The local apartment market also offers value-add opportunities for the canny investor, says MIG Real Estate CEO Greg Merage. Denver, he points out, is the nation’s fastest-growing large city (just ask the Census Bureau), and Forbes ranks it fourth-best city for job seekers, who are coming in droves. (But instead of covered wagons this time, they're arriving via smart cars and fixed-gear bicycles.) Those are strong motivations for investors to leave no stone unturned, he says.

Recently, California-based MIG acquired the 168-unit Copper Terrace Apartments at 6550 S Dayton St in Centennial, its sixth Colorado multifamily property. Greg says it has value-add potential and happens to be in a “thriving job center," with the 423,000 or so jobs of the Southeast Business Corridor. ARA’s Doug Andrews, Jeff Hawks, and Terrance Hunt repped the seller in the deal, while MIG repped itself.