Joe’s father, Felix, was born and raised in Monterrey, Colombia and was not only an accomplished horse man, but a man of the plains, the open sky, rivers and herds of cattle. Felix met Joe’s mother, Jean, an Iowa farm girl, at college in Nebraska. They married, became missionaries while raising four children and traveled the American continent from New Jersey to Argentina and everything in between. Wherever they lived, Felix always found a way to have horses and taught the children to handle them.

Joe, like his father, is a very accomplished rider, and a man close to nature. One of his “Dreams” was to own a Ranch that would become his family’s legacy. Joe is also a meticulous researcher and when he set out to find the “Dream Land” he did his homework. He delved into the internet, land journals, newspapers, and practically anything else he could get his hands on. In early spring last year, we took a drive to Canon City to look at some land. After trekking through four or five lots asking, “Do you have something with bigger or more open views of the mountains? It was suggested we take a look at Westcliffe. Although it had been a long day already and we were tired and disappointed about not finding what we had in mind, we trekked on and arrived in Westcliffe late afternoon. The views of the imposing Sangre the Cristo Mountains left us speechless, a hard thing to do, I might add. We both instantly knew, this was OUR place; and all we needed to do now was find our piece of land.

Fourteen months later, as Joe was on his never ending search, via internet; he came upon “The Colorado Land Store,” and Kelly Conner. One of the properties peaked his interest and Joe called Kelly to request additional information on the “Own Your Own Mountain” 105 acres featured on her website. Kelly responded very quickly and provided us with additional pictures of the property and we later made an appointment to see the property the next Saturday. A couple of days later, Kelly called to let us know someone had made an offer on the land, sight unseen, and that person would be walking the land on Thursday. She offered to still show us the property as “You just never know”, she said. I was surprised that Joe kept the appointment, as he travels with work 60 % of the time, and he was leaving for a month-long Europe trip the following week. “I have to get it out of my system one way or another” he said.

We met Kelly at the Colorado Springs office on Saturday morning and she spent the next hour properly qualifying our needs, before we set out on our exploration. Kelly showed us three properties, 105 acres, 80 acres and 35 acres. Throughout the day we learned about Custer County, Westcliffe’s history, water and grazing rights, area tourism, land marks, and many more very interesting nuggets of information. When we got back to the office, 12 hours later, we decided to write a back up offer on the 105 acre property. As Kelly said, “You just never know.” The next Thursday, Kelly called us at our home in Denver, to ask if we wanted to “Walk” OUR property again, before Joe left for Europe, the first offer had fallen through.

On Saturday we set out to Westcliffe with Kelly and Mike, who had just flown in from Puerto Vallarta the night before and joined us this time. The four of us walked the land again. Joe and I continued to benefit from the useful information Kelly and Mike provided regarding activities in the nearby towns restaurants and the different types of trees on the property, where the deer had just bedded down, etc., etc. I still remember the feel of it, the awakening fresh smells of the land, the heavily wooded areas, the two clear and cool creeks, and the sound of the water rushing into the pond, the natural rock formations, the color palette of wild flowers, and the views of those incredibly majestic mountains. Kelly was right; “you just never know when your place will find you”. Kelly, Mike and the team at the “Colorado Land Store” are honest, knowledgeable, and patient and are without a doubt, the friendliest real estate professionals we have encountered. It was a pleasure working with Kelly and her team as we searched; found and closed on our piece of Colorado.

Sincerely,

Joe and Raquel Morales
Castle Rock, Colorado