House Einstein Podcast #137 Transcript

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Osman: I wasn't on the ballot, and if I was, we would've won in a landslide. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. Huge landslide.

Hamish: Huge. Bigly. He would've won bigly. Well,

Osman: what's funny is we were gonna start with a quote by Thomas Jefferson talking about the importance of the balance of powers and how our voters can restore democracy if democracy runs astray, and we had a lovely quote, but then we found the Donald J. Trump quote, and I feel like-... it's, it's maybe a little more fitting.

Hamish: And with that, welcome to the House Einstein Podcast. This is

Osman: House Einstein Podcast 137. I'm Osman Parvez, and with me is...

Hamish: Hello, I'm Hamish Crabb.

Osman: And my mic is sinking. Your mic is definitely sinking. Um, all right. Well, I think it's safe to say that we're absolutely the number one podcast for real estate in Boulder. Mm. I think we might be number one in the state, because I'm not sure how many other podcasts there are in the state that talk about

Hamish: real estate. For real estate? Yeah, I think so.

Osman: But we talk about a few other things, too. So welcome to the pod. Let me walk you through today's docket. But before I do that, a little disclaimer. If you're new here, this podcast is entertainment, and, uh, please don't make any real estate decisions, financial decisions, or life decisions- Mm... on anything you hear in this podcast. If you are looking for representation or advice on your real estate transactions, you can find us at houseeinstein.com. House Einstein is the podcast sponsor, but is separate and distinct from the podcast itself. Okay, uh, what are we gonna talk about this week? Well, we are talking about... Boy,

Hamish: I mean, first guess is the election.

Osman: Absolutely. But- We're gonna be talking about the election in detail. Uh, we're also gonna hit our usual event horizon, where we talk about things that are up and coming here in Boulder that might interest you and that we may be in attendance for. In the, in our closing table segment, we're gonna talk about a recent transaction. We're gonna do a full postmortem on a closing that we had earlier this week. Gosh, it feels like it's already a week ago, but it was two days ago. It's the time change. It's- I think it's messing everybody up. Everyone's a little confused- Yeah... about what day of the week it is. Tales from the trenches, we're gonna talk about, uh, things you should and shouldn't do when you find yourself in a

Hamish: competitive offer scenario, and that's based on a recent transaction that, uh,

Osman: that where we represented the seller. Mm-hmm. And, and had a very disappointed agent who couldn't understand why we weren't countering her offer. Market update. We're gonna talk about how the Octo- October market shaped up. It's, as we're recording this, it's only November 4th, so this is preliminary data, and preliminary data can only really move in one direction, which is more sales volume, not less sales volume. Mm. But it at least should give our listeners or viewers a good idea of how the market shaped up last month in the city of Boulder, Boulder County, and Denver, and we'll probably focus in on single family houses and not do both- Okay... for the interest of time. But if you are a client or would be interested in becoming a client, we are more than happy to go deep down the rabbit hole with respect to your specific real estate situation, but we can't spend two hours just doing data analysis. We could, but we'd lose our- I'm sure-... listenership... we'd lose the entire audience. Yeah. Um, because, and also it's not very actionable.

Osman: At, at the high level, city of Boulder d- market data is not actionable. Mm. You really need to get granular for information to be useful. And then sales of the week. Yeah. We've got five of them this week, and the first one's 8707 Elu- Elgin Drive in Lafayette, then 616 Pine Street in Boulder, 826 Plateau Road in Longmont, 4475 Whitney Place here in Boulder, and 572 Lombardi Circle in Louisville. Hm. Shameless self-promotion, we're gonna be actually be talking about a rental, which I think, uh, might surprise people that sometimes we do rentals, but it's within narrow, narrow scopes, at least for now. Yeah. We've had conversations about possibly expanding that business opportunity to take on people that are not past clients, but for now, we just, we, we do v- a very limited book of rentals, uh, mostly because our competition is so bad that we feel bad referring our clients to- Yeah.... property managers that charge full price and give far less than full service.

Hamish: Yep. Okay.

Osman: And then our, our s- our nearly our last segment, we're gonna be talking about the declining importance or evolving nature of Google Search- Mm-hmm... and how AI is changing the game for lead generation and-

Hamish: Yeah... and finding clients. You might have noticed the $500 billion drop in market cap, um, from Alphabet stocks, so.

Osman: Right. That-

Hamish: Google's down... was our prompt. Yeah.

Osman: 500 billion. Um, we're gonna talk a little bit about the sad Halloween shooting that happened over the weekend. I don't think- Mm-hmm... we can ignore it, and there is a real estate angle to it. Uh, we'll, we'll be going into that in detail. Yeah. Well, with, in some detail. As morbid as it is, there is a real estate

Hamish: angle to it, right? Yeah. And, you know, with

Osman: condolences to the families- Mm-hmm... um, and all those that are traumatized by this ex- this event that happened. Shootings are very rare in Boulder, and, um, when they do happen or when there's homicidal violence in Boulder, it affects the whole community, so I think we need to really acknowledge that.

Hamish: And then our last news item is we're gonna go through the midterm

Osman: election results, and I think we've both got some things to say about this. Yep. So I'll be very interested- ... to hear what Hamish is saying, uh, as well as, uh, having a good dialogue on the big blue wave that most of Boulder, the vast majority of Boulder is celebrating- Yeah... today.

Hamish: We'll see a good dialogue on my end. But n- I, I can promise dialogue. Okay, great. Yeah. Um, we're gonna go through

Osman: the ballot initiatives as well as, uh, national-... kind of key races that, uh, that were run that I think have an impact. And then we're also gonna talk about the new c- incoming council. Friend of the pod, Tara Winer, was one of the winners last night, and, uh, and, uh, somebody I also think of as a friend, Aaron Brockett, was elected mayor. Oh, nice. So that's excellent news, and we'll g- we'll talk about- Continues to be my mayor... continues to be

Hamish: mayor. Okay. Yeah. He, he, he

Osman: withstood the challenge- ... of, and the accusations of, of, um, incompetent leadership, which I think is, is saying something. He's also, he's also a kind and sort of, uh, and I would say gentle human. Mm. Um, and, and very ethical in his, how he talks about others. And I think facing all those charges were a little bit feather ruffling.

Hamish: Charges like accusations. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and- Criticisms

Osman: and- Although some of the criticism may be, may be-... valid of council, but at the same time-

Hamish: Mm-hmm... um, the going low and overly aggressive- Oh my gosh

Osman: ... uh, you know, did result in this person getting a lot of votes, but, um, did not succeed. And I think that s- also speaks to the nature of our community. Mm-hmm. Like, we, we are a community that appreciates good discussion and dialogue, but don't get excited when people- There's a low tolerance for cheap shots. Yeah. Yeah. There's a low tolerance for cheap shots in our community, and I think that's also evident in, in the big blue wave on the national level. Good lord, yeah. It was- That our country, I think, is tired of cheap shots. Yep. Okay. All right, and then this- Obviously

Hamish: we're ready to talk about that segment,

Osman: but - Yeah, we are almost talking about it right now. Yeah. But we're gonna make you wait, or maybe you could fast-forward in the pod if that's all you wanna hear about. Mm-hmm. Um, and then our last segment is our usual carve-outs, and carve-outs is where we talk about anything we wanna talk about, whether it's related to real estate or not. It's just happens to be top of mind, little side passion projects or the

Hamish: like. Mm-hmm.

Osman: And that's our docket for today. Yeah.

Hamish: Welcome to, uh, the House Einstein podcast. If there's anything that we're discussing that interests you and you'd like to look it up, uh, especially sales of the week, we talk about the pictures for the listings, um, the links are in the description below or on our website at houseeinstein.com if you'd like to click along with us. Yep. Well- You can also find us all

Osman: over the internet on TikTok, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Meta, and of course YouTube if you're not watching that right now.

Hamish: Yeah. All right, Event Horizon. Oh, yeah. I'm all, I'm still used to the closing table being the next

Osman: one. Nope. Well, we are gonna start with events. Have you- And, and we're looking out a little further than the coming weekend. We want to make sure that the people listening have an opportunity to actually go check out some of these events. So our, our first one is a family event, Saturday, November 14th, 10:00 to 12:30 at Heil Valley Ranch at the Wapiti Trailhead. There's only space for 25 people. It is the Gobble Gobble Wild Turkey Program. It's a short hike, plus crafts and games. It's all about wild turkeys that live along the Front Range, and sounds like a perfect event for

Hamish: family. If you've ever looked at a turkey and wondered, "Why?" that might be the event for you.

Osman: Like, I will say that the Open Space d- Department, Boulder County Open Space, as well as our s- our city departments that deal with open space, put on some really lovely programs. Mm. And they are absolutely worth attending, and they usually fill out. Like in other words, you- if you don't click n- the link and sign up for it, you might lose your chance. Mm. And if you have young people in your life, this is a great way to go out and learn something new and enjoy the Colorado weather. It's just- Yeah... it is a lovely, lovely program put on by Boulder County Open Space. You should check it out. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Hamish: This one's a bit of you, the Historic Boulder Pearl Street Walking Tour,

Osman: uh, November 19th, 10:00 to 11:30. You said it's a bit of me?

Hamish: Yeah. I mean, I'm,

Osman: I'm not on the board of Historic Boulder. No. I'm just a member of- Oh, shoot, yeah... but I'm a big fan of Historic Boulder, and we're friends with, um, multiple members of its leadership and bo- on, and on their board. Like, we have a lot of good connections with Historic Boulder, and- Yeah... I love their mission.

Hamish: Um- This event, though, you'd typically go to these, right? This event, we m- we might go to this. Yeah. It definitely would be high

Osman: on, on my calendar, uh, on my list of things to do. November 19th, 10:00 to 11:30. Starts at the Boulder County Courthouse. It's 90 minutes. You're gonna walk through Pearl Streets or walk past Pearl Street's historic buildings, and, uh, there will be somebody there that will be educating you about all this, uh, all, all these beautiful historic buildings. So it, it is absolutely worth attending if you are available, and there's a link to it. There- there's probably a small fee.

Hamish: Um- I think it was like 15 bucks last I

Osman: looked. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it supports the nonprofit. It's, it's de minimis, the fee. Yeah. It's worth, it's worth attending. And we've actually turned some of our past walking tours into content. Mm-hmm. So there's a chance for that. If I feel inspired, I might bring the mics. Last time I, I l- I mic'd the presenter. Yeah, that was a great idea. And that was really helpful, but I couldn't always get him in frame, so

Hamish: it's just, it's, it is, um- That's okay, 'cause then you can go in the house or, yeah. Well, walking.

Osman: This is like downtown, so walking past these historic buildings. But w- well, if I do m- if I do mic the presenter, if they agree to that, uh, then I might put that on, on my social personally or on

Hamish: House Einstein's YouTube. I believe the YouTube has a, our YouTube has a playlist called Historic Boulder, which, uh- Oh, really? Oh, all right... organizes all of those together,

Osman: so. Okay, so you're encouraging- They do... me to go do this. Uh,

Hamish: shh, maybe I should just put it on my calendar- Feel what you feel...

Osman: right now. Yeah. Um, all right. Live music. So as you probably have discovered by listening to the last few podcasts, Hamish and I are both into live music, and- Ooh... Colorado has a fantastic live music scene. What, you're not? I'm not very good at live music, personally. What do you mean you're not good? Like, you just have

Hamish: to go there. Like, uh, yeah. I'm not a huge enjoyer of live music.

Osman: I'm just learning this about you. I feel like I'm not dropping it. Yeah, well... Oh, I guess I didn't ask. I just assumed you were, 'cause most young people-

Hamish: I know... are. And it's, uh, it's actually been a str- a struggle growing up, 'cause everybody's like, "I've got free concert tickets," and I'm like Go and stand in a crowded area doesn't sound great to me.

Osman: Well, the only thing I don't like- So-... is how late a lot of the big concerts go. Mm-hmm. Um, but most of these are actually at a reasonable time- Well, yeah... which might be why

Hamish: they're on the list. And I'll caveat too, like the Gold Hill Inn, awesome venue, and kind of you don't have to just be there for

Osman: the music. You can go sit down and- Mm... spend time with friends. What if you could go sit down like E'Town or Ch- or Chautauqua or- Sitting, sitting ones-... The Dairy... I'm

Hamish: more interested in, yes. I have to say. At the Gordon Gamm, you have a- Okay... theater seat to sit in. My enjoyment of live music currently is fluid. Okay. So that's- So it's only when

Osman: you have to stand in a crowd that you don't like it. Specifically that so far. So Red Rocks, for example. Yeah. You

Hamish: hated that. Oh my God. Yeah. The, I mean, the

Osman: only thing about Red Rocks is I just don't like people that are vaping and like I, I didn't go there to get high. It's a festival now. Yeah. Right. I, and so that's really annoying or, and, or worse, people smoking cigarettes, but that's

Hamish: pretty rare these days. Mm. Okay. Sorry to derail.

Osman: That was quite an interesting revelation, Hamish. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, our first two events are at the Gold Hill Inn. Mm. Patrick Deathlefs. I'm not sure I'm saying his name right- Mm... but this is folk Americana, November 8th, 6:30 in the Gold Hill Inn bar room. It's free, there's no cover, and it starts at 6:30 and you'll be home by 9:30, right? This is not a late night- Yeah... at the Gold Hill Inn. And, um, Pat- Patrick Deathlefs, uh, you know, it sounds like fun and- Yeah. Uh, Gold Hill is a gorgeous historic town, so you get there early, go for a walk. Um, if you're, if you're really on it, schedule dinner. Uh, at some point they're gonna close for the season. I don't know their actual closing date but- Mm... then they're offline for a few months. Ragged Union is also at the Gold Hill Inn, Friday, November 13th, 8:00 PM. This time there's a $20 cash cover. Same advice, get there early. Don't wait to try to get there on eight, you will likely not find, um, that you will be able to get in.

Osman: You'll just be enjoying the music from the street. So bluegrass and beyond is Ragged Union, and this band is, is marketed as having toured coast to coast, England and China. Wow. I'm not sure that that means a lot to me, but it, it, I would check them out online and if you like the, the sound of Ragged Union, go check them out. That's,

Hamish: yeah, that's bluegrass. It was my first live concert, which might contribute to my disliking of live music.

Osman: May- you don't like bluegrass either? I went to a bluegrass festival for my first live movie. You went to a bluegrass festival- Yeah... for your first live music experience? The city of Broomfield was putting it on- That's really funny... and my

Hamish: grandparents were like, "You're going."

Osman: That's really funny. Yeah. Okay.

Hamish: Anyhow. Well,

Osman: Sheila Bringhe and Eldon Kelly are playing at Chautauqua. Sheila is a, is a friend of mine and a fantastic musician. Tickets are $28.50. It's November 13th, 8:00 PM. I, I've enjoyed every one of her concerts and, and not just because she's a friend. Mm. I think she's extremely talented and it's, uh, and Chautauqua is a fantastic place too. Uh, and there are multiple different places you can see things at Chautauqua. Likely it's at a small, um, a small venue at Chautauqua, not at the actual like giant-

Hamish: The, 'cause they got that big amphitheater. It's not at the- Right

Osman: ... the big theater. Yeah. It's probably, and here I'll click the link and just verify where is it at Chautauqua. It's almost certainly

Hamish: in, in the smaller buildings. Mm-hmm. Um- So likely indoors.

Osman: Yeah, The House Series. Okay. Uh, so this is the Ch- the Chautauqua Community House, which is really an intimate space. Um, and pro tip, you can park pretty easily, um, and then take the social trails. Mm. Oh, cool. Right? Like you- Yeah... don't have to park right at Chautauqua. Um, and even better pro tip, go, go at 6:00 and, and make reservations and have dinner at Chautauqua at the dining hall.

Hamish: I did not know they- And now you can have-... had dinner there... a

Osman: whole even- you make a whole evening. Look, the, this is what you should do for a date. Yeah, no, these- It's a perfect date night...

Hamish: are, I'm just- Tickets are 30- I've got my notebook here.

Osman: ... 28.50. Yeah. Book the dinner in advance 'cause you wanna make reservations. Um, and then, yeah, make dinner reservations for 6:00 or 6:30. Mm-hmm. And you'll be out of there by 7:30 and roll over to the concert.

Hamish: Yeah. Yep.

Osman: Good. A nice, a nice evening. Okay, let's keep moving on. Yep. All right, Hamish. Secento. Baroque Ensemble. Secento Baroque Ensemble Magnificat, which is at the Gordon Gamm in The Dairy, November 15th. This is choral music and I will say to you, you probably didn't know I did a lot of choral music in my life. Can you, what is choral music? Oh. You know, you know like choirs- Choral, like choir. Okay... and chorales? Yeah.

Hamish: Yeah. So I- I'm reading now.... I, I have

Osman: done a ton of that, um, starting in third grade, maybe second grade- Wow... in a p- a public school in upstate New York. So I, every year throughout my high school, all the way through high school and then into college I was part of choruses and choirs. Nice. And so I've still got a, a soft spot for these events and, uh, there's one coming at The Dairy, November 15th, 34.50 are tickets. Secento Baroque Ensemble, which sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah. All right. Our last one is a radio taping at E'Town, and this is a very unique experience. E'Town is a nationally syndicated program on NPR. Oh, okay. And they record right here at E'Town Hall and so it's not a normal concert- Mm-hmm... because it's interrupted by the producers as they work through the, the recording- Okay... of this, and they give you instructions on when to clap and stuff like that. Um, so but you still

Hamish: f- experience a fantastic- I mean, probably their best, right? A fan- 'Cause they're broadcasting... well, they're, I mean, they're

Osman: trying to make it their best- Yeah... for sure. Um, so Jake Xerces Fussell and Meg Loue are playing Sunday, November 15th. Doors are at 6:00, show is at 7:00. 48 bucks for general admission, 63 bucks if you wanna sit up in front, uh, in the gold circle, but frankly, the general admission tickets are fine because E'Town Hall was designed, was architecturally designed for fantastic acoustics. Oh, great. So you don't have to be right up front, but you, for, for only 63 bucks you can be. And, uh, Fussell reworks old folk songs from Georgia and North Carolina and, uh, Meg Loue's debut album was produced by Suf, Sufjan Stevens, world-class famous musician. So, um, you can't take, you know, pictures and photos of, you know, can't take photos or record these events 'cause it's, it's a live radio taping. Right. 100% worth going, fun event, and if you, if this one doesn't interest you, check out another E'Town radio taping. They're, they're really unique.

Hamish: Yeah. No, that's re- super cool. I have a reworking old folk song is what I'm thinking about, like Devil Went Down to Georgia and, and some of those, if... You know that song? Oh, I... Oh, I know that song. It's just not an old folk song. It's not?

Osman: It's like a, it's like a country- Classic. Like- From... It's like coun- There's a genre of, like, country rock from the '70s. Mm-hmm. It's like that. So that's sort of what it qualifies as. It's definitely not...

Hamish: Well, chose what I know.

Osman: That's really cute, Hamish. Thanks. That's adorable. All right. Um, we're gonna have- Other events. We're gonna have a conversation about your depth of music knowledge at some point. And maybe I'm just old. Um, other events, and then we'll wrap it up here. Mm-hmm. So Warren Miller's Days Off. Warren Miller, for every year for the last 77 years, has had, uh, the kickoff to Boulder's ski season with a film, and this- Oh... is the 77th ann- 77- I can't be right. 77th annual. I wanna double-check the AI. Can you check this while I'm talking? Thursday, November 12th, and Friday, November 13th at 7:30 PM. Saturday, November 4th, at 2, 5, and 8 PM, and this is a big production here in Boulder every year. I don't know about 77 annual ones. That really kinda shocks me, but, um, he is... I mean, Warren Miller's been around a long time, so he's- It says 77- 77th film. Yeah, 77th film, not 77th annual. Uh, this is the 77th film. Let's correct that. Thank you. Um, okay. And then CU Buffs are playing Houston. That's Friday, November 13th at, at Folsom Field.

Osman: It's a Friday night home game- Oh... under the lights, and, uh, because it's a weekend kickoff, you should probably plan a tailgate. I think that would be a really fun tailgate event. I'm gonna see if Lee and I can figure out tickets and f- get in on a, a rotary tailgate or something like

Hamish: that. I got trapped by Boulder traffic pre a game on Saturday, and it was the worst experience I'd ever had in Boulder with traffic. And so easily avoidable. I had a showing.

Osman: All you had to know was that there was gonna be a lot of traffic and work your way around it. I had a showing in Gold Run-

Hamish: Oh, no... right there. Oh, no. Wow. And it took me 30 minutes to get on a road that left Boulder from Gold Run.

Osman: Yeah. That... Oh, so it was after your showing? Yep. At least it weren't inconveniencing a client. Oh my

Hamish: gosh. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Yeah, no kidding.

Osman: I mean, when, when Boulder has big events, what we typically do is throw the bikes on the back of the car- Mm-hmm... and then park where we know there won't be traffic, we'll be able to get in and out easily, and then ride our bike, uh, bikes to where we wanna go, lock the bikes. These are townie bikes. We're not worried about bike theft. Yep. And, um, and that we... I mean, it's easier to get around Boulder on a bicycle than it is to get around Boulder in a car- Yeah... when there's a big event happening, like a CU football game or,

Hamish: or Sundance, or- Oh my gosh, yeah... the Bolder

Osman: Boulder, um, or even the Bolderthon at this point. It's grown big enough that it disrupts traffic pretty heavily.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. So expect, expect that. Yeah. That was crazy. That was just my first proper interaction with that. I was like, "Is the world ending? Why are all these streets closing? Like, what's going on?" But football, get after it.

Osman: The Denver Botanic Garden down in- Yep... down in Denver. Hello. The Denver Botanic Garden every year does a holiday lights, and, uh, tickets go on s- They're super popular. Mm-hmm. I've now done them two or three years in a row- Yeah... with friends, and, um, I'll share some funny stories about that- Okay... off pod. But let's just say that it's a lot of fun. And they run from November 20th through January 10th, but you really should get your tickets well in advance. And tickets start going on sale November 9th, so that's- Mm-hmm... just your heads-up too. If you're planning to go check out the, the Blossom of Lights at the Denver Botanic Garden, buy those tickets early.

Hamish: And I'll say, too, it's, uh, actually good that you distinguished that it's in Denver. I was researching this one, and they have a Trail of Lights that's in

Osman: Littleton. Yeah, totally.

Hamish: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver to s- Blossom of Lights. Radically different. Yeah.

Osman: Okay, Save the Merc Benefit. So the Mercan- the Merc-

Hamish: Mm-hmm... or a mercantile is a institution

Osman: in Jamestown. It's, it's historic. It supports the mountain community, and the owner of the Merc, owner of the building, would like to sell it and move on, exit from that ownership, and the current operator would like to buy it, and they've been working on setting up a nonprofit foundation. I don't know how far along they are with that process, but this is a benefit for that endeavor, and it's November 18th down here in the City of Boulder at the Boulder Theater. And there are is, there's a lineup of local artists, Daniel Rodriguez, Lindsay Lou, Emma and Charlie Rose, David Satori, Foggy Mountain Spaceship with Andy Thorne, and Dirty Turkeys. Turkey theme this... Yeah, more turkey theme. Yeah. So this is, this could be a fun mountain hootenanny type event but without having to go up to the mountains. Um, so November 18th, mark your calendar for that. Doors are at 6:00, show is at 7:00. And then last but not least... Oh, nope, almost. Almost last but not least. Um, this is a really weird one that I almost took off the, the docket list, because I had never heard of it.

Osman: And now it just sounds really quirky and fun, so I think we're gonna put this on our calendar. Oh, nice. Although, it's a really long- It's a bit... I, I think you- Okay... you know, can come and go. The whole day is called Switch on the Holidays, Sunday, November 22nd. It starts at 11:00. It ends at 7:00. And in the 1300 block of Pearl Street. It's free. There's a cookie crawl that runs from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

Osman: My type of crawl. And then Tuba Christmas plays at 3:30. So Hamish, do you wanna explain what Tuba Christmas is? I, I'm

Hamish: imagining, I know you looked it up. Going off the name, it is a extremely tuba-heavy, um, rendition of Christmas classics or Christmas classics with a very strong base of tubas.

Osman: Yes. Yeah. I mean, that's more or less it in a nutshell. I, we did look it up on AI to see what the heck is this, and it was founded in the '70s as a tribute, um, to a teacher and mentor, and the... And basically, it's what Ha- Hamish said. It's groups of tuba, euphonium, baritone, sousaphone, and other low brass tuba family players performing Christmas carols in public concerts. So this has been going on for 50 years. I've never heard of it before, but it sounds really fun. And kinda quirky and weird. So this event's free. Um, the music has been arranged for a tuba choir, and typically players of all ages are welcome. So if you wanna play in it, you might wanna do some more research, but if you just want to attend, it's starting at 3:30, it's free on November 22nd, downtown Boulder, and then the Christmas lights go on at 5:00 PM. And then free Santa visits- Oh, nice... run until 7:00 PM. That's not free Santa like, like you're trying to free Santa. Yeah. It's like there are free Santa visits- Yeah, I think-... until

Hamish: 7:00 PM. Yeah... they, I mean, they probably have an age limit, but. Probably not. So you can go sit on Santa's lap?

Osman: Um, if you really want to, Hamish, I think you, you could go sit on

Hamish: Santa's lap, 100%. Cookie crawl plus Santa's lap. That's a wonderful date night. Date... Another date night. Yeah. And free,

Osman: and tuba Christmas- Yep... which is something.

Hamish: Yeah. Hot chocolate and tubas.

Osman: Okay, and we don't normally talk about the farmers market because it's every Saturday, but the last one is coming up for the season. Yeah. So Saturday, November 21st on 13th Street, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. If you want to enjoy the farmers market, you have a couple more weeks, and then the last one is November 21st for the season. Yeah. This podcast is sponsored by House Einstein. We serve buyers and sellers in Colorado, focusing on Boulder, Denver, and several mountain resort towns, including Breckenridge and Winter Park. Our mission is simple: help you make a smarter real estate decision. You can learn more at houseeinstein.com or on our YouTube channel, where you'll find videos on neighborhoods, specific listings, and much, much more. Cool. All right. All right. Time to talk about a postmortem. Mm-hmm. And this is our closing table topic. Hamish, do you wanna kinda introduce the idea of the postmortem for those that aren't familiar? Yeah.

Hamish: Gonna be tongue in cheek and, you know, uh, deaths aren't always a bad thing, and in this case it's the end of our deal. It's post-terminal. No. Um, yeah, we recently closed on 245 30th Street, uh, with some buyers that we'd been, um, representing for I think a good year and a half. And, uh, I mean, we had written quite a few offers for these- Wait, hold on, hold on. I, I- I'm sorry... I'm, I wanna you to introduce the- Oh...

Osman: deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is a, what is a postmortem?

Hamish: Um, give me just a sec. I gotta get this time code. A postmortem, um, for me, it's a recap, right? Like, a, an event happened or, or something passed, and now that it's in the rear view mirror, uh, you kind of intentionally take advantage of the 20/20 hindsight you're given, and you can look through, um, what transpired, what you could have done better, um, and maybe plan for a different outcome next time, or plan for a better version of the outcome you already had.

Osman: Exactly. And as a learning organization, we really wanna learn from our mistakes, as well as learn from our successes, and the only way to do that consistently is to institutionalize the practice. And it's easy to lament the failures and kind of, like, I don't know, what's the word? Ruminate on them- Mm-hmm... i- individually or organizationally, but most of the time, in my experience, organizations don't really hit the pause button to look back on the entire flow of the deal and learn from it, right or w- or not right or wrong, but whether or not it was a deal that closed. Right. So this particular deal, 245 30th Street, as Hamish mentioned, we've been working with these buyers for at least 18 months, and maybe a little longer than that. And I... Our deal folder has at least five.

Osman: It might have six. There might be more,

Hamish: um, because they're split up by year as well. That's true. So we might have, like, three for this year and then

Osman: three for last year. Oh, I was just, I was just talking about our deal folder and the contract writing software, but yes. Yeah. Oh, true, yeah. Absolutely. Um, and, and not every deal that we wrote a contract on did we submit. Mm-hmm. So there were deals where they asked us to start writing a contract, or we preemptively wrote one because we thought they're likely to submit- Mm-hmm... only to find out they decided not to submit. Um, there was also a backup offer in there, so there are lots of... The, the deal folder is rich with work. And, um, along the way, we helped educate them on the market. I mean, that's really the key, right? Yeah. Like, in terms of what we learned is, in this particular deal, um, these particular, these clients were disciplined, they were patient, they were not under pressure because they have been living in a rental house. Mm-hmm. And that rental house has... But,

Hamish: I mean, I'll just- Yeah.... point blank say it. Yeah. "I

Osman: own a rental house." And because they chose us to represent them, um, we gave them a, a month to month.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. We said, "After your next lease..."

Osman: Uh, actually, what we said is, "If your lease... If you need to end your lease early-" Right... "because we found you a property, and if we represented you, you, you could terminate the lease without penalty, and, and we'll be especially generous on, on any sort of- Mm, mm, yeah.... you know, security deposit deductions for damage. We'll... You know, we're gonna work with you on all of that in a very

Hamish: generous way." Oh, I told them I'd be there with a white glove.

Osman: Did you? Yeah, closing. That's pretty funny. Yeah. That's, hopefully they laugh. No,

Hamish: yeah, that went over well. Oh, okay.

Osman: So I, it's a high-trust relationship, right? Mm-hmm. And high-trust relationships are not born from one interaction. They may be... Like, for example, maybe people are finding us through this podcast, and hopefully the way we conduct ourselves on this podcast increases or engenders trust, but really, trust is built on many small experiences over time. And so it helped to have that longer working relationship, and it helped to not have pressure in the deal, but not everybody has the- Mm-hmm... the benefit of that much flexibility. Um, when, when they do, they're less likely to overpay in a bidding war- Yeah... and, um, they're less likely to choose a house that's a bad fit. So th- in this particular case, one of the things we also learned that... or, or was really brought home is just how painful being disciplined can feel. Yeah. Because when you're disciplined and you're not under a lot of pressure and you don't overpay, the market doesn't necessarily reward you. It can punish you-

Hamish: There's no payoff. Or at least it can

Osman: feel like punishment because you saw this beautiful house, you, you thoroughly checked it out, you wrote a very reasonable but, and, and a over list price offer- Mm-hmm... but somebody came in and, guns blazing, and blew you out of the water at 150,000 over where you were. Right. And that happened to us once, and they were so upset with that experience, and I felt bad for them too. They took a break, right? Like, just a month.

Hamish: They were like, "We're..." Yeah. They needed, like, a,

Osman: they, they needed a break after that- Yeah... but they clearly wanted that house, and they did, they wanted to pay a fair market value or maybe even a premium, but they, these are people that have earned their money. These are people that are not sitting on millions of dollars of family support to go guns blazing. Mm-hmm. And so, and they weren't under pressure, so somebody else wa- was willing to do that. And I, and honestly, you, it's just... I don't know if the reward of overpaying is, is worth it, right? Like, we have, we have documented sales week after week this year where people have lost money- Right... by buying at the peak of the market in 2022, grossly overpaying, and then having to come back and try to sell it now in this market and realizing that they're, they're gonna, they're gonna sell... Like, there's one in, that we'll be talking about in prob- prospect, we're, we're talking about $80,000 loss from- Mm-hmm... what they paid for it a few years ago.

Hamish: Yeesh. Yep, there it is. Right? No, and then some. Yeah, I guess on that front, because we talked, uh, podcast listeners, you probably recognize we talked about 2310 Kenwood Drive, uh, only a couple podcasts ago, and in that one we kind of said yes, down market, but

Osman: desirable property. And- What do you mean down market? Um,

Hamish: l- like the market as a, in a broader sense is seeing a lot of price cuts. However, this particular home in this neighborhood- Right... was still...

Osman: Yeah. Broadly speaking, what Hamish means is the market has been down. Mm-hmm. But within certain pockets and certain neighborhoods and certain price points, the market is still seeing bidding wars because there's so little inventory, and there are so many buyers for that particular type of asset. Mm-hmm. And that is true for 245 30th Street as well. So let's talk about this house really quick. I'm gonna open up, um, my MLS software. Hang on. Get some of these windows open. We need them for the pod.

Hamish: Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's a three bed, two bath, uh, 2,088 square feet. Uh, it's in, it's on 30th Street in Martin Acres, and Osman, I kind of think of you mentally as the Martin Acres uh, guru, so what do you- Okay. That's the better area, right? Well, so

Osman: 30th Street is a fantastic street, and we have multiple clients on the street, which is really interesting, 'cause I had the opportunity to introduce our clients to other clients that have lived on the street for years and we now consider close friends. So it's a street I wouldn't hesitate to live on. And, um, this particular ranch, built in the '50s like most of the neighborhood, had an addition, and the addition was originally a vaulted ceiling.

Hamish: That's right. Which

Osman: w- what we heard later through the transaction was intended for an owner who was into aerial acrobatics,

Hamish: and that's why there's that big hook on the ceiling. I wondered about

Osman: that. But then later, the new owner, uh, or the next owner, put in a floor there and, and stairs to make that space more useful. Mm-hmm. Like, why have 15-foot vaulted ceilings for one particular unique practice when you could create a second story here? So that's what they did. Yeah,

Hamish: double the square footage of that addition.

Osman: Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Three bedroom, two bath. Um, it did not have a garage, but had two sheds in the back. Mm-hmm. And had been nicely remodeled. So the house had, had some nice touches. Um, and, and, and the vaulted ceilings and skylights in the house, along with the very tastefully done kitchen, um, all of this helped cement the

Hamish: deal. Mm-hmm.

Osman: So, or at least cement our client's interest. And okay, so this is where we get into, to deal notes. Um, you know, one of the strategies that we have employed-... or at least give our clients the option of is whether to play hurry-up offense. And when I say hurry-up offense, I mean we go in guns blazing day one of the listing- Yep... and we might ignore entirely any instructions we're getting from the listing agent, or partially, um, because the listing agent has a legal obligation to present all offers. They can't actually say that if you submit on a, on a Friday that... They, they can tell you, "Come back on Monday." Yeah. But they have to legally present it to their client. Mm-hmm. So knowing that, you can create a lot of pressure on the seller by offering a number that is better than they expected with very reasonable terms or, or crawled, crawled back, dialed back contingencies.

Osman: And that basically puts the seller in a position of, do you accept this offer that's better than anticipated, bird in hand, or do you gamble on all these other showings that may or may not be happening over the weekend? Two in the bush. And, and ask people to resubmit on Sunday or Monday. Mm-hmm. And in theory, the person who submitted on Friday should come back on Sunday or Monday with the same or better offer, but that doesn't always work out that way. Yeah. In some cases, they change their mind then because they feel jilted. You know, remember, this is very much an emotional process. Mm-hmm. You would think if they wanted it on Friday, they would want it on Monday. The problem, okay, let's say, let's say they resubmit the exact same offer. Right. And now it's accepted on a Sunday or a Monday.

Osman: The emotional impact of that to the buyer is, "Oh, are we overpaying?" Mm-hmm. Like, did we go way too high? Because they collected offers on- It was on a whole weekend and nothing yet... all weekend. They said they got three offers, and we're still the highest? And even though they're happy they got it under contract, you've now introduced a big seed of doubt. Mm-hmm. And that seed of doubt may come back to haunt you when they terminate the deal on something for inspection, but really they're terminating the deal because they don't like the price. Right. And they, they... And so desirability and price have a relationship, and through the, the tenor of the transaction, through the course of the transaction, particularly in the early phases, you can really damage the buyer's impression of the home with how you conduct yourself as a seller.

Osman: Um, but if you accept that offer, the buyer might feel lucky they got it and, um... Or you, but you have an opportunity cost in having given up as a seller- Right ... the other offers that may show up. So you are now reading the tea leaves of the showings and the people that are seeing the house trying to make a determination- Mm-hmm... on what you should, as the listing agent, advise your seller to do. And now there's one more piece I wanna add to this, and that's the experience of the listing agent really matters. And listing agents that are new to the business or don't do a lot of transactions or frankly are not very skilled negotiators, they will not really know what to tell their seller and how to guide them through this. Right. But an experienced listing agent, like the agent on this one, Botsey Phillips, is extremely f- experienced. Um, I think him and I got into the business within a year or two of each other. He does a lot of volume, um, and he's always conducted himself ethically and professionally.

Osman: Um, he certainly gave his client the right advice, which was, "Why don't we tell them, let's g- instead of waiting till Monday, let's wait till Sunday- Mm-hmm... and collect offers on Sunday." Um, and we had to come back to our client and say, "I'm sorry, the hurry-up offense didn't work this time." We were up against an

Hamish: experienced agent. He slowed us down Got their attention So now

Osman: you have an opportunity. He also said, "No escalations" Mm-hmm 'cause that escalation was very tempting that we put in there Okay And now we're in a no escalation environment, so- I

Hamish: mean, he says that, but he has to present every offer as- He does... I mean, that would be sheisty, right? Like

Osman: Well, so it's not sheisty It's, what I would think about it is that if you... So what Hamish is referring to is when the listing agent gives you instructions on whether or not to allow for escalations in your offer, you don't have to obey them Mm-hmm They still have to present the offer Right And the reason some agents hate escalations is because they get pretty complicated pretty fast and you are now comparing not just price, but the other terms of the best offer Mm-hmm Because you shouldn't escalate unless you are escalating against an offer of similar or better terms, and they have to show you. And I think transparency is beneficial to everybody. The buyer feels like they're not overpaying. There really was another offer that pushed them higher Mm-hmm The seller knows that, hey, you actually cleared the table, but you're not getting unjust desserts, right? Like, you actually got the market leading price Right But there's not an air ball between the top offer and the next offer Yeah, like, yeah. Right?

Osman: Like, there's not this giant gap that you get the gross benefit of Mm-hmm So it's actually more fair and more transparent, but a lot of agents hate them, and Bhatti came back and said, "No escalations." Our original offer had an escalation We respected that. And so we respected that the second time around, and, or even the first time around- Yeah... because he was not, he did not tell us that the first time Right And the second time around we respected that, and we came back with a slightly better offer, and we also made sure to encourage our clients to communicate with their mutual

Hamish: friends, uh, of the seller- That's right. Yeah, there's that little card... to increase

Osman: the probability of us getting the offer. There's no harm or foul, and there's nothing... Like, they didn't contact the seller directly. They just happened to have mutual friends, so a mutual friend put in a good word. That doesn't hurt us. And, um, and people have a tendency to be more respectful if you treat them with respect and if you humanize yourself. And this is one of the things with multiple offer scenarios, is that without a cover letter or some human connection to who these people are, they're just names on a page Yeah And now you're focused on things like only on the merits of the offer, but we're talking about real estate, and people's emotions matter, and they're friends with the neighbors. And so selling to a family versus an investor might actually make a difference Mm-hmm Or selling to people- Definitely... that are in your friendship circles might make a difference.

Osman: Um, and of course all those things might also create liability for the seller, which is why when you're on the flip side of this, as the listing agent, you try to run a s- an, a s- like a smoke screen Yeah Right? Like, if we get multiple offers, we present the multiple offers in a table- Mm-hmm... showing only the merits of the offer, and we even anonymize the names of the agents- Just initials, yeah... and the names of the, uh, of the buyers, but we al- we do include the experience of the agent- Mm-hmm... because experience is correlated

Hamish: with closings, in my opinion Yeah. And, and a, a working relationship history if there is any too

Osman: 100%. Yeah If you have, if you conduct yourself as an agent with integrity and with good communication, and you hold your clients to the contract they wrote, by the way, you are much more likely to have a good reputation in this business Mm-hmm So experienced agents, I, I can't prove it, I haven't done this data analysis, but it just makes sense. Think about it. The longer you're in this business, the better you get, and you will have better client management and client control Mm-hmm Which... And client control means, like,

Hamish: you're keeping your clients from- Expectations for the, of the clients

Osman: too, like, yeah You're, you're setting expectations properly. You're h- you're reminding them of what they wrote into the contract

Hamish: Yeah. Hey, by the way, guys. By the... And in some cases we've even

Osman: reiterated the good faith provision, not just for the benefit of the seller, but for the benefit of our buyer Mm-hmm "Let me remind you that this is a legal agreement" Yeah. "And we've agreed to conduct ourself in this way" Yep So when you do something that's not that way because it feels a little unfair in the deal or whatever reasons, you are damaging that container- Mm-hmm... um, that you may still end up with the house, so, you know, our clients make the decisions, but experienced agents definitely have better management of their clients.

Hamish: Totally So And I would say too, like experience, uh, not necessarily... Th- there's, it's more volume versus, uh, time a, time of licensure. Something I think we discussed, um, when we were talking about, like, kind of the brokerages in Colorado. Some people have their licenses and just park them, and agents also gotta have a decent amount of volume passing through too

Osman: Absolutely Yeah Uh, a year of licensing is not indicative of experience, and agents that do a lot of business in Boulder know each other pretty darn well It's the small town It's a small s- it's a small town. Versus an agent in Denver that is coming into Boulder to do one deal every year or one deal every three years is not gonna have the reputation, the social capital, to potentially influence the deal toward you as a buyer. So keep that in mind when you're choosing your agents

Hamish: Mm-hmm Um, okay, so

Osman: 100%, by the way, Bhatti was a fantastic- Counterparty?... counterparty in the deal, and we did hit some hiccups, and we worked together to find solutions, and I wanna compliment him on his communication, um, and on his professionalism. He's a top-notch agent. The lender on the other hand, um, not the lender who closed the deal Sure Our lender who closed the deal was fine. It's our first deal with him, so we're not gonna mention their name, but there was another lender in the deal A poacher? Uh, what I would call-... a deal homewrecker Okay. Or a deal wrecker Yeah And this person, um, has a banking relationship with our clients, and they said, "Hey, by the way, if you go with us for your mortgage provider, you know, we're already your investment manager" Right "If you allow us to be your loan provider, we'll give

Hamish: you this sweetheart rate" Like unbelievably good one "But

Osman: we'll need you to extend closing 30 days beyond what you have in the contract to make that happen" Mm-hmm And so, boy, we, uh, you know, it was, it was challenging because that was really attractive. Monthly payments matter when you're on a budget, and rates are, are m- are really high right now- Right... so a sweetheart rate was really attractive. It turns out it wasn't, it wasn't actually gonna be feasible

Hamish: For a variety of reasons Yeah, not just our side. It was, the lender wasn't really offering- Well, we found out later

Osman: Yeah So b- so we ended up choosing to stay with the horse that we rode in on, and we closed with the original loan on a three-week timeline, so kudos to our lender who performed. Yeah. But this deal wrecker lender that shows up trying to tempt our clients caused a lot of ruckus, and, uh, kudos again to the listing agent for helping us find solutions that worked for everybody. Mm-hmm. But I honestly have a hard time believing they would've been able to perform. And, and so I- be careful. I guess the take-home of this is lender choice matters, and really, you should have buttoned up that relate- we should have made sure our clients were confident in their lender choice when we first started the process. Yeah. And them in- the, the potential of a different lender jumping into the deal and trying to get the timelines to be extended- Oh, it's insane ... could've cost them the house, because the, there was another offer. Mm-hmm. And my understanding is the other offer may have even been slightly higher in price. And I

Hamish: think more rolled back contingencies

Osman: too. I'm not sure. I believe so. Yeah. I wouldn't know that for a fact because I never saw it, but- Right... it was hinted at that, "Oh, by the way, there's another buyer"- Nicely implied "... that really wants this house," and I, and I think they... And I don't even know if they actually wrote the backup, but they were willing to. I, I can't remember the exact details of it- Wow... but I believe it. Um, so we ended up getting the closing with the original lender in the original timeline, but that home wrecker lender was, was quite frustrating. So the take-home again is as a buyer's agent, I feel like we should have done a better job- Hmm... of making sure our client was confident in their lender choice. Yeah. And that way they would've been less likely to be tempted by the home wrecker or deal wrecker lender who's trying to steal the deal, but potentially could have cost them the house. I mean, it's, it's postmortem, right?

Hamish: So I was g- I, I'm, I'm 90% sure they've checked in with our list of recommended lenders. Um, at the closing table, that lender was there, the one that ended up closing, and, uh, I believe it was a referral through a friend of a friend- Right... or something like that. Right. And so short of being tempted maybe by a super alluring rate, I think they would have been or they are fairly confident in their lender.

Osman: Oh, yeah. But it was more just- It wasn't... It was truly rate driven... that carrot, right? It, it wasn't performance driven. Right. It was rate driven. Yeah. And there are two major factors when you're choosing a loan for a new origination. One is definitely the rate, and of course all the fees that are associated with that. Mm-hmm. And the other is performance of the lender. And performance, by that I mean they show up at the cl- on, at, at closing. I mean, that's important. Like the day before closing- Yeah ... or whatever your loan approval is, you're, you meet loan approval, because you are taking the risk that your lender won't be able to meet loan approval. Mm-hmm. Or they tell you they can approve the loan only to tell you two days later they can't, which I've seen happen. And, um, in theory, the seller can keep the earnest money if that's what you've chosen in the contract- Right... as liquidated damages. So you are gambling your earnest money, which could be $30,000 or $40,000, on your lender's performance. Mm-hmm.

Osman: And most buyers don't realize that that's how the contract is structured. So, you know- Yeah... in theory, an ethical lender will tell you that they can't meet loan approval. But what if they didn't show up to work that day? What if their kid got sick?

Hamish: Or what if they're one of these giant online lenders- Could you

Osman: imagine? Yeah... that is working with a thousand people at once and it just slipped through the cracks? Yep. They don't bear responsibility for the lender choice, the buyer does.

Hamish: So this is- End of the day, it's on you.

Osman: Yeah If you are refi-ing, okay, this is not new origination, go with the cheapest online lender you can find. It's a commodity product. Yep. It doesn't matter. Um, well, it probably doesn't matter

Hamish: . Not financial advice. But if you are- See the intro of the podcast.

Osman: Yep, this is not financial advice. But if, but I will say that, uh, uh, you know, if you're choosing between lenders, you want both competency and performance. Oh, and three thi- and, and low rates. You want the lowest rate that you can get, and you may have to... Your original lender, like we do a lot of business with Elevations, they are 100% willing to compete. Um, as long as- Yeah... you can show them you're getting a better deal somewhere else, they, they will do their best to match it or do better, which I really appreciate, 'cause they're our local hometown player.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. And they perform. Track record of it, you know? With our particular relationship-

Osman: Yeah... um, 100%, uh, he, he has never not performed.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. And so I-

Osman: Yeah... I mean, we might... We're, we're complimenting a lender, we might as well mention his name. This is Mike Roth at Elevations. Mm-hmm. We have done hundreds of deals with Mike Roth, and even when deals look like they're suddenly skin- skidding sideways, Elevations took responsibility and fixed it. Yeah. And I... And what they fixed- That's crazy... they literally created a portfolio loan out of thin air because they knew they screwed up. Wow. Because it was after loan approval- Wow... and they suddenly realized that the condo cert didn't work for the loan type that they had originally underwritten. And so they created a loan out of thin air with the same terms and funded it. And he- Holy cow... and Mike had to sh- run it up the flagpole to make it happen, had to go to leadership. But- But leadership worked with it... leadership was ethical and took responsibility. Yeah. So I think that- Wow... that is something you're not gonna get from a Chase or a Wells Fargo especially, or any of the big bulge bracket lenders. Yeah. You're not g- you're not gonna get that type of local

Hamish: consideration and care. The last time we worked with Wells Fargo, they refused to talk to us on the phone or through any form of communication aside from a sketchy looking link they sent us the first day. Do you remember that? I, I- Like the secure access... it's like a

Osman: nightmare that I- Yeah... try to block out- Yeah ... is dealing with Wells Fargo. Boy.

Hamish: So, um, inspector-

Osman: What, what else could we have done better?

Hamish: Um, I said inspector, I meant to say lender. But inspector, this is one I think we wanna be kind of light on, but, um, it's becoming somewhat of a pattern now that this particular inspector has a tendency, speaking very, um, cautiously here, but a tendency to be rather- Over detailed or, um, I want, I don't wanna say alarmist, but- I would not say over detailed ... uninformed? I would say not, not over detailed. Yeah. It's not a

Osman: detail issue. It's they've called out issues that are not really issues. Uh, just saying it's- And they've-... yeah... created alarm for our buyer that we then had to resolve, and it, it turned out to not be a not, a nothing burger. Mm-hmm. I mean, I, I want inspectors to be thorough, but I also don't want them to be alarmist about non-issues. Yeah. Or I want them to help the buyer understand whether this is a real issue or not. Mm-hmm. And it's one particular inspector at a company we have sent dozens of inspections to, and it's now, it's twice this summer that we almost had deals blow up and found out that the issue that we're trying to figure out is really not a, a big issue, or it's not that expensive to solve. Yep. Um, and it, it was a little bit-

Hamish: It's getting a little tired. Um, the... Yeah, and it, what it... I mean, the biggest impact is like it's additional cost for the buyers because they're now having, um, additional contractors to come out and either assess or put a bid out to repair it. Um, and it's also, it, to me, Oz, it kind of s- it puts a little strain on the client-agent relationship because they have the inspector come out, the inspector writes their report, and you and I see what's on the report, and it's very difficult for us to be like, "No, that's, that's BS," because it's the inspector, you know? Well, we're not, we're never

Osman: gonna say that- Yeah, exactly... to face. And we're never gonna discourage people from having a secondary inspection. Mm-hmm. But no, actually three deals this, this year. That's right. Same inspector called out things that turned out to not be issues. Mm-hmm. And one of them wa- had a cut steel I-beam beneath a garage in Martin Acres, and it turns out there's a lot of them just like it because that's an original feature of the home. Yep. And it created a lot of doubt for our buyer. Another one, um, he had structural concerns, and so we brought in a structural engineer who alleviated those structural concerns. Also a nothing burger. And the third one, um, was potential- Drainage... drainage issue. But that- Yeah... one I think was actually more legitimate than the other ones because- Mm-hmm... water in a crawl space in a heavy rain is coming from somewhere and should not be there. Mm-hmm. So what's going on here? Is there a French drain that's needed? Is there a sump pump that's needed? Why are we getting water in this spot? Where is it coming from?

Osman: And they thought it was coming from a vent. Um, and it's not, it's still not clear exactly where- Right... it came from. It could have... But we, we think it more likely to be

Hamish: improper drainage. So two things on that property. Which, hold on,

Osman: let me finish, which is more im- important than a vent collecting water, but the cost to correct it was relatively minimal and, and clients

Hamish: moved ahead to- Mm-hmm... closing on that deal. Yeah. And, um, the proposed solution fixes both possible causes, too. So that actually worked out being like a one- Yeah... one stone, two birds. I

Osman: mean, we brought in a, a, a great landscaping contractor and that we've worked with that does a lot of concrete work and landscaping work. Yeah. And frankly, uh, they're the hardest-working crew I think I've seen in decades, and we're happy to send them business and, uh, they are gonna solve that issue for our client. He gave a quote, and I

Hamish: was like, "I'll take your business card immediately." So, um, and then the other one is he flagged, uh, concrete because it didn't look level, and I went back out 'cause we were visiting with that same contractor and just poured water on a, on the concrete to see where the

Osman: water's running. He didn't use a level. He just said it didn't look level. Yeah. And meanwhile, if you put a hose on it, the hose is draining the right way. Mm-hmm. So, you know, it, it's, the water's draining the right way. Uh, so I think, you know, the answer on this situation is I think we probably need to give some feedback to the owner of the company. It's a relatively small shop. Mm-hmm. And I also don't want him to not call out

Hamish: things. Exactly. But I also want- Because

Osman: we appreciate the thorough... I wanna warn m- may- we also need to maybe warn our clients that if they choose this contractor on our list of contractors, there's a good chance they tend to be a little bit more alarmist. Mm-hmm. So, and I think our clients may be h- okay with that. Like it, it was a choice between

Hamish: actually- Yeah... inspector A, B, or C.

Osman: Mm-hmm. A is not thorough enough, B is the middle bowl of porridge, C is too thorough and may cost you thousands of dollars of additional inspections. Which one do you want? And it's totally up to you who you choose. Right. But we wanna warn you that our C inspector tends to call out a lot m- more than A and B. And often what they've called out is not actually a legitimate inspection

Hamish: issue. Mm-hmm. So

Osman: be forewarned. And maybe you want that, and you would like the decision to be- It might be handy, you know? Yeah. So maybe we don't have the discussion with the owner of the inspection company. Maybe we just let our clients call it out that if it's this particular guy, FYI, there's a chance that- FYI, yeah... that you're gonna be chasing rabbit holes that aren't really issues. Mm-hmm.

Hamish: Okay. And I mean, yeah, the, the rest stays. And tell you what too, um, actually same inspector, I believe it was at the start of this year, we were, um, closing on a deal in Table Mesa, and, um, he found two leaking P-traps and a few other things that totally would've been missed. Did the thermal scope and, um, was excellent. So yeah, I don't know. It's just been, at this point, I see him at each summary and I'm like, "Hey, man, like, what's it gonna be today?"

Osman: Well, I mean, I- Yeah... I think, I think I'd rather our clients just make the decision on who they wanna use. Yep. Um, and we'll just give them a heads up, and that's, that's the, that's the lesson from- I mean, that is, yeah... uh, from this, this summer's inspections with this particular inspector. Mm-hmm. Um, okay, so last one, Hamish. You, you, you brought up this question.

Hamish: Yeah. And I think we kinda covered it. Oz, I think you covered it. Um, but could we have told these buyers outright, um, that the price point they're shopping at is so competitive y- that, you know, you're very likely gonna have to do a hurry up offense, offer over list, or, um, something else that doesn't necessarily match what the broader market is doing? Or are they gonna have to find out through losing out on their offers or seeing a house move before they even had a chance to think about writing an offer? Um, and it's, it's the latter. You can,

Osman: you know, um, yeah. I mean, I, I live in a, you know, trust but verify world. Right. And hopefully you've chosen your representative well enough that you trust them, but you should also seek some verification. And unfortunately, it might come at- The price of missing out on a few houses. Mm. And then... Or it might come at the price if you've chosen your agent poorly, you might grossly overpay for a house. Yeah, that's true. Right. So, so this is one of those things where some people need a few missed deals to get it. Some people need one missed deal, and they're like, "Oh, okay, I didn't get it." We gotta get in. Yeah. "I thought I could offer low." Osman said, "There's other offers coming in. Are you sure you wanna do that?" And you're like, "Yep, I don't think that's real. I think it's smoke and mirrors. Let's submit 3% below list on a brand new

Hamish: listing." Mm-hmm.

Osman: And it's in, you know, under 1.5 in Boulder, a highly desirable house. I have news for you. You're

Hamish: probably not gonna get it. Yeah, I'll do it. But we'll just- But I'm just

Osman: letting you know... this is mostly for your educational experience-...

Hamish: that we're gonna go through this process. This is gonna be a learning

Osman: experience. Um, and sometimes, like, when there's this look on, you know, this look like they don't believe me, I'm like, I... You know, I'm gonna show them the screenshot when I ask for feedback on why our offer was not number one. Mm-hmm. And then the screenshot's probably gonna say your offer wasn't number two or three either. Your offer was at the bottom of the pile. I bet.

Hamish: Uh, that actually happened to me. That

Osman: happened- Yeah... with these guys. Mm-hmm. Right? Where they were shocked that their offer wasn't even close. Like, we missed it by a huge number. Yeah. Um, and they had gone s- like, 10 grand or 15 grand over list, kinda like, we'll just try it. Token, token over. Right. Token over. Yeah. And token over when there's a bidding war, it doesn't usually work. Um, so, you know, everyone has to learn at their own pace, and I feel like our... E- even though it can be frustrating when we've put in our professional time- Mm-hmm... to try to get them under contract, to only have them not trust our advice, sometimes you just have to go through the process, go down the river of relationship building, and build that capital, that social capital, that reputational capital with your client. Mm-hmm. And

Hamish: hopefully they get it next time. Being people of trust but verify, all we can do is be like, "Yeah, I get it. You know, I'm trying to save you the, the pain," but I can't hold it against you for wanting to trust and verify yourself, you know?

Osman: Right. Yeah. Absolutely. We don't hold it against our clients. I mean, even our, our, um, longest s- l- the- Yeah.... longest serving client, I would say, our longest client relationship, we're currently in the market for, and we are looking at a house this summer. And, uh, we didn't, we did end up writing on it, and we wrote really low. And we, him and I had discussions on where we think it's gonna land. Mm-hmm. It landed almost precisely where I thought it was gonna land. 30,000 more than I thought it was gonna be. Damn. And, and 130,000 higher than where he thought it was gonna be. Sh- And, and it came down to evaluating the risk premium for having a relocation company- Mm-hmm... involved. So that was a very complex deal, but I don't hold it against him. He's one of our close- Right... he's one of my closest friends. So, um, it, it's just a question of, of what does Mr. Market think, and ultimately Mr. Market makes the call on what a home's really worth. Well, and then we talk about the dumb

Hamish: money wild card and, and so on, so. But, um, this a good time, I think, to sneak in shameless self-promotion. All right. Let's do it. Because I'm, I was gonna say that I'm sad to see these clients go, but we- we're still gonna get some face time. They're moving out of one of our rentals. Uh, I'm not gonna mention the address until they're well and truly out. I've seen enough Martin Acres homes where I'm kind of getting the floor plan mixed up. I believe it to be a three bed, one bath. Or sorry, four bed, two bath. See, I'm thinking of the addition split. So the garage has been converted

Osman: into a primary living area. Okay, let me give the pitch on the house. Thank you. Okay. So it's, it's a basic ranch in, on a very quiet street. Mm-hmm. On one of the most quiet streets in the neighborhood, and typically homes that are on these streets go very fast when they're for sale. Mm-hmm. Or for rent. T- often we don't even advertise this house. Like, w- word of mouth gets this house rented. The big selling point is that the original garage was converted into a primary suite with its own bath and laundry room behind it, and it was nicely done. There are cork floors in there,

Hamish: and, uh, the finishes are all- Nice washer and dryer too.... high

Osman: quality. There's a very... Way nicer than should be in a rental, because I lived in the house. Yeah. And we bought the nice washer, dryer-... including the steam function on the dryer. You don't normally do these things for rentals. Um, the kitchen was updated I think in the early aughts. It's still reasonably presentable. It's probably due for a refresh. If I was gonna sell it, I would probably refresh it. Mm-hmm. But it's probably... It's better than the vast majority of rentals. And the gem of this house, really the sell... The, the most key selling point is a really lovely outdoor patio area that leads around the corner to a big garage. So if you need a

Hamish: two-car garage- Yeah... uh, this is

Osman: a rare find for Martin Acres, particularly in the rental market, for a nice condition four bedroom, two bath on a very quiet street. And it should be available in December, although it could be January by the time they're fully out, but I think it'll probably be available December 1st. Mm-hmm. We might need a week of, like, I don't know, refinish the floors or cleaning. I'm gonna, like, touch-ups or something. Touch-ups. Like, we, we need to plan ahead to get the house in rental condition. Mm-hmm. Um, so it might not be fully on the market till January. I've told a few of my friends that we might have a vacant house for them to, to camp out in in December if they

Hamish: need it. It's an adult rental. It's not student. It, it's nicely put together. It's functional. Th- this, it's... I mean, it's currently housing, you know, a family of four.

Osman: Um, yeah. It could also be great for young professionals without kids. Mm-hmm. Or it could be for people that their kids have left. It's a nice downsizing option. Actually, we did

Hamish: have grandparents living there beforehand. That's true.

Osman: Grandparents with their kids around the corner lived there prior to these tenants. And I will say that, um, just like we offered this to our clients, that if you are, if you have signed a lease with us, we will allow you an early termination, uh, if we represent you as a buyer. Yeah. So don't hesitate to reach out if that house interests you as a rental.

Hamish: Absolutely. Thank you for covering that. My, uh... Man, I was, like, counting the bedrooms on one side- You know, it's like, I lived in the house... and then the addition. Yeah. So I know the house. I know. I'm just like- And

Osman: you don't, which is fine. It's fine. Like, I know it's got an EV charger now. Uh- It does. It has an EV charger. Yeah. Also because I lived in the house. Yeah. And we, that EV charger is right on the side of the driveway, perfectly positioned. Mm-hmm. Um, and, uh, we'll charge you up. Okay. Great. Let's talk about lessons from sales of the week. Uh, or Tales from the Trenches. Did I skip Tales from the Trenches? Yeah. Oh, we did. We skipped- No worry. We, we are skipping a lot of things. Oh, all right, all right. Let's do Tales

Hamish: from the Trenches. This one's fresh, fresh.

Osman: This is very fresh. We're right in play, but it is a... It's so fresh that it superseded what we originally had in here for Tale from the Trench, and basically this is how to conduct yourself as an agent or buyer in a competitive offer scenario. So one of the things that people often doubt is that why would a listing that's been on the market 30, 45, 60 days suddenly have more than one buyer interested? And I can tell you, it happens all the time. And I can't tell you exactly why it happens all the time. I suspect it just has to do with the patterns of life.

Hamish: I'm thinking the stars and the moon or something to do with that.

Osman: Yeah. Well, I, I think, and, and this one in particular has to do with when, um, when CU parents find out- Yeah, right... how expensive it is to rent, and they realize they would much rather buy if they are affluent. And with the condo market being down- Mm-hmm... there's a lot of opportunities in the condo market. And w- what also happens, I think, is that when you have it positioned right and staged right, um, there may be another competitor that's sitting there that got all the interest for the first week or two or three weeks. There were other more interesting properties that ca- captured people's attention, but suddenly your property is, like, the best deal compared to everything else. Yep. And that's attracting everyone at the same time. And I often think about this as, like, children on a soccer field, like the littles who can't stay in their position. Like, they just all, they pl- they all play herd ball around- Mm-hmm... the ball at the

Hamish: same time. Yeah, yeah. That's a good way to put it. Like, that's the

Osman: analogy I've often had for why buyers do this, but it's not a surprise when it happens. So if you are on the buy side of this and you hear from the listing agent that, "Oh, by the way, we're currently negotiating with another offer. We're not, we're not inked yet. You have an opportunity," that should signal a few things for you. That's me not telling you, "I think another offer's coming in." I have told you, "I'm negotiating terms." Mm-hmm. We're going back and forth on details. You know there's another offer. Yep. Right? The specificity of that should be your first hint that it's not smoke and mirrors. Th-

Hamish: yeah, this is, for your tea leaf reading chart, this is a pretty big one. That's a big signal. Yep.

Osman: The, uh, you know, a much smaller signal is if the listing agent says, "Oh, by the way, I've got a second showing scheduled this weekend." Mm. Okay, that's also a signal, but it's not, "Hey, I'm expecting an offer"- Right... which is stronger. And then the strongest says, "Oh, by the way, I'm negotiating terms with another buyer right now." Yeah. "So get your offer in as quickly as possible, and I'll do my best to s- give you guys a fair shot at the deal." So all right, if you hear that, you may want to-

Hamish: Ask about offer guidelines. Yeah.

Osman: You may wanna ask for offer guidelines. Oh, yeah, what terms are you negotiating? Right, like, what terms are you negotiating? How do we win this deal? What can we do to make sure my clients are the winner? Mm-hmm. And none of that happened. And instead, what happened- Yeah, that was so strange... was, I mean, very strange. Um, I think she tried to get me on the phone once, but we texted and emailed and were on the phone at least once. Mm-hmm. Um, and the question is, the question never came up with how do I make sure my clients win this, right? Yeah. Which is what you really wanna know if you were writing an offer. And I get that, I think that their buyer was probably hoping for a deal. Mm-hmm. Because what they wrote into the contract had seller concessions in it, so the price was significantly below list and had a seller concession for no particular reason. Um, and in addition to that, it had language that the seller concession could be used to pay for a special assessment, which is already in the contract, by the way. So there's a checkbox for that. Mm-hmm.

Osman: So it's already, you're doubling this language and creating- Yeah... when you double language that covers the ser- same thing in the contract, you're now creating a little bit of uncertainty from a legal perspective. Mm-hmm. Because it was already, and I think it's Section 16, talks about special assessments in the contract and whose responsibility is it. Totally.

Osman: Check that box in the right way, and it's the seller's responsibility. Yeah. But in this particular case, low price and additional seller dis- concession for no particular reason. Mm-hmm. Um, never asked if escalations were okay. Or commission. Never- Oh, and then never asked about commissions either. Yeah. And all of those pieces went into play for why they were not successful. Mm-hmm. So, um, the people that were negotiating and close to terms hit the gas pedal as soon as they figured out there was another buyer coming. Which was nice to see.

Hamish: Which was nice to see. 'Cause they were, they were a little draggy on

Osman: their heels- Yeah... uh, for reasons, and, and they shared those reasons with me, and I believe them. Okay? Yeah, yeah. Like w- a lost phone and international travel, and- That all happened. Right? Like, all of these things happening at the same time, it... I get it that you were slow on the, on the uptake. But, um-

Hamish: So yeah, the way this offer read, right, when it came in

Osman: was- Oh, hold on. Also, no proof of funds. Oh, yeah. All, you know, cash offer, no proof of funds,

Hamish: no lender letter. Mm-hmm. Hmm.

Osman: Lots of bits and pieces missing. Yeah. So the tale from the trench for you listening to this is don't let this be you. If you hear- Yeah... that there is a competitive offer, you really wanna try to get on the phone with the listing agent. Buyer's agent should get on the phone with the listing agent and try to understand, what do we need to do to compete. Right. And are you setting any guidelines? Are there any guidelines we need to know? Yeah. Is there special warranty or general warranty on the title? Mm-hmm. What's the ideal closing date? What do I have to do to get a counter? Do you have a seller's property disclosure? Yeah. Um, well, I mean, what ma- what matters to you? Are there commissions differences between offers? Like-

Hamish: That should be one of the questions all the time now... what's in your

Osman: listing agreement for buy-side commissions? Yep. And the listing agent should tell you. Yeah. If they say, "I can't tell you that," okay, then write what you think is the norm. But typically, they tell you. Mm-hmm. And you ha- and then have that conversation. If you have 3% in your buyer's agency agreement and the seller's only offering 2.5, then you need to have a conversation with- Your buyer... your buyer- Mm-hmm... on who's covering that 0.5. Maybe you're throwing it in because you don't feel confident in your services- Mm-hmm... and you're just gonna reduce your commission half a percent. Or maybe you now have an opportunity to be like, "I'm s- okay, so I warned you that this might be the possibility. We do a lot more services. I've gotten you all this negotiation guidance." Yep. "And also, you're gonna have to pay 0.5% more at closing- Yeah... for my services." And you know what? Most buyer... I've never had a buyer say, "I'm not gonna pay that additional difference," ever. We have had a buyer say,

Hamish: "Screw that cheap seller. We don't want it."

Osman: We have had a buyer say- Yeah.... "Screw that cheap seller." Yeah. And that was, like, a 2% buy-side commission or something. Mm-hmm. And they were like, they, they didn't care that it was

Hamish: 0.8. Yeah, they were like, "We could've done that."

Osman: They just felt like this... Right, they felt like the seller was being a cheapskate, and they didn't want to... It impacted their impression of the desirability of the house- Mm-hmm... because the seller was

Hamish: being a cheapskate. Yeah. So, uh, uh, to me, this reads as they're like, "Oh yeah, sure, you're negotiating details with another buyer. Sure." And then they, you know, it, it's like they didn't believe what you'd told them, so they submitted their offer. And granted, cash is, uh, alluring, right? Like, uh, it, it's nice. But no proof of funds or any of that too.

Osman: I mean, lots of missing- It just, yeah... lots of missing details. Um, there are other minor things in the contract that could've been more neutral, um, and were slated to hit the seller with additional fees. Again, this is when you know- There's a competing offer, and, and all these title and expenses with the association, rather than choose split them, you just shove them over to the sell side. Mm-hmm. Which is okay if there's no competing offer. If there's a competing offer, you know, you're, you're setting a tone and tenor to the whole transaction which screams, "My buyer wants a deal"- Yep... and wants the s- the seller to pay for all the fees. Mm-hmm. And, and you ignored the fact there was a competing

Hamish: offer. That's it, yeah, came in with the aggression as though a competing offer didn't exist. Right. Right? Yeah. Pretended it

Osman: didn't exist. Um- So, sorry. Yeah. And, and they may still end up in backup position, and I don't wanna throw this, um, listing agent or buyer's agent under the bus, but it's just how the deal went down. Yep. And now they're... We're, we're doing our, we're doing our best collectively to, um, put her buyer into backup position. Our clients are thinking about terms, and we'll, we'll get there or we won't. Mm-hmm. So it, it's an interesting process. It's happening literally in real time, so, uh, that's probably all we should

Hamish: say at this point. Yep. We will review that transcript once it's made as well.

Osman: I don't think- Totally... there's any issue on th- what we shared. We did well this time. Okay. Let's... This time. All right, let's, let's move on to a market update. Perfect.

Hamish: And you're, uh, I wanted to say you're doing the L's and all that today, but it's actually, uh, we're doing Denver for the first time in a while for a market update. Denver, b- city of Boulder, and Boulder

Osman: County, right? I think that's what we're doing. Let's see how we go along with it. Yeah. Like, if we have t- I think we're making good time, so I think that's fine. Yeah. Okay. Boulder County detached single family houses, and we're not gonna talk about townhomes and condos. Um, the market is in free fall in some ways, in some locations. Prices have come down. There's a lot of inventory for those, but, um, if you want custom guidance on townhomes and condos, call me and we will guide you through it, provided you are not under an exclusive agreement with somebody else- Mm-hmm... and you are actually building a relationship with us. We're happy to give you advice on condos and townhomes too. Um, but the single family house market is what we're gonna talk about. Perfect. And this is data through the end of October, but not officially. This is preliminary data, and I usually don't call it official until we're, like, seven to 10 days in because of how many agents are slow to update. Like, today is Wednesday, right? If it closed in October, it closed by Friday.

Osman: Right. So you're now, like, four days in. You're doing your- You should have updated it, right? Yeah. Okay. New listings. 293 new single family house listings hit the market last month. That's a

Hamish: decrease of 11.7% year over year. I'm sorry, this is Boulder or Denver? Boulder. Okay. Boulder County,

Osman: single family houses. Yep. Homes for sale. 927 homes were in inventory available for purchase last month. That's pretty much flat year over year. 0.4% more than a year ago. That's pretty much the same. Mm. Mm-hmm. Pending sales. 195 single family houses were under contract last month. That's a decrease of 25.6% year over year. Hmm. That's a big decrease- Yeah... in pendings. So that's pointing to a very, very slow November. Yeah. Enjoy. And confirms what we heard anecdotally from our friends at Land Title- Yes... who pulled open their drawer and showed us how empty their drawer was. Yep. And said, "Normally the drawer is packed." I know. And I said to Hamish yesterday, "Well, let's see what the data shows." Mm-hmm. And the data is confirming that that drawer

Hamish: is 25.6% less- That's a good way to put it... across

Osman: the county, right? Yeah, yeah. Pending sales. All right, closings. Good confirmation of the- Closings in October, 217. That's down 26.4% year over year. And the closings number could inch up a little bit because o- of lazy agents that haven't updated the MLS. Mm-hmm. But it's not gonna inch up by a hundred. It might in- inch up by, like, a dozen- Right... or less is what I would imagine. So 26.4% year over year decrease in closings.

Hamish: Do you get the raw number as well or just the percent difference

Osman: year over year? No, I see raw number. 217 closings. Okay. Down 26.4% year over year. Oh yeah, sorry,

Hamish: what last year's number was? No, I have to- Okay... ma- I have

Osman: to do the math to figure it out. Okay. Or actually, what I can do is down... I usually, if, I mean, if we're putting this into the newsletter, I download the whole- Mm-hmm... data series, and I compare it to my spreadsheets that I've been keeping for, like- Yeah... ever. And it builds the percentage difference over the- And I verify the data's accurate so I can see mon- I can see month over month- Mm-hmm... for, like, the last five years in my tables that track it. Yeah.

Hamish: Okay. All right. Didn't mean to derail, but you brought up, like, you know, maybe a dozen come in. I'm like, "Well, what would that change the percentage?" Um, 'cause negative 26%- I-... percent's

Osman: pretty intense. Not by much. Yeah. 12 would not change it by a lot. Um. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about the sale price. The median sale price last month was 856,000. That's an increase of 3.8% year over year. And on a dollar per square foot basis, the median was 352, an increase of 4.1% year over year. All right, now let's hit the, hit the Boulder, the city of Boulder. Our fair city.

Hamish: Our fair city. You know, it's fun, um, if you follow our social media, you'll see that I, there's, uh, weekly stats that are posted every Friday, and those take into account townhomes and attached and, you know, it's a, it's a broader data capture, but it's fun hearing, you know, month over month from you for single family homes or a specific locale, um, and then kind of recreating it in my head or checking against, like, the weekly stats. Um- I mean, it's also- And seeing that kind of tracks with what I was seeing and, yeah... I mean, it's also

Osman: really useful to see the charts themselves because you can see almost what looks like an, you know, an echocardiogram heartbeat. Yeah. Um, and you can see where the peaks are year after year. That's what it looks like for a lot of these data series. And when it, when the market peaks early, you can typically see that, or when there's a surprise uptick. Mm-hmm. I mean, you can see it in the percentage too year over year, but it, it, it's more useful to see the whole series. But for purposes of the podcast and this little segment, this is what

Hamish: you get. Yep. So- And you reach out if you want

Osman: more. Yeah... enjoy. Okay. New listings. 98 new listings hit the city of Boulder last month, a decrease of 16.2%. These are single-family houses again, people, just to remind you. Homes for sale, 332 single-family houses were on the market in the city of Boulder. That's a decrease of 5.1%. Hard to believe there's three hu- over 300 houses on the market here in the city right now.

Hamish: Yeah, I was thinking that was actually a lot for

Osman: Boulder. Does sound like a lot. Yeah. It almost makes me wanna double-check we're talking about, like, the, this is- The city... the city of Boulder, and I didn't accidentally click- I mean, they didn't-... county again... incorporate Niwot when we saw

Hamish: that, so it's- That is-... all of a sudden tucked, tick up... Niwot is

Osman: still an unincorporated Boulder County. Yep. Yeah. Now, 332, um, houses for sale in inventory you could have bought last month, down 5% year over year, 5.1%. Under contract, also known as pending sales, 69 pending sales last month, decrease of 24.2% year over year. Matches the, the title company. Matches what we heard from our friends at Land Title. Yeah. Closings, 77 houses closed last month, down 4.9% year over year. Mm. And then the median sale price, and remember we're talking about a relatively small sample size, $1,000,321 and $125, so let's call it a million three, was the median sale price, up 5.6%, and the median price per square foot, 502, down 8.4%. Hm. So what does that tell you? That probably tells you bigger houses are seeing price drops on a dollar per square foot. Like, the larger homes are seeing more of a decrease. Yeah. This is... And there's, you know, there's- Mm... a lot more of them. I, but there's fewer of those sales, so it's, you know, it's blended together, this, this data point.

Osman: And by the way, the, the, the dollar per square is so volatile on this chart. Like, it goes down to 450 a square in January 2024, um, and then again, it dropped in January of 2026 to 454. Um, January is often the low point on dollar per square, and the, the peak is often early in the spring. So last year, the peak was February at 594. Oh, no, that's February 2025.

Osman: It was 594. February this year, it was down to 493. So huge percentage differences in dollar per square, and I don't think it's particularly relevant. It's really relevant as it's a good data point to know what you're paying on a dollar per square basis. Right. But it needs to be benchmarked against the size of

Hamish: the house you're comparing to. Has to be in context, yeah.

Osman: It cannot be, like, just dollar per square, 'cause giant houses sell for

Hamish: low dollar per squares. By na- by nature, yeah. By math.

Osman: Yeah. But- All right... inherently, uh- All right, so you want Denver. Could you imagine you're just,

Hamish: you know, it's like a pissing contest, and it's like, "Well, I paid this much dollar per square," and just ignoring

Osman: all other facts. Like- That'd be a really bad Saturday Night Live sketch- Yeah... but it's too nuanced and nerdy-... that I don't think anybody would laugh except for realtors. Yeah. Or maybe appraisers. Okay. Denver? Denver. Denver. And now, um, for those data nerds that are following along on your, on your IRS account or Ma- or REcolorado InfoSparks, I just wanna remind you that we use Denver County because it's harder for agents, or I think, I believe agents are m- less likely to fudge the county- Yep... than they are the city, where they lie all the time about the actual city it's in. So Denver County is the city of Denver, and last month we had 554 new listings hit the market, down 11.5% year over year. Total inventory was up 8.1%, up to 1,474 single-family houses.

Osman: Pending sales, 30, 338 homes were in pending status. That's also down 24.9%. So we're seeing roughly 24%- 24 to 30... 20 or 25%- Yeah... somewhere in that zone year over year across the board, and almost certainly impacted or driven by high rates. Mm-hmm. Closings, 354 houses closed. That's a decrease of 22.7% year over year. So I think we're gonna see month over month, like, this type of 20% plus decrease in sales volume. Yeah. This is also, by the way, why you see some of these agents who are now on vacation. Yeah. Like, their photos have gone from, like, selling houses to, like, on vacation mode. I'm out of here. Yeah. Right. I mean, it actually is smart, right? There's one of our colleagues who's posting photos from all over France. Oh, yeah. And I'm looking at the photos and I'm like, "You're not working right now-... because things are dead at home." Yeah. "And you got coverage. You're just, like, you know, traveled back to the

Hamish: home country." I'm out of here. Yeah. Pretty much.

Osman: Sale price. The median sale price in Denver was 699,000, up 2.9%, and then dollar per square was 367, up 5.8%. So you have both sale price and dollar per square.

Hamish: Same with Boulder County. Up, yeah.

Osman: Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Mm-hmm. That's your tour of Boulder, the city of Boulder, Boulder County, and Denver for single-family houses. Yeah, pretty, I mean, obviously

Hamish: massive differences in market and everything there too. Um, do you see any value, I mean, just purely from, like, a data perspective to be, like, what share of in- total inventory is either attached or, um, single family, and then tracking the

Osman: differences over those? I mean, I used to do that sort of stuff just for fun back in, like, 2005- Yeah... look at that data, and honestly, I don't think it has any relevance c- because the buyers of a single-family house are rarely also the same buyers of a town home or a condo. Totally. Sometimes there's an overlap in, like, duplexes, but it's pretty rare. Like, I, it's almost like a- I mean, it's just a new thing, right? ... do you like chocolate or vanilla? Like, when we talk to our clients in the early phases of downloading what they're looking for- Mm-hmm ... it's almost never that they're... Like, we had one this summer. Yeah. And I won't mention his name, but I was really shocked that he was like, "I could do a condo. I could do a town home. I could do a house." And then we drew a map of all the areas he was considering, and it

Hamish: was like half the state. Like, okay. Do you think we've ever looked at

Osman: one condo? We've never looked at a condo. He ne- he wanted to like condos- Yeah... but he never really wanted a condo. Yeah. And that became obvious really quickly, but we c- you know, he wanted condo data, so we, we sent him condo listing alerts,

Hamish: but we never really- And he's still got them. Yeah. He just- He's, like, opening them. No, he doesn't have them now, but, like- Oh... he, he still wanted them- Yeah... all the way to close... he wanted the data all the way to

Osman: closing- Yeah... which I think was fascinating, but, and that's okay. We're happy to get... Like, we attract- ... analytical clients, doctors, engineers,

Hamish: um- Software engineers... software

Osman: engineers, math and science people, STEM people are our people. Yeah. And they love data. They love to do their own analysis, and now with AI, they can do their data analysis really fast. Mm-hmm. So I don't mind giving them even raw d- I used to never give them raw data files. Yeah. And now I'm like, "Here's the raw data file. I don't even need to-" Go crazy... put it into the correct columns. Yeah. Like, you can just dump it in AI and it'll do it for you.

Hamish: That is the most fun. We're derailing a little bit, but just being like, "Here, AI, have

Osman: numbers." The key to good AI data analysis is having good data. Mm-hmm. And that's, you have- you don't give it good data, you're not gonna get a good analysis, and it's really that simple. Yep. All right. Eight... Let's talk about sales of the week. Now it's time to learn about these sales. Yeah. You ready? Oh, now it's time? You didn't look at these

Hamish: beforehand? No, that's not what I meant. I

Osman: mean, for the listeners. Ah, for the listeners. Okay. I was gonna say, we- we've covered, like we... These were in your inbox yesterday almost.

Hamish: Yes. Um, actually, so this one, do you call it Elgin? Elgin.

Osman: It's like GIF or GIF. I don't know. I have, I have no idea how to pronounce this word.

Hamish: So 8707 Elgin

Osman: Drive, Lafayette. It's Elgin Drive. I mean, you can look up how to pronounce it if you think it's, like, important.

Hamish: Maybe, or is it like Louisville, Louisville?

Osman: It's definitely not Louisville, Louisville.

Hamish: We know it's Louisville. If you're looking in Louisville- Whoever's in the neighborhood is gonna know it's one or the other, but... Oh,

Osman: I don't know if that's entirely true. Yeah. But okay. I mean, if anybody knows or wants to correct us, you can feel free to leave a comment, but 8707 Elgin Drive- Mm-hmm... or Elgin Drive in Lafayette. It's a listing that was on the market a really long

Hamish: time. So originally- Yeah, 500 some days to sale, right?

Osman: Uh, no, not quite that long. Oh. Not, not epically long. Okay. Um, it was listed in May, and it was on the market a total of 169 days. It didn't go under contract until 133 days, so that's a significant amount of time on market. Um, and the reason I think this home didn't go on con- So let's talk about the house itself- Yeah, yeah... and this location. The home was built in 2016. Honestly, I think it's gorgeous. Yeah. It's modern. It checks so many boxes. It's on almost three and a half acres of land. It has a three-car attached garage, 3,900 square feet, all on one level. It only has three bedrooms and three baths, but that's okay. There's, there's other rooms in the house that are functional beyond bedrooms. When you look at the design of the house, I mean, it, it is stunning.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. It's cool. It's not gauche, yeah.

Osman: Um, there's a lot to, to like about this house, and there's... and the views are jaw-dropping. I mean, this is... And it's minutes from the city of Boulder. This is, this is in that farm belt. Um, there's just one little problem. I mean, there might be two. Well, okay, I'm gonna tell you about one problem. Mm-hmm. You can tell them about the other problem. And the problem with this listing is the train tracks. Oh, yeah. It is right next to the BNSF train r- train line, which by the way, is gonna start to carry the cocoa soon, so it's gonna see a, a big uptick in, in train traffic. And we had a similar issue with a listing earlier this year, and we advised our client that, "Look, we're g- W- Please do all the work that we recommend," and they did. "And we're gonna do our best work for you in terms of marketing it, and photography-" Mm-hmm... and videography, but the reality is that a lot of people are not gonna be interested in this house because of its proximity to the train line." Yeah.

Osman: "And even though it had a giant yard and all these features-" Stunning yard... and a super se- sellable... I mean, amazing yard- Yeah... um, the trains are just gonna radically reduce your buyer pool. And so what mean, what that means in practice is we're gonna keep it in show condition, we're gonna benchmark it on a price basis that makes sense- Mm-hmm... and then we're basically waiting until the right buyer comes along that doesn't look at the trains as a problem. Or is hard of hearing.

Osman: Or is, is in... not concerned of vibrating their house, is not concerned of the train derailing and spilling all this random chemical, uh, industrial stuff all over the place. Yeah. Like, it's not just the train noise. I mean, trains do derail. So what's interesting though is if you look at the, you look at the, um, the broker remarks, it talks about, uh, all the railroad quiet zones and- 'Cause that was something we looked at too for, yeah... and also we talked about in our, in our broker remarks that, by the way, railroad quiet zone, it's not that bad. Um, the routine, routine train noise sa- The train horn no longer sounds at the major at-grade crossings. Um, and, uh, and then in this case they said, "Uh, yes, it's close to the railroad tracks, but with the German engineered windows and doors, it's more entertainment than annoying. Show it and see." And I think that's actually the right answer for this house. Yeah. And I think the buyer probably got themselves a pretty good deal given the fact that i- this type of house I would have expected to sell for significantly more.

Osman: Um, but it did close for 3 million 375, uh, which I didn't do the math on what percentage that is, but it's, it's looking like in the normal one to 3% - Hmm... negotiated discount, which in the three plus million dollar category is saying something. So, um, I think it's a cool house, but it's also a warning to you as a buyer that if you choose to acquire a home like this one that is in a compromised location, there ne- there needs to be significant trade-offs for that compromise, and this house has those trade-offs in terms of design, in terms of outbuildings, in terms of stellar views- Hmm...

Osman: and in terms of proximity to the city of Boulder. So really it's just a matter of waiting for the right buyer to enter the market and realize this is, this is a pretty good deal. Um, and I think that's what happened here. So congrats to the new owner of 8707 Elgin Drive. Yeah, I agree. What was your item? You had one or more. We had these

Hamish: clients a long time ago who were looking at a home, I think they were pretty interested in it, I can't quite recall, in the same general area, and they ended up passing because there was a waste treatment facility and they were worried about VOCs Do you remember that?

Osman: I re- I mean, the waste treatment facility's out in Erie.

Hamish: Yeah. This one, there's some facility that was

Osman: nearby- Is that what we're talking about, the, the landfill? Or are we talking about the, like, E- I think, um, like,

Hamish: um- Resource? No, it wasn't resource. I'm talking, like, human waste. Like, um-

Osman: Oh, like-... sewage. Yeah... oh, oh, there's a water treatment plant.

Hamish: Yeah. Um- And they were worried about VOCs from that. And I, uh, I mean, super left field kind of due diligence item, but that's, uh, what killed it for those clients. They're actually the ones that, um, are just down the street from our new buyers at 245 30th Street. I mean, our, if our clients are

Osman: concerned, we're concerned. Mm-hmm. And we attract very analytical and smart clients that often teach us things that we didn't know before. So it's possible. That being one of them. I mean, it's possible. I'm not gonna argue that. Um, I probably wouldn't wanna be downwind of a waste treatment plant either. Based on prevailing winds, I'd also be- Yeah. You know, our clients dictate what they're worried about. Mm-hmm. And we al- we also include our due diligence checklist for our buyers under buyer agency to help guide them through due diligence. But, um, yeah, waste treatment plants, traffic, industrial zones. There are maps that show emissions that exceed thresholds by the EPA. There's a lot of that in Northeast Boulder that historically was there, but may not be there anymore today. Yeah. But there's a bunch of pharmaceutical plants around, too. So- And yeah, there are in there... what are they emitting? So 100%, I, you know, environmental concerns move in one direction, and that's things that are more of concern. Mm-hmm. So,

Hamish: um- Just an interesting one. I mean, train, totally first for top of mind, right? And then at the time that they listed, I think, um, we listed before the cocoa news hit mainstream on our listing next to the tracks. But I think they'd listed after it was already kinda top of the public's mind.

Osman: Yeah. I mean, that sounds right. Mm-hmm. The, the water treatment plant I did not think was anywhere

Hamish: near this thing. I know. I remember them passing it. It was 'cause it was, uh, the place that we went and looked at was right n- by Nyland.

Osman: And then this- Nyland definitely has that water treatment plant behind it. But- And then

Hamish: Elgin, Elgin is just a little bit north of Nyland. Yeah. I mean- Yeah... okay. I

Osman: mean, possible. I had not thought about that. And certainly something that- Maybe it's upwind, but- I mean, it's still something we need to, we would want our clients to know before writing the offer. Mm-hmm. Or uncover during the due dil- due

Hamish: diligence process. Yeah. Which, uh, uh, not to just belabor this, the sales of the week, but I actually really love the location. Because you're right next to Lafayette, Louisville, and Boulder. Like, you've got the three-

Osman: I'm, you know-... function... I might be willing to put up with the train, and it might actually be entertainment, not annoying. Mm-hmm. Um, so th- uh, for the views and the design of that house, and the space from the neighbors, and the views are probably reasonably protected, you wanna check that out, too, as part of due diligence. Mm. But, uh, I think it's a cool house. Yeah. All right. 616 Pine Street is our next listing. And boy, this is one of those sad stories of the one that got away. Oh, yeah. Because our clients had been eyeballing it since it first listed in June, and by the time we got interested in it, which was September, literally the day we go schedule the showing, the status on the listing changes to- Oh, you're kidding... under contract. And it did sell for 105 grand below list. But it checked the boxes for what our clients were looking for: five bedrooms, three baths, historic charm. Mm.

Osman: Um, a one-car detached garage, and I think there's a little studio

Hamish: above it, if I remember correctly. Yeah, this really would've done

Osman: well, then. Really nice. And in a neighborhood they know and love. And so we're really bummed to have missed out on it. Although, I don't know if our clients were gonna go to 2.25 on this, but I mean, that's a pretty sizable discount from the list.

Hamish: These are the million- For the folks that are looking for condos now.

Osman: Sorry, it's 145,000 below list. I think they would still buy a single-family house- Yeah... if the price was right. Especially if it was historic and charming. Something like this. Yeah. Yeah. And this one is really nice. I didn't go and look up the, the Carnegie Library history on it. Let me just do that really quick. It's the picture again.

Hamish: Oh, I know. That open space, people running on trails picture.

Osman: They, they pay for one, one open space picture- Yeah... with a professional photographer, and it's become every listing has the same... I mean, it's kinda sad, really. It's, it's...

Hamish: Yep. I wonder who's the listing agent

Osman: and don't have to look. I know. You know, he, which I wouldn't have even s- brought it up, because we, we like her. We do. Um, and we do business with her, but I think that's, uh, just kinda silly to use the same photo every time. Mm-hmm. Um, okay.

Hamish: Let's, uh- And we're, we're guilty of it to an extent, but it, it is just, like, that's such a

Osman: recognizable photo. I mean, can you take, like, six different photos of open space runners and just, like, rotate them? Yep. All right. The house does not have a historic name.

Hamish: Oh, cool. Um...

Osman: Wait, wait, hold on a second. No, no, it does. The Bentley Residence is the historic name of this house. Nice. And in the, in the old historical society survey from the '90s, it was described as, "A one-and-a-half story brick dwelling with steeped pitch front gable, with pent roof, wood shingles, shingle roofing," so that's long gone. "Gable dormers with shingled nail- shingled walls on east and west. Two dormers joined on west, have..." They have a bunch of details here. I'm gonna skip all that, um, architectural detail. But it's a gorgeous historical house. Mm-hmm. And then in 1910, the US Census indicated that this was the home of Jerome and Etta Bentley, and their two daughters, as well as Mrs. Bentley's sister, Lila Craig. Jerome Bentley owned a jewelry store, where his daughters and sister-in-law also worked. Bentley was born in Michigan in 1861, and his wife w- was born in Illinois in 1970.

Osman: Sorry, 1870. Hello. A later owner of the house was Martha P. Ackley. So it's, it's a representative of the Edwardian vernacular style. And honestly, it's just a- Very... it's, it's just a gorgeous house. Yeah. And it's such a good location. And I think at a very fair price. So well bought- Mm-hmm... for the buyers. C- uh, congrats to the buyer's agent, who basically skunked us by a day or two.

Hamish: Yeah, I'm, I completely agree with it. Um, and it's, it's hard to necessarily see how the two buildings are configured, if there are two buildings, looking through the photos. But I really like that orchard deck that kind of spills out of the back of one of the buildings.

Osman: Um- Historic houses like this never go out of style. Yep. And they can be made more functional, but they often are dysfunctional. Start from dysfunction- Yeah ... and the question is, can you make them more functional?

Hamish: Mm-hmm. That's how you should set expectations with historic

Osman: houses. But yeah, the outdoor entertaining areas are really nice in the back of the house. And I, the apartment in above the garage I thought was really cool- Mm-hmm... as a, you know, in-law apartment suite kinda thing.

Hamish: Okay. Moving right along. This is the Prospect neighborhood. A good, uh, trick or treat location, potentially.

Osman: I mean, that's the word on the street from our clients. It's, like, the best trick or treat neighborhood in all of Boulder County. I have yet to be there, so, or enjoy Halloween there. So if you have a, if you're one of our past clients, and we have several in the neighborhood, um, in Prospect, and you want to invite us for next year's Halloween, 100% I'm down. And we'll get all, all gussied up for Halloween. But I'm probably gonna need to stay in your guest house, um, afterward. Okay. So let's talk about the house. 826 Plateau Road, built in 2003. And the seller acquired this house for 1 million 390,000 in January of 2025, and they just sold it for- Wow... a million three. So they took a $90,000 haircut on, on the home value. Oh, sorry, hold on. That's not quite right. I'm seeing more- That's the mortgage. Hold on. Hold on a second. I apologize. I apologize. I read that wrong. Wow. Okay, this is, something con- confusing is happening here. So they acquired it in December 2024 for a million 385. Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Osman: But in January of 2025, there's a note on this house for a million 390. So that is- Is a year, almost two years ago, right? This is November, so we're talking about 10- we're talking about a year and 10 months ago. There's a recorded mortgage for $1,390,000. Underwater, yeah. This is a deal that looks underwater. Yeah. I mean, it could've been cross-collateralized, but the, it was listed at on- only $1,350,000. It went under contract very quickly because it's a stunning house in a great location, and then it... But it sold for 50 grand below that. So it sold for a million three, 50 grand below list. So I mean, I, I hope, uh, I'm sure they got a clean, you know, title commitment, but it's probable that the seller may have brought cash to closing to make this deal happen.

Osman: Um, and you know, that's an unfortunate when you have to sell during a down market. Mm-hmm. Um, but the house itself is, I mean- Yeah... really attractive, as are many of the homes in Prospect. Our clients love the architectural distinction of Prospect. Um, and you know, there's different builder quality and design quality differences and of course location differences throughout Prospect. But this one, you know, from a due diligence perspective, my biggest concern would be, um, I don't think the south views are protected. I think that that is a future

Hamish: development. Um- They are damn good though.

Osman: They are l- incredible. Buildable view. Wow. But yeah. But you shouldn't pay a premium for a short-term view corridor. Mm-mm. So w- and that's something, I mean, maybe you pay some amount, but how much of a premium if you know that, you know, that view could disappear in two years? Um, there was just a deal on Nantucket. This, uh, you know, the guy bought this house that literally is falling into the ocean, and he paid a few hundred thousand for it. Um, and the, and the logic was, hey, for the next couple of years I'm gonna enjoy the heck out of this house until it falls into the ocean. And for a few hundred thousand it was worth it to them. Yeah. Which I thought was kind of inter- an interesting perspective. I suppose if you have enough money and, and, uh, enough, uh, y- you, you can- Yeah ... you can take that as, uh, the cost of doing

Hamish: business. But yeah,

Osman: so directly to the south of this is 8700 105th Street unincorporated land that is owned by an individual owner. Um, so right to the south is a big parcel of land, and it's unclear, so it's unincorporated, which might make it more difficult to develop. Or it could've been, um, given a buildable lot determination when the, when the curtain went down. But there's, there's four big parcels that are directly on the south side of Plateau Road which will block your view if somebody goes and develops them. Yeah. Um, and keep in mind, now, and then there's a giant fifth parcel which c- it comprises... Oh no, that's, that's owned by the County of Boulder. Okay. So Boulder County owns a big parcel just to the south of that one. So this is one of those things where-

Hamish: You just need to be aware that it's not, you know, set in stone protected. Well, what is Boulder County's

Osman: intention? Right. It owns a lot of land there, but more important, which could be fine, it could be protected because it's agricultural land and, and deed restricted, but what about those four parcels that are not owned by the county that are directly next to the road? Are they, do they have buildable lot determination letters or not? Um, if they don't have them, you could feel more confident that that will not end up being a house in front of your view. But if they do have them, then that could be, could be a lot more in front of your view. And so understanding that is the important piece. Mm-hmm. Um, but overall I think this is a well-bought house, and I feel a little bad for the seller, who took a, took a bit of a bath after two years

Hamish: of ownership. Yeah. I agree. And that, I mean, very compelling house for that price, um, and location.

Osman: In one of the best neighborhoods in Longmont. Yeah.

Hamish: Yeah. And I mean, the rooftop patio looks insane. Who gets a rooftop patio on their single family home? A lot of homes

Osman: in Prospect have rooftop patios. Right.

Hamish: You know, like elsewhere. Oh yeah. Well, in,

Osman: in, in normal neighborhoods less so. Yeah. But Prospect there's a quite a few rooftop patios. There's also quite a few garages with, uh, studio apartments behind them. Yeah. So it's, uh, you know, or, or studio apartments above the garage. So,

Hamish: um, I- Rooftop society... Prospect is one of my favorite

Osman: neighborhoods in Boulder County. Um, it's one of three locations in Longmont I personally would happily invest in and live there. Mm-hmm. It's a cool neighborhood.

Hamish: Yeah. Should we go back to Boulder?

Osman: Back into the city of Boulder. 4475 Whitney Place is our next sale of the week, and this property was listed at $1,150,000 and sold for $1,150,000. But back in the peak frothiness of 2022 it was listed and sold at $1,240,000, so it's c- it has come down $90,000 from its last sale price. Another one of these deals. Yep. But what's interesting is that if you look at the, um... Nope. Never mind. I thought for a moment it was a flip. It's not a flip, but it still shows in what I think of as very current- It was. I think it was a flip. Yeah. But the current owner bought the flip. Yep. And I don't think they've done much to it. I'm gonna look at the old- I don't think so either. Yeah. Let me look at the old, um, the 2022 sale and see if the photos are all that different, and it does not look like it. It looks like pretty much the exact same house with the exact same fixtures.

Osman: Mm-hmm. So the home was flipped in 2022, and the flipper made quite a bit of money, and now it's come back to market four years later and the market's not there. It's come back down, and so these sellers have the privilege of losing about 100 grand or 90 grand, um, depreciation on the value of the house during their ownership tenure. And it did sell very quickly. It went under contract within days of listing. It listed in Septem- so here's the thing, right? If they had listed this in April, I think they could've gotten a higher price, but they listed it at the end of September, one of the worst times of the year to list a home- It still went under contract right away, and the buyer paid full list, but it, they, they wisely listened to their agent and listed it at 1,150,000, which was a price that got it sold very quickly.

Osman: Um, but if you look at the photos, one of the reasons I like this listing is it shows the potential of a basic ranch with a basement. Mm-hmm. And I think the staging is spot on. Um, so kudos to the listing agent on her staging or her stager. Um, and it's a home that would work for a lot of different buyers. So, and I, you know, from a photography perspective, Hamish, it also has, like, this creamy look- Mm-hmm... which is quite in contrast to the old listing in 2022 that was very sharp and kind of garish looking by today's standards. Yeah. Back patio's tiny on this thing, by the way. I showed this with our 2:45, 3:00 street close. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What was your personal impression of the house? Um, okay. It wasn't- Didn't, didn't blow you

Hamish: away? Mm-mm. It was, the big one was kinda like the history. Like, knowing that it was a 2022 kind of flip, um, you were like, "Okay," start looking around, and sure enough, there were kind of some patches and, and paint, things where stuff didn't really match. Um, it did show really well. This is the one, Osman, we were in it standing in the kitchen, and, um, she goes, "Where do I put my silverware? This kitchen doesn't have a silverware drawer, drawer." Um, and then you start looking at the drawers a little bit closer and, like, they're strange. Really? Yeah. There's, the the layout in the kitchen's like, it's one of those things that- Huh... like, maybe you buy it, and then you're like, "Holy cow, I didn't even think

Osman: of this." What about those little cabinets to the left of the dishwasher?

Hamish: To the left of the dishwasher, um, those are the sink.

Osman: The, the- Oh, no, no, no. That's to the

Hamish: right of the dishwasher. Oh, sorry. On the left of the dishwasher,

Osman: there are these little, um, there's these little square-

Hamish: Right... cubbies. And so they're, like, this big. Oh, no. You know, like an inch or two inches wide. Oh. So there's no it's, um... Yeah, that is

Osman: problematic. Yeah. So it showed well. It went

Hamish: really quick. Um, we had a rental on Whitney a while ago from a past client. Um, they're no longer renting it. Um, so we know Whitney. It's, it's fairly nice. It's- It's great.

Osman: Yeah. You're really close to South Boulder open space or r- the South Boulder, which, which is gonna be the South Boulder campus when it reopens. There'll be some trails there. But you're also- Majestic Heights ... you're in Majestic Heights, and the lot sizes on Whitney are larger than typical. Mm-hmm. So this is almost across the street from our client's house, and that big lot is, is a nice thing.

Hamish: That was the other thing that turned off our guys is the, uh, lot isn't as functional because it's on a big slope- It's on a slope... down to that ditch. That side is slopey.

Osman: Yeah. The other side is, where our clients are, is not slopey. Exactly. The north side of Whitney. Mm-hmm. Oh, no, south side of Whitney, sorry. Right. The south side is the better side of Whitney, where you're not backing up- That's right... to drainage. Um, and I wonder about that drainage, if it impacts the floodplain issue as well. Yeah, they were

Hamish: wondering, and, you know, we went and looked over it, and I mean, it's a super steep angle. And I, I think I remember saying something like, "It's, it's, you know, crazy to think that this could still be in the flood zone looking at how much vertical difference there is," but floods be flooding. Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Okay, so this is the second listing this week alone where the sellers lost significant money. Mm-hmm. So for those of you that have heard your agent say, "Boulder real estate never goes

Hamish: down"- Yeah... remember this,

Osman: because overpaying for a flip during a frothy market period can easily result in you losing money. Mm-hmm. Particularly because older home, sorry, flips don't age particularly well. And if your agent didn't really help you understand some of the downsides of this house, like Hamish just pointed out, then you, you can easily overpay in the heat of a bidding war. So don't, be, be more, don't let that be you.

Hamish: Definitely. And I mean, shoot, the finishes and stuff, they're somewhat inspiring. Like, they look good. It, it, it's a good-looking

Osman: place. Um- It's a good-looking flip... I

Hamish: like what they did with the basement and the layout and the stairs, and, you know, it's a good-looking place. Great inspo, call it.

Osman: All right, our last one, Hamish, and th- you put, you're gonna lead this

Hamish: one 'cause you chose it. Yeah, I feel like the, um, general theme for the sales of the week, at least very much Elgin or Elgin, um, the train track was a negative to the property. I picked this one because I think, in a sense, the train track is a positive to it. Uh, this is right next to- Hold on. I

Osman: think you need to, you need to- Oh, yeah. Sure... read the address and the location and- Yep... the price. Yep. This is 572 Lombardi Circle,

Hamish: Lot 31 in Louisville, and it was unclear to me, Osman, if this is a make-believe home or if this is an actual home. Um,

Osman: I mean, it, you're the one that chose it. So I, I, the photos are so dark and weird that- Yeah... I don't know, like, what's going... It does look very fake. Like, look at the carpet and the- So, okay. Let me- Like, look at the carpet and how it meets the bed. Like, it looks like total fake.

Hamish: Let me carry on here. Um

Osman: And they're including, you know, in, in the photos of the listing, they're including finish choices. Mm. Um, so I, I'm, w- I think this was yet to be built. Okay.

Hamish: Um, and it- Which is why I'd say lot, right, for

Osman: the address? Which, which is why it took

Hamish: 492 days to sell. And another one of the reasons why I chose it, um, I kind of sorted by, like, days to sale and days to offer or days to... Yeah. So, uh, the big one for this is, uh, we had a team meeting in Louisville a couple weeks back, and we went and walked along the train track to find out where they'd be putting the station, and we walked underneath the train track to kind of the newer area in Louisville and, um, kind of to that extent. So I believe my interpretation of the sale is somebody is looking ahead to when Cocoa is, um, uh, operational, and then when this development is finally finished and, and the homes are built, um, this may be a nice little, uh, think about lock and leave. Um, and you can jump on the urban transit, get around Colorado. And then take the, you know, contin- the other layer of public transport. You could take buses or

Osman: something from there. I mean, historic- historically, homes that are in close proximity to new transit stations see a increase in value because of the, the, it, the public transit that then becomes available. Mm. And for reasons, the buses, bus stations don't have the same impact. No. But train stations do. Subways and train station, train stops. So this train stop is in very close proximity. That was a fun little outing. Yeah. And it is brand new construction, almost 3,000 square feet, which is plenty for most buyers. Three bedrooms, four baths. Two of the bedrooms are on the upper level, one's in the basement, and it has a two-car attached garage. It's almost certainly lock and leave, and so that checks a lot of boxes for a lot of potential buyers. And frankly, Louisville is one of the most attractive locations in Boulder County. I would almost prefer it in some ways over the city of Boulder because you don't have 800 kids having a house party on Halloween in Louisville. Mm-hmm.

Osman: It's a nice, quiet, family-friendly town with a beautiful historic downtown and restaurants and shops and, and family-friendly events, but it still has a few bars if that's your thing.

Osman: It, there- Mm-hmm... it, but it doesn't stay open till 2:00 in the morning. It's- It's like a 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock and it's over in Louisville on a Friday night, so it, that works for a lot of people. And it, it's, I think, has the perception of being a much safer community, probably much lower property crimes. I don't have that statistic in front of me. So this makes sense. Um, the, the distance to the tracks is really close. Like, if I had the choice, I'd rather have a little bungalow- Mm-hmm... on the west side of his- of Old Town than own a brand new construction product right n- you know, this close to the train tracks. I mean, people think brand new construction won't have any problems, but in practice, brand new construction often has lots of problems. And so when, when you're buying new construction, you really wanna understand the builder's approach to punch lists and warranties and how professional they are, because some of the builders have really solid practices, um, and, and good- Right... reputations, and some builders have horrible reputations.

Osman: It's been on the news recently where literally houses are breaking in half in Texas that were constructed so poorly

Hamish: and so quickly. Can we say the builder? What was it? I don't

Osman: wanna say the builder- Yeah, okay... 'cause I don't wanna get in a, a lawsuit from this builder. But, so there are builders with better reputations than others, and this particular builder, I don't know. Mm. Um, and so you are taking some new construction risk, um, and that would be of concern for it in my opinion. But anyway, it, it did go under contract officially. They changed the status anyway, um, back in November of 2025. The foundations were poured in August, and these people just closed on it, so that gives you sense of even if you're buying new construction, how long you're gonna be waiting, uh, with a professional builder that got all the entitlements done and, and were underway- Yeah... from foundation pour in August supposedly to closing, you're looking at more than a year to finish the house. Mm-hmm.

Osman: That's a really long time. And not to men- I mean,

Hamish: uh, it's great to hear the input too about like next to a, a public transport, like a train station generally does well for value. We've also seen like a lot of the new builds in 2022 just eating it-

Osman: Oh, yeah... for value. Oh, yeah. And, and the same pattern was true in 2006 to 2009. Mm-hmm. New builds during frothy periods in particular have a much higher risk of downside- Yeah... because you overpaid. But, um, this, this cycle I feel like we're pretty far down, um, and so I don't think that risk is as big of a deal. Mm-hmm. But it definitely exists, um, that you, you're the, you're the one that overpaid and in five years it's worth ch- less than you paid for it. But Louisville is such a solid location, I feel like- Mm-hmm... there's n- that isn't that big of a risk. I'd also, I'd be more worried about the HOA to be frank. Yeah. Um, because HOAs that are captive to the builder, um, may or may not be set up well, and it could be a really small HOA.

Osman: So in addition to, you know, due diligence on the builder, due diligence on the location, taking a gamble on whether you can, it's gonna be quiet in this place or not, like do they sound insulate it properly so you're not waking up in the middle of the night from the train. Mm-hmm. Um, you could- Oh my God. Can

Hamish: you imagine the whole ground shakes? Like Well,

Osman: yeah. It's like that Blues Brothers scene where the train is literally right outside their window. Mm-hmm. Um, you're also taking risk that the HOA is gonna be well managed and for a lot of people that's too much. That's a huge risk. Uh, too much risk on the table. Yep.

Hamish: Well, cool. Thanks for, yeah, I'm glad that, um, there were things for you to talk about with that one. I had, I had a brief moment of panic because I tried looking up on maps and it doesn't officially have a, a street yet. I went back and made sure that it is where we're thinking it is. Yeah. All right. Panic over. So that's... Oh boy, it's, uh, hot

Osman: takes time, isn't it? All right. It's time to talk about the news. It is.

Hamish: I guess we'll get the little things out of the way. Well, little is very diminishing to some of the serious news that happened, but, um, election's a top of mind, so let's get

Osman: through the, uh, the other topics. Ah, you don't wanna start in with this one? You don't wanna lead the way? Oh, I am- All right. I'm writing down the time code. I'll lead the way. I'll lead the way. I can't do it. I'm bad. So Alphabet, Google- Ah, okay.... okay, took a half billion dollar, sorry, $500 billion haircut valuation after it was revealed during their earnings call that growth in search- Revenue... did not meet expectations. Has, is slowing. It still grew, but it just did not meet expectations, and the markets took that to mean that their search business must be broken-... and, uh, and then decimated the stock, uh, leading to also broader market declines. Okay, we're not stock analysts or at least we're not anymore. I used to be one. Um, or at least work in that department. I don't know if I'd call myself the person on the new... Well, actually, no, I was in the news, so all right. Oh, cool. We'll, we'll just leave it at that.

Osman: Um, but the, the relevance of this to the future of real estate is, I think, important to talk about because many businesses have relied on the ads- Mm... to drive lead gen- Right ... so they can attract new clients. Yeah. And we have had a very different strategy at House Einstein and f- formerly at Silverfern Homes.

Osman: Since I launched into this business in '05, the model has been put out content, content that I used to get paid quite handsomely for, the research, put that out for free. Mm. Uh, and that will, if you put that out, that will automatically attract buyers and sellers to find you. But- Speak to the listening But...

Hamish: Sorry. Speak to the buyers and the, the listening of the clients that you're interested in, right? Like, these types of reports kind of flag to certain people.

Osman: Right. Yeah. And, and the idea is you attract what you put out in the world. Mm-hmm. And what I saw as missing out there for a very long time was decent analytics, and in fact, I would say it's still missing to some extent. You get data from Z- Zillow and Redfin, uh, but it's frankly bad data, bad analysis. Um, and real estate brokerages have been putting out research reports for a long time, but they're often either too fast or too high level to be of any value. So being granular and getting really down into the nitty-gritty has been our business model from the onset- Mm-hmm... both in the former company and in House Einstein. And, um, but it turned out I was quite wrong. You can't really fight the- Gorillas... behemoths- Yeah... of the advertising world, and if you're not gonna pay their machine, they're not gonna send leads your way. They're not even gonna page rank you very well. So unfortunately, that has been the truth and, and, uh, that has been the truth for a long time, and I think it's gotten worse.

Osman: Back in '05, it was better, and then over time it became clear that it is pay to

Hamish: play. Mm-hmm. Um, and

Osman: now what's happening is that people are going to AI for their search, or they're using AI-enabled Google

Hamish: search. Like Google's own AI. So

Osman: the, how Google manages to mix in their advertising business into this is yet to... It remains to be seen. Right. Um, I think they actually... You know, I'm not Google sto- I own Google stock, so let me declare that- Right... right off the bat. It's one of the few, few investments I have outside of, uh, outside of real estate at the moment, where I'm in cash in a lot of things. But real estate... Uh, sorry, uh, for the s- Google... public, for, for public equities, for stocks, Google's the only stock I currently own individually. Oh, okay, not entirely. There's one other stock, but it doesn't matter. The point stands. The point stands. The other one is such a de minimis position that it's irrelevant. Google is one I bought into because I think Google is really well positioned. They own the data, and they have large investments in these other companies. I think they're gonna do just fine in the AI boom. Mm-hmm. Um, and probably their declining stock is a purchase opportunity, but really, uh, it, it's less about the stock than it is about our business.

Osman: And what I see happening is those providers of high-quality content are gonna benefit from AI- Mm... provided AI can find the high-quality content. So you may notice that I'm posting our content in multiple places, trying to encourage, uh, AI crawlers to find us, and when they find us, they hopefully will realize that the content we're producing is really high quality and we'll become a recognized resource. And we already are.

Osman: You've already shared this with me multiple times- Yeah... that we're getting more clients from, from AI searches- Mm... so it's working from that perspective, but there's a competing interest out there called advertising. And, and now advertising in AI. Advertising in AI. Yeah. Which doesn't feel particularly great, but somebody has to pay for the AI. Yeah. And historically, consumers want everything for free, so we're gonna see how this plays out. But it would've been remiss of us to not talk about the, the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to- Genuinely... to lead gen and online marketing for real estate.

Hamish: Yeah. It's, uh... It's one of those things, right, uh, I think primarily it's the high-quality content first always. But to some extent, you have to play the game that's being played, and it's... You know, we did search ads for a while, and sure enough, the search ad revenue for Google is declining, and AI and AI advertising is starting to b- pick up and become the, um, more discussed term for the kind of future, I guess, of what you would consider to be search revenue or search ad revenue, since so many people are using AI for

Osman: their searching. Right. Yeah. So as, as Hamish said, our business model has not changed. Super high-quality content is our goal. Mm-hmm. Hyperlocal, actionable, hopefully interesting and entertaining, and unfortunately, we also pay the machine. Yeah. We, we pay, uh, we pay to boost the presence of our listings. Mm-hmm. Uh, we boost other forms of content as well, because otherwise it wouldn't get, it wouldn't get viewed. Yep. Um, and some people have a natural advantage in terms of their looks, and some people have a natural advantage in terms of their presentation, like their excitability and their en- enthusiasm. There are people that get lots of views for reasons, but the, our... It's a very, kind of a staid- Mm-hmm... business plan, a staid business model, uh, that is intended to grow, but is not growing like as a hyperscaler. Yes. It's growing as, like, a micro scaler, right? Like, we grow slow and steady, and House Einstein has been growing now for 13 years.

Osman: Mm-hmm. But it's predicated or built on this slow growth model of high-quality content first and foremost. But unfortunately, we have to pay to play.

Hamish: Yeah. And I don't think that's gonna change. There's that one guy who sells moldar and just makes nonstop content.

Osman: Oh, yeah And that's, like, the, I'd say, the extreme

Hamish: of our model, but then it, it removes the HQ aspect, the high quality part. Oh, man. And it's just anything that lives or breathes, there's gonna be a, a video about it, you know? Well, I'm not gonna mention the

Osman: person's name- Yeah... but I've, I've never seen them do a deal. Um, but they, they are, they are definitely dominating, uh, hyperlocal content with a lot of AI. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and I, I... It remains to be seen whether that works for them.

Hamish: But, um, good that they're on our radar too, because there might be a few things we see and we're like, "You know what? We could do that better." Or, um, however. One of the things just really... It's fun, or just a fun interesting tidbit is that Google Search query, like, total numbers are, like, the highest they've ever been,

Osman: but their search revenue or- Hamish, you keep hammering on this- Yeah... but it, the- Mm-hmm... the market crapped all over it. Yeah. Oh, totally. And, and so I know that y- like, uh, it, the revenue is still

Hamish: going up- Oh, no-... but the queries... I mean, the searches. Yeah, exa- the searches themselves... and that, that being- Yeah... natural underlying growth. Mm-hmm.

Osman: But those, the... They missed. Totally. Yeah. That's a big deal.

Hamish: Yeah. No, and they missed by, like, 5%,

Osman: right? And, and so you were seeing less growth. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's problematic when the value of the company is based on its earnings growth

Hamish: over time. Without a doubt, yeah. Yeah, I'm not disagreeing on the, on what happened with the stock or its earnings report or anything like that. It is just, um... And actually, maybe it's illustrative that their revenue growth slowed, however the amount of search queries themselves increased, right? It's showing that exact thing, where people are going over to AI models, and their, um, revenue model for their own Gemini Search deal isn't as profit making as their original search advertiser engine that they'd been using. It, it, it shows the schism.

Osman: I mean, it's not, uh, Gemini isn't profitable at all. None of the, none of the, um- The AIs... none of the AI companies are- Yeah... or initiatives are profitable right now. Mm-hmm. They're in, they're investing massive amounts into the future growth. Yep. So.

Hamish: Yeah, you see Anthropic's. I, I think ultimately these models

Osman: are all gonna converge, um, where- They have to... basically they're all gonna reach the, enough intelligence that it's good enough for most people. Mm-hmm. And if it's good enough for most people, then... And you're not n- you don't need the most cutting edge version of the model to deliver the results you need, and I think we're almost there, um, then the s- then the AI p- search itself becomes a commodity. Mm-hmm. And then there are other forms of AI, like bots, that, uh, that integrate with connectors- Agents and stuff, yeah ... into agents- Yeah... and bots that are d- perform in different ways. It's not, no longer just about search. Mm-hmm. Um, and more and more of the public is catching up to this and realizing there's a lot of benefit to having a little army of bots working for you all the time. Yep. Really works for corporations that are small, like us. Mm-hmm. I don't think it works really well for large corporations with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of employees to suddenly have that sort... It's very, I think it's extremely disruptive. Yeah.

Osman: Which is why you're s- you're seeing Microsoft lay off 60,000 people, why you're seeing lots of other- Mm-hmm... IT companies laying off huge numbers of people or announcing them because- Yeah... they, they're, they wanna cut first, cut hard, and f- build tools to replace. Mm-hmm.

Osman: Yeah, it's a bummer. Not a surprise. I mean, that's the

Hamish: way it's going. Uh, they've been saying that's how they're gonna do it, you know? Like- I mean, a lot of-... AI came out, and they were like, "It's gonna take your jobs." I mean, there,

Osman: there are some billionaire investors in this space that have been prognosticating on their own podcasts that we're only seeing growth and more jobs, not less jobs, and it's true unemployment has been very low. But ultimately, AI can replace a lot of human intelligence in, in the supply chain. In a lot of the tasks and stuff, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. All right, I think we've covered that

Hamish: topic. And good real estate takeaway too.

Osman: Yeah. Let's, let's talk about... I mean, w- I wanted to give you a real estate spin on the Google News, right? Yeah. We almost did it last week, but we cut it at the last minute because I felt like we didn't quite have a full grasp on the implication. I definitely didn't. And it, it was better- Yeah... to just cut it last week. So that's a little bit of old news. The new news, unfortunately, is the Halloween shooting in Boulder, and that happened Halloween night in the 700 block of Marine Street, and it's close to our clients' houses. It's a, it's residential neighborhood, but there are quite a few student homes there. And because there's no occupancy limits, some of these homes have a lot of people living in them. And despite the increased efforts of the city to crack down on large parties, people are still having them. They're registering them. And when the cops show up, they shut them down early.

Osman: Um, they've taken some training, in theory, on registered parties, but what happened is a tragedy. Mm-hmm. Um, and we don't need to go through all the details because it's been covered ad nauseam by the media so far. You could see it everywhere. Yeah. Um, but there were so many ways this tragedy could've been avoided. Um, and, and deep condolences to the families and friends and others that have been impacted by the Halloween shooting, first and foremost. But there is a real estate angle to this, and the real estate angle is all about understanding the Red Cup Zone. Mm-hmm. Um, the Quiet Enjoyment Project has been mapping where all the noise complaints are happening and calling the city, both law enforcement and our regulators, our council, to, to task that this is a law. Quiet enjoyment is a real legal right of property

Hamish: owners. Mm-hmm. And

Osman: there are some people that have just reached the point of enough is enough. Um, now if this house had not had an 800-person party that attracted people from a- well outside of our community to come try to party with them and that resulted in- This... you know, this sort of, like, conflict happening, I mean, you could argue if the cops didn't shut it down, the conflict wouldn't have happened. Because in a party of 800 people, you wouldn't have had these, these kids from outside our community that wouldn't- Mm-hmm... have been able to get in because half, nobody's in the house. Everyone-

Hamish: The cops did shut it down too. And well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah,

Osman: yeah. If the cops had, did not sh- shut it down- Mm ... the shooting might not have happened. If the kid didn't, the 18-year-old didn't buy a gun or borrow his parents' gun- Yeah... or wherever, didn't find a gun, this wouldn't have happened. But our gun culture- I mean, there's so many ifs. And, uh, you know- Yeah... we're not providing legal analysis of the, of the case, but boy, it sounds kinda sketch. Like, was he in the headlock before he started shooting or after he started shooting?

Hamish: Um, because the news says- Yeah, I didn't even see that detail... the

Osman: news says- Yeah... he was put into a headlock by one of the residents of the house. And the res- And the quote I saw in the news was that the resident released him once he realized he was shooting. So is that a self-defense maneuver? But then is it still self-defense if you're barging into a house- Right... where you think a party's going on that's open to the public- Right... and you've been asked to leave and you're being belligerent? Like, w- uh, this is gonna be messy, and I suspect- Oh, this is terrible... I suspect that, um, uh, that I, that he's gonna have a self-defense claim. Um, and I'm, I'm really sad to see that, and I, I'm sad... At first, I'm deeply saddened to see, um, the death of the person, but I'm, I'm appreciative of our law enforcement and partners for getting the, um, the alleged shooter- Yeah, he's in-... as quickly as they did. Mm-hmm.

Osman: But I, I think, I think we all need to take a pause and a moment to think about these big party houses and their impact on the community, not just from a noise perspective, but becoming a locus of gathering for 800 pe- people like this, they're not red rocks, okay? A single-family house or a duplex on Ei- on 7th and Marine should not be having a house party with 800 people in it. Yeah, something. So, so I think, I think our, I, I think maybe our laws need to change. Um, it's not a peaceful assembly if it's a sniff concert. Mm-hmm. Okay? With 800 randoms in Halloween costume. Like, that's not a peaceful assembly which is guaranteed by our Constitution. So the... I think, I think our city council needs to look at this. Uh, and our, the lawyers that advise our council need to think about what sort of legislation and what sort of... Not, besides just creating a new law, but what sort

Hamish: of- I mean, it had been shut down, right?

Osman: So I'm just- Once again, the party was shut down- Right... at, like, 10, and this happened at 11:30.

Hamish: Right. So- So what law are you... Like, do not shut down big parties? Like...

Osman: Okay, but you, you understand that these kids thought the party was still happening. Mm-hmm. So even though the party was, quote-unquote, "shut down," the concert was stopped- Mm-hmm... and people were asked to leave, there were clearly enough people there that these, these other kids thought there was still a party going on. Mm-hmm. And then somehow thought they were being excluded from this party. So it wasn't com- it wasn't completely like it, there's just four residents sitting in the house. Why would you want- Right... to go into that house?

Hamish: Yeah. I mean, this is like... Have, have you heard of Project X? No. It's a movie about, um, these kids that wanna throw together a party, and it, it goes massively out of control. And, and no deaths, but, um, you know, it turns out to, the party-goers go out onto the street and start screwing up cars, and fires are lit, and it goes into complete and utter chaos. Um, and it's based off of this party that happened in Australia, and there's an interview with one of the guys that threw it, and I mean, he was remorseless. But, um, I mean, of cour- like, an 800-people-attended party is just beyond freaking anything that's reasonable, without a doubt. In a,

Osman: in a duplex historic house on Marine? I mean,

Hamish: in anywhere. Like, can you think of a house that

Osman: could have 800 people? I mean, maybe a billionaire's house in- Yeah... in the Hamptons. But listen, I... The, the point I'm trying to make is that we don't know what happened between when the cops dispersed the party- Totally... if they actually dispersed the party. Mm-hmm. Did they just say, "The noise has to stop"? Like, what actually happened, and, and how many people were still at the house, and why would these kids wanna still get into the house? What dialogues happened inside the house? Mm-hmm. And at what point did the shooting happen, before or after the, the alleged shooter was put into a headlock?

Hamish: Like, what- Yeah... what, and, and how drunk

Osman: was everybody? Like, this is really messy. Um, and I, and I sure hope, um, that justice is served, but I also wanna make it clear that it's not, it's not black and white based on the news accounts I, I heard. And I, and I think, as a community, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, "What can we do to create a safe experience for our CU students- Mm-hmm... and for the residents that live in these neighborhoods that have lots of CU students living in them? What's the impact to their community?" And, uh, and it's not just about new laws. It's about engaging young people and creating opportunities for them to have a fun par- like, it's college. They wanna have a fun party. Why is there no space for them to do that in a way that's safe, uh- Yeah... or why are they not, uh, why are those spaces not available in a way that doesn't create this collateral damage?

Hamish: And, like, the big one for me mentally is you're going to a party, should I bring my gun? Oh, no kidding. And, and it's like, uh, you know, Constitution- Oh... you have the right to do whatever, you know. But, like, what?

Osman: Who's- Um, you, so there are rules for concealed carry, and- Right... being drunk is definitely not an okay time- Yeah... to be concealed carrying. 100%. I don't know if he was concealed

Hamish: carrying or open carrying. Or if he was drunk. But, like- And I, I don't

Osman: think there's a law against wearing a costume and open carrying. Mm-hmm. So I, we don't know any of those things, um, what ac- what actually happened But the mindset of approaching a party- I hear you... with a concealed carry- I'm in radical agreement. The mindset you're going out for the night on Halloween- Mm-hmm... and you think it's a great idea to carry is m- is just... And then you also think it's a good idea, like, this gun gives you some sort of power. Like, there were- Yeah... there was a quote in one of the news articles where th- this assailant, alleged assailant, um, said something like, "I'll shoot the place up," like, like, in response to m- maybe being asked to leave. I, I don't know. I, I wanna, I, I don't look forward to hearing the full story. No. But one thing is clear- This is gonna be grisly. Yeah... we don't have the full story. Mm-hmm.

Hamish: So- Yeah... I,

Osman: I, again, it is a tragedy. It's, it was an avoid- avoidable tragedy, both at, on the individual level for the person who brought the gun- Mm-hmm... but maybe for others, too. And that's what's... Like, where's the full accountability of this, and how, as a community, do we deal with or do we learn from this situation? I do think,

Hamish: I mean, I hope, at least for the student population, that this is a serious, like, holy crap. Like, I think we're gonna be pretty dang selective in who we invite to parties, and it's no longer a public doors open. I mean, that's what I hope, uh, at least that the student body is like, "Dang," you know? "My peer died." Hope is not a strategy.

Osman: I mean, if you're creating a party that's that big that it's attracting people from outside your community, you may wanna second-guess whether this is a good idea. Mm-hmm. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and then what happens if people you don't want in the house for whatever reason or at your party don't wanna leave? Yep. And they've consumed a bunch of alcohol and have guns. Like, I, w- now what? Mm-hmm. So I, I, I do think there's something to be said for thinking through your actions, but let... These are 18 and 19-year-olds. Their brains are far from fully formed. They're legal adults. They are legally adults. Yeah. But they're, they're not really adults from perspective of decision-making. Mm-hmm. And so I, I think our community needs to think about how we can usher these, these- Yeah... young people into adulthood.

Hamish: Good mention. Couldn't not bring that one up for the, the pod.

Osman: Legit. Yeah. It's, it has a huge impact on our community, and it's very somber. And it's something that I think we, again, we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what are we doing wrong and what can we do differently?

Hamish: Yeah. Speaking of looking in the mirror, uh, probably a couple of political folks will be looking in the mirror to find out where they went wrong on their

Osman: campaign. All right, you wanna talk about the

Hamish: midterm election results? I think it's done moving on. Is it time?

Osman: Yeah. All right, we're moving on. Okay, you waited this long. You probably have already switched off 'cause you didn't wanna hear about all these other stuff. Wake up. Wake up. It's time to talk about-... the midterm election results. I was up late last night checking, uh, online repeatedly all the way till, like, 11:30 at night to see what was going on. Hear, hear. Um, and I, I was surprised to find Polymarket was really useful for not- Oh... looking at v- vote counts, but putting a prediction number on it. Mm-hmm. Um, and when you're into 90% at 11:30 at night on some of these candidates, I'm like, "I, I think I'm gonna go to bed assuming this person won." Pretty safe. But if you have been under a rock and don't know, there was a massive blue wave- ... yesterday, uh, in the midterm elections. And on, both on the national level as well as with, uh, our local politics and ballot initiatives at the state and, uh, city and county level, lots and lots of things happened. Here in the community of Boulder, we tend to lean to the left.

Osman: Most people are Democrat or Democrat adjacent, and there was a lot of celebrating last night and today across social media for the big blue tsunami that impacted our midterm election results. Mm-hmm. Um, I will back up for a moment and say that if those that have been li- those, for those that have been listening to the pod for a long time, I'm not a Republican and I'm not a Democrat. I'm an independent, and that's because I'm not a politician. Um, I may favor the Democrats as I often do, um, particularly in recent years, but I think that, that being an independent is really the only morally responsible place- Why

Hamish: would you shoestring into a specific camp, you know? Well, you

Osman: can't crit- you can't criticize the corruption you see in either party if you're a card-carrying member- Yeah... of the party. Yeah. At least not in the same way that you can when you are officially independent. And if I were to ever get involved in politics, um, my position might change, but at the same time, um, right now I'm an, an independent, and I just feel like- Hear, hear... I, I needed to say that. And I, I don't know, Hamish, you've never disclosed what you are. I'm independent. You're also independent. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, great.

Hamish: Yeah, so. Okay. The independent number one real

Osman: estate news podcast-

Hamish: In the world... in Colorado. Yeah.

Osman: Um, is right here happening right now. Mm-hmm. So let's start at the national level, and I, and I know that we don't normally talk about national politics like this, but how can you not? And- Holy, yeah... boy, across the board there's so many wins. Uh, Abdul Seyed- Mm... Rico. Georgia electing its first Black woman governor. Mm-hmm. Um, Malat Karos here in Colorado becoming the, uh, first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. Um, and Lauren Boebert is out of her district and she lost last night, which I personally feel

Hamish: happy to hear. It's about time.

Osman: Um, but, you know, big picture I just feel like it's worth noting that our country is less susceptible to Islamophobia and cheap shots. We have wised up. Mm-hmm. And candidates that are running ethically, uh, on platforms like, uh, healthcare for all and affordable groceries- Representation. ... and, and affordable gas- Yeah... and that repeat over and over again when you try to attack them on their religion or their otherness, that that's not what they're running on. Yep. They're running on solving these problems, and that's what they care about. And the Democrats became more and more aggressive in their attacks as the election went on. Mm-hmm. Sorry, the Republicans became more and more aggressive- I think

Hamish: there was one ad too-... in their attacks... that Abdul was like, "Yeah, that shouldn't have ran," or something. Really below the belt,

Osman: um, in, in some of these attack ads. So I was extremely happy to see such an articulate, well-educated, um, fam- non-controversial family man get elected as Michigan state senator. Um- Yeah. And I, I, I would be remiss to not mention that I also share some ethnic and religious background with Abdul Seyed. I'm not Egyptian. My family immigrated from Pakistan originally, and had been from Punjab. They had immigrated from India into Pakistan, and eventually immigrated here. I was born and raised in the United States, very much like Abdul. I'm not, I wasn't the valedictorian in my class and I didn't play three varsity

Hamish: sports. Um- Clinton didn't mention you...

Osman: oh, I played varsity sports, but I wasn't very

Hamish: good at it. Um- Puffs for getting in there

Osman: though. I, I did okay, okay? But I, I, I was not the best athlete and I was not necessarily the best student. Um, I think I've done well, but I also have not made religion so foremost and forec- you know, center in my life. I'm not particularly- Right... religious. But I'm actually really happy to see him, like, unlike Vivek, who sort of, like, wants to, I don't know, pardon the term, whitewash his-

Hamish: Yeah, like very-... like his Hinduness or his otherness,

Osman: Abdul Seyed just owned it completely. And, and, uh, even in his, um, his speech last night- Mm... was, was very open and multicultural and owning of i- of his faith, which I find very admirable. Um, so I'm, I've got a lot of, I don't know, I would say pride in Michigan and- Mm-hmm... uh, a lot of en- like enthusiasm for Abdul Seyed even though I'm not crazy about higher taxes. Um, I'm a little concerned about where we go and how we get to a more socialist country, but I think that we have to get to a place where healthcare doesn't bankrupt people. Mm-hmm. And it is a, a right, um, should be a right for citizens to have basic healthcare. Maybe they don't get the most extreme healthcare. Maybe they can buy insurance for the most, you know, extreme options, but- Yeah... Medicare for All seems to make so much sense. So I, I, I'm- Yeah... I'm glad we're moving in

Hamish: that direction. Yeah, I mean, my optimism too is that they'll be, uh, fiscally res- r- you know, responsible as well. Um, not to speak to, like, either track record of either party or, or have it be a party issue, but, like, yeah, I'm, I'm generally in favor of these kind of more socially benefiting uses of our tax dollars. Um, I would like to s- the fiscal, fiscal responsibility is important. I mean, once we get into the City of Boulder and, and, um, discuss the $400 billion dol- or million dollar, um, ballot measure there, I think that's just the, the kind of let's do this smartly and not be

Osman: stupid. I mean, you've got a great, a great point. Mm-hmm. Like, how do we pay for it? And I, I think that is a problem for our country,

Hamish: but it's a solvable problem. Without... The money's there.

Osman: There is... Isn't it... The money is there, but it's also how we supply healthcare. Mm-hmm. It's not just how we,

Hamish: how we consume healthcare. That's a good point.

Osman: And there are so many ways that the supply of healthcare services have been limited, including residencies for doctors- Great point... um, including limited, we're not allowed to buy medications from Canada or Mexico. That's protectionist actions, um, to keep our pharmaceutical industry and lobbyists that- Mm-hmm... uh, that, that support the pharmaceutical industry or the other way around, the lobbyists that advocate for the pharmaceutical industry. That's, that's the argument for those people. Yeah. Um, and the, the mass profits, the insane profits that are generated in the healthcare system for insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies mirror the insane profits we're seeing out of oil and gas. Mm-hmm. And so Abdul-Sayed has a, has a point. Very much. Yeah. Um, and these problems are solvable. We just have to actually focus on them and, and, and, and get politicians who are not in the pockets of big pharma and all o- and big oil and, uh, and other special interests that keep us from having adequate healthcare in our

Hamish: country. Yeah. Completely agree. It looks like Alaska and Mississippi are still waiting to come in too. Great.

Osman: So. Um, so big blue wave across the country. Talarico in, in, uh, Texas. Shocking. Yeah. Um, I mean, honestly shocking, uh, at, at states that have not been blue in many years- Talarico... decades- Right... have, have become blue. Um, and I think that's a pretty big rebuke against the Trump administration and its policies. It's called the MAGA movement, right, to

Hamish: distinguish it from conservatism

Osman: in general. I think the MAGA movement has taken over the Republican Party. Totally. It used to be like, the, it was just a little thing, and part of the, the MAGA movement was separate and distinct. It's not. The Republican Party is the MAGA. I don't see a difference. Mm-hmm. They have not stood up to Trump in, in many, in so many ways. So as far as I can see, they are- That is now paying their now... And I think there's- Yeah... a pretty clear message to the Republican Party that, uh, they have really screwed up- Mm-hmm... with supporting the war in Iran, with not holding Trump to account on so many things. Uh, and the massive, what appears to be corruption happening in the Trump administration is pretty gross. So I think w- unfortunately what happens at this point, Hamish, is that we have a lame duck president. Um, and what I really, I hope that the Democrats and our

Hamish: president- Wait. Did you hear what Trump said? What is it? On the, uh, phone call from the White House last night, he said, uh, "The Democrats put in a really good fight, and they did a good job." And so I'm wondering if lame duck- He rolled o- he rolled over. Yeah, totally. He said he will 100% work with the Democrats. He did

Osman: not claim- Yeah... election fraud, all of those things, and I hope that's true. Yeah. Okay? But the problem becomes that if the Democrats decide that they're going to

Hamish: simultaneously- They can impeach him.

Osman: Yes, they can. Well, they, they, they can, but I don't- If they simultaneously- Yeah... launch into legal attacks on him- Mm-hmm... investigations on him while they're trying to work with him, I think he's less likely to be open to collaboration. Exactly. And it's been t- Like, our country has fallen apart with this two-party system where neither side wants to collaborate and negotiate with the other. Instead, they just take extreme positions- Mm-hmm... which results in dysfunctional government, and our country's sick of it. I cer- I certainly hope... Like, I really hope that the Democrats and the Republicans can work together in the next session of Congress, but I'm not confident that that's gonna happen based on the past. Yeah. So we'll see. But it was encouraging to see Trump's

Hamish: comments. It was. Um, part of it is, like, I think if the Democrats can stroke his ego well enough and, you know, 'cause you're managing, like, somebody that's basically hospice, and then also the President of the US. If they can strike that balance, they might be able to get a decent

Osman: bit done. I mean, I think there's a good chance Trump dies in office. Um, a- and I, and he's at that age where it could happen quite suddenly. So we... Uh, and the next question is who's, who's the next president of the United States in two years? Who are the Democrats running? Mm-hmm. And who are the Republicans running? Is it JD Vance, uh, for the Republican side? Gavin Newsom. Is it Gavin Newsom for the Democrats? Boy, I think that would be a disaster. I think we're looking at JD Vance as president, if that's the lineup.

Hamish: Um, I- Um, that's the other thing is, like, uh, I don't think the e- I don't think the people that voted for Democrats across the board really like them either. I think it's, there's a lot of lesser evils, um, is the reason that we had this, this blue wave because they have screwed up

Osman: historically. Well, let's talk about Colorado. Yeah, yeah. And here we are now under very well-cemented one-party rule- ... which is concerning to me because one-party rule often results in kleptocracies and government dysfunction and massive overspending and poorly delivered services because frankly there's no competition. And- Lack of accountability, right? And there's lack of accountability, and the party just promotes and protects its own. Mm-hmm. So I sure hope that isn't where we're headed, but it, it, it... I'm concerned that we are become so, so cemented in one... Like, California is not particularly well-managed. Mm-hmm. New York, Massachusetts, these states that it's one party rule, I generally wouldn't live in because they're really expensive and they're not pro-business and their ec- their economies are moribund. Well, California is somewhat of an exception there because of its tech industry more than anything else. Yeah.

Hamish: Silicon Valley. They, so okay. We're doing a little political discussion. Um, like Milad Karos is, uh, thought of as like Democratic Socialist, which is like typically more left than what you would give a Democrat. That could be kinda my hope is that you have a little bit of infighting within the party that owns the state.

Osman: Yeah. You know? I mean the, I mean, so the Democratic Socialists could drag us further left. Mm-hmm. Um, and I, I think I'm okay with that even though if it me- even though it means higher taxes.

Hamish: Well, further left and then maybe they'll bicker enough to where they're holding each other accountable or calling out mismanagement or overspending. I mean, there can be party factions

Osman: within the- Yeah... Democratic Party. Um, co- uh, coalitions- Mm-hmm... of the, of the, of individuals like the, the squad, right? Like, though that type of thing happens, and we'll see. Um, overall I'm just happy that we have young people that have ethics, morals, um, are, are articulate, care about our communities, running and winning office across the country.

Hamish: Yeah. Articulate's a really nice change, and so is the younger. You know? Dear Lord. Yes. It's gotten to this point. Oh, it's

Osman: true. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about the ballot initiatives before we run out the pod here. So- Yep, yep... the vacant home tax looks like it's passing. Issue 2J, that's in the City of Boulder, and the $400 million blank check looks like it's failing. That's Issue 2K. Thank- uh, I'm thankful on the, on the, um, on... It took our politicians frankly too long. Like I, I was, when they first heard about this $400 million blank check, we covered it on the pod. I was livid. Mm-hmm. Um, and I'm annoyed with how slow they were to get on the page with, "Oh my God, are you kidding me?" Um, but I'm glad that our city has woken up, um, to f- financial responsibility, and let's hope that continues with more accountability for how they wanna spend the money to keep our city offices open, um, and not just indebt us to another $400 million plus interest. And then vacant home tax, I don't know. These people have a lot of money. They buy really beautiful second homes here in our community, and they don't have a lot of political power. So it's not a surprise to see that vacant home tax pass.

Osman: Fair point. Um, and our city needs more money because of our overspending, so, uh, it's no sup- no shocker there. Okay. How do I feel about it? I don't know. I guess it makes sense. I'm- I'm somewhat indifferent. I, you know, and, uh, fr- from a principle perspective, I'm not crazy about more taxes for anybody. Mm-hmm. I, I would like us to focus on cost reduction. Yep. But if you're gonna tax somebody, it's people that can afford to keep a vacant home here in Boulder and not- Question.

Hamish: D- d- I mean, same thing, right? Is like, okay, you're gonna be making more money from taxes. Please, God, be fiscally responsible, right? Um, this city question 2M, they can... That's the debt limit charter change? 2K. Oh, no, 2M. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they can get more debt still. I mean, I, I think that's just the de-

Osman: I think that's just the, like an administerial- Okay... debt limit. I don't think that- I think so... actually says they're off getting it. Yeah. I think it just raises the

Hamish: ceiling. That's it. Yeah. That's... Yep. You're right. That's, that's what is my question, so thank you. All right, so let's talk about- Um, collective bargaining. Yeah, all

Osman: these. I mean, most of them I, I'm happy to see pass. I don't know if there's any other specific call-outs. I, other than I wanna talk about 134 and 135. Yep. So this is state level issues, um, and 134 is school sports participation based on biological sex, and 135 is the prohibition of gender-affirming surgery for minors. And it looks like both are pretty close to passing, although 135, the gender-affirming surgery one, is neck and neck as of our last look at the count. Um, and both of these are, are somewhat culture war issues that have been brought forth by conservative and Republican and Democrat, uh, and r- and GOP- Mm... um, MAGA people. And it, it's really unfortunate that such vulnerable humans in our society have become the focus of- Literally... this culture war, um, because so few people are actually impacted on the daily basis.

Osman: Like, uh, some crazy percentage of people have never even met somebody who's trans. Yeah. And the impact on the families that have young, young people in them, children that, um, feel trapped in the wrong gender is massive. Like, this is really painful for the families to go through and process and navigate. Um, I happen to have family members that are in the child psychiatric world, and every time I bring up these topics with them, um, I'm educated, like, on how little I know about how these decisions are actually

Hamish: made. Mm-hmm.

Osman: Um, and I think unfortunately the vast majority of voters have no idea of what they're talking about. Mm-hmm. And it looks like unfort- unfortunately both of these might pass.

Hamish: Yeah. Um,

Osman: I can assure you that nobody rushes to do gender-affirming surgery on minors. This is not happening, like- Right... on a whim. And school sports participation based on biological sex, I get it that there are these headline stories that occasionally occur where some person who had the benefit of testosterone changes their gender and then is able to clean up- Mm-hmm... across some sort of sports world. It, it isn't that common.

Hamish: It's also one of those things where if you just remove all nuance, you can- Yeah... get the vast majority to be like, "Oh yeah, sure." Sure. Exactly. And it's like, oh- And

Osman: they're filling in the bubble without really being fully informed on these issues, and so I, I don't know. It's sad.

Hamish: Um- And the damage isn't going to be seen widely because like you said, so few people see, you know, trans individuals and stuff in the, in their day-to-day.

Osman: I'm less concerned about the sports participation- Yeah... because frankly sports participation is just sports, okay? I know people put a lot of weight on that in our c- in various communities, but at the same time, it's school sports, people. Like we're n- like these are not- Yeah. We're talking about school sports, like elementary, middle, high school- Right... college sports. Like, these are not- Sh-

Hamish: I- it's so important- College maybe,

Osman: you know? It's... I know it's so important for some young people and their families, but it, it is, I, I mean maybe our- my family was just more focused on education- Yeah... is the purpose of education, and not sports is the purpose of education. I'm with you, man. Radical agreement. But the surgery one, it just feels like a tragedy if it passes. Yeah. And I don't think we'll, it'll be the end- I think that's a misunderstanding. I think it, it won't be the end of it. I think it'll come back around. I think that, like I, I think there'll be a fight because overwhelmingly our community is,

Hamish: is pretty liberal. I hope it does. Um, I think it's just

Osman: miseducated. Mm-hmm.

Hamish: There's the one where you saw, like the sporting, uh, well, the constitutional right to gas. You see that one? Yes. Yep.

Osman: Is that failing? Uh, yeah. That, that did not pass. Great.

Hamish: Yeah. We'll leave it at that. Yeah. All right,

Osman: let's talk about, let's talk about our city council. Yeah, yeah. Um, our friend of the pod, Tara, Tara Winer was reelected and, uh, Aaron Brockett, also I consider a friend, was elected as mayor. Across the board though, other than... it looks like more of the same, like it doesn't look like radical change in the, in the composition of our city council. Mm-hmm. Um, but one thing I do wanna call out is that in recent years there's been a lot of focus on who the mayor is, and it is completely irrelevant because the mayor has no additional power over any other

Hamish: council person. I remember you saying this. Yeah.

Osman: That they have the same vote of a council person, but they have a ceremonial role as the s- as the mayor of Boulder. The real power rests in our city manager. That is the structure of our government, and this is the wool being pulled over your eyes, people, when you get fixated on who the mayor is. Mm-hmm. It totally is irrelevant. Who we should be concerned about is who our city manager is, and what are the metrics for performance that city council is using to hold our city manager accountable- I see... both financially and otherwise. And I hear nothing about that. So this is almost like- It's around the council, right? This is almost like the emperor is in the back, right, and you've got Darth Vader in the front. Yeah. And really it's the emperor pulling the strings back there, and you think it's Darth Vader- Mm-hmm... that's the bad guy. It's not.

Osman: And so understanding the structure of our government, and even though we're so well-educated as a community, to have been pulled aside into who's the mayor, so many news articles written about who's the mayor and focused on this issue, it's... it actually makes me sad. Well, question for you. Because the real power is being ignored, and there's a lack of accountability at the staff level, particularly with the person who has the most power in the city of Boulder, and that is our city manager. Period.

Hamish: So can the city manager be elected?

Osman: We could change our form of government. Oh,

Hamish: sure. But like as it is, they can't, right?

Osman: I don't know how. I think they are appointed. I think that's kind of

Hamish: the rub. I think that when we have one, we go through an interview

Osman: process, and then city council makes the hiring decision- So that's... Yeah... based on the candidates that are presented to them. Usually there's an outside consultant. And city managers, when they're being interviewed, they often have a city manager job, so these interviews are often secret, um, which is not a very transparent process to begin with. Mm-hmm. So there are all sorts of problems with how the city manager is brought, um, into their job, but the problem I have right now is not how they got the job. The problem I have right now is how they are either performing or not performing. Right. And to what standards are we holding them accountable for, and why is our community not fixated on that? Mm-hmm. Instead we're fixated on who the mayor is, which is- The popularity contest... just a guy with a funny hat. Right. Like, that's the mayor. And that's... Yeah. The mayor gets the funny hat. The mayor, you know, gets to o- cut ribbons.

Osman: The mayor gets flown around places to go to, you know, events and- Mm-hmm... gets public visibility as mayor, but doesn't have any more power than any other council person. And that's where my... as going on

Hamish: the, the manager and how they get into power is significantly, I, I think, less directly democratic, right? 'Cause the council people are appointing or, uh, some- the council members are... Uh, sure, you indirectly

Osman: elected the council members, but- I don't, I don't know the answer to this. Yeah, so- But I'm gonna ask this question, and maybe we can check with Perplexity or, or- Terra... Rock or any of these. No, well, I mean, I would check... I think AI could probably answer this question. Mm-hmm. And that is, when was the last time we fired a city manager? Yeah. And I think the answer is we probably haven't, which tells you something. Mm-hmm. That this becomes what, a job for life? And, and there are no standards for performance or accountability? Yeah. Like, how does that work exactly? Sign me up. Right. Yeah. Like, sign me up too. Like, you get to manage a massive budget. You get to make these powerful decisions over people's lives, and city council just rubber stamps everything you put in front of them, practically. Mm-hmm. Right? And only when it comes to, like you ha- well, only when you're trying to raise a $400 million bond and you need, you need the city, uh, cit- the citizens to vote. Yep.

Osman: That's the only time that your initiatives are shut down, but otherwise you basically have a, a- Free rein... massive amount of power and control over decisions in the city. So I, I, I, I... Maybe I'm being conspiratorial, but I'd like to see more accountability, transparency, and performance standards, and I'd like that to be the subject of council's com- upcoming retreat. Mm-hmm. Like, how do we hold our staff and our, our leadership of staff to perform in a way that is in a healthy working relationship? Just because you have performance standards doesn't mean you should have a negative working relationship.

Hamish: Right. Also, I'd like to perform in a way that reflects the city, like the constituents,

Osman: you know? You mean like,

Hamish: like the person that's- The, the, perform in a way that broader, like, that represents the people of Boulder,

Osman: you know? Say more. I don't understand what you mean. Perform in a way that represents the people. So,

Hamish: I mean, the city council are elected because the constituents believe that these individuals will represent them- Right... and their values. Right. And I don't see why the city manager should have performance metrics-

Osman: Any different. Yeah. Yeah. Held accountable to the public. Right. I mean, I honestly think we may wanna switch to something more like New York City, where you have a strong mayor- Mm... who is absolutely held accountable whether or not the city is performing, and will lose their job in the next election cycle if they are screwing it up.

Hamish: And somehow... Yeah. And Bill de Blasio, for

Osman: example, has got, like, the highest popularity ratings I think I've ever seen of a New York City mayor. Mm-hmm. And New York City is like a small country. It's- And he might as well be a little dictator of a small country, and he's doing great. So far. So from what I can see. Right. So far. The concern that I saw, I mean,

Hamish: we're not gonna, like, litigate de Blasio and all that stuff, but, um, was I think he's pulling out of, like, some of the pensions and stuff for the immediate funding in all the programs he's doing.

Osman: Okay, I'm not sure how the financing side is working.

Hamish: Yeah. But at least we know about it. Well, and super, and especially, like, how well he's, um, just, like, connecting with his voter base and, and the literal citi- residents of- And-

Osman: Yeah... is very publicly talking about services of the city- Super... delivering for the city citizens, which, like, fix the

Hamish: potholes. Simple as that, you know? You know, fix the trash problem that's, you know, existed since New York

Osman: City was first built. The rats. Like, the rats. Oh my God, we have... Are we solving the rat issue, or at least making it better? You mean you're not gonna just dump trash bags on the street?

Hamish: What are we gonna do with the mascot?

Osman: Right. Yeah. Exactly. Having lived in New York City, let me tell you. There... I think there are more rats in New York City than there are- Oh my God... humans in New York City.

Hamish: Yeah. All right. I hear they're, like, sizes of, like,

Osman: jackrabbits. No, I have not seen them that big.

Hamish: Okay. No. I've seen- If you go to New Z- go to New York for the rats. Stay for the people. Okay. All right.

Osman: I think you, we've covered the midterm election results, at least as far as we're concerned earned. Mm-hmm. Um, maybe we should move to

Hamish: carve-outs. Yeah. We still have carve-outs. Look at us go.

Osman: Um, you're first, aren't you? I don't necessarily need to go first. I think you should go first. I've been talking too much. Okay.

Hamish: I will go, and let me mark down the time code as just when I started talking. Um, a friend of mine that I went to high school with has gotten into acting. Uh, she's part of, like, a little modeling agency and, um, I guess is doing TV shows now. She posted to her Facebook that she, uh, is in a show, and that it's streamable on Apple TV,

Osman: um, something else, and Tubi. What's the show?

Hamish: Uh, getting there.

Osman: Oh. I tried to, um- All right.

Hamish: All right... I tried to l- look it up on Apple TV and everything. The only one that I could get it on was called Tubi. It's called King of the West. Um, and it wasn't until you searched, like, the S of West after typing everything out that it would show up. So I think it's a very not well-known show, very small. And I'm like, "Hell yeah, I'll watch it." You know, she's in it. Like, I wanna see. And, like, credit to her acting, she's great, but this show was incredibly hard to watch. And I think it's... I think Tubi's, like, fairly independent. Uh, you can put anything you want on there, or maybe there's, like, a very small guideline to be able to publish. I think, uh, uh, King of the West is, like, a limited series. I couldn't really make much about what it's about, or infer much from watching it. Um, but my whole point is, like, I watched it probably for, like, a good hour. Yeah. And, like, you know, her scene showed up, like... I think she had three scenes in that

Osman: hour or something like that. Very little screen time. Is she good?

Hamish: Yeah, she's actually pretty damn good. And it's also funny 'cause I'm like, "I know her," you know? Um, so I was like, yeah, honestly a little proud. Like, "Hell yeah, you went out there and made it." Hmm. Interesting. Um, but the, the show itself was edited. I, uh... For sure budget constraints. Hmm.

Osman: Um- Everybody lives under budget... Well, most people- Yeah...

Hamish: live under budget constraints. And then, like, being, like, a, you know,

Osman: a small, a small show. But it just seemed like a low, like a low dollar

Hamish: production. Ridiculously. Um, and so I think to me, and what I wrote down for the carve-out was, "Bad shows, more to learn than good shows." Hmm. And for me, it was more relatable than if I was putting together a good show or something like that, where the funding was, uh, you know, blank check or something like that. Because I'm like, yeah, if I were to put together a movie or a show, it would probably look pretty similar to this. Hmm. But what are they doing wrong that I already know how to do better, or what looks bad that I wouldn't have considered but now I can think about it? Okay. And so for me, the carve-out, and really it's just kind of this looking at content and, like, you could go watch The Odyssey and it's perfect, you know? Or, like, one of the, um, sayings for editors is the best editor is invisible. Right. Like, nobody notices that the

Osman: thing was edited. So you think you could've edited

Hamish: better than- Some of these clips hung on for, like, five seconds longer than they

Osman: needed to. Yeah. And, like, the cuts- How was the color gra- color grading, okay? Lighting acce- acceptable? That all

Hamish: looked fine. Uh, the music was terrible. Like, really poorly cut in between. Like, there was a lot of kind of, like, rookie mistakes. Hmm. Um, but then there were things where I'm like, "Man, this scene sucks. Why, oh, why does it suck?" And it's like, okay, a good show, they'd be skipping between... They'd have two over-the-shoulder shots- Right... because of the two people talking. But this one, they very clearly only had one camera. So how would I fix that if I only had one camera? And it, like, it gave me visual to scenes and situations that I wouldn't be able to even contemplate preparing for, um, if I were only watching, like, polished content,

Osman: basically. Hmm.

Hamish: Or, like, even YouTube channels. Like, the million subscriber plus channels are all so polished and all, all so high production value that you don't see what you don't see. Um, and it was just nice watching a amateur show- Hmm... and seeing, seeing what I saw, you know? Oh, I didn't catch anything from the storyline. The audio was tough. Like, like at the... It, it turned... You know, like Werner Herzog, he, he's like, "Watch it twice." Yeah. Um- Watch it twice... I only needed to watch it once. You know? Like, I was, I was seeing enough that first time, so. That's pretty funny. Yeah.

Osman: I mean, there is so much to learn from watching other productions. Mm-hmm. And I will say that the video making side of this business has been fun. Mm-hmm. And scratches a learning itch for me. Um, and I, I don't often watch things twice, but I do hear that, um, that new documentary, Nathan Fielder- Everybody's raving on that... uh, is raving that... It's, like, lots of people are watching it twice, so- Yeah... and going to the theater to watch it

Hamish: twice. And it's three hours. And it's a documentary.

Osman: So I don't know. I'm really curious about watching that, not from the, this Elizabeth Holmes' story- Mm-hmm ... but from the production story. Like, how did Nathan Fielder create a story that's so compelling about this individual that people would wanna watch it twice and pay- Yeah... and, and pay for the privilege of watching it twice. And

Hamish: they're going in, uh, from a production standpoint, they don't have a story. They might have a couple frameworks of this could be a story, this could be a story, but you're going in and you're getting the footage first, and then finding the story later. And it's like, how are they telling it? It's A24. They kinda do a little bit weirder, kinda off the cuff- Yeah... type of video style. A24 paid for it. Yeah. Yeah. They're the-

Osman: So-... team behind the scene. Although A2- yeah, A24 has their own brand to protect, but- And grading too. Yeah. And, and of course, the A24 grading. Yeah. Yes, yes, their

Hamish: grading. Um, that shot in 4:3, which is kinda cool. But, um, you saw Backrooms. Weren't a huge fan of it. Hated it. Yeah. Okay.

Osman: Hated it. Yeah. Regretted every moment and regretted the whole, like, like, the c- it w- the color grade- Regretted every moment... frankly made me feel ill.

Hamish: Mm-hmm. And

Osman: there were multiple points when my wife and I looked at each other and we're like, "Can we stop watching this now?" Yep. And then we look at each other again, we're like, "Maybe it'll get better." And then we keep watching it and regret investing more. It's the classic- Oh, yeah... sunk cost fallacy. Right. Well, we've already watched- Like, well, we've already watched 20 minutes, maybe we'll give it another 10. Like, no, you should cut your losses and get out of there. Yeah. Um, it, it was, it was that bad. So but this has been, at least in my opinion- No, and that's,

Hamish: uh... Maybe you'll see, like, an A24 seasoning between the two or something. Maybe. So I'm kinda curious. I have not seen an A24 movie- So you can see everything. I, I don't

Osman: know if I'm gonna go to the theaters. I think it'll be streaming within two months. Hopefully. That's three hours. I, I don't know if I'm down for paying 15 bucks or 20 bucks each to go watch this thing. I- Yeah... I do wanna see it, though. Yeah. Um, it's not the 20 bucks, it's just also, like, go to an actual movie theater.

Hamish: For that, that's where I'm like, Odyssey or some- I don't know. I'll, I'll check... Christopher Nolan

Osman: IMAX thing, you know? It's not about the... It's, it's really about, like, it's just, I don't know, I feel resistance to going to a theater.

Hamish: Yeah, some movies are worth the inconvenience of going to the theater. All right. I'll- That one might not be it for you... I'll discuss

Osman: it with my entertainment director. And for

Hamish: what it's worth, right, like, it's shot in 4-3. It's not necessarily a, a cinema- Yeah... oriented masterpiece. Like, if you can stream it, I'd stream it. Yeah. Yeah. I might give it another week or two. I think Taylor and I are

Osman: gonna go watch it. All right. Let me know.

Hamish: Yeah. Oh, yeah, that actually, hopefully could be this weekend. All right. Well- Happy Halloween... my carve-out

Osman: is much simpler, and, uh, I just spent the weekend with our nephews and niece and other family members up in Fort Collins for adorable trick-or-treating. Uh, and the tradition continues of trick-or-treating in family-friendly neighborhoods, which, I don't know, it's just such an American experience to get in a costume and be with your under 10-year-old family members who- Yeah... are so excited to go ring doorbells and get candy from the neighbors. Um, and some of the neighbors are also so excited to see the littles, and it's just a fun... I, I hear it's spread globally. Mm-hmm. Like, people do Halloween now everywhere. Our, our nephews in Chile also did Halloween. Good. So it was really, really fun to see that experience, and I'm grateful to have time spent with family. That's really the,

Hamish: kind of a simple carve-out. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. It's the coolest thing, the thinking back to, like, when you're a kid or seeing the, the, the littles, and it is their whole life, or you're like, it is the peak of their existence right now is, like, Halloween,

Osman: you know? And, you know, e- like, organizing the spoils- Oh, the best part... by candy type on the big table- Mm-hmm... and plotting out how they're gonna eat this candy. I will also say it is really obvious that sugar is a drug. Sugar

Hamish: s- Are you sure?... is 100%

Osman: a drug. Yeah. My God, the way these kids act if you take away a candy from them. Mm-hmm. And their desire to just eat more candy, even though you told them to stop eating candy, and they ignore you- Yeah... and eat more candy is just shocking. A, a, little addicts. Yeah. They are drug addicts for sugar. Properly. It, it

Hamish: pulls away, like, any rational thought they had, even as a kid. And it's just like, "Give me the

Osman: candy." Right. Yeah.

Hamish: Yeah, yeah.

Osman: Hmm. All right. Well, if you've made it this far, thank you for spending time with us at House Einstein, and we deeply appreciate your comments and your feedback and, of course, your referrals. If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate, you can find our brokerage services at houseeinstein.com. And if you like this content, please like and subscribe, whatever platform you're on. That really helps the algorithm. And also, don't forget to check out our socials on Facebook, Instagram, X.

Hamish: Blue Sky. Blue Sky. I wanna say Twitter, but we said X.

Osman: Twitter, X.

Hamish: Yeah. Same thing. TikTok. We're not on Pinterest. Maybe we gotta get

Osman: on Pinterest. We're also not on Truth Social. Yeah, no. Um, but maybe we should have an account on Truth Social. That'd be pretty funny. Man. And we're marketing to, like, a empty room. Mm-hmm. Um-

Hamish: Soon enough, Rumble. We'll get on Rumble.

Osman: I don't even know what Rumble is. It's like a,

Hamish: I don't know, they spun off around the same time as Truth Social, I think. Boy.

Osman: Well, join us again. Thanks again for joining us this evening or this day. Mm-hmm. And we'll catch you next time.

Hamish: Next time.