Congratulations to Caitlin and James on their relocation from Boston and new home in Colorado!

Thanks to modern technology, they found me through Yelp and Caitlin toured homes via FaceTime. Oh the times in which we live.

They’re settling into their new Willow Creek home just in time to start the school year. (I want to give a shout to Bridget Graham, Broker Associate, Coldwell Banker Residential Homes in Westwood, Massachusetts, for helping facilitate a smooth relocation).

Caitlin and James were looking for a home in a good school district. They had a friend with kids in the Cherry Creek School District, had researched schools online and they decided that was where they wanted to live.

The journey

We began the homebuying hunt in neighborhoods feeding into highly ranked elementary schools within Cherry Creek School District including: Willow Creek, Homestead, High Plains and Cottonwood Creek. Caitlin flew out for an initial homebuying trip, which allowed her to get familiar with the neighborhoods.

James and Caitlin, and their two daughters, found a wonderful home in Centennial’s Willow Creek neighborhood.

Caitlin knew she wanted a well-maintained, updated home, backyard for the kids and a Cape Cod exterior design.

After Caitlin flew home, James and I toured homes and called Caitlin via FaceTime so she could tour the homes virtually with us.

We toured homes with awkward floor plans, homes that needed a lot of updating, one home on a fabulous lot, but it was small on the inside, a For Sale By Owner home, a home that they lost to other offers, among others.

After a few weeks, Caitlin identified a home that hit their automated MLS search. James and I toured it right away with Caitlin via FaceTime. It had a wonderful floor plan, a walkout basement, was updated throughout, had a private backyard and, on the exterior, a New England look, which Caitlin loved.

Negotiations took place from there and now James, Caitlin, Lila and Maddie are settling into their new space!

Congratulations, my friends. Welcome to Colorado!

Q&A with Caitlin

What do you love most about your new neighborhood?

Within a week of moving to Willow Creek, it already felt like home. We love it here. The neighbors have been so welcoming. Within days our home was brimming with homemade treats from neighbors who have gone above and beyond to help us navigate this new area.

The access to two pools and awesome green belts is fantastic — but honestly what I love most about our neighborhood is the school system. Our school-age daughter is happy, the academics are strong and you can tell Willow Creek Elementary is a place that fosters a love of learning.

What was the journey like buying your home?

We were moving across the country to a place we knew only one or two people, so the move was inherently a bit stressful and overwhelming at first.

The Denver and Boston market are both really competitive, and with a drop dead time frame (we wanted to get our school-aged daughter into a school district before the start of school), the pressure was on!

Kristin calmed our nerves, and her local expertise, incredible ability to understand our needs and negotiate on our behalf, combined with her honest feedback and positive attitude sincerely made the journey so much easier.

It was such a relief to find someone we trusted who really cared about finding the perfect home for us, because I had to buy the house sight unseen (my husband, James, saw it and I FaceTimed).

So, clearly, we wanted to work with someone who we felt really understood us and we trusted — and Kristin was all that and more.

What surprised you most about the homebuying process?

Boston and Denver are clearly different places, but I didn’t think it would be all that different buying a home. But it was!

I’ve never heard of hail so much in my life; and who watches a sewer scope? We don’t have that in Mass. Plus, in Mass. we take our time buying and selling — usually the process takes about three months on average.

Here, people move so much faster — which was a problem with our needing to sell a house to buy one. But Kristin worked with our local Boston agent and found some awesome creative solutions to help make us more competitive buyers. Honestly, if we didn’t have Kristin as our agent helping us understand this local market — I might still be in Boston!

Why’d you pick me as your agent?

After researching agents online, I had read a ton of reviews of people who identified you as “thoughtful, knowledgeable and caring.” So after meeting a handful of other agents, when we met you, I knew instantly you were the one to help us.

We weren’t wrong. You went so above and beyond for us, picking us up at the airport, never saying no to the many, many open houses we requested — and always providing honest feedback. We were also really impressed with your negotiating skills and your ability to always look out for our best interest.

Where’d you grow up? Why did you want to move to this area of Denver?

I grew up in a house built in 1815 outside Boston — and James grew up in the Berkshires (we sometimes call them mountains, but here you would probably call them hills …). We wanted to move to Denver for the quality of life, the commute, the outdoor activities and for an adventure.

We’re so glad we did!