Helping Seattle CoBuyers Achieve Homeownership Together
Since 2018, CoBuy-certified™ Pro Don Koonce has helped more than 40 Seattle co-buyers achieve homeownership together with CoBuy.
In 2019, Seattle's median home price hit $730,000.
For a single buyer earning the city's median income of $93,000, that's nearly 8 years of gross income. A 20% down payment? That's $146,000—or about 3+ years of pure savings if you somehow lived on air.
The math is brutal. Co-buying fixes it.
Friends, family, partners pool resources to access properties they couldn't touch alone. But co-buying isn't just "let's buy together and figure it out." It's complex. Most agents have no idea how to handle it.
Since 2016, CoBuy has been the only platform built specifically for small groups planning, buying, and managing home co-ownership together. Featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and TIME, CoBuy created the co-buyer category and has helped hundreds of groups achieve homeownership.
Don Koonce, a broker with Windermere Real Estate Mount Baker in Seattle, joined CoBuy's-certified™ Professional network in 2018. CoBuy-certified™ means he specializes in co-buyer transactions and completed CoBuy's training on group-based homeownership.
Creating a new category generates attention. Pros in CoBuy's network get featured--Don's appeared in The Seattle Times, MarketWatch, NerdWallet, and HouseLogic.
Here's Don on what it's actually like working with CoBuyer groups:
Don Koonce on serving CoBuyer groups through CoBuy's platform
How Don Connected with CoBuy
Don Koonce: "I first learned about CoBuy from a married couple with a small child. They were in search of their first home, but they were discouraged because we had put in an offer on a home that they didn't get, and they couldn't afford what they really wanted to afford.
Then they realized they were living with her brother, and it was just a natural fit for them. They connected with CoBuy and connected me with CoBuy.
I thought, 'Why doesn't somebody think of this before?' Just a hole in the market that needed to be filled."
Why Seattle Is Perfect for Co-buying
Seattle consistently ranks among the nation's most expensive housing markets. Single-buyer approaches don't cut it anymore.
Pooling resources unlocks properties. But only when the complexity actually gets managed properly.
What CoBuy Actually Does
Co-buying IS complicated.
When friends, family, or unmarried partners buy together, they face questions that don't exist in traditional transactions:
How should ownership be split?
What happens if someone wants out?
How do you qualify for a mortgage as a group?
What legal protections does everyone need?
How do you handle ongoing expenses?
What if circumstances change?
Here's how CoBuy handles it:
- Education - Actual training on how co-buying works, not guesswork
- Co-ownerOS™ - Platform for planning, structuring custom agreements, and managing co-ownership long-term
- Professional network - CoBuy-certified™ agents, lenders, and attorneys who specialize in this exact scenario
Co-buying is hard. CoBuy makes it work.
Don's Public Track Record: 12+ Documented Success Stories
Since 2018, Don has published 12+ "CoBuy Success Story" case studies on his Windermere blog.
Real CoBuyer groups, real outcomes, publicly documented.
Press Coverage: Creating a Category Gets Attention
CoBuy created the co-buyer category—and the industry took notice.
Don Koonce, a CoBuy-certified™ Pro, has been featured as part of that national coverage:
Why Co-buying Needs Specialized Support
Friends, relatives, unmarried partners buying together face challenges that don't exist for solo buyers or married couples:
- Ownership structure. How do you split title? What percentages make sense?
- Group financing. How do multiple people qualify for a mortgage together? What if incomes or credit scores vary?
- Legal protection. What agreements cover expenses, equity, exit scenarios?
- Relationship management. How do groups make decisions? What happens when circumstances change?
- Long-term planning. How is co-ownership managed over years? Maintenance? Improvements? Eventual sale?
Most agents haven't seen infrastructure for this. CoBuy built it.
The Category CoBuy Created Is Growing
Housing costs keep climbing. More people are figuring out they can't do this alone.
Co-buying with friends, family, or partners isn't a workaround--it's a legitimate path to homeownership. CoBuy created this category in 2016. Nearly ten years in, the model works. The infrastructure exists. The professional network is real.
Agents like Don help CoBuyer groups navigate competitive markets through CoBuy's platform. The results are documented, public, and growing.