Will Daniel has been teaching for the last 30 years. He taught everything from kindergarten to college, and he eventually landed at Littleton High School, where he’s been teaching since 1997.
Last year, he found himself looking to buy a home, and that’s when he heard about Landed. After going through a divorce, Will was renting an apartment, but he had aspirations to get his own place again.
He was looking for three things -- a home close to his child’s school, close to his school, and with a backyard. But he also feared his post-divorce finances might complicate things.
“The Denver housing market is of course very highly priced,” Will said. “What Landed was able to do was close the gap from what I had on hand, to what I needed to be in a secure place to make an offer on a house.”
After Will learned about Landed, he reached out and right away was able to get set up with a homebuying team. He was introduced to a Landed partner real estate agent, lenders, and a Landed homebuying programs lead. And he was grateful for the help.
“Having the network of people, from realtors and mortgage brokers set up, that was simply easier than having the headache of trying to search all those people out,” he said.
“Coming out of a divorce there were things I had to straighten out financially and that was part of the whole piece as well,” he added. "There was Landed, and they put me in touch with someone who could help me...get myself in the best position to get the best interest rate possible.”
On top of not having to seek out each part of his homebuying team, having a real estate agent that understood where he was coming from as an educator was an added bonus for Will.
“My experience was really good, having a realtor that was approved by Landed and knew all the ins-and-outs of how it worked and had also come out of the education field,” he said. “There was a lot of understanding from her side of what my calendar looked like and what my days looked like.”
With the support of his team and Landed’s down payment program, Will was able to find just what he was looking for in a home.
“What Landed unlocked was location,” he said. “I didn’t want a long commute. My colleagues have commutes as long as 45 minutes or an hour, I think my commute is 12 minutes. And I didn’t want a townhome. I wanted a house, I wanted to have a yard. And being able to put down a down payment that is significant enough to avoid mortgage insurance on top of all the other costs, that was really good, too.”
Having bought a home before, Will knew the process of buying could be stressful and time-consuming. But with Landed’s support, it was much easier.
“It’s a lot less brain damage,” he said. “It’s a big process regardless. But if you walk in and there’s a network already...I don’t have to search for a realtor, I don't have to search for a bank, I don't have to search for someone to help me get myself in the best financial position.”
