VOL. 01, NO. 02 · WEEK OF AUGUST 25, 2026
The Week-One Rule: 1 in 10 Denver exits kept every dollar last month. The typical slip handed back $30,000.
Denver homes are closing at 97.9% of asking in 21 days. Where to buy, what to build, who is lending — and the one pricing move that decides whether you keep your whole check. From 2,161 closings we checked.
Retail buyers are picky right now: more sellers cut their price last week than got a home under contract, and 38 of every 100 listings never sold at all. The family who buys your finished flip has plenty to choose from.
That makes your exit the whole game — and the Week-One Rule is the edge: price the flip to sell in its first seven days and you keep every dollar. Let it sit, and the closing table starts taking it back. Here is your week, in the six questions flippers ask us most.
Where should I buy?
Golden 80401 and Littleton 80128 are the strongest areas on the board for a finished flip: houses there sold in about 12 days, and they are the two areas where fixing a house all the way up actually bought speed. Aurora 80013 is the fastest way in and nearly the cheapest — the middle house sold in 8 days at $445,000 — but 76 of 100 exits there paid concessions, so budget about $10,000 for yours.
- Aurora · 800138 days to sell · $445,000 typical · clean exits: 11 of 100
- Arvada · 8000410 days to sell · $620,000 typical · clean exits: 11 of 100
- Denver · 8021911.5 days to sell · $444,500 typical · clean exits: 8 of 100
- Golden · 8040112 days to sell · $1,015,000 typical · clean exits: 13 of 100
- Littleton · 8012812 days to sell · $700,000 typical · clean exits: 10 of 100
A clean exit = no price cut, full price or better, zero concessions. A ZIP code is a mail route, not a neighborhood — price off the streets around the house, not the whole ZIP. And these are small groups, so treat the exact rates as a lead, not proof.
Every area pocket by pocket, with the homes we sold there →What does the winning house look like there?
Clean and solid, everywhere. Fancy only pays on some streets.
In Golden and Littleton, the full remodel earned its money: fixed-up homes sold about 13 days faster than plain ones — and in Golden, more of them got full price. In Aurora 80013 and Denver 80219 it flipped — the plain house sold faster, because those buyers are watching their monthly payment. There, do paint, floors, and a clean kitchen, then win on price. In Arvada it was a tie: the comps decide, not the finish level.
One honest note: "updated" is a box the listing agent checks, and these groups are small — 11 to 37 homes each. Check each split against the sold homes on your street before you spend on it.
The ZIP-by-ZIP splits, with home counts →Who lends on these deals?
We counted the recorded loans of 1,630 Front Range flippers in our buyer database. Five hard-money lenders fund most of them:
- Merchants Mortgageused by 338 flippers
- Capital Fund 1used by 281 flippers
- Indicate Capitalused by 245 flippers
- Boomerang Capital Partnersused by 102 flippers
- Renovo Financialused by 79 flippers
Runner-up: Kiavi, used by 74. Together, 1,045 of the 1,630 flippers used at least one of these five. Each lender counts once per flipper, banks are excluded, and nobody paid to be on this list. A big count means flips like yours are their everyday business — not that they are the cheapest. The number that decides your deal is what the loan costs you: points, rate, and how fast they fund.
How we counted, and why this is not an endorsement →Who sells the most in these ZIPs?
Coming next issue. We rank agents from recorded closings, not advertising, and we are pulling twelve months of sold homes in these five ZIPs right now. When it prints, an agent who says they own an area becomes a claim you can check.
What will I give back at closing?
Plan on $30,000. When an exit went wrong last month, that is what it handed back — a price cut, a sale below asking, or help with the buyer's closing costs. 8 of 10 exits got hit by at least one, and only 1 in 10 came out clean. (Those two numbers do not add up to ten because our clean count is strict on purpose — close calls count as losses.)
The clean exits almost all shared one move — the Week-One Rule: a price buyers said yes to in the first seven days. Homes that sold in 7 days or less almost never dropped the price — 96 of 100 kept it. Sit past a month, and only 15 of 100 did. Your flip does not sit because it is a flip — it sits because the price asked for a buyer who was not there. And sitting is you paying the loan: 1 in 4 homes took 53 days or more.
You do not need a cash buyer to exit clean, either: 118 of the 210 clean exits went to buyers with a bank loan. Your buyer is a family, most bring a loan, and most ask for help at closing — build that into your price before the sign goes in the yard.
The full closing-table story — who exited clean, and why →What does the rehab cost this week?
Our test basket of common materials — studs, sheathing, drywall, paint, flooring, toilets — runs $8,175 today. Building materials cost about 5.2% more than a year ago. As an example of the size: on an $85,000 job, that rate is about $4,420 — not a bid, just the direction. Lock your bids in early.
The full basket, item by item, with sources →The one thing to remember: figure out the ending before you buy the house. A nice remodel will not save a deal you paid too much for.
The numbers above come from this issue's MLS pull — 2,161 closed sales, July 27 to August 24, plus the listings that came off the market unsold — along with county loan records, store shelf prices, and government cost data. We print our weak spots too. See all the data, and every hole in it →