When Breckenridge resident Michael Schaaf sat down with a Wells Fargo representative, he was pleasantly surprised to learn he qualified for a mortgage loan.

But like many in his shoes, he was faced with an ominous question: now what?

“This is a first,” he said. “I've lived in the community for seven years now. I wanted to start paying toward something I can own in the end, as opposed to paying off landlords.”

Which is how he and his girlfriend, Catherine Kress, found themselves in the Summit Combined Housing Authority's homebuyer education class Saturday morning.

For first-time homebuyers, the process of finding, financing and closing on a house can be daunting and rife with potential pitfalls.

The free homebuyer education, held monthly — generally at the County Commons in Frisco — is a crash course in the process of moving from renter to owner. In one morning, the class covers everything from budgeting and navigating the lending process to working with a real estate broker and home inspections.

“We put the information out there and have people ask questions,” SCHA program director Joy Klein said. “It's an informal way for people to gather information and see if homebuying is right for them or not.”

The class is a prerequisite for individuals trying to get down payment assistance, to qualify for deed-restricted housing and to be approved by some lenders.

The class is led by representatives from the housing authority, but taught primarily by volunteer experts and professionals, who break down the complexities and tackle the tough topics.

“I like to think of today as a day to ask all the hard questions of a broker who doesn't have a relationship with you,” real estate broker Eric Klein told the class Saturday. “What's wrong with your industry? How do you get paid? Is my broker showing me everything I should be seeing? The things, when you have that more intimate day-to-day relationship with your broker, you don't want to ask.”

A great time to buy

Though the classes have not returned to their pre-recession popularity levels, they still have fairly good attendance, and now, Klein said, is a great time to be buying a home.

“Interest rates are at historic lows,” she said. “For some of the properties, the pricing is definitely coming down.”

Some real estate professionals say, after two years of a fairly stale market, many sellers are returning to the negotiating table and willing to go lower on prices.

The numbers seem to agree. Though the number of property sales in Summit County is on the rise, the average price has gone down from recent years.

More than 800 properties had been sold by the end of third quarter this year, compared to only 744 last year, and the average price on the homes sold has dropped by more than $70,000.

“I think ... that's what we're going to continue to see through this year,” said Allison Simson, who owns Summit Real Estate in Dillon. “That we'll have a total upward sales of 10 percent but that the prices are lower.”