Christi sits down with area agents for a roundtable on what's happening in the Grand Junction and surrounding areas real estate market. Guests include Anna Rickenbach, Jen Pedersen and Mike Foster. Hear what the group has to say about the state of Western Colorado commercial and residential real estate!
If you like your podcast in video form, check out our YouTube video: https://youtu.be/uvqiftHLWTw
Christi sits down with area agents for a roundtable on what's happening in the Grand Junction and surrounding areas real estate market. Guests include Anna Rickenbach, Jen Pedersen and Mike Foster. Hear what the group has to say about the state of Western Colorado commercial and residential real estate!
If you like your podcast in video form, check out our YouTube video: https://youtu.be/uvqiftHLWTw
The Full Circle Podcast, compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert Christi Reece and her team here from the movers, shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope, the place we all love. You'll learn. You'll laugh. You'll love with the Full Circle. Hi everyone. And welcome back to the Full Circle Podcast. I've got a really special podcast today because I invited some other amazing realtors in grand junction to join me for a little round table about the current market. So with me today is Anna Rickenbach from the Anna Rickenbach team and Anna Rickenbach properties, every marks Remax 4,000. And what was your name again? Mike Mike Foster with Coldwell Banker Commercial Prime Properties. Correct. And Jen Pedersen from Coldwell Banker Distinctive Properties. So, um, where do we start? It's kinda been a crazy market. And, uh, what do you think has caused the competitive real estate market that we're currently in Anna?
Anna:Well, the biggest thing is supply not having enough houses and having, having more buyers than, than can find houses right now. And that's not just here that's nationwide.
Christi:Did it surprise you that it happened like this in grand junction?
Anna:It surprised me during COVID when things were so uncertain in spring of 2020, and we weren't sure what was going to happen. And then to see the, the real estate market explode the way that it did that summer was, was quite surprising
Christi:To me. Yeah. How did, how did it seem to you in the commercial side, Mike?
Mike:Um, it, it was a little slower on the retail side, the national retailers in there that whole mechanism, uh, kind of went a little dormant, but, uh, the office and the office market of all things everybody's saying, you know, COVID had killed the office, but in our market we have smaller boutique office. So that was still moving along and then industrial was doing its usual thing. Um, and did have a little bit of dormancy with businesses trying to figure out their human resource function and trying to kind of operate, um, and not being able to make real estate decisions for a little while because they had other issues they needed to deal with. So I would say probably not as frenzy it's the residential market was during COVID. Okay.
Christi:Jen, what's your perspective on what caused this and how it's been in the last year and a half? I,
Jen:I completely agree with Anna. It's just been a really interesting market over the past year and a half and you're right. Supply and demand exactly what the challenges then. Um, I think that with the pandemic, um, we saw a lot of people just move out of dense areas. They wanted to look for less dense areas and grand junction is one of those. Um, we had friends who moved out from a big city out east, um, because in Chicago flat, they couldn't leave their house for a period of time, whereas they could come out here and in 20 minutes beyond any of the trails that we have in our area, I'm sure we'll talk about the recreational opportunities we have in the valley, but, um, just a lot of focus on less densely populated areas. Um, that led a lot, a lot to the supply and demand issue or seeing,
Christi:Well, obviously it's been a, uh, incredible year in real estate and, uh, surprisingly, so, um, but I think the big question on everybody's mind that I'm talking to now is, is it slowing down, Jen? What do you see on your side?
Jen:So I feel like it's not a slowdown in the traditional sense where everyone panics that is slowing down. Oh my goodness. I think we're, we're becoming more normal, which I think we're all very happy for. Buyers are happy to have some normalcy sellers are happy to have some normalcy as real estate community we are as well. So, um, I think there is a little bit of a, a general step-down in pace, but I'm not going to call it a slowdown by any means. Um, normal is comfortable and that's okay for us to be a little more normal than this very extremely robust situation we've been in for a long time.
Christi:I think that's a really good description. And I, what are you seeing as far as multiple offer situations with your team? How has that changed in the last couple of months?
Anna:You know, it really depends on the, on the price point and the, and the product we're talking about. Um, price points may be below 400,000 or so. We're still seeing multiple offers, but nowhere near what we were seeing, you know, middle of middle of all of this last year. Um, but it's, it's still just as important for people to be prepared and, um, have really good representation and be ready to go when they're, when they're making an offer. And I'm, I'm still as, as tough as ever on, you know, looking at these, looking at these offers and making sure that it's a, it's a good advice to, to tell my seller to, to move forward on those.
Christi:Yeah, I agree. Um, we're, we're seeing the same thing, just a few, a little bit fewer offers, uh, when you're in a multiple offer situation, but you never know that the properties are so individual, you get one that hits the market and it can be a frenzy just like it was a few months ago, but, um, it is a little bit more comfortable for the buyers. Uh, they don't have to compete with quite as many offers, so that's nice, but still healthy for the sellers. Sure. Mike, with the commercial and industrial activity trailing behind the residential a little bit, um, how is that trending right now? Is that trending with the residential?
Mike:So as I discussed during COVID, we are a little bit slower, but post COVID, well, what I call post COVID, which is first quarter 2021, um, those delayed business decisions started happening. And, and then that retail market that was dormant this last quarter have started to see the national retailers showing up because now their convention, which is usually Memorial day in Vegas is now December in Vegas. So they're all getting ready for that and coming out and looking for sites. So it's, um, 20, 21 has been more of a, uh, emergence kind of year and just steady, um, demand growth. And, um, a little bit more just general activity activity is definitely higher. So,
Christi:And what are we reaching some sort of levels now that are making us more attractive to some of the big box and big retailers,
Mike:It's more pad driven. Um, but it is pretty phenomenal. What's happened with our regional mall, which is an outlier. It's not, not your typical retail environment, but we only, we're kind of one of one, we don't have other malls that compete with our regional mall. And so, you know, we, we all know here that we have a Dillard's, uh, that we have a, uh, um, you know, uh, sporting a new sporting goods store and a lot of other things. Um, but there hasn't been a Dillard's built, um, in probably five years to a decade nationally. And so it's just, when I talk to people from outside the community that are retail savvy, they say, well, if I told somebody that there was a Dillard's under construction in grand junction, they wouldn't believe me. Yeah.
Christi:Well, I have to tell you it's phenomenal. Have you been there yet? I have not been there. I've seen the lines. It is so nice. Yeah. I was really impressed. I went to buy a wedding gift and I walked around the store kind of in awe, like this is in grand junction. This is really exciting. Yeah.
Mike:And then, and then, you know, Dixon and Cabela's kind of play nice with each other where, isn't doing as much of the outdoor side. And, um, so it's really, well-rounded, it's really, uh, come into its own. I think,
Christi:Um, any other, uh, retailers that, you know, that have made commitments that you can share?
Mike:Uh, just more small pad, more, it's just interesting. We're always adding another gas, convenience. Um, there's more of that happening. Um, some more automotive service happening. Um, L restaurants I think will come that, that was obviously the most COVID impacted side. Um, interestingly field's drive through restaurant, then it actually did better than COVID, but, um, you know, the automotive service and gasoline did extremely well. They're in COVID and they're they're first to emerge. So, um, yeah, real interesting that way. Um, and then as far as our industrial vacant building inventory, it's, it's continuing to shrink and we're going to start needing to build, um, some things so interesting
Christi:From the commercial side, how has the low inventory of residential effected buyer's desire to come to this community from your perspective
Mike:Business? Well, it's relative. So we are obviously having big percentage increases on our residential side, but we are still near our$300,000 price point is still near the national average. So we're still relatively competitive as far as business formation. Uh, and we are also increased in our rental inventory. We've had, that's, that's been a real interesting phenomenon, the amount of multi-family development and it's, and there's been a real linkage to the resort communities in Western Colorado. Uh, and
Christi:I, where multi-family is really popular well
Mike:In just that developer class and, you know, Steamboat, Aspen,Vail. They, we were on sale, but they were on fire. You know, the, the, I think, uh, Aspen was in the billions in terms of their sales during 2020. And so then if you sell out of that custom home inventory, how do you replace it? And w where do you redeploy? And, and they understand what grand junction is because they come, come through here in the shoulder seasons and they spend time here. So as far as a place to invest in develop, I think they're looking at grand junction as their backyard. And it's great to have that, you know, that capital being put to work in our community, and it's really been put to work in the multifamily sphere, multi, multiple, large projects that are going to help generate some rental housing for us. Yeah.
Christi:Um, Jen, you work with some developers, builders. What, uh, what do you see going on and what do you, what do you predict for the next year or two?
Jen:I see. And I've heard that there's a lot of development coming up through the process. We were at the economic summit together at one of the presentations. And, um, so it was interesting to get the county's perspective as well. Um, a lot of development, but the development process takes a little bit of time. And so they're trying to figure out how to more quickly get homes in the ground, um, as, uh, as those developments are occurring. Um, so I think we're going to see development. Um, we have a lot of building happening as well. There's still some struggle with, uh, commodities and supply of goods and then labor as well. So there's quite a few pieces to that puzzle, but I really feel building is, um, a big part to what's going to help us build that inventory. And, um, I was actually looking at some statistics earlier today and in the last decade, we've had such fewer homes being built compared to like the previous three or four decades that we came into this, um, a little bit behind the eight ball. And so I think that's also plays into the whole lack of inventory piece because we did have a lack of available new construction. Um, so that new construction really just has to continue to grow up and bureau busts and help fill that bucket for us.
Christi:And, uh, uh, from a buyer's perspective, I've been saying perspective a lot during this. Um, w how do you, w where are you seeing the buyers coming from? You know, we, we talk a lot about people from California being able to sell for such a huge amount and come here and things seem so cheap, but where are you seeing trends from, uh, where people are coming from to grand junction?
Anna:We're seeing people coming from, from out of state, for sure. We're still seeing a good amount of people coming over from the Eastern slope as well, who, you know, are really attracted to the lifestyle here. I think that's one of the, one of the biggest pieces is not sitting in traffic. I want to go out and hike and bike and do the things I want to do. And it's right here, which is, which is awesome. Um, but for the most part, we're still working on my team. Anyway, we're still working with people locally, to be perfectly honest, as people having those changes, they're having the life changes of kids growing up, having kids getting married, you know, all kinds of all kinds of change makes people move. That's the, that's the real, the real deal there. Um, we do see quite a few people coming from out of town for, you know, to move here for, you know, for, for health care jobs and things like that, which is, which is awesome. But, um, I think it's, I think it's a little bit of a, of an urban legend about everybody coming from California with bags of money. And I don't have all those buyers.
Christi:I heard that you did,
Anna:But you know what it is talking to dovetail off what Jen was talking about though. And this is, you know, I've been in this business since 2014. So it was really interesting. I was at a, I was at a conference in lake Tahoe last month, and there was a great economist speaking. And I didn't realize, and just from, from my, my sphere of knowledge, that we've been low on inventory since 2010. So you figure what happened in eight, nine. A lot of people got out of the game of building. I just, you know, some of that I hadn't really thought about. So when you think about being short on inventory for that many years, and now fast-forward here, you've got supply chain issues, COVID all the things. Well, it makes sense. And so that's also what I say to people when they say this is, is this, or this is a bubble. This is a very different situation than what we were in, in 2008 and nine. We were way overbuilt in oh eight and oh nine.
Christi:Well, and I think that we, since we don't have a lot of big builders here with a ton of capital behind them, um, when we were coming out of the recession, the local builders and developers were super nervous and it really took us a long time to get comfortable, again, like, okay, I can dip my toe in the water and I'm gonna start with something small. And so it's taken us awhile that along with the, um, the speed of the process through, uh, development, uh, here in the county, it's just taken a while to get those things online. And man, I've seen some subdivision. Lots just go so fast. Yeah. Um, so, uh, and do you think now is a good time to buy at home, buy a home, uh, with the market still being so competitive? What do you tell your buyers?
Anna:Well, I mean, I think that's a personal decision. When's the best time to buy or sell a home when it's the best time for you and, and your family or who, you know, whoever it is you're going to be moving with. I think it's a great time to collect information and to, you know, to meet with someone who can help you from the financial piece to understand where, where you, and are you really ready? I think, and there's a launch checklist to go through, to figure out if you're ready and that's, you know, that's one of the things I try to do is meet with people and really, really understand before we run out and look at a house that you've seen online. Um, cause
Christi:It's easy to get caught up in a frenzy. It's
Anna:Very easy to get caught up in that frenzy, but how ready are you? And, you know, if you're, if you're a three out of 10, what's it gonna take to get you to get you even readier than that? And that's, that's our job more ready than that. That's that's our job is to be advisors to people who are considering buyer buying and selling. Yeah,
Christi:Absolutely. And I know from my experience that, um, pre-recession so many people were using their homes like a bank, you know, I mean, people were buying and selling and making money so quickly and we've had to really shift our mindset since the recession and say, you know, it's a great time to buy a house, but think about holding onto it for a little bit, you know, it's, maybe you're going to sell it in a year. That might not be the best move. Jen. How much do you think the interest rates play into the, the market that we're having?
Jen:Um, I think that's, that's always a big piece to it. You know, as Anna said, that life situation is going to dictate and personal decisions are going to dictate when and where and why people buy and sell property overall. Um, but with interest rates remaining low, that just increases people's purchasing power. So even though we're experiencing a increase in values and prices, um, those interest rates just help people to kind of keep pace with that, to an extent,
Christi:What do you see in, in, uh, commercial interest rates and banks?
Mike:Well, it's kind of interesting because that's the same kind of thought process do I want to buy or do I want to lease? And so for a while, more and more tenants were becoming owners, especially 20, 20, 20, 20, 20 19. And the landlords were feeling a little left out where, where my tenants and those tenants, the interest rates were so low that, uh, the, the, the, you know, that payment was competing with, with the lease payment, the mortgage payment or the commercial loan payment. And now there's our inventory of available buildings is tight and tightened up. Now, it's, it's swinging back a little bit to where I've had some discussions like, you know, when you lease, that's a hundred percent leverage, you don't, you can take that equity and you can put it into your business, um, and use that otherwise. And so I think there's a little bit more of a, um, instead of just, oh, I'm going to buy it's, they're really thinking about both sides.
Christi:Interesting. Um, let's talk about pricing strategies in this kind of market when you're working with a seller and a, what, um, what kind of things are you telling your sellers as we're entering this? Um, you know, getting into what is typically our slower season, uh, over the winter, but boy, last year, I mean, w what I keep telling people is we just don't know what's going to happen. Uh, it's strong right now. Uh, the crystal ball is broken even more than it ever has been. I can't really predict the future at all right now, but we do know that there's still a lot of people that want to live in our area. So how are you talking to sellers about pricing strategies?
Anna:Well, with the crystal ball being broken, that is, that is a hard one. Um, so the most important thing is, is really looking at homes that are, that are comparable to your own. And we all think our home is, is the greatest and best in I'm certain that it is, but it's important to get real, to get real with yourself and, and real with your sellers on, um, what's that competitive price position going to be. And positioning has never been more important. I don't think, um, I've had a couple of listings that have, that have been overpriced and they, they sit, not everything sells just because the market's hot. Um, so I think that's a, that's a big piece. There is just really understanding where you're most likely to sell and then positioning in that really competitive space and being ready to go right now. So are you ready? Is your, is your house ready? Are there some things we need to do first? Um, I'm always going to err on the side of, let's get these things done and then let's get you on the market. So you're fully ready. We're going to put your best foot forward. We're going to market our socks off for you and hopefully get you an offer, you know, relatively quickly that improves your odds.
Christi:Jen, have you been talking to any of your sellers this year about under pricing and creating that competitive bidding process? Is that a strategy that you employ?
Jen:Not necessarily. I mean, it's, as we were talking about the unpredictability and the lack of a crystal ball for us right now, um, a lot of times we'll go in not a lot of times, but we'll go in with what we feel is a good pricing strategy and just realize that we under-priced a little bit, and then we, by default end up with these, um, very much over list price offers and closing. So it's not necessarily a strategy I employ. Um, usually I feel like we price things pretty well, um, but it does happen. So, but typically we try to price in a very competitive range compared with the comparables.
Christi:Well, and, you know, when I felt like we hit a couple of price ceilings and a couple of sectors of the market, I know that, um, in the downtown area we listed a house that was under a thousand square feet. Uh, we listed in the spring for, I want to say 2 65 and we felt like we were pushing the envelope a little bit. And I think it went for 2 95 and then the next house used that as a benchmark and sold at three 10 and then the next one at 3 25. And then we sold one at three 50 and I started talking to sellers about, you know, there's only so much people are willing to pay for a thousand square feet in downtown grand junction. And we're getting, I think we're getting close to that price ceiling. Um, but that, that still remains to be seen. I think when you look at our overall, um, pricing structure here in grand junction, we're still an affordable community compared to a lot of Colorado. I think, you know, if you want to live in a big city like Denver, Colorado Springs, or Boulder, um, your options are pretty limited there. And otherwise you're looking at the, the mountain towns, which can be very hard to find housing. So I still think that, you know, to have a nice house at 300,000, uh, it can be hard to find in the rest of Colorado. Um, Mike, you talked a little bit about, um, you know, fixing up and build out. Can you expand more on what you're seeing, um, that landlords are doing for build-out for their clients? Were they doing to attract clients? And then I want to take that to the residential side too?
Mike:Well, a lot of the bill that's been happening in the office a sphere, and it's just been you when you're, when you're leasing office, it it's capital intensive because you don't want to, you don't want to have to knock things down before you build them. Um, so you're leasing from a shell condition and then just kind of working in, um, what I've been seeing is most of the time we've been able to accommodate, uh, the build-out and amortize it into the lease without having to do as much of an allowance and tenants have been reluctant to come out of pocket for build-out. Uh, so there's been more just, uh, you know, let's increase the lease rate and, and we'll build it in, uh, in, and as far as the space planning side, more open plans, um, some of the, we, we, we obviously have different office segments. We have more of the professional service office segment, which is a little more traditional that's, you know, the mortgage brokers and real estate agents, the architects and engineers, and that's more partitioned office, but then we also have some of this tech element happening. And that's a real interesting phenomenon because it's a hybrid where people are working at home and then aggregating, um, periodically to exchange information and be trained in those kinds of things. So those are, um, some interesting floor plans for that, where it's really a training center, uh, so more of an open plan and a bigger kitchen. And then when you get into the real tech tech at work, it's very open, large work tables and very important to have, you know, the kitchen function. But it's, there's not a lot of, um, thing, not a lot of people talking on the phone no more they're they're working silently. So then, uh, made the mention, if you go into some of these companies, you feel like you're in a library and then she better not drop anything. So yeah, you know, the office side has been very interested in industrial. Um, more warehouse, we've been seeing more warehouse demand that we had seen, uh, and less of the shop with the big yard, but, uh, you know, everything cycles differently. And I'm sure as, you know, next quarter, we'll see more yard users and that kind of thing, but new has been real attractive on the industrial side. Um, just new small space of the yard has been very attractive.
Christi:Um, Jen, um, w at the height of the frenzy of the market, it seemed like you could put something up for sale and it didn't have to be perfect. It didn't have to be polished. And you were talking a minute ago about getting your property ready. How are you advising your clients now that things are normalizing a little bit about preparing their home for sale
Jen:Even more so I, I very much believe as well that having a home ready to go before it hits the market is, is the best strategy. Um, I think that buyers are going to recognize if a property is perceived to be overpriced, because maybe it's not quite that shiny penny that people were expecting. So no matter, you know, what the robustness is of the market, necessarily, you still have to have that house ready to go. Um, otherwise you're going to look at longer days on market, maybe less than less price offers, things like that. So having it ready as,
Christi:Yeah. And Anna, do you think buyers are a little pickier now that they've seen the prices rise and they, they want to make sure they're really getting the bang for the buck?
Anna:I do. And I'm seeing that in terms of inspection requests, um, it seems like those lists are getting a little longer, a little more detailed, not a thing wrong with that. Um, so having a home that's ready to go maintains, um, you know, this, this adage of, I don't want to change the carpet and the paint color because the next buyer will want to decide on that. I can argue that most times, get it back to neutral, get it clean and dialed in. And that's just usually a lot more, um, attractive to a, to a buyer.
Christi:Let's talk about, uh, our profession and the value that we bring to buyers and sellers right now. Um, I, I think there was a feeling also that sellers could just do it themselves and be fine because there was so much demand in the market. Um, you know, talk a little bit about why you think a seller should use a real estate agent, especially in a crazy busy market.
Anna:Sure. Well, I mean, the data nationally shows that that sellers will net more in their pocket by, by using a licensed professional to, to help sell their home more than anything. It's, it's getting that out there to, to the masses and in increasing the amount of people that you're, you're able to reach with your, with your home for sale. Um, there's, there are a lot of flood tips and tricks we have, right. That, uh, that we do that, that people just don't even realize. And then on the flip side of that is, is really vetting a great buyer and someone who's qualified and an agent on the other side that you know, that you can work with. And there's just so much to this. Um, I've known so many people have tried to sell, sell their house themselves. Some I've had success and some, oh yeah, I've got my householding life. I touch how's your house sold Christie. Well, yeah, they didn't have any money and this and that. And so, you know, it's really, really for, from our standpoint, understanding contracting and, and being able to really work as a fiduciary and, and negotiate for our clients and make sure that we've, um, pulled in the best candidate possible. That's why I think multiple offers are so much fun because you're, you're comparing these, you know, these points of these offers in Sam K what is, what is the best it's not.
Christi:And, and I think, I don't know what the statistic is about how often the average person sells or buys a home or go through a real estate transaction. But it's somewhere in the neighborhood of once every five to seven years. And we do how many hundreds every year. So we see a lot of contracts. We see a lot of, uh, things that can make contracts fall apart, and we know how to navigate that. And Jen, I'm sure you dealt with more than your fair share of multiple offer situations where your sellers really needed you as a guide to help get through and pick the best offer to get to the closing table
Jen:Are so many pieces to anyone, individual contract, and then you line up four or five next to each other. And it's, it's truly overwhelming in a lot of cases. So us being able to see a little bit down the road, this is what this potential buyer, um, has the ability to do, or this one has something to sell or whatever the case is. We've seen a lot of those scenarios. And so it's just helpful for us to be able to really walk those folks through that entire process
Christi:Commercial side.
Mike:Well, of course the side is it, you know, the brokerage community is important in terms of, uh, getting buildings leased. There's the w and when you're in, um, when you're a local agent and you working with out of town brokers and developing those relationships, uh, that a fsbo would be invisible to those out of town brokers because they're looking on platforms for their national tenant, and it could be a national industrial tenant office tenant, retail tenant. So having that listing is important to communicate to the world outside Mesa county, where a good part of the, uh, capital comes from. Uh, and then you get into the, just on the ground issues, uh, you know, on the industrial properties, uh, you know, title issues, uh, environmental issues, things like that that need to be navigated, and you need to understand what's important and what isn't, uh, and then our local network of agents and how we interact is very important to the commercial market. So, uh, I think it's real strategic.
Christi:I know that all of us talk quite a bit. I mean, we are trying to put deals together with each other all the time, calling each other about properties, opportunities, um, things that we see either going on that maybe, uh, the general public doesn't know about yet, you know, try to get a jump on things. It's a great network. I'm proud to be a part of it. Yeah. Um, let's talk about, uh, people that feel, um, that maybe they're getting priced out of this market. Um, and what kind of advice can you offer a buyer who is struggling with the pricing and the what's happened here?
Anna:Well, again, I think that comes back to, um, do they have a, do they have a, a good connection with getting alone? Do they have, have a good connection with somebody there that can help with some strategy in that, in that aspect? And then I think it's so important on behalf of the buyer's agent to understand what's important to the seller to be reaching out to that listing agent and understanding what, you know, how could I make this offer even more robust to your seller? It's, it's more than just typing up an offer and emailing it. It requires conversation. And I know all of us at this table know that, but, uh, you'd be surprised how many times things just randomly get sent to show
Christi:Up in your email inbox and
Anna:Never, you know, what kind of timeframe does your seller need? What's, you know, what's important. Like I said, you know, it's not always price. That's the, that's the anchor on, on, on real estate transactions and the why people do things. Sometimes they need more time. Sometimes there are other things that are going on there. And if you have a little conversation, if you can represent your buyer better,
Christi:And I know that we try to take some of the emotional stuff out of the transaction for our clients, but there is a lot of emotion. And sometimes the sellers really want to sell to a certain person or people in a certain situation, they might meet them at a showing or something. And I've had more than one seller say, I like those kids. I'm going to sell them my house.
Anna:And, you know, of course we have to be careful there, but, you know, just, just understanding, understanding what's, uh, what's important for the person on the, on the other side of this, you know, keeping, keeping that in mind. And I mean, agents just being super savvy with multiple offers and backup offers, and a lot of these things that take some time to learn, um, that can be very, very effective in helping your buyer, um, you know, get into the perfect home.
Christi:Any advice for your buyers that are feeling the squeeze on the pricing. I think
Jen:Patience is really hard to ask, but being patient and trusting, pressing the folks that you're working with, you know, our goal is to do best for our clients. And so, uh, we're gonna, you know, overturn every rock we can think of to find a property. That's good. That's going to be a fit for our clients. So be patient and go out there and explore, you know, if you find something, a buyer sees something when they're out and about that might be a fit. Call me with that address. I will do everything I can to dig in and find information out about it. But, um, patience is helpful. Preparedness is a huge piece to it. Um, and then you're right communicating with the other party as the agents to make sure that we're presenting the best possible offer for, for this scenario.
Mike:So on the commercial side, it's thinking ahead, you need to think ahead more than a year, uh, when you're leasing, you need to think about is, do I have a renewal on that lease? Is it coming up? What are my decision points? Uh, when it was more, uh, when we had a plethora space, lots and lots of it in landlords, um, we're really trying to get tenants. Okay, are you going to renew? And, and there would be a renewal option in the lease. And sometimes the tenants don't really pay attention to them back then. And now it's a little bit of a different thing where the tenants need to be moot, park more proactive about their renewals and trying to keep the conveyor belt of space under them. Um, and then, uh, when you're thinking about, you know, buying, you got to think ahead, and maybe you need to build something or just, it's gotta be more forward-looking. Yeah.
Christi:So, um, we have just a few minutes left. I kind of want to open it up to anything that you all might want to discuss. Um, but I know something that people always ask me, something that, uh, the consumers love to hear is funny stories that happen in real estate. And, uh, I was at a conference last week and Glenda baker from Atlanta was telling an amazing story. She's got millions of views on this video where she, she sold the wrong home. She had a buyer and there were two houses on the same street for sale. And he said, I want that one. And she wrote a contract on the wrong one and they closed on it and they went over to see it. And he said, did you sell me the wrong house? And she said, no, I sold you the right house over here. And she said, it worked out fine, but, uh, yeah,
Anna:My God,
Christi:I know she said her stomach dropped and yes, I can imagine, but we do. We do see a few crazy things in real estate.
Anna:Yeah. Before I showed I, it was either a Coldwell banker or a break house and they were, they were both on the same street and I was supposed to be showing this one, but we went in this one and thank goodness, the people weren't there and we're walking around and like, this just feels bigger than 1500 square feet does it. And I ran out to my car to grab a cart or something. I looked at the sign and I said, oh, well, my gosh, we're in the wrong house. I called the, I called the agency right away and said, oh my God, I can't believe I did this. And they, you know, everybody had a good laugh and no, no harm, no foul, but holy cow, I have nightmares about,
Christi:Well, I do too. And I went to a street where there were two houses right across the street from each other, both listed with Remax and the sign was down. It fell on down on one. So I just naturally went to the house with the Remax sign in front thought I was at the right place. And I did walk in on someone. Yeah. They weren't prepared for me to walk in the front door. That was exciting. Um, Jen, any fun and exciting stories. So
Jen:I have a story somewhat similar to yours, where I was showing a house for this, for this lady and her grandson was living with him with her. And he was probably 20 or so. So we always announce ourselves when we walk into a house. So knock, knock, knock, Hey, Jen Peterson, realtor, or anybody here. And I'd seen a body exit. What I thought had exited because apparently grandma had said, there's a showing you need to get out of the house and make yourself scarce. Well, he made himself scarce, but he was in a closet or to the stairs. So you come down these stairs and we're take, take a look at things and there's somebody in this closet. So it was a little shocking and a little embarrassing, I think for everybody, because we sure thought that he'd gone out the back door and wasn't in the house. So that was uncomfortable. Unusual, surprising,
Christi:Probably doesn't happen in the commercial world quite as often. But you did before marijuana laws changed, there were some interesting situations around town with marijuana growing. I'm sure.
Mike:Well, we had the, the tenants prospective tenants will tell you things like with a very high level of official, you know, voice that, oh yeah, we know what we're doing. We have six plants and we can grow this many plants for these people. And, and, and uh, but then they're making all the lease payments and cash and those kinds of things. So you just, you have to kind of understand upfront, okay, what's the, it was a no man's land for a while early on as to what, what can you really do? So, um, you know, the other side is kind of, uh, vacant, industrial buildings are always take on their own character. A lot of, lot of wildlife, a lot of birds in the buildings, a lot of, uh, one time there was a deer in a building, but it was a very large building out in Fruita that 80, a 60,000 square foot building. There was a bar now on that building too. It was pretty neat. But yeah, these buildings is kinda, uh, they're big ones and they're kind of off on by themselves. So was right. Interesting showings.
Christi:And we do get a few urban legends that, that go around to right. Like, well, I, one of my agents on my team says it was them, uh, that walked in on someone who was painting their ceiling and in the nude, uh, standing on a ladder, you know, totally naked. Yeah. That's always a little shocking when you walk in on that. Well, it's so annoying to get paint on your clothes, though. It totally is
Mike:Just wildlife in a different way. So,
Christi:Oh, I, I think something that's really interesting too, is people assume that we are looking at beautiful houses EV all day, every day, and we do love our jobs. Uh, it's a great industry to be a part of. And it, it is really fun to help sellers and buyers different perspectives on each. But, um, we see a lot of not so nice houses too. I mean, we sometimes have to go on listing appointments or showings where, um, you're worried about what you're stepping on and wait, afraid to touch things. Yeah. It can be interesting. Uh, Chris Myers on, on my team had a, uh, listing earlier this year, um, that the plumbing had broken and they had been, um, using the bathtub, uh, to go to the bathroom and yeah. And yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So there's a little story for y'all. Um, as we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to share about our current market or real estate in general?
Anna:I'm just excited about this, this next year coming up. Um, you know, the fourth quarter sometimes surprises me greatly. I think we're going to continue to be, to be very busy and I'm just, I don't know. I just love this community. I am so, so proud to be part of this and part of such a, you know, a great community of, of real estate professionals as well, but very, very cool to, to live in such a great space to be able to share it with.
Christi:Yeah, I agree. It is exciting because there's so much unknown with coming out of the pandemic and a world economy. And I, I'm excited for what grand junction has to offer people and what can happen here.
Jen:Yeah, I can. I completely agree. And I think we've got a lot of really exciting and interesting things occurring in the valley. You know, we're, we're at this beautiful spot along the riverfront today and, um, so much, so much development going along here, new businesses coming to the valley all the time. Um, and it is so exciting. I love showing new people to the valley property because it reminds me of why we fell in love with the area. So it's, it's a great place to live. It's a great place to do business fun, place to play. Yeah. I'm excited to see what are our little valley has in store
Christi:And you were born here, Mike.
Mike:That's why there today. We're ready to go skin pretty, pretty soon. I think they're going to get 10 inches on the Mesa. So that's going to be great this week and was, but hit the wet weather window over the weekend with Westwater. So yeah, was everybody was worried about the trip and then it stops raining on Saturday morning, Saturday, Sunday. So, and now we've got snow for the,
Christi:Let us know. Yeah, we need it when you drive by blue Mesa reservoir. Woo
Mike:Scary.
Christi:Absolutely. Well, I am just thrilled to have you all join me today and thanks for your hard work and professionalism and sharing your ideas and thoughts about the real estate market with us. Um, so signing off, this is Christi Reece with a Full Circle Podcast. Um, give us some comments, um, ask questions, send us a message. We'd love to answer more questions or hear from you out there watching and listening. So, all right. Thanks everybody. Thanks Christi. Bye. Thanks for listening. This is Christi Reece signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.