So Nice to Meet You!

"Kenda (00:00)
Hi everybody. Well, if you're thinking about moving to Colorado anytime soon, we were very recently in your shoes.

Welcome to Getting Real Estate. This is a podcast where we're gonna talk about all the things that you need to know about moving to Colorado. have lived here for about six months in total. moved here in September and I spent about four months in Cabo. So I've really only lived in Colorado for about six months. What about you, John?

John Wilkinson (00:29)
Yeah, no, welcome everybody. I'm John Wilkinson. Yeah, so excited to launch this podcast. My family and I moved to Denver in June of 2025. We just got to a point where we wanted a little bit of a change. And so we're relatively new here coming up on one year in Denver, learned a lot and excited to kind of share that with everybody.

Kenda (00:51)
Wow, I can't believe it's already been a year. It's gone by so fast. Yeah. want to tell everybody how we met?

John Wilkinson (00:54)
I know it's crazy. It's gone by so fast.

Yeah, sure. So one of the great things about Kenda is that she meets so many people all over the world. When we moved to Cabo, or actually we lived in Austin, my husband, Billy Hayden and I lived in Austin for 23 years. We bought a place in Cabo in 2021. And as we were kind of in the midst of renovations, if you will, Kenda was selling the unit next to us. And she asked if she could come in and

and see the unit and that's how we met and it's been a long friendship since then. Yeah. Yeah and then Joel, our designer kit went over to Jess's place where that you were selling and took a look at that and so yeah we've known each other now going on five years.

Kenda (01:30)
That's right, I forgot I just knocked on your door. was like, hey, can I come in?

Yeah, crazy that we met in Mexico. But what took you to Mexico? Like, why did you guys end up buying a condo in Mexico anyway?

John Wilkinson (01:50)
Yeah, I know.

Yeah, that's a great question. So we've been going to Mexico for a long time. My family is from Mexico. My mom was born and raised in Torreón, Mexico. And so I have a lot of roots there. I have a cousin that lives in Cabo, and Billy and I have been traveling to Cabo visiting there for years. And when we started thinking about finding a place or where we wanted to live, we looked at Tulum. We thought about Puerto Vallarta, but

Sorry, but we speak Spanish. So I switched over real fast. Anyway, they, my cousin called me and said that she found a great place in Cabo. And so we looked at it, you know, virtually and decided to put a contract on it was a really great deal. What about you? Where were you before you went to Cabo?

Kenda (02:25)
That's great, I love it.

Yeah, we lived in Atlanta.

And just like you, my kids, my husband and I have been taking our kids to Mexico for years. We in Atlanta and was, I don't know, 20 years ago, 18 years ago. It was cheaper for us to take the four kids to Cancun than it was to maybe take them Florida or whatever. We had to end up renting a car because we had all these kids. we just ended up

really falling in love with Mexico and going to all inclusives in Mexico. year my husband said, hey, let's just you and me try somewhere different. So after being all over mainland Mexico, he suggested that we go to Cabo. being on the East Coast, you don't hear about Cabo as much as you do Cancun or Puerto Vallarta or, but we went and.

John Wilkinson (03:30)
Interesting.

Kenda (03:35)
It was so interesting, John, because right away, hard to describe, but right away, felt like I belonged there. I felt this sense of, is where I'm supposed to be. It's bizarre. I know it sounds woo-woo, but.

John Wilkinson (03:49)
Yeah.

Kenda (03:50)
That was where I was supposed to be. we enjoyed our vacation there and then we ended up, neither one of us could shake it and we ended up going back like three months later and ended up a house, which is crazy. I'm a little bit more impulsive. I'm an adventurer. I like to do crazy things, but my husband is super conservative and super...

John Wilkinson (04:06)
Wow. Yeah.

Kenda (04:18)
Like cautious still to this day. I cannot believe we bought a house in Cabo and it wasn't even a house yet. It was a patch of dirt in a brand new neighborhood called Club Campestre and there was nothing there was no pool. There was nothing and can't believe we did that but we got a really cute little house and we started going back and forth. We would take the kids in the summer and then we would rent it out during the year and we started realizing that when we were in

John Wilkinson (04:19)
Cautious, true.

That's amazing.

Kenda (04:47)
Cabo, gosh, we just felt so calm. And then we'd go back to Atlanta and like at the airport, the stress would build up again. And then we would go back to Cabo and then we'd be chill and feel great. And then we'd go back to Atlanta and stress out. about...

John Wilkinson (04:57)
Sure.

Kenda (05:03)
years ago, we decided we wanted to make a permanent move to Cabo. So we moved, we sold everything that we owned in Cabo, or excuse me, in Atlanta. We would have sold the kids if we felt like we could get away with it, but we had to hold on to them. We sold our house, our cars, our clothes, our everything in Atlanta, and boarded an airplane with four suitcases and our pets. And we moved to Cabo. And the plan was to give it a year.

John Wilkinson (05:14)
Yeah.

Wow.

Kenda (05:31)
and see how went and then go wherever we wanted after that and we were there for seven years full time.

John Wilkinson (05:38)
Yeah, that's so amazing. You know, we contemplated moving to Cabo full time with Hayden, you know, being in school. I think he would have been, he was in seventh grade at the time. And we looked at schools in Cabo to move there full time, you know, because the world's crazy and things are happening. And you're right, when you get to Cabo, there's a sense of calm. think a lot of it's the energy of the ocean. You know, like this podcast, you know, when we moved that, it was a new place, but we discovered

new places, we met new people, and it did feel like home. And it's kind of like, you know, here in Denver, what I'm excited about sharing with people that that watch this podcast, who may be moving to Colorado is like all about, you know, the lifestyle and the places that that you get to see and and get introduced to people that you'll meet. You know, the folks in Cabo are super friendly. You know, they're friendly here in Colorado as well. I love that Colorado Cabo connection.

Kenda (06:30)
Mm-hmm.

John Wilkinson (06:35)
You know, it's just a two hour flight and you're there. But we ended up not living there full time. We would go as often as we could and just loved it. You know, I think we had some great, you know, I know we had great dinners there. It's funny that you say Greg was cautious about moving to Cabo. Now you can't get him out of there, right? He wants to stay for the golf. Yeah, because the golf is amazing. Yeah. yeah. Happy anniversary, by the way. Yeah. Yeah.

Kenda (06:52)
Now he won't leave Cabo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, today is our 20 year anniversary and he's in Cabo and I'm in Denver. So like, what is that? I don't even know, but he didn't

want to come back when I came back. So he's still there.

John Wilkinson (07:03)
I know. Yeah, yeah, there

you go. There you go. I know, but it's tough, you know, and then when when you're moving to like Austin, you did that move from Atlanta to Cabo full time. And we are also similarly kind of impulsive, although we were in Austin for 23 years. But when we get something in our mind, like that we you know, we visited Denver, we've been going to Telluride for gosh, 12 years or so. And

Just love Colorado. We've obviously been to Denver to ski. We love to ski. And we came here. Hayden was in camp the summer of 2024 and Billy and I came here for a week just for a vacation. And then we said, oh, let's just go look at some open houses. You know, as a realtor, broker, you know, like, let's go check out the neighborhoods. And we found this house that we just loved, you know, and we're like, oh, can, we can move. Like we could literally do this, you know, and

Kenda (07:52)
Let's do it. That's what we do for fun, right?

Mm-hmm. Why not?

John Wilkinson (08:02)
We thankfully didn't buy that house. But we went back after him get that got back from camp and talked as a family and he was all in, he loves to ski. So we thought about, okay, we can really do this. And Cabo was just kind of, for us, it wasn't the town, was like the location that we were in, condos can be anywhere, any condo. I'm sure we'll talk about that during this podcast, the benefits or...

potential downfalls of condo living. And we unfortunately had, you know, a situation with HOA there and you gotta be care about HOAs. Then we just were like, you know what? We wanna find a forever home in Mexico at some point. This is not it. And let's just kind of move on. So that's kind of why we left Cabo.

Kenda (08:40)
Yeah,

yeah, you mentioned the people in Cabo, and that was one of the things, I think on this podcast, we're about what it was like to move to a brand new place and get assimilated and as we discover and learn new things, but.

We also are going to talk about that Cabo connection. And I'm excited to share that with people because what brought me to Colorado was were a real estate broker in Austin. I was a real estate broker in Cabo. buying and selling, people buy and sell houses down there. And interesting because the ones who I thought, my God, this person is so cool. I want to be like friends with

this person, know, as a realtor sometimes you meet people and you're like, please. And then other times you're like, is this going to be over? so many people who were my clients there, was realizing I was keeping this this relationship with them because I really they got me I got them and we really liked each other. they all lived in Colorado. And I'm like,

John Wilkinson (09:52)
Yeah, isn't

that crazy?

Kenda (09:53)
Wow, I'm sensing a theme here. last year, for the first time I'd ever been to Colorado, I came up during the summer, because I left Cabo in the summer. It's too hot for me. I just kind of bounced around Colorado and stayed with my different previous clients from Cabo. And it was the same that I had when I was in Cabo, like, my gosh, I have to be here.

So I love it here, I connect here, I'm happy here. And so that's what brought us to Colorado. So, you know, it was funny when you and and then I was talking to you and you're like, yeah, I'm moving to, or I was talking to Jess and Jess said, yeah, John's moving to Colorado too. I like, what?

John Wilkinson (10:19)
Yeah.

I love that.

Yeah,

I know. I remember we were at Jess, who is our neighbor that you sold the condo to for everyone to know who she is. We went to dinner in Cabo and she told me confidentially, like, Kenda is moving to Denver. I was like, what? I couldn't believe it, which was it was just, you know, a serendipitous, you know, but I think it's, you know, like it's such a great city.

Kenda (10:57)
What?

John Wilkinson (11:07)
and all of the surrounding neighborhoods, the access to the mountains. There's just so many things. I think about life in Austin and Austin. Austin is a great city. Obviously it's changed a lot as has Denver. But if you drive an hour and a half from Austin, you're in Waco, Texas, no, no, nothing bad about Waco, but it's not like Breckenridge or Aspen or Vail. You know, it's just very different. And the temperatures that you said in the summer, Texas is hot and humid.

Kenda (11:24)
Right.

John Wilkinson (11:34)
You know, those are all kind of elements of our choice to move. And when you're here, you just feel this, you know, kind of like this, not to get, like you say woo woo or spiritual, know, but it's like this energy, you know, of the place. And when you're driving in the mountains and, you know, we did that with Hayden, it just feels right, right? And then on top of that, you start meeting all of these great people, right? All kinds of different folks from all kinds of different backgrounds and...

you know, professionalism, whatever, you know, it's just really amazing.

Kenda (12:06)
What has stood out to you as like, if somebody's thinking about moving to Colorado or Denver or one of skiing towns or vacation towns, do you think is the most important thing that different for you between like Austin Denver? Like what stands out to you?

John Wilkinson (12:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's a great question. think one, I think it's lifestyle, right? It's what is it that you're looking for? What is important to you? When we lived in Austin, we were kind of in the suburbs and had lived in the house for 15 years and we had other places before that, but it was just, it was in the suburbs and we just kind of wanted, when we were moving to Denver, we were just looking for a place that

We knew Hayden wanted to go to East High, which is in City Park. And so that dictated a lot of where we're going to be. I think other people who are moving here, it's going to be dependent on, you know, if they if they have kids or not, are they downsizing or not? You know, are they more outdoorsy? So maybe it's it's, know, they want to live in Golden or Boulder, you know, or Littleton. You know, there's there's just a lot of areas that are closer to the front range.

if that's kind of their lifestyle. I think that's what people should consider, I guess, when moving here is kind of what are you looking for? You're looking for walkability. You then you want to be closer to Denver, you know, proper or these little pockets of areas. Sloan's Lake is a great example. It has great walkability and it's not obviously in Denver proper, but it's not far and you have good walkability.

And then you can go to places like Highlands Ranch, right? Which is a beautiful area. But you're not really walking to a lot of places right there. It's more kind of like that suburban feel. But a lot of people love that, especially for young families and empty nesters who just kind of want a little bit more space. The houses tend to be larger and not as expensive as some of the homes closer to Denver. So I guess there's all those factors to kind of consider.

Kenda (14:19)
I think you touched on something really important that was something that stood out for me when I was looking here is how different these little or these towns or these communities, the very different vibe, the very different feeling, the very different.

price point, the different size of lot, the different walkability, the different access to parks. Like it's so different and you really have to understand like whatever kind of person you are or what you want your life to look like. You need to understand that and you need to look at carefully which area is a good fit for me.

John Wilkinson (15:05)
Yeah, totally.

Kenda (15:05)
Because you're in a totally

different area than me. You're in the city. out in the like, boonies. I'm out in Littleton.

John Wilkinson (15:09)
Yeah.

That's a

great area because it's but to your point like it is a great area and for appreciation right like that area continues to grow and we see that you know Denver's kind of landlocked well it is but like there's only so many lots that are available to build and you know there's just obviously land that's outside of Denver that is really available for some some great appreciation.

Kenda (15:37)
I think that's happening. think people are moving to the outskirts a little bit more. it's really interesting because you can get house, you have a longer commute.

But so many people work from home now, like me, I'm working from home. And so it's okay for me to live this far out. And my husband Greg works from home too. So he lives, we kind live a little bit far out. But when we do go into the city, it's a 30, 40 minute commute depending on traffic.

John Wilkinson (16:10)
Yeah, you mentioned you're working from home in Atlanta where basements prevalent.

Kenda (16:16)
Atlanta, Atlanta people did not work from home very much, but again, this was before the pandemic. So in Atlanta, everybody up early, went to work, made the long commute, worked all day, made the long commute home, went in their house, helped their kids with homework, helped with dinner, then went to bed.

and then it's rinse and repeat the next day. we did have friends in Atlanta, but we didn't have the depth of relationship that we have in Cabo and already are developing in Colorado. Because of lifestyle, right?

John Wilkinson (16:51)
Okay, yeah, that's great.

It is, it is, it totally is a lifestyle. I think that's been kind of the greatest joy, right? There's obviously been some challenges. What has been the hardest thing for you moving to Denver? Or most challenging, I guess.

Kenda (17:11)
Hmm,

a good question. of the things that are challenging I also am enjoying because I like variety. the fact that it can be 80 degrees and then the next day be 22 degrees and then the next day be 70 degrees, it's kind of jarring because I'm coming from Cabo where it's sunny and...

beautiful every day. it's to figure out how to, what do I wear? it's gonna be cold in the morning, it's gonna be in the 30s, but then in the afternoon it's gonna be 80, so how do I plan for this day? And that's been a little bit challenging. other thing as a real estate broker is...

learning there's so many different areas in Denver and again as we discussed they have so many they have different feels and I really am Challenged to kind of just figure out the different areas and understand they offer and I think that's really going to be

a key for this podcast is we're not coming on saying, hey, we know everything. We've, you know, we've lived in Denver forever. We have it. new here, too. And like anybody who's thinking about moving here, we have some pretty basic questions that somebody who lived here forever may think is silly. But we're going to ask the questions and figure out the answers because we're exploring and we're trying to figure it out.

John Wilkinson (18:38)
Absolutely. think, you know, like I remember when I lived in San Antonio, my dad was in the military and we'd have family come visit and they all wanted to go see the Alamo. And so, you know, we got, we got so tired of seeing the Alamo because we lived there or when we were stationed in Hawaii, my sister and I were just so bored of going to the beach all the time. You know, like, do we have to this again? Like, it's literally drive by, you know, these beaches, there's kids and on

Kenda (18:47)
Right, of course.

Right, right.

John Wilkinson (19:05)
just sitting in the beds of trucks, bored, and like literally 100 feet away is beautiful blue water. But it's kind of that, that sense of, yeah, exactly. It's that, it's that symptom where, where you're just kind of like used to the things and, and as, as newcomers, I'm, I am excited to what you, to your point about just introducing new places and, and maybe geeking out a little bit about stuff that may be here for a while. I've got friends, I know we're going to interview that, you know,

Kenda (19:11)
right in the oceans of Hawaii.

John Wilkinson (19:34)
ran the Denver History Museum, or sorry, the Colorado History Museum. like, he's a wealth of knowledge on everything from like home architecture to neighborhood design and what happened in the past to kind of form like where it is today. And I think that's gonna be, yeah, that's gonna be really exciting, I think. So yeah, I don't know.

Kenda (19:52)
I'm so excited about him.

What are some other

John Wilkinson (19:59)
So if

Kenda (19:59)
things?

John Wilkinson (20:00)
there was somebody that you knew that was gonna be moving here, what do you think you would tell them? And yeah, any tips on anybody who's moving here?

Kenda (20:13)
Do you mean like just like in general, like it's super dry, like your skin and your hair, it's super dry? that's one thing I didn't realize. Also the altitude, you know, I came from Cabo, which is literally sea level I struggled with altitude. I felt like I was always out of breath and I was getting headaches and I didn't know what was going on. And somebody said, you need to chug like a ton of water because even though it's not really hot,

John Wilkinson (20:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Gosh.

Yeah.

Kenda (20:41)
right now, it's dry. And I think that for me is like when you come here to look, make sure that you load up on water and make sure that you load up on lotion because you're going to be super dry. What about you? I mean, that sounds lame, but that's...

John Wilkinson (20:56)
Yeah, yeah, no, that.

No, I know, but it's it's things you don't think about if you're if you're moving. Yeah, we've got some some frames that started to warp because of the lack of humidity. You know, the thing about, you've got to put a whole house, you've got a fire in your home to help with the.

Kenda (21:01)
Mm-hmm.

Right. We're going to be doing that this year.

putting a humidifier. We have to. It's just too dry.

John Wilkinson (21:19)
I know it's it's just those things

I never yeah never thought about before. Yeah, I think the dryness for sure you know the intensity of the sun is insane and I my my brother-in-law is a physics teacher he goes he thinks he's a physics dork right so I always tease him like well damn it's because we're we're a mile high right we're closer to the sun and he's like no like that is not true I know

Kenda (21:28)
You're right. Yeah.

Right.

Well, that's what I thought.

John Wilkinson (21:46)
If

you look at a marble, right, it looks smooth from afar, but if you look really close, there's these ridges to it, but it's really insignificant from the sun's energy to you, like what that ridge is. And so he's like, when you look at the earth from space, right, it looks like a smooth kind of thing. He said, no, it could be humidity, the atmosphere for sure, but it's not because we're closer technically to the sun. But it is.

Kenda (21:57)
I'm shocked.

That's what I've

thinking.

John Wilkinson (22:13)
I know I literally thought the same thing. so yeah, the great thing is it is intense, but you can get into the shade and it's so nice, so pleasant. And then in the evenings when the sun goes behind the mountains, it's so pleasant in the summer. Yeah.

Kenda (22:16)
think that makes perfect sense.

it is, it

is. And I think even one of the things I've noticed is driving in the mornings when the sun is at your eye level. not even something that your sunglasses can really help. intense. really is. Wow, yeah.

John Wilkinson (22:40)
No. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I

think those are the biggest for me was like, wow, I can't believe like the dryness and the intensity of the sun. But everything else has been super pleasant.

Kenda (22:50)
Yeah.

Yeah, it has been. And I think this podcast, we're going to share things that we think suck. We're not going to sugarcoat it. We're going to share good, the bad, the honest, things that we were disappointed. going to be real talk. We're going to talk about things that really

really happening here and the good and the bad. I hope that people will come along with us. I hope that people will drop questions want us to answer some questions because it's a great opportunity for us to be able to just go around and explore find things that otherwise we wouldn't have found.

John Wilkinson (23:33)
Yeah, I totally, totally agree. I think this podcast is gonna be great for us and for those who follow along, especially even if you've lived here forever, there may be things that, like I said about the island, there may be things here in Denver that are new or in the surrounding areas that are new that you've gotta check out. I'm seeing new things or new places all the time.

through friends that we've made and they're telling us about new places that have opened up. Or they may be in an area like said Sloan's Lake. We went to Edgewater Public Market, which is this great like big food court with bars and shops and you can just hang out. It's got huge garage doors that open up and it was a beautiful day. Obviously that makes a big difference, right? But it's places like that that just have such a cool vibe. And even though it's

it's 20 minutes from my house, which is nothing. I wouldn't have known about it had one of our friends told us about it. So it's just stuff like that, discovering new places. As we explore all about Colorado, know we're gonna be talking about Cabo. We've got a fun idea in the next few weeks to interview a restaurant here in town that I love. And we have friends from Cabo that also love over in Wash Park.

Kenda (24:22)
Yeah.

John Wilkinson (24:46)
Washington Park. So that's that's that'll be fun to talk about all the discovery things or the things about Cabo and Colorado. And I think next week is we're going to be talking about things that you need to know about moving to Colorado.

Kenda (24:59)
It's and about like the real deal about like money, money, money, money, money. how much is, the cost of living here? Like what do you really need to budget for? Like we're gonna get like almost granular on some things about.

John Wilkinson (25:04)
sure. Yeah.

Kenda (25:16)
Is it a super expensive place to live? the house is certain price, but you don't need to just look at what the cost of your mortgage is gonna be or what the cost of your home is gonna be. You need to look at the commute and the dryness does to your home. So now you have this additional cost of a humidifier maybe you need solar panels or there's hail here or what is the insurance here? gonna talk about like what's the real deal? What does it really cost?

live in Denver and this is as we experience it. Like I'm coming from Cabo where everything is incredibly expensive so I find Denver very affordable but people coming from say Atlanta might come here and find it know expensive. know what it was like related to Austin.

John Wilkinson (26:04)
Yeah, so the property taxes are, I know we're gonna talk about this next week much lower, but there are definitely things here that I was surprised at how expensive they are. Yeah, so there are definitely some changes. That'll be a good thing to talk about.

Kenda (26:16)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank everybody who watching this. first little podcast, we're working out the kinks Yeah, and my anniversary, my 20 year anniversary with my husband in Cabo. hope that you'll really enjoy the Cabo connection and come along with us on this adventure as we figure out what we're doing here in Colorado. again, please make sure that you follow us and also drop any questions that you

John Wilkinson (26:30)
On your anniversary!

Kenda (26:52)
about Cabo or Colorado in the comments so we can kind of understand what it is that you want to know and what you want to hear from us. John?

John Wilkinson (27:01)
Yep, no, absolutely ditto to what you said. This has been really fun, Kenda. I am excited about our future weeks and getting to introduce some of our friends to the audience and then just talking about Colorado and Cabo. Yep, all right, everybody. See ya.

Kenda (27:15)
I love it. Sounds great. Well, thanks everybody. We'll see you on the next one.
"