Sight Unseen
Most couples take a tour of La Joya Dulce before choosing us for a Steamboat Springs ranch wedding. If you have the time, its a good idea to take a tour — choosing a wedding venue sight unseen would take a small leap of faith. And tours are fun for us. We love showing off the ranch.
It’s good to take a tour! Here's the main gate.
But we’ve had a few couples sign a contract and lay down a deposit before they set foot on the place. That’s OK too. We took a leap of faith six years ago — we bought La Joya Dulce sight unseen!
Already under contract before we saw this!
When we started looking at ranch properties, we had a couple criteria: It had to be near good skiing. (Both Kathie and Wayne are lifetime skiers.) It had to be horse property. (Kathie is a champion rider; Wayne says “Have fun with your horses, honey.”) It had to be close to an airport (which is good for you as well - the regional airport HDN has daily flights year round and is only 30 minutes from the ranch). After over a year of looking at several mountain areas, Steamboat Springs was on the short list. But we still hadn’t found our ranch.
We were in California in early January, 2013 when Bruce Carta, our real estate agent, called: “I found your ranch.”
January 2013 -- our first visit!
It certainly sounded great on the phone: Horse property. Very close to Steamboat Springs on fully-paved roads. Great views. Two houses. Barn. Huge arena. Separate workshop. Fenced pastures. Pond. Bruce told us it was bank-owned, and it was newly available because the bank recently decided to split a larger property into three separate properties.
Barn on the right, workshop on the left
Bruce told us we had to act fast — it was going to sell very quickly (hmm - does that sound familiar? We sell out of dates for weddings quickly as well!). We watched a couple videos from Bruce’s cell phone, and we had some back-and-forth on the phone and via email. We made an offer. The bank said yes.
Then, we sat down on the couch in California, took a deep breath, and electronically signed the contract.
Not the best weather for our first visit!
As it turns out, even before we heard the ranch was available, we had planned a ski trip to Steamboat for Wayne’s birthday. So the first time we set foot on the ranch was Wayne’s birthday in January, 2013. As soon as we saw the ranch, we loved it. It was scary to sign the purchase agreement before we actually saw the ranch, but that leap of faith has rewarded us over and over. So - if you're debating? Know that we understand that leap of faith - and sometimes marriage or a venue, or your home IS a leap of faith. We get it.