northern Colorado. Having lived at home for a few years after college to save for his own home, he didn’t pay even close to the median 2024 single-family home price of $429,209. He even soundly beat the median price of condo at over $349,000.

Haas’ home, for now, is one of four 1980s-era apartments built in west Greeley that came up for sale last year. After six years of living with his parents and saving for his own home, he jumped at the chance when he saw the unit prices — mid-$200s. He may not have the yard or the new appliances, but it is his. He can have his dog without paying a pet deposit and he can make any changes he likes.

“It’s great to be able to make the condo my own and not have to worry about answering to a landlord sometime down the line,” Haas said.

Jeff Havens of Fort Collins, who owns Havens Homes LLC, made it possible. A former member of an affordable-housing nonprofit agency in Michigan and now a motivational speaker, found some down time recently and started Havens Homes, through which he is working to buy up older apartment units — such as the many four-unit complexes scattered throughout Greeley — to fix up and sell as condominiums at a price the average first-time homebuyer can afford. He said his experience with affordable housing was a stark contrast against what he had seen in Spain, his wife’s home country, where residents owned their own apartments in multi-unit buildings. America’s version of affordable housing comes with red tape and government financing, and more red tape. He found Greeley to have many of the types of complexes he wanted to tackle for the project.

“This was the first property we did in Greeley. We increased the supply of homes in Greeley by four without building anything,” he said. “Four people who were paying rent and had nothing to show for it. There’s a whole lot of people who would prefer to own than rent.  

“My goal is to make sure the properties I’m converting are affordable, meaning buyers are not spending any more than 30% of their income on housing,” Havens said. “In Greeley that target is somewhere around $280,000 to $290,000. I managed to get this property converted for less.”

In the end, he said, four new homeowners bought property in Greeley, and they didn’t come with the typical headaches.

“Greeley’s assessed value went up and … and it didn’t require any permitting, rezoning, it didn’t require massive construction, there was no NIMBYism, because the building is already there,” Havens said. “Any of the complaints people have about building affordable units don’t exist in this model.”

Builders and residential developers have long shunned building condominiums because of the construction-defects laws, which give condo owners a six-year window to sue for construction defects after their unit is substantially completed. But the law doesn’t apply in these older units.

“This was a happy byproduct of what I decided was a viable business model,” Havens said. “The properties that make sense for this kind of (project) happen to be older and are not impacted by that law. It’s one of the first questions anyone asks me. When I talked with my lawyers, they said (the law) just doesn’t apply.”

Havens is working on setting up a second project in Greeley, where there are many four-unit complexes that can be converted. To be sure, he’s a businessman, and he wants to move up to larger complexes, but the smaller units are what he can afford for now and still pay his investors.

Buyers Micah and Morgan Wilborn, both in their mid-20s, were renting a single-family home, spending much of their Dutch Bros. management wages, and sharing space with roommates. They had been searching for a home to buy for two years but had given up.

Last year, they got the opportunity to buy one of Havens’ four units. At first, they wondered if it was too good to be true, given the price.

“There was certainly a healthy, a certain amount of cautious trepidation,” Micah Wilborn said, “but eventually it became clear he was going to make this happen whether or not we were there, so might as well get on board.”

He said the only thing the couple sacrificed from their dream was a back yard, but having their own space has more than made up for it. And as a bonus, their mortgage is less than their old rent.

“There’s a lot of freedom knowing we can paint every wall and maybe ding and scratch a couple walls without fearing for our deposit,” Micah Wilborn said. “We’re definitely living more comfortably. We just know this is the start.”

With his background in affordable housing, Havens said he wants his units to truly be affordable.  He is searching for rental properties up and down the Front Range to convert into condominium projects. Havens doesn’t spend a lot of time snazzing up the units, although he does make sure they’re structurally sound and safe inside and out.

Haas has already done some home improvement projects, as well, with new countertops, new paint, and new wall outlets and light switches.

“There’s also the rewarding feeling that the investments I make will not only make me enjoy the place I live more, but it will increase the value of the property going forward,” Haas said. “In the future I would love to have a single-family home with a fenced backyard and a place to start a family, and now that I’m in the housing market, I have an asset that will make a future purchase much more possible.”

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