Episode 123: MHN Home Buyer Chronicles – Colorado with Daniela King

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

house, schools, area, realtor, military families, home, kitchen, colorado, people, hear, buy, move, renting, housing, love, days, stay, biggest thing, market, buying

SPEAKERS

Ashley Peebles, Lindsey Litton, Daniela King

 

Lindsey Litton  00:07

Welcome to the Millhousing Nation Podcast where we bring you stories from real military spouses who have been in your shoes. From New spouses to veteran spouses. You’ll get tips, tricks, and actionable steps that can help you along your military life journey. This episode is brought to you by Armed Forces Insurance. Armed Forces Insurance offers personal insurance options specifically designed for military families. To learn more, visit them online at asi.org or give him a call at 1-800-313-1936. Now, here’s Ashley Peebles.

 

Ashley Peebles  00:45

Welcome everyone to the Milhousing Nation Podcast. My name is Ashley Peebles, and I’m super excited because we have a new homebuyer as our guest today. I know we talk a whole lot about the home buying process here. You guys have heard from realtors lately, you’ve heard from people that are in the lending, you know, lending world, but today you get to hear from an actual mill Housing Network client. And I love to get to hear their experiences from all over the country. So please, if you will give me a Milhousing Nation welcome for Miss Daniela King. How are you doing today?

 

Daniela King  01:24

Good, how are you?

 

Ashley Peebles  01:25

We are doing phenomenal. We’re on vacation. So anytime you’re on vacation, the world just kind of slips away. So it’s a great time to slip away from the world right now. So it has been it’s been fantastic. So Daniel, you are in monument Colorado. Is that right?

 

Daniela King  01:43

Yes.

 

Ashley Peebles  01:43

So tell me about Colorado because I have a shirt that says Colorado is my happy place. I just I love it. I love everything. It is so beautiful. I feel like when I walk outside in that state, I can do a full 360 and look around and never find anything that’s not absolutely gorgeous. So how are you liking it?

 

Daniela King  02:06

We are loving it. This is our second duty station together. And I wasn’t a fan of her first I am loving it out here we are originally from the east coast. So we grew up in the East Coast. So this is kind of very far for us. But it’s it’s felt like home, we both really like it. Like you said it’s just gorgeous. The house that we ended up buying here is at 7000 altitude, which that’s kind of hard to get used to. But you know, I love coming out of my door and just seeing the mountains like on my right hand side, like I just turned in those mountains. It’s just gorgeous.

 

Ashley Peebles  02:48

I love it. So tell me what’s your connection to the military. Tell me about your family, and then what your connection is to the military.

 

Daniela King  02:56

So my connection is my husband, we met up in college, we were actually set out on a blind date right before senior year. And you know, the date kind of never ended. And here we are. I think we just hit about eight years together and four years married. So it’s been a blast so far. But that’s really my only connection to it. I don’t have any family members that happened and before he decided to join because his grandfather had been in. Um, so and he’s liking it so far.

 

Ashley Peebles  03:27

What Branch of the service in?

 

Daniela King  03:30

He is in the Air Force. Um, we just had seven years. He’s a captain on and here in Colorado, he’s doing a staff job of actually for spaceforce Yeah, um, so he’s still in Air Force, his career field, which is logistics hasn’t transitioned. I don’t even know if they will transition to do spaceforce completely. But right now, you know, because of how they’re separating. It’s kind of all hands on deck and Nia. So he’s been liking it, I think his unit or something around one of the offices that he works with, it’s called Spock. And I thought that was pretty cool.Yes, they probably knew that about it.

 

Ashley Peebles  04:11

Oh, cool to be a part of the new space force. Like the thing is, like, it’s always gonna get like, it’s here forever. it’s here to stay and be a part of the transition, like the very beginning one of the first people to get their hands on it. I’ve got lots of friends that are working there. And I think that it is so neat. It really is like you can, it feels like you can just touch the history, and we are history buffs. So I’m so excited that he’s getting to do that we’ll have to stay in contact. So we’ll see if he does get transitioned over. So now when we were speaking earlier, you told me that this is your second time buying a house right? So guess what in Vegas before didn’t love it, but you bought a house there. So what made you want to buy in Colorado?

 

Daniela King  04:59

Kind of the same reasons why we bought in our first or together first duty station together in Vegas. We like the idea of not renting. To me renting is money going down the drain, you know, during college buying because you know, you don’t know, you know, you don’t know where you’re going to live, sometimes you have roommates, it’s really expensive, clearly just got out of school, don’t have the money for it. But now that, you know, we were established, and everything, we were like, no, let’s buy because, you know, even if we don’t love the area where we’re at, we can sell it, make a profit, and then move on. I’ve also kind of always growing up with that. My grandfather actually still that in us, like if you can buy buy, do you need help buying, I will help you like he helped all of his kids buy their first property, whether it be like a condo or a house, whatever the case might be, but he was like, buy, buy buy. So I kind of always grew up with that. And the fact that, you know, in that sense, with my husband, Anthony, we have those kind of same values of like, whenever you can buy, like, that’s what his guns,

 

Ashley Peebles  06:01

and the market is so good, like the market the way it is, it’s crazy, that we can buy and get these incredibly low interest rates, especially with the VA loans. So these days, I just see more people buying even then did before. So all right, when you were looking for your home in Colorado, what were you looking for? What were some of the non negotiables in your home?

 

Daniela King  06:29

Definitely the like, the area for me, schools are the biggest thing, like I said, you don’t know, you know, if you’re going to like the area where you stationed that, you know, luckily, here we do, but you never know, right? Um, and I’m always in the mindset, hey, we could potentially either keep this maybe as an investment property or for us when we come back, or maybe we will need to sell it or you know, depending on how the market is. So for me being in a good school district is always the biggest thing I’m looking at. And that was the one thing that I told our wielder like this is my number one.

 

Ashley Peebles  07:06

Yes. Yep. And then double

 

Daniela King  07:09

the double sink because you know, absolutely.

 

Ashley Peebles  07:11

I think it’s so wise. Just so wise that even though you guys do not have kids, you’re wise enough to know, that resale value. The schools matter. Like whether you have kids here, or whether you have kids later on in life, the resale value and the rent ability of your home, the school systems matter. And I think that’s so wise and probably not something that I would have been wise enough to do before I had kids. So so glad that you expressed that because the people that are listening and looking to buy I think they can bump that higher on their list, if they you know, if you think about it. So what is your favorite thing about your new house?

 

Daniela King  07:52

Um, well, the other thing that we I always look at too is the kitchen. Um, aside from the schools, which it’s an idea that my mom really instilled in me, the idea of a big kitchen, she’s always complained about her kitchen being too small. And it’s something that always happens. And I guess guys don’t really think about this. But you know, whenever you are hosting in your home, no matter how much you put things out in the living room, people just congregate back in the kitchen. So for me having a spacious kitchen was also the biggest thing. And we love our kitchen here. We have like this little island, which which kind of turns into like a breakfast kind of area. So it’s been nice to just kind of sit there have breakfast, you know, just he and I. And you know it like it’s just the kitchen feels really spacious.

 

Ashley Peebles  08:43

Now just I tell you like the kitchen, being the heart of the home is there feel. And if you’ve got if you come into a home, and you fall in love with the kitchen, and you love the bathrooms, I feel like you’re going to get the house. But if the kitchen. Right. I really do think that that’s one of the biggest turn offs. So how did you get connected with the mill Housing Network? I know that you’re an MHN client. So how did you find out about male Housing Network and what was that, like?

 

Daniela King  09:11

I found it through a friend that I made out in Vegas. Her name is Kayla. She actually works for the male Housing Network. And she had also been stationed out here in Colorado, before of Las Vegas. So it was kind of like, you know, we’re flipping basically states. And I met her through a club out in Nellis. So when you know, we got our duty station, you know, I was like, Yeah, I know, this is you know where we’re going next. She’s like, Oh, I been there. Like I was stationed out there, you know? And I was like, Oh, do you do any wielders? And then she let me know, well, I work with no, how’s that work? And you know, we’ll get you taken care of and I was like, great. That’s amazing. Isn’t that connected?

 

Ashley Peebles  09:54

I just think it’s so awesome that once you get connected with a middle Housing Network, but Kayla said, first of all, I love Caitlin, oh, she’s great. I love what she said is so true. When you get connected with a male Housing Network, what she said, Hey, we’ll take care of everything. But we’re totally going to take care of you. That is absolutely what happens. So tell me about your realtor. What was your experience with no Housing Network?

 

Daniela King  10:17

Like, oh, I’m the realtor that was assigned to us. His name is Julio Pena, he was amazing. We came out in February, to do you know, the 10 days of house hunting, and he probably showed us about 50 homes or so in a very short span. We even had like a snow day during, I think it was on a Tuesday. And then by mid morning, it had kind of stopped snowing. So he’s like, do you guys want to go out today? And I was like, Yes, let’s do it. So he was always on top of it, he knew what we were looking for. And you are kind of like price range. Um, so and he just took us everywhere, you know, cuz, you know, visiting an area that you’ve never been on is, it is pretty overwhelming. And the market here just moves so fast. And he did warn us, like, from the very beginning, you know, even when we were just talking before we came out here, he was like, Listen, the market out in Colorado is less than 24 hours, you know, you could be seeing a house and if you don’t put an offer, you know, within the next five, six hours, it’s gone. So we it was different hearing it and experiencing, of course, but we did come in with a mindset of like, okay, we have to make fast decisions, even though we hate you know, pressure shock. and it was really comforting to have him and just, you know, letting him know, like, it’s okay, there’s tons of houses, do they go fast? Yes. But there’s, there’s market out there like don’t feel, you know, he was trying to make sure that we didn’t feel too overwhelmed by the process. So it was great. We just had a great experience. And he even has also like client appreciation days, once a quarter or something. So we’ve been able to participate in one so far. We did like a chili cook off. So it’s great when you know, you get connected. And for me, that’s the biggest thing. It’s like, I want to work with someone that afterwards I want to, you know, recommend to somebody else. Yeah. So I would definitely recommend Tullio to anyone who, you know, if anyone’s asking, like, Hey, we’re looking to move colorado, here’s his card, oh, they don’t even bother with a new one.

 

Ashley Peebles  12:28

you hit on something so wonderful there is in the military, we move all the time. And we got 10 days out something, maybe like best case scenario, we got 10 days house hunting, you don’t always get that you’re coming into a brand new area that you know nothing about. So it’s so important to have someone from the area with the connections that can keep you away from bad areas, you know, funnel you to the better areas, because the truth is, this is a true story. And from our last move, I was looking at houses online, you don’t know where you’re looking, and I just found the most incredible homes, they were out of this world, they were all on one row. And I could not believe that we could afford them. That should have been my first clue. You know, because we exactly I couldn’t believe that we could afford them. And we linked up with a realtor and she was like, I can’t say if it’s a good area or a bad area. But what I will say is check the rating on the schools and check the crime rating. And I was like, why would she say check the crime rating? There’s a scale of zero to 100. This area was an 87. And I thought, well, I wonder what that’s like, let me just Google where we are right now. It was a 13. So Oh, so it really does range. I didn’t know if everything was like an 87 to a 75 to a 90. And so we started referring to that path, that letter those that row of houses as murderer’s row, because once we started Googling it, we’re like, oh, someone was legit shot there. Last week. I’m looking at these houses and thinking, Oh, this is gonna be amazing. I can’t wait to live in this house. And my husband was like, I could not deploy with you there. I could not go to work with you in that house. I can’t leave you in the kids on murderer’s row. So getting hit on with the fact that you’re going somewhere new. You need to rely on the expertise of someone that knows what they’re doing. So I’d love your net. So this is a guess off the wall question. Did you stay in budget or did you go over it?

 

Daniela King  14:39

So there was a home that was being built that I absolutely loved. Like I was like I want to live in here. However the problem was that it was still under construction might have been ready by the time that we moved. But with COVID that kind of went out the window because you know everything kind of got pulled and pushed back and everything. So I think Well, I’m glad we didn’t get with that one. And because of COVID Now we were like, Well, you know, moving around, you don’t know, if you’re gonna get a job or how fast you’re gonna get a job. So that was the other thing. My husband was like, Okay, listen, this is the range that I feel comfortable with, if you can’t find a job right away, or even, you know, because we, we have to be in that perspective. Like, sometimes, you know, with all the moves, you might not get to, you know, and he was like, I’m fine if you don’t work, but if you don’t, this is what we what I feel comfortable with, you know, in terms of like, the bH and etc, etc. So, we do comp, my son certain things. So he was looking just at numbers, and I’m looking at FedEx. So we did say, within budget, luckily, I was able to find job right away, or, yeah, within a month time of being out here. So we got lucky, but you know, so it’s just one of those things where I appreciated him looking out for us, because, you know, sometimes I don’t think of that I’m just thinking of the aesthetics pretty easily you will we hold the breeze. So no, we did stay in budget.

 

Ashley Peebles  16:15

Just so wise, like you’ve said, You have dropped pearls of wisdom on this whole time. Because the crazy thing is, most couples are like this, there’s one that sees, I mean hearts in their eyes, and they love it. Like it’s okay, we can go 10,000 over, you’re looking at that person in our relationship. And then there’s the other person in the relationship that is looking at the numbers looking and being realistic, and really keeping you to where you’re not house poor. And I think it’s so important for military families to understand that the element of you may be worried like both people may be working at this duty station, and it may not work out there. So if you don’t stay within a comfortable budget, just in case, the second person, usually the spouse, just in case the spouse cannot find a job, you’re going to end up sacrificing things like travel, all military families love to travel. And the last thing I want is to have this gorgeous home, but I can never get out of it. I can never go you know and visit any of my friends that live all over the world. So you’ve just been a joy to talk to you today, Daniela, you have really dropped those pearls of wisdom on us. So tell me is there Do you have any tips or anything from your experience that you would tell a first time homebuyer, someone that’s maybe coming to your area? Is there any any tips or any wisdom that you would like to tell them that you’ve learned along the way?

 

Daniela King  17:43

Um, I guess the schools honestly, that’s the biggest thing. Like I said, you don’t know if you’re, how long you’re going to stay in that duty station, you know, what some people say five years, some people to some people three, at some point, you might need to sell the home or even rented and you want good renders you are you know, you bet you want the ability for your home to be a home that people want to buy and maybe or possibly even fighting for, you know, an offer. So always look at the schools because I don’t know any parent that doesn’t want to get education for their kids. So you know, whether it be elementary school, middle school, high school, so just always look at the schools. Like there’s, there’s other things that you can give up on the house in terms of like, you know, maybe the kitchens not as big, maybe you don’t have the double sink, but if you’re in a great school area, and houses going to go, like we have a high school right by us, like literally walking distance is one of the best ones in our area. Like it’s a, I think is like an A plus or a Yeah, school, but I’m like, Great, that’s cool, like perfect. And, you know, one of the houses the, we’re kind of in a condominium sort of thing. And these houses don’t come up in the market that often. So the fact that, you know, as soon as one is comes up on market, it’s next up like it definitely gives you a sense of like comfort of like, okay, whether it’s renting or buying, you know, but again, that I think that really goes to the school system.

 

Ashley Peebles  19:12

I agree with you. I just appreciate your time today. I appreciate you sharing your experience with us. I know that when people get connected with mill Housing Network, they’re going to have a great experience always. But hearing from someone who’s actually been through the process, totally different than us getting on these each week and saying, you really should trust your realtors, you really should rely on their wisdom, hearing from someone who’s already super wise, someone who knows what they’re doing someone who knows what they want. It’s still so important to have that expert by your side. So thank you so much. We appreciate your time today. And if you need anything from the middle housing nation, all you got to do is say the word Daniela, you are part of our family. But thank you so much. If you are listening, make sure that you hit subscribe. So You can listen to the other homebuyer so that you can hear from the lender so that you can hear from the realtors in your area to make that next PCs so much smoother. Thank you so much for listening. Bye bye