Real estate as strategy first, transaction second.
Disciplined investment counsel for primary residences, second homes, and held-for-yield positions across Denver Metro, Boulder County, and the Front Range Foothills - underwritten on lot, location, condition, and hold-period economics.
The right call on lot, hold-period, and posture compounds materially over the life of the trade.
Most residential transactions are priced as discrete events. The investment-minded client treats them as positions in a longer portfolio - with explicit assumptions about hold period, capital posture, future capex, exit channel, and the spread between today's basis and the realistic terminal value of the asset.
Rick Janson's investment advisory is grounded in a Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) background, applied to a regional book that includes luxury primary residences, second homes, build-to-hold positions, and selective income properties across the Denver Metro, Boulder County, and Front Range Foothills.
Five lenses Rick applies to every investment-minded brief.
Lot and Location First
Land does the heavy lifting over a 10-year hold. Topography, frontage, view corridor, school catchment, and adjacency to durable demand drivers (open space, retail, transit, hospitals) are weighted before the structure on top.
Hold-Period Economics
Every brief begins with an explicit hold assumption - 3, 7, 10, or 20 years - and the basis, carry, capex, and terminal-value math is built around that. Pricing posture changes materially based on the hold.
Closed-Comparable Discipline
Active list-set noise is treated as context, not as a price anchor. Underwriting starts with recent closed comparables filtered for lot, vintage, condition, and execution - then adjusted for the specific property.
Capital Posture and Liquidity
Cash, conventional, jumbo, portfolio, and cross-collateralized strategies each have a place. Rick coordinates with your lender, CPA, and counsel to align the financing to the hold and the broader balance sheet.
1031 and Tax-Aware Sequencing
When a 1031 exchange or installment posture is on the table, timing of contract, identification, and close is sequenced explicitly with your CPA. Rick is not your tax advisor - he is your operator.
Exit Channel by Design
The exit channel - retail MLS, off-market, institutional buyer, or 1031 trade-up - is identified at acquisition. Marketing, capex, and pricing posture are reverse-engineered from that exit.
Engagement profiles.
Luxury Primary Residences
Residences where land, architecture, and positioning carry as much value as square footage. Acquisition counsel includes off-market scan, comparable-anchored pricing, and a candid read on hold-period vs. liquidity.
Second Homes and Mountain Hold
Foothills and front-range corridor properties acquired for personal use plus selective rental, with attention to short-term-rental zoning, HOA rules, snowload, and access seasonality - factors that change the underwriting materially.
Income and Held-for-Yield
Selective single-family, small multifamily, and luxury rental positions in submarkets where rent growth, basis discipline, and exit liquidity all line up. Not every Denver-area address underwrites - the brief will be candid.
From first conversation to closed position.
- 01
Brief
Initial conversation to capture the hold horizon, capital posture, return expectations, and any constraints (geography, school catchment, tax timing).
- 02
Reconnaissance
Closed-comparables pull, off-market scan via the Compass network, and a candid shortlist of submarkets that actually fit the brief.
- 03
Underwriting
Property-by-property underwriting against the hold-period assumptions, with explicit capex reserves, carry, and terminal-value math.
- 04
Negotiation and Structure
Offer posture, contingencies, deal structure, and timing coordinated with your lender, CPA, and counsel.
- 05
Close and Asset Management
Close, lease-up if applicable, and a standing relationship for capex decisions, valuation refresh, and exit timing as the hold progresses.
Real estate counsel, not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Rick Janson is a licensed Realtor® in the State of Colorado, brokered by Compass. Investment-related discussions on this site and in private engagements are real estate counsel - they are not legal, tax, accounting, lending, appraisal, or securities advice.
Hold-period assumptions, projected returns, rent growth, capex, terminal value, and exit timing depend on market conditions, property characteristics, capital posture, third-party algorithms, and other factors outside Rick's control. Past results are not indicative of future performance.
Material decisions should be reviewed with your attorney, CPA, lender, and other qualified professionals before signing. See the Terms of Use for the full disclaimer.
Schedule an investor brief.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation - including a current read on the submarkets you're evaluating and a candid take on whether they fit the hold you have in mind.
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