How I Bought a Home in Denver

Meg Schubert, an architect who’s married to architect Drew Allen, shared the couple’s homebuying journey to purchasing a two-bedroom condo in the Mile High City.

Denver’s real estate market was a little crazy when we started thinking about buying. Homes were selling in a day, and almost always above asking price. We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row before looking at places. Before we were officially looking, we would casually go to open houses, and that gave us a realistic idea of what things were going to cost. It gave us good background and made us more comfortable with open houses.

Our friend, who was formerly a REALTOR®, recommended one of her REALTOR® friends to us. We met with this REALTOR® for coffee in March 2017. Our lease at our rental was through the end of May, so we had a few months and had some money saved to have a little overlap on mortgage and rent if we found a home earlier.

It was surprising how smooth the actual purchasing process went.

Be honest with yourself about what you need versus what you want and what you’re willing to compromise on. If you go into the process understanding you’ll compromise in some way, you won’t be discouraged too quickly. Give yourself adequate time to look. Research neighborhoods before you start looking.

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