Every home has a story, and many luxury homes have long and fascinating histories behind them. Unless your home or potential home was built very recently, there is likely a lot that you can learn from the place that will be useful to know if you are considering buying or selling it. But how do you find out the history behind your luxury home? If you are curious about a given house and want to learn more, there are a few ways that you can find information very quickly.
Internet History Sites
Since the Internet became a major force almost two decades ago, the ability to have such a massive amount of information at your fingertips has caused a big boom in genealogy hobbyists. In most cases, genealogists focus on the people in their past, but there is a large portion of the online community focused on the buildings they inhabited and the history of the surrounding community as well. You might be able to find your house through one of these genealogy sites. In the Denver area, your best resource is probably the Denver Public Library, which has an online building histories tutorial which can give you information about most of the prominent historical features in the area.
Public Records
If you want the names of previous residents, any natural disasters that may have damaged the home in unseen ways, or simply a list of major repairs, your city’s public records department is a good place to look. Typically, you can find a full array of information that includes emergency calls from the building, permits acquired for major construction, and more. The situations described here are almost always matters of public record, which means that it is extremely easy to get a bare bones overview of what has happened to your home over the years. This method won’t give you the details of such situations, but it is a good starting point if you want to go more in-depth in the future.
Ask the Residents
When all else fails, ask the person who is selling the house or, if you are the owner, ask the people who have lived in the home previously. Not everybody knows the full history of the place they call home, but most can at least answer questions about their own stay in the house and about the circumstances that they bought it under. In the case of luxury homes, the history is usually tied to one specific family or group of families. If those individuals happen to be genealogy buffs themselves, there is a chance that you might get much more than you originally expected in terms of history.
There is a great deal of value in learning the history of your home. It can help inform a purchase if you know what parts of the house have been recently repaired and what has gone through a major disaster. It can give you a great appreciation for your home, and it can be a selling point to potential buyers. Regardless of your reason for doing it, learning more about your luxury home almost always has many benefits.