Elevation Community Land Trust - Denver, Colorado

thomas A.

The details of this home ownership program are shady and I would be cautious of the predatory real estate agents they refer to you. They are taking advantage of poor people. You have to pay them a monthly fee of $100 for 99 years and they have insane income requirements for their homes. Most of their properties sit and sit and sit because it's nearly impossible to qualify and if you do, you're trapped because you can only resell to someone in this program. This program is not transparent and difficult and disguised as an affordable home ownership program.

Lyndsey S.

Avoid them at all costs. Sending $100 to
them every month literally feels like we are throwing a check into the incenerator. There are plenty of programs through which you can purchase an affordable home without using them! And, you will own the land your house is on! They literally do NOTHING after you buy your home. The $100 was initially listed on their website as a “small fee that goes towards maintaining the land” but again, they do nothing. We pay $200+/month to the HOA (that DOES maintain the land), on top of the $100 to Eclt. The other review about the savior complex is REAL, especially from the person whose name matches a car maker (Benz). They are rude and short and are only there to demand their check for simply existing. I feel so bad for the person who reviewed the Tela. Where is all the money from ECLT who sold so many units in that building? Why don’t they take some of that money and fix the building instead of using it to buy up 100’s of homes?! Their scheme is so shady, feels like a gigantic land grab in actuality. When you sell your home, you only get 25% of the appreciation, while they keep the 75% on top the $100 you paid them monthly for however long you lived in your house. Seems entirely unethical and that those numbers should be reversed. The homeowner is the one who maintains, improves, and updates the home over the years while ECLT sits back and collects a check, only to keep a whopping 75% of the property appreciation. I literally have no words to describe how unethical that is. This was the only way we could buy a house in Denver and while we love our house, it is the only one of the 30 homes in our HOA that has a land lease. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID! Buy your home through Denver’s affordable home program and leave ECLT out of the equation. Completely worthless and undignified. ECLT, you can keep your insulting offer of a $25 King Soopers gift card for the feedback survey, here is my public feedback.

Carl B.

I've lived in the La Tela building for about a year and half now. It was a nice building when I moved in. We now have so many residents not paying their assoc dues. We can't get the building cleaned because there is no money. An elevator is broke down and can't be fixed until there is money. Homeless ahve are all over the property, even inside. The Assoc. board and mgmt co. are horrible and accomplish nothing. It's a disaster.

Kevin R.

This review is as a home owner through ECLT.

This was an awful experience from start to finish. Between the lacks of integrity, communication, competency, and transparency of ECLT, it’s difficult to label what was the worst part of this process. The benefit of this program is there is a small chance you will be able to purchase a home, but the mental and emotional costs are GREAT. ECLT’s savior complex is unmatched and they truly believe they are doing YOU the favor as they continually make you jump through hoops and threaten to disqualify you at any time during the process.

It took 11 months of being on their unpublished, hidden “waitlist” to even find a home, and a total of 15 months from the filing of our first qualification paperwork to close on a home. When we found our home and put in our Notice of Interest (NOI), they told us we were disqualified because of a “clerical error” on their end 6 MONTHS PRIOR. We had submitted previous NOIs over those 6 months, while they continued to send us information on new homes, all the while not informing us they never processed our finalized “re-application.” After an “internal investigation”, their reconciliation was to “allow” us to resubmit months of financial documents in under 24 hours in order to “re-apply.” In total, we submitted around 110 documents over 15 months to just get to closing. Later, ECLT tried to DISQUALIFY US AGAIN due to ANOTHER CLERICAL ERROR ON THEIR END, forcing us to go through their appeals process to once again prove our qualifications.

Advice for future applicants for ECLT:
Expect ECLT to consistently drop the ball.
Follow up on EVERYTHING, even communications that are seemingly clear.
If you are self employed or a seasonal worker, have a crystal clear understanding of your financial situation and perfect books. The HUD model will annualize your seasonal or self employed income and return numbers that may not match your actual income. Ensure you’re able to prove you only work the months that you worked.

Despite how challenging and degrading this process may be, if you persevere, there’s a chance you’ll become a homeowner.

Sophie C.

Thanks to Elevation CLT I was able to achieve my dream of buying a condo all by myself! Everyone was so lovely and helpful. As a first time homebuyer, I was so nervous because homebuying seemed so hard and complicated. But the ECLT team walked me through the process and answered all my questions. I work in public education and do not make very much, so I was thrilled to find a program that would help people like me buy a home. Cannot recommend these folks and this non-profit enough.

Sergio P.

This " Affordable Home Program " is a huge slap in the face to regular , hard working middle class people who have been priced out of the housing market because all the corporate entities with liquid assets have all but made home ownership unaffordable .... Then you have programs like this. That say that regular hard working middle class people make TOO MUCH to afford a home. Reward the rich , reward the Poor. To hell with everyone else.

Krista F.

Programs like this make such a difference to combat the predatory nature of give corporations buying up housing stock, and helping people get started in home ownership. Well done! Those leaving negative reviews likely don't understand how these programs work to benefit the entire community, not just those directly involved.

Max W.

Fantastic organization