About Us

NorthWest Real Estate was founded in 1998 by “Duke” Bernard J Schaeffer in Fort Collins, CO. Duke had a lengthy working career even before real estate and moving over to the front range.

Before NorthWest Real Estate Duke worked for Grumman Aerospace, owned an International Harvester (IH) dealership in Hot Sulphur Springs, CO where he later served as the Mayor in the early 70’s.

In the late 80’s he worked for Cabin Country and helped with sales in Sand Creek Park and throughout the foothills of Larimer County.

Duke and Tom Schaeffer built several cabins in the Northern Colorado Mountains. After working for All Property Services’s real property sales division he founded NorthWest Real Estate and was one of few to actually receive their Masters in Real Estate.

Duke’s wife Barbara Schaeffer also became a Realtor in Colorado in 1994 and her partnership in their construction company helped add to her knowledge that she shared with buyers and sellers.

Duke & Barbara’s daughter Lorraine Schaeffer is now the employing Broker of NorthWest and has been since 2013. She received her Associate Brokers license in 1996.

As a graduate of Colorado State University in 1991, with a Bachelors of Science she decided to stay in the area raise her family, build a home, remodel a few, co-owned and managed a tech business and then became a Realtor.

Lorraine worked alongside Duke & Barbara selling residential real estate, land, and recreational mountain acreages and now continuing that family tradition with Sarah.

Sarah Ashbaugh, daughter of Lorraine Schaeffer, followed the footsteps of this generational family business by receiving her Associate Brokers License in 2019.

Sarah received her Bachelor’s of Fine Art concentrating in painting from Colorado State University in 2018. She has been a landscape design & consultant since 2017 along with her real estate and art career.

Sarah grew up around the trade, walking mountain property boundary lines as young child. She helped with accounting and photography through the years and took on a more involved role in the transition of the business to Loveland, CO.

Susan Bastian has also been adopted into the NorthWest family she has had her Real Estate license since 1996.

Formerly working in property management, Susan has extensive knowledge about real estate, construction and remodeling. She became an Associate Broker at NorthWest in 2014.