Boulder Micromarkets, Fast Offers, High-End Discounts

House Einstein Podcast #133 Transcript

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Hamish: You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing about that bird. You'll only know about humans in different places and what they'll call the bird. So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing. That's what counts. That's by Richard Feynman. And real estate works the same way. You can know that it's named Martin Acres. You can pull the comps. You can calculate price per square foot. But that does not mean you understand why certain blocks are more coveted or why two mountain properties five minutes apart can belong to completely different sub-markets. That knowledge comes from years of experience and learning what buyers actually care about. With that, welcome to the House Einstein Podcast, podcast 133, the beautiful day, October day here in Boulder. I'm Hamish Crabb, uh, a, uh, right-hand man to the founder and, uh, or main, uh, broker of the brokerage here. And, um, yeah, ev- any marketing or anything, I've got a hand in it, and I'm also fully licensed, so I help the brokerage run. But it's not just me here. I've actually got Osman Parvez in the flesh.

Osman: Well, welcome to the House Einstein Podcast. Thanks for doing the intro, Hamish. Um, what do you think of my hat?

Hamish: I think, uh, you look sponsored. Are you sponsored?

Osman: I'm not, but I just felt like wearing it because- Yeah we, so for those of you that are listening to the podcast and not watching the podcast, I'm wearing a, a Skratch Labs hat, and Skratch is a company founded here in Boulder, and that appears to be growing leaps and bounds. And recently, I mean, not that recently, but not that long ago, they opened up a restaurant- that has basically turned- Oh,

Hamish: That's right. Yeah

Osman: Into my favorite lunch spot. And the other day it was really bright and sunny and I, I needed to work outside, and so I bought one of their hats. And I'm, I'm gonna take it off because it, like, this hat is so- ridiculous looking on with this, like, super colorful brim and, like, really, it's, like, the wide-

Hamish: Yeah, it's a very- What do

Osman: They call this style? I'm not-

Hamish: I don't know.

Osman: What do the cool kids call this?

Hamish: It's not a trucker hat.

Osman: It's not a, it's not a dad hat.

Hamish: 'Cause that's Yeah. I don't know.

Osman: It's- Snapback, I think, is Is that what they're called?

Hamish: But it's not a snapback, is it? It's,

Osman: It's super silly,

Hamish: It is a snapback uh, it

Osman: Looks, it makes me look ridiculous. It makes me

Hamish: Look- It, it looks like a skater hat

Osman: It looks like I'm trying really hard-

Hamish: To You're not. No

Osman: Way younger than I am. Yeah. Um, but anyway, Leah looks great in this hat. She looks

Hamish: Great in I could see that

Osman: Of these. Like, all of this style of snapback or wide brim or the new style of, of baseball caps. I've got a collection of regular- you know, dad caps or- whatever you call tr- regular, regular caps, but

Hamish: Taylor rocks the, uh, the bucket hat really well.

Osman: What's a bucket hat? It's a,

Hamish: You know, the brim all the way around. Um, not a baseball cap at all. It's like a, a tiny, little wide brim hat.

Osman: Okay. Got it. I'll have to see this.

Hamish: They're, they're coming in fashion. I need to- You'll see them-

Osman: Get a picture

Hamish: If you just go on the hill. All right. Well, let's get into it.

Osman: So today's podcast, um, let's, uh, let's go through the docket, but before we do that, let's talk about our mission. And for legal purposes, the mission of this podcast is to entertain you. Please don't make any real estate or financial or other major decisions or minor decisions on anything you hear on this podcast. We hope to entertain you with our real estate stories and real estate content, but it is not intended to guide you in your real estate decisions. If you are thinking about buying or selling real estate, visit our sponsor at hauseinstein.com and you'll find out how to contact us, and we are more than happy to advise you on your specific real estate situation. And with that, let's talk about our docket today. Event Horizon is our s- new, relatively new market segment where we talk about what's coming up in the Front Range, uh, with respect to events from this weekend and into next week. The closing table topic this week is the importance of deep market knowledge, and we'll be talking a little bit about my own arrogance and somewhat cocky backstory.

Hamish: Um, Hardly. Kind of relevant to this, though.

Osman: Well, it, it is Yeah I think it's actually very relevant to know where I started and how my thoughts have shifted about, uh, deep market knowledge over the years. And then tales from the trenches, this is where we share a, an, a story from a real real estate situation. We may or may not remove the names to protect the guilty. Typically, we redact or we don't share the names of people that have behaved badly. The naughty list is anonymous. Uh, but we, and so that, so the, the theme for that is that we criticize by category and we praise by names. So that is a, I think, a Buffet rule for how to treat others professionally, and that's our approach with our tales from the trenches. And this week we'll be talking about the hurry up offense, a strategy that

Osman: I think has about a 50/50 success rate. But when it works, it works really well. And, um, I, I'm hesitant to- Yeah share this strategy because it has helped me close so many deals- in the last seven or eight years, but it is not for the faint of heart, and we'll, we'll go, we'll go into the details of that strategy.

Hamish: And the pros and cons. Yeah.

Osman: It is, as we're recording this, it's Wednesday, October 7th, and that means that the data for September is mostly baked. And unlike hard numbers that you get from economic indicators that are, that are also subject to revision, those revisions are usually happening once. There's a revision a couple of months later to the real number, or even six months later sometimes you're getting-

Hamish: Typically

Osman: Revisions. But with regard to real estate data, we rely on the MLS, and the MLS feeds data to InfoSparks, and it, and it is updated-

Hamish: In, in real time.

Osman: Let's do one that we need to turn off our- our AC so our sound doesn't- doesn't We forgot to turn that off.

Hamish: Goodness.

Osman: Yes, it's warm enough for AC here in Boulder right now.

Hamish: Yeah, 90 degrees yesterday, I think.

Osman: Um, it's a little toasty for October.

Hamish: But, um- So we'll be doing a live

Osman: Analysis of Boulder County and the city of Boulder.

Hamish: And it's also revised by the agents and the breadth of, uh, professionalism too. Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Well, not always the agents. Sometimes it's the office that updates.

Hamish: Mm.

Osman: And so their The, the quality of the data, the noise in the data can be significant, but it's usually revised upward, not downward. In other words, if there were 100 sales in the city of Boulder last month, and we're And, and that is what I report on October 7th, by October 15th, it might be 105 sales.

Hamish: Right. Because

Osman: Those five stragglers have shown up.

Hamish: But every once in a while,

Osman: There are revisions in the database that are So I, I used to track this re- religiously.

Hamish: Yeah. And I'm kind of surprised by

Osman: Revisions that are from years ago, like slight movements in the data from years ago, and I- all I can think is that, you know, the people are constantly updating and correcting information, so.

Hamish: Nuts.

Osman: Uh, particularly if somebody withdraws a listing, for example, and then noth- and has a really long listing agreement. Mm. And somebody else has taken on a new listing, like it can get a little messy

Hamish: Between- Okay

Osman: Agents to clean up the data. And the MLS has varying degrees of compliance with the rules, so.

Hamish: Yeah, and their, their own set of rules.

Osman: But it's still the best data we have, and we'll Oh, yeah we'll do an analysis of Boulder County and the city of Boulder for the month of September, subject to all those revisions- by our colleagues. And then we've got sales of the week. This Sales of the week is a segment where we talk about recent closings that we think illustrate market conditions in certain locations and price ranges, or because we just think it's a cool house. And we've got four properties to talk about this week. 4933 Eagan Circle, which is in the Renaissance neighborhood in Longmont.

Hamish: Mm.

Osman: 405 South 44th Street, which is in Martin Acres here in the city of Boulder. 844 12th Street, which is a historic property on the hill, and also 850 12th Street. They sold together. And 1285 Meadow Place, which is in North Boulder and sold for almost a $1.5 million discount, and more than a 10% discount from last list price. Just closed. Um. We'll, we'll go into details on that property, and that'll wrap up our sales of the week.

Hamish: Ouch.

Osman: And then the next segment is shameless self-promotion. We wanna share with you We don't do a lot of rentals, okay?

Hamish: Yeah, this is unusual for us.

Osman: Our business model for rentals is that, well, it has been that if we sold it to you, representing you as your buyer's agent, we will rent it, provided that the property is marketable and that we can work out an arrangement that makes a lot of sense. Um, and we It, it's kind of funny. I The, the pitch I give our clients on our rental business is that our mission is to focus on our buyers and seller, or se- buyers and sellers. Those are primary clients, and we knock it out of the park. That's our goal- with, with the brokerage side.

Hamish: When it comes to rental

Osman: Property. Property management, our mission is to suck less.

Hamish: Yeah. Because every property

Osman: Manager that we've ever referred our clients to, eventually we get feedback from our client that, "Boy, this experience has been horrible. Would you consider-

Hamish: Yeah being our property

Osman: Manager?" And, uh, and, and so ultimately I we've started to do property management, and right now we don't have a lot of properties that we manage, but we do take on property management, from marketing to actually managing the rental.

Hamish: And-

Osman: But our mission is to suck less. And you know the hit rate? 100% on that pitch.

Hamish: I know. I know.

Osman: Which is astounding.

Hamish: It's, it's, um, it's the honesty, and I think it's true because that is our mission, and it shows in our Without go- Okay. We can-

Osman: I mean, I can't-

Hamish: Shameless self-promote with that

Osman: We can't turn off the responsiveness that g- typically have with our clients, so they still get responsiveness, but it happens secondary to our buyers and sellers.

Hamish: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So our,

Osman: Hot Takes is our, our segment where we give you our Hot Takes on recent news stories that typically affect the city of Boulder, but sometimes go a little bit more afield. And we're gonna be talking about the city budget cuts. Uh, there's a budget squeeze happening with job losses and, um, a pretty significant drop in our recommended budget for the city of Boulder next year. The library district is also cutting its staff because it mismanaged its budgeting and hired more people than we could sustain. And then we're gonna be talking about the Supreme Court case that Boulder is the plaintiff for against, uh, Exxon and Suncor. And this case is really important on a national level. It sets a precedent that we haven't talked about it before, but now that it's going in front of the Supreme Court, um, the whole country is gonna be looking at this case, so.

Hamish: Yeah. It's time. It, it is time. Yeah. It

Osman: And so we'll talk about the potential impact of that. Um, if we have time, we might talk about the Pearl West sale, which is a commercial building that just closed to a investment vehicle that's likely related to Dan Caruso, who's one of our- Hm

Hamish: Very successful

Osman: Entrepreneurs here in Boulder, founder of Zayo. I think former, um, high-level executive at Level 3. This is something I called, uh, the virtuous cycle. Uh, years ago in Boulder, the virtuous cycle of entrepreneurship, that when we see founders, um, be successful with a startup here in Boulder, often that money gets reinvested in our community with new startups. And, uh, and the Caruso family has been very actively engaged in our community, both from an arts perspective and a business perspective. So glad to see them take I guess I'm giving you my hot take. Glad, glad to see them take a, a business ownership interest in downtown.

Osman: And then our last news story is that it's widely reported that Colorado leads the nation in price cuts, and that's based on the slowest September on record according to the Denver Metro Area Realtor Association. DMAR. So we'll be talking about what that means and how you should think about it. Mm

Hamish: And then finally,

Osman: Our carve-out segment. Hamish, what's your carve-out?

Hamish: Yeah, I changed mine. I've gone to, uh, working with a neighbor, building fences and relationships.

Osman: Oh, that's so much more positive

Hamish: Than- I know

Osman: What you were gonna talk about. Okay. All right, all

Hamish: It's like the other one hasn't baked in yet.

Osman: All right, good.

Hamish: Yeah. I'm I'm actually glad to see a change, yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Um, okay. And I'll be talking about AI chili.

Hamish: Hell

Osman: Texas, Texas red.

Hamish: Sweet.

Osman: All right. I'm, uh,

Hamish: I'm pretty excited for that one.

Osman: Okay. Well-

Hamish: Before we get started, or as we get started, um, links, show notes, transcripts, all at the website, houseseinstein.com. Uh, there's also a great place for you to sign up to Fresh, our newsletter, where we can discuss active listings. It's a little captive portal, so that way, uh, we're not publicly disparaging any listings that are active per, uh, the rules.

Osman: And if you're interested in more discourse on active

Hamish: Listings

Osman: Fresh Listings is the newsletter. It's active again, and I should have another one out shortly. Yeah. It's the only place we talk about active listings.

Hamish: Yeah. Boy.

Osman: All right, Hamish.

Hamish: What's going on this weekend?

Osman: Yeah, what's happening? Event Horizon.

Osman: Well, you put this first one on. So I would like you to lead it,

Hamish: All

Osman: Because you, it's a link to the ghost towns in

Hamish: Colorado- Oh, cool

Osman: That maybe you wanna go visit this spooky season.

Hamish: Yeah. So I, man, I benchmar- I bookmarked this one from, uh, a couple of weeks ago, and, uh, it was like, "Ah, you know, it's, it's October enough, we can pull it out." So there are five spooky ghost towns that are apparently worth going and seeing, um, for the run-up to Halloween. And, um, I'm looking through these. By name, I don't think I know any of them. So I mean, that's a list one to five. We could tease you listeners and, and make you wait to hear the first or the last one. Um, I'm gonna list them off quickly, and then I think we can just riff about, um, some ghost towns. But Saint Elmo, Independence, Animas Forks. Uh, what's the Ashcroft, Tomboy are the, uh, the five.

Osman: I've heard of Saint Elmo. I have not heard of any of these others. And the weekend, this weekend's weather looks fantastic. So if you want to enjoy the outdoors in Colorado, going to one of these ghost towns sounds like a fantastic way to maybe get some leaf peeping in. Um, but also with a destination. So this looks like a great list of places, and the link is to the Denver Gazette that goes into a lot more detail on these, these towns. So fun, um, outdoor, adventure-y, photography, videography kind of excursion- So for the family

Hamish: My, uh, brother's in town, and the last time he was here we went to Eldora, the old little town there.

Osman: Sure.

Hamish: And took some photos. He's got a distillery, and um, we took some product photos and stuff for him. I think one made it to the, to the publishing floor. But, um, that's the only, in my mind, nearest ghost town. Or, but even then, Eldora's getting, like, I mean, an influx of money right now, so.

Osman: Oh, I know about that.

Hamish: Yeah. Well, people are moving up there, and, and there's some, like, the property improvements going on.

Osman: You're not talking about the acquisition of Eldora? No,

Hamish: I'm talking- You're talking

Osman: Okay

Hamish: Not the ski resort, the little town.

Osman: Yeah, okay. So the little historic area that's at the base of the ski resort- um, has a bunch of mining cabins, and that's pretty much it. Uh, and it's a really cute place to go. Um, but the real story that we're not covering in the Hot Takes is, is how Nederland's trying to get- 20 million-plus donated Oh, they

Hamish: I hadn't even seen this update

Osman: The town's funding for the funding gap to acquire

Hamish: Eldora.

Osman: So I, I think, um, I think the town might, which has a $3 million budget, might be, might have shot a little over its britches to try to acquire Eldora. Um, but we're gonna find out because it, I, I think they've appealed- Yeah to the state for funding and-

Hamish: I have some additional information from someone we both know that's very close to this.

Osman: Oh, non, Um, I can

Hamish: I'm not at all sharing it

Osman: Don't share non-public information. Okay.

Hamish: But boy, do I need to tell you. Um, yeah.

Osman: Wow. Okay.

Hamish: Yeah. All

Osman: So sometimes we do get insider information. Mm

Hamish: Insider trading, so to speak, on the-

Osman: And it is in, in the theme of-

Hamish: The thumbnail

Osman: Insider trading for the thumbnail. But, um, yeah, we do not share anything like that on the pod. Mm-mm. You can I don't wanna have to beep it out, No you can share it un- after, after we- Yeah wrap up. Yeah.

Hamish: When we take a break or something.

Osman: Okay. Our next story is Indigenous Peoples Day. So there are events happening. Where are these events happening?

Hamish: Uh, Michanti, Mich- Mi Chantli Studio.

Osman: Where is that?

Hamish: I was just hoping a Google would suffice for the listeners.

Osman: Oh, really? I wanna know where that is. Um- Okay, so this is happening when? Uh, Sunday,

Hamish: Uh, October 11th from 12:00 to 6:00. And it's, uh, one of three events that the City of Boulder is at least putting on their website. I don't know if they're throwing it or not. Um, but this particular one we chose because it's, uh, celebrating culture and, and honoring ancestors, and we thought that might be the most, or one of the more vibrant and exciting ones of the three. Uh, it will include, you know, traditional Aztec dance and drumming, indigenous art, uh, bookmaking workshops, mural creation. Oh, mural creation would be cool. Um, Mexican culture, Aztec calendar, tons of stuff there, so.

Osman: I mean, this looks really cool. So Michanliy is located just north of Best Buy off of 30th Street.

Hamish: Oh, okay. Dispensary Row

Osman: It looks really neat.

Hamish: Yeah. Um,

Osman: And the Google reviews for the studio itself looks, look all super positive. So Okay fun event for Indigenous Peoples' Weekend. And then Gold Hill.

Hamish: Not a, not a ghost town, Gold Hill?

Osman: Not the town. Well, I mean, it's both.

Hamish: Okay. Gold Hill is not a ghost town. Mm

Osman: Though, but it does have a lot of old historic mining cabins and a, a very rich history. The Gold Hill Inn, if you have not been to the Gold Hill Inn, you should absolutely put this on your radar. It hosts live music all the time, and this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday look like really fun concerts happening. Um, the one on Friday and Saturday are 20 buck cover, which how can you beat 20 buck cover? And on Sunday it's free. Mm. Um, so i- if you- the Gold Hill Inn is just an absolutely beautiful building, and it's such a, a kind of a down home, chill vibe going up there. People like to get dressed up a little bit in, in their country finest, which always makes Leah and I laugh, 'cause we are, like, mountain people dressed in, like, whatever they happen to be wearing that day.

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah. And the city folk.

Osman: Like, we got, we got flannels on and we're wearing Carhartts. You know, like, this is, this is the mountain people vibe. Um, knit caps because it gets cold at night up there. We dress warm. But then every time we're up there there are people that are really dressed up in sort of country- I- urban attire.

Hamish: Yeah. I really have to laugh. My brother has out for delivery today a felt Stetson that he ordered.

Osman: Of course. Yeah. Of course.

Hamish: And so I just sent him a screenshot of this.

Osman: You know?

Hamish: We may be there this Friday.

Osman: It's a thing.

Hamish: Yeah. It's

Osman: A thing, for sure. People love to wear, uh, cowboy hats, uh, in, in Colorado. Yeah. So Tonewood String Band is playing Friday night, 8:00, $20 cover. They're an original psychedelic bluegrass band based in Denver. And on Saturday you've got the Lilt Collective, which is traditional Irish music. And, um-

Hamish: That's cool

Osman: They will lift your hearts and get your feet dancing. And then Sunday there's a folk artist, Emily Barnes, who's performing. She's a contemporary folk singer known for her voice and vividly drawn characters.

Hamish: So that's the, that's the

Osman: Docket for Gold Hill Inn. And I had one little pro tip to share for people that I'm hesitant to give this tip out. Mm. But I don't I, I will be upset if this ruins our experience in the future, because it's, it's a tip that would work for a few people.

Hamish: Okay. Okay?

Osman: Uh, and basically you have to make dinner reservations well in advance.

Hamish: Oh, this one. Yeah

Osman: For the Gold Hill Inn. Mm. You cannot just stroll up and expect to be fed there. Their restaurant is almost always booked up on the weekends. I don't know about midweek, but always on the weekends. Mm

Hamish: However,

Osman: If you spontaneously, right, like I, I do believe in the principle of immediacy-

Hamish: You're, like, 20 minutes from it, or 10 minutes Sure.

Osman: We're like- 20 minutes. If you, if you have a great day happening and you decide you wanna go to the Gold Hill Inn and have dinner, if you show up at, like, 4:45 just as they're opening Mm that space, there are five or six bar tables, and you can occupy a bar table and order at the bar and get dinner. You, you don't get the full menu. You get the bar menu, but you still get a pretty good experience. And then you can stay for the bands that show up at 7:00 or 8:00, although you're gonna be there a long time. So maybe the, the, the goal is have dinner- Mm.

Hamish: Oh, yeah

Osman: And then go walk around Gold Hill as an experience, right? Go walk around the historic town. Um, another great spot for photos, right? There's a, there's a old, uh, vintage truck out front that people love to get their photos taken next to. A lot of weddings happen up there, and people like to get their photos taken there. So you can walk around, take some photos, and then come back for the band.

Hamish: Yeah. Uh, you won't have

Osman: Your table anymore, but that's okay.

Hamish: You'll be dancing. This- And, and if you happen

Osman: To be seated at a big table, I would actually recommend that when you see people walk up to the bar and try to get You know, walk up to the, to the host and try to get dinner- and you can see their shoulders drop and then the,

Hamish: Their disappointment- The disappointment

Osman: At the bar, you can invite them to join you at your table, which is what we just did on, on Satur- on Sunday night, and it was delightful.

Hamish: That's kind It was really fun- Yeah

Osman: To meet this, uh, this couple riding k- motorcycles, and, uh, it was cool.

Hamish: So Gold Hill, is that, um I mean, is it paved all the way up there? Do I need

Osman: It's dirt.

Hamish: I'm not bringing my fast car.

Osman: It's dirt. You do not wanna bring your fast car. No, it's a dirt road. And it's not a hard dirt road, but it's got a bunch of washboard. Um, so you wanna drive something that's got a comfortable ride- that handles the washboard. You don't need a truck.

Hamish: Yeah. Um,

Osman: Any car will do.

Hamish: Okay. It's not that bad. But good to know.

Osman: Yeah. Yeah.

Hamish: Great.

Osman: And you can approach it from the nor- you can approach it from the west, from- the Peak to Peak, or you can go up Four Mile, or you can go up Sunshine.

Hamish: I think I went up Sunshine for a showing once. It was really interesting to do this weird-

Osman: Do not go, do not drive Lick, Lick Spil- Lick Spillit. Lickskillet. Don't take Lickskillet. If you're driving Lickskillet, you need a four-wheel

Hamish: Drive- Okay.

Osman: And high ground clearance. I do not recommend Lickskillet.

Hamish: Got it.

Osman: So whatever route you're taking- Yeah, not Lickskillet if you see Lickskillet on there- do not take that route.

Hamish: You're going the wrong way. Yeah.

Osman: Okay.

Hamish: Good to know.

Osman: Just to warn you that that's not for, that's not for everybody.

Hamish: That's a, yeah, great pro tip.

Osman: Very- Yeah, that's for, like, a Jeep or something that's a little-

Hamish: Anything with clearance, like yeah. Yeah

Osman: A little clearance and four-wheel drive will, you'll be happy on Lickskillet, but-

Hamish: Good to know

Osman: Even then it's still a gnarly road. Yeah.

Hamish: If we wanted to stay in town, it looks like CU's got this, uh, open house at the, uh, Sommers-Bausch Observatory.

Osman: This So CU has a, um, a, an observatory that I think is mostly for teaching purposes at this point. The equipment is a little bit, um, obsolete- for true exploratory astronomy.

Hamish: There's, like, dark sky and stuff too, right?

Osman: We still have this beautiful observatory with really cool equipment, and you can, you can roll into the open house and they will let you view through their 20-inch telescopes. You'll learn a lot about the observatory and, and CU's research in the past, and what's happening today, and how it serves as a, as a real educational tool for the grad students and the undergrads. It's such a fun building and a fun evening, especially if it's gonna be a clear night. So put this on your calendar. It is happening this Ooh, what day is that?

Hamish: Friday at 8:00.

Osman: Friday at 8:00 PM.

Hamish: And, um, you went to this last year, didn't you?

Osman: I did. I loved it. We had so much fun.

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: And the session typically is one to two hours, and there's no charge- for their open house.

Hamish: That's so cool.

Osman: Okay. Hamish, this last one I think is, is for you to lead. Or maybe I'll lead it. I don't know. Pumpkin Pie Days is happening in Longmont this weekend,

Hamish: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on

Osman: Saturday. And, um, Pumpkin Pie Days is- A vintage and antique market. They charge a pretty minimal fee to get in, and there's all these vintage treasures and antiques, and it's kind of a community tradition. It's been going on for over 50 years. And so there are events happening all over Boulder County. And we sometimes get really kinda fixated on Boulder and the mountain foothills, but there's also stuff happening in Longmont, and this looks like a great outing for the day. Stop by for a few hours and check it out. Personally, I'm not into antiquing. I try to avoid antiquing.

Hamish: Like

Osman: We already have

Hamish: Too many antiquey things- Too many things

Osman: That just show up because family members have gifted them to us.

Hamish: There's something about that. It's just- Christmas ornaments for me. I've just got so many Christmas ornaments.

Osman: Yeah. Leah does, too. Leah has an enormous collection of Christmas ornaments. Yeah.

Hamish: But, uh, I mean, I'm assuming there will be pumpkin pie, and that may get me.

Osman: I kinda, I don't see So this is the thing, right? I read through this.

Hamish: Yeah. I swear

Osman: It's called Pumpkin Pie Day, then it's Pumpkin Pie Day Vintage and Antique Market. Like, where is, there's no more mention of pies. So-

Hamish: That'll get you.

Osman: Maybe. You'll have to I love, it's like one of my favorite pies. You'll have to let me know if you go.

Hamish: Yeah. Well, it's at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, which I've been there once or twice and loved it.

Osman: Yeah.

Hamish: Um, really cool spot.

Osman: A great spot. Also outdoorsy- and, and fun for the family. All right, that's our Event Horizon. No major edgy things happening this weekend. But lots of chances to get outside, enjoy great music, um, support local businesses, and be part of or experience why people live here. You know, it's very easy to forget as we do our 9:00 to 5:00 or-

Hamish: All the time

Osman: In real estate, 9:00 to 9:00, Monday to, Monday through Sunday.

Hamish: Yeah. Boy, I really tried to go to, uh, Meet the Spirits last week and just, yeah, couldn't, couldn't swing it, but this- It'You know, I'm, this week's gonna be different. So.

Osman: We'll see. Well, your brother's in town- so now you have an excuse to go entertain.

Hamish: And I sent him a screenshot of the, the Gold Hill thing, and then I sent Taylor a screenshot of, uh, the CU Observatory, so.

Osman: Cool.

Hamish: You know, I'm lining up plans here. We'll see.

Osman: That sounds great.

Osman: This is the core topic of the podcast, and this week, we're talking about the importance of deep market knowledge, and it's also the source of our thumbnail, the thumbnail that says- Insider Trading, because in a way, it's sort of insider trading. And, and insiders that know what they're doing and maybe people that don't know what they don't know. So you've heard that before, right?

Hamish: Oh, the Mark Twain, yeah.

Osman: Like, you know what you, you know what you know, you know what you don't know, but you don't know what you don't know. Yeah. And I feel like-

Hamish: It's, um, it ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

Osman: Oh, okay.

Hamish: That's the Mark Twain one. Oh, that's the Mark Twain one. Yeah

Osman: That's a little different. But the purpose of this is to talk about some things that I think most people don't really understand. Mm. And when I see buyers and sellers choose their friend agent, it seems to be on the locus of two things. One, the friend agent has their license hung with a well-known brokerage, a national brokerage- so therefore, they must be competent.

Hamish: They're wearing a collared shirt.

Osman: Uh, okay. That, too. And then the second thing that I think people, um, focus on is that they trust their friend. They believe their friend has their best interest in mind, but their friend may not know what they don't know. And so my arrogant, cocky backstory

Hamish: About this- As per bulleted. Per bulleted

Osman: Is that I came into real estate all those years ago, back in 2003, 2002- with, um, Windwalker Real Estate on Nantucket, and was hired as a financial analyst and associate of the brokerage to help the agents do their marketing and their analysis- Mm and to help build out a private club on Nantucket called the Westmore Club and build the financial model and help raise capital for that project. And I was very curious about real estate, and I ended up staying in the real estate industry and the investment world, bouncing back and forth a little bit, and still bouncing back today. Um, but I thought getting into residential real estate, seeing the agents on Nantucket, that, wow, they I mean, I, I was joking, but some of them were, were part-timers that retire, this was their retirement job. They would roll in-

Hamish: Wow

Osman: Um, late, 10, 11 o'clock in the morning to the brokerage after having a very slow breakfast, basically hang out at the brokerage-

Hamish: Yeah, just

Osman: And then, you know, go play golf, go enjoy the beach, and occasionally do a real estate deal, like two or three deals a year. And I was doing financial analysis for them, like I was, and I was helping them with their email, and they were having trouble with basic financial and professional skill set

Hamish: Stuff. Yeah. 101 stuff.

Osman: Like tech stuff- with their laptops. And I realized at the time- Mm that I, I felt really strongly like, wow, I've got all of this analytical skills from working in the investment world in New York that I can apply to real estate and knock it out of the park.

Hamish: Right. Yeah. Right? You know, no, no comp- no competition.

Osman: There's no

Hamish: Competi

Osman: There's very little competition- Right that had that skill set, and I was very, I was steadily convinced that with that, those skills, I should be able to really kill it in business. And it turned out that there's a lot more to why people choose real estate agents, and there's a lot of things you don't know that you don't know, like the value of now over 20 years of experience in the real estate world, with most of that being here in the city of Boulder, gives you insights that you just wouldn't be able to bring if you hadn't been working all of those years at this level. Yeah. And so, l- so I thought it would be helpful first to admit my own arrogance. and now, now after 20 years, I, I can see how arrogant of an idea that is. Yeah. Um, and how hard it's been to build a business, but also how many transactions that, that we've done over this, this length of time. And even your experience in four years-

Hamish: Oh my gosh

Osman: Being the associate for three agents, it has given you so much experience that it, it's a You, you can't replicate that. And, and the skill sets, even if you have tech skills from another field, don't necessarily translate to the depth of market knowledge and why that gives buyers and sellers an advantage. So, so here's a, here's kind of a walkthrough of what that looks like here in the city of Boulder. So there's definitely an ultra-luxury-

Hamish: Can I, before you?

Osman: Oh, go ahead. There's, um- No, go ahead

Hamish: There's a, I think it's like a competency curve or I, I'm hesitant to say Dunning-Kruger, but it's, I'll, I'll see it online sometimes, and it's like starting out just learning, I know nothing. Okay, I'm learning a little bit. Okay, I know it all. And then, like, right after it, it's I know nothing. You know, like, as you become more, um, experienced on a, a subject, the more you understand it, and you hit this shelf where you think you know it all, and then just a bit more time and you're like, "Okay, I still have a lot of learning to do."

Osman: And that's where I'm at.

Hamish: That, that humbling moment, you know?

Osman: There is so much, every year, every transaction- we learn something, and now we've even institutionalized the learning by doing postmortems- Yeah on every transaction, and keep that, those lessons are typically internal, but sometimes we move them We'll podcast

Hamish: Some of them. Yeah.

Osman: Sometimes we'll move them to the podcast, but so let, let's dive into some of this- and, and give this color for you as a listener or a viewer. So, um, so certain micro locations within neighborhoods- trade very differently than the whole neighborhood. So for example, when we're in the ultra-luxury category, anywhere near- downtown, that's, it- Sunset Hill is its own thing. And understanding Sunset Hill- there's not that many homes. Like, uh, 14 or like, there's not a lot of houses on that street- where the value suddenly just go through the roof. And the dirt alone has premium value, and the orientation on the street- can affect the value. Are you looking at the are you looking at the high school? Are, are, are you sorry, middle school?

Hamish: No, that's Casey, right? Yeah, Casey. Yeah.

Osman: Are you looking at Casey Middle School? Are you, do you have views of downtown framed by the flat, you know, the Flatirons in downtown?

Hamish: Down

Osman: Like, and the north side trades differently than the south side. So Sunset Hill is its own animal in the ultra-luxury segment, but it's not just there. So Mapleton Hill. Mm Where there's a lot more houses. Hundreds of homes in Mapleton Hill.

Hamish: Pretty busy street, too

Osman: Mapleton Avenue is a busy street.

Hamish: Yeah. Oh, okay.

Osman: But the district is what I'm talking about. And within that district itself is the 500 to 800 block. And why is it the 500 to 800 block? Well, because 4th Street is a little busy. So that 400 block gets some impact if you're too close to it, and 9th Street is very busy.

Hamish: Yeah. So that

Osman: Definitely has an impact if you're abutting 9th Street. But that 500 to 800 block is magical. It's magical, it It's a

Hamish: Sweet spot

Osman: It is-

Hamish: Goldilocks.

Osman: It is if the streets are wide, it is It, it I admit, I park there all the time, right? Because this is one of my favorite spots in the neighborhood. Just to experience the ambiance, the quiet. How it's quiet, I don't really understand, but there's something about that spot that is truly majestic. And understanding the limited availability of options in that spot, you could be waiting many years for the ideal home t- to appear. And when it does, you need to move fast.

Hamish: It's probably a, a pool of buyers, right? Just kind of looking there only.

Osman: I, you know, I don't know about that. Like, there are historic home people- um, but there are always alternative options. And competing needs. So every real estate situation has pros and cons and compromises that buyers are willing to make. Um, and so for example, if you have to have Mapleton Hill- right, would you also- Yeah consider Knollwood? Probably. You're right next to it. If you really want something modern and, um, sort of, uh How do you put this?

Osman: Um, something that would be highly regarded for entertaining. Meaning a home that impresses other people. Then Trailhead, because now you have modern and you're still right next to Mapleton Hill. But Mapleton Hill is really the, the, the gem that is amen- And so Sanitas and Mapleton Hill are probably amenitizing- Mm that Trailhead location and then the proximity to downtown.

Hamish: Okay. All of that's really

Osman: Important, but the 500 to 800 block is very different than the moment you go east and you cross 9th Street. And the same thing is true when you cross uh, when you cross Broadway. Mm

Hamish: The

Osman: Values drop, and the and the feel of the neighborhood dramatically shifts.

Hamish: None of it's bad.

Osman: Uh, these are still great places to live, but they are fundamentally different. Mm

Hamish: And not,

Osman: And I would not have known that had I not worked all these years in real estate. But let's jump to the south part of town. Yeah. Okay? So Table Mesa.

Hamish: I Yeah, sorry, I didn't have I'm, I'm not too familiar on Mapleton Hill.

Osman: That's fine. Yeah.

Hamish: That, that'You- your 20 years.

Osman: I mean, that's also because we, we don'Yeah do a ton of content on Mapleton Hill. Um, we've done one Mapleton Hill What You Need to Know video, but I

Hamish: Think

Osman: It's time to probably look A revamp I mean, I love historic homes. We're members of Historic Boulder. Like, there's something that is very grounding and down to earth about a not too big historic house. The problem becomes that you want big closets, you want garage space.

Hamish: The, the lifestyle of a modern life-

Osman: You have to-

Hamish: In a historic home

Osman: It's really small is beautiful for most homes in Mapleton Hill.

Hamish: Yeah. All

Osman: Let's jump to the south of town. Yeah. Table Mesa. So Table Mesa- Mm is interesting because people refer to the whole Like, generally as the whole thing as Table Mesa, but it's not.

Hamish: Yeah. There are sub,

Osman: Sub neighborhoods within Table Mesa, like Devil's Thumb- or Highland Park,

Hamish: Or certain streets even, right?

Osman: Or Lower Table Mesa and Upper Table Mesa. There, there are so many nuances to what people generally consider Table Mesa, and I suspect most people just say they live in Table Mesa even when they live in Devil's Thumb. Because they don'It's- necessarily wanna portray themselves as living in the, in Boulder'That's true Country Club.

Hamish: Yeah. There's, um, I mean, uh, yeah, people say Table Mesa like you would say Southwest Boulder, right? You know, they use it just to describe the area.

Osman: Sort of like South Boulder. Right?

Hamish: Like colloquial. Yeah, like

Osman: People say, "I live in South Boulder"- or North Boulder. But it, it's not nuanced enough- when it comes to the, the, the supply and demand. When it comes to the availability of options, it's not enough to just call it Table Mesa or even, or even Highland Park or even Devil's Thumb, because within those locations, there are very interesting market dynamics at play.

Hamish: Yeah. And like you're saying, like, Devil's Thumb is that unofficial, uh, country club of Table Mesa. Uh, you, it Kind of harking back, but, like, a, an experienced agent would probably hear Table Mesa, think that's the area, think that's as far as it goes or, you know, Devil's Thumb is just a weird subdivision name that Google Maps put in there.

Osman: Right.

Hamish: They wouldn't understand the, the kind of separation once you cross that road.

Osman: Absol- Uh, they absolutely don't understand- Yeah the, the market dynamics, and an agent from Denver is not gonna understand the market dynamics. And even I would say, although I've done videos on Table Mesa, it's, it's not enough, right? Like, there's so much more to learn. Highland Park, for example, and Ian has done a great video on Highland Park. Uh, Ian Steinmetz. Shout out to Ian, who's a member of our team. Um, you could, we'll put a link in the description to Highland Park.

Hamish: Sure will.

Osman: But within Highland Park, we've seen multiple homes with structural issues. All right. That I don't see in other parts of Table Mesa.

Hamish: That's true. Yeah. So I know- Mm

Osman: Now with two deals in Highland Park- both having had structural issues-

Hamish: And a couple showings too, I think we've seen with the structural issues too.

Osman: Yes. Um, that, that's a thing in that neighborhood. But when you're, when you're in that neighborhood walking around and looking at the real estate- You see this interesting mix of some extremely high-end luxury homes- Mm and some entry and mid-level homes. Entry for South Boulder or entry for Table Mesa. But

Hamish: Not There's, that's a whole video on its own, what an entry level is. By

Osman: Entry you're, you're typically above the million dollar mark. But then when you go down to the

Hamish: Lower part of the

Osman: Neighborhood and you're not in Highland Park, you're over in, in lower Table Mesa- Yeah a lot of those homes are affected by the noise and traffic from Broadway. and also from the traffic that swoops into the retail center, into the shopping plaza.

Hamish: Yeah. And then you've got like what Dartmouth, I think is the one that runs through, and that's fairly busy. Grinnell.

Osman: But upper Dartmouth Yeah is really nice and calm. But lower Dartmouth is a zoo of traffic.

Hamish: It's a highway. Yeah.

Osman: And we just saw la- last week we talked about a buyer paying 200,000 over list on a home that backed to the federal land.

Hamish: That's

Osman: And that house has a view of the parking lot and view of industrial buildings- but not so much views of the Flatirons. And also it's beneficial maybe to have that trail behind the house, but it's also people walking-

Hamish: Security risk

Osman: And talking. I, I honestly don't think the security issue is that big of a deal, but the, the constant people talking in your backyard- Privacy. it's just quiet enjoyment, Hamish. I'm not even talking about privacy.

Hamish: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Osman: I don't, uh You could put a fence up and people aren't gonna see you-

Hamish: That's-

Osman: Sunbathing. But you are absolutely gonna hear people constantly- walking up and down that dirt trail that is a social trail that leads up to Kohler Mesa. So not, I know these things, but that still doesn't replace somebody like Ian, who- even though he has fewer years in the real estate industry, he grew up Table Mesa. Mm

Hamish: He

Osman: Really knows these neighborhoods from a perspective of, of 40 years of experience living in this community. So, uh, so this is where you get a sense of what you may not know. And how does it play out? Well, where it plays out is, um, the advice you might get when the home you've been waiting for appears on market and the agent that you've chosen to represent you can't help you with how much over list this home might be worth. Right? Because it's possible, and that's an experience- we recently had this weekend, where a home was accidentally listed below what we knew to be fair market value. And we're gonna get into this with Tales from the Trenches. I can't go into

Hamish: That's

Osman: Detail at this point because it's an active deal, but what I can do is talk about our strategy with respect to it, and that sort of kicked off this, this particular, um, Closing Table topic. But let me cover one more neighborhood.

Hamish: Yeah, yeah.

Osman: Um, and then we're gonna move on to other things that deep market knowledge can give you, and that is Martin Acres, a neighborhood I know and love, have lived in Martin Acres many years. Don't currently live in Martin Acres, but, um, still own investment property in Martin Acres.

Hamish: And you truly know Martin.

Osman: And because I've walked every single street probably a dozen times and know a lot of people that live in the neighborhood. And boy, the differences between Morehead, um, and the interior streets. And even though Morehead has now calmed down, it still suffer- 'cause they, they removed the yellow line- Yeah and the street is way calmer.

Hamish: It's really solid. Yeah.

Osman: But it's still, one side still backs the US 36, and the other side still suffers from that long, I would call it valuation depression from having been- Mm too close to Morehead. Um, but they're, in, within the neighborhood, 34th and 35th Street, 33rd through 35th Street are among the most coveted streets in the neighborhood because they're the most interior and they're not subject to thru- through traffic

Hamish: That's-

Osman: The way that a lot of streets are

Hamish: The 40s.

Osman: And when you move further to the edges of the neighborhood, you find that there's, it's, it gets more traffic noise, it's further from the retail, it's further from the bike path. Um, the one particular pocket that I think is probably the most coveted are the homes that back to the park. Because those homes just, you have what feels like a beautiful riparian corridor- Yeah and no oppressive neighbor in the direct backyard. So those are the, like, within these neighborhoods, there are these, these little pockets. And the, where, where does this come into play?

Hamish: Well, you, you,

Osman: You call your agent, you schedule a showing, and maybe you think you have a week- to think about whether you wanna write the offer or not. But your agent might might confirm with you-

Hamish: Might kind of have an idea.

Osman: "You need to write this offer right now." And that's, and we'll get to why the hurry up offense sometimes works- and, and when and when you shouldn't trust your agent to give you that sort of advice.

Hamish: It's a, it, that's such a good segue, but, um, without exhausting Martin Acres too much, I think it's such a good example because Martin Acres is bordered by 36, Broadway, and Table Mesa Drive, and so it, yeah, really matters where you're positioned within there because you do have through streets and, um, and more increasingly, like maps is suggesting that'll cut through Martin Acres entirely to get around Broadway traffic and things. And it favors certain streets, and that's becoming kind of evident as well. Um, so it, it's just interesting. The, it kind of makes me think about, like, neighborhood design too. You know, like certain homes will be on a loop that come out, that come out of the through street, and then, um, other neighborhoods are designed as a through street as a whole. Like, I'm thinking of like 40th Street, right?

Osman: In Martin Acres. Martin Drive. Martin

Hamish: Drive, exactly. Um, and these all matter. It's funny too, because buyers don't always know what to notice or what to look out for, and one of the things that I've had to advise a little bit has been like, "This house is great. You are right next to a busy four-way stop." Like, yeah, we're in a neighborhood, but come rush hour, come any day, you know, any busy time of the day, and you're just gonna hear cars like stopping and accelerating constantly. Um, versus if you are on a through street and it's a little bit busier, you might just have like, you know, the gentle breeze of an EV passing by or something, versus that braking and starting and engine noise that comes from that.

Osman: Well, I mean, what you're getting to is one of the reasons we strongly recommend people interview their agents before they sign an exclusive right to Yeah. uh, where you are married to this agent for months or, or even a year. Um, and one of the things you can do in addition to, there's a whole podcast and, uh, and- We've got resources online for questions you should ask your prospective agents. But I think that one of the best ways is to just test drive them. Um, sign an exclusive for the weekend. Uh, go see five houses- that may or may not even be the right houses. Um, but go see five houses. I know it's an investment in time, but you will quickly see whether this agent is offering value in terms of pointing out things you may not have noticed. Are they actually trying to help you with your due diligence, and are they trying to help you make a smart decision, or are they more interested in shoving you in a house and earning a commission? Is every house a beautiful house and boy, you look so good in it? Right? Like, are they pointing out the pros and cons- Mm and are they doing that unprompted, or are they, are, are you having to ask them what they think of the house? Yeah. So if you're, if you're having And also quiz them on the neighborhood. Ask them are there any issues in the neighborhood you should know about. And you, you'll very quickly have a sense of their depth of knowledge- about the neighborhood specifics.

Hamish: That doesn't, that doesn't tell you much

Osman: About their negotiation strategy, that doesn't tell you, you much about how well they know the contracts, that doesn't tell you about their approach to business, uh, entirely, like, but at the same time it gives you a taste. It, So it's a good way to get-

Hamish: Illuminating. Yeah Yeah, it illuminates,

Osman: And you can, you can test drive most agents for free. Um, most agents will- happily take you on a day of showings to get to know you because the good agents are busy, and they also don't want bad clients. So they will If they're

Hamish: Good- Yeah, they're also-

Osman: They will also be trying to have a sense of whether you can work together or not. Mm

Hamish: So should we get into seller risk, or do you wanna hit the

Osman: Mountain one? I wanna hit the mountain one.

Hamish: Okay, yeah. So,

Osman: So we talked about neighborhoods in Boulder, but it's not just, uh, it's not just in town. Uh, there are very specific,

Osman: I think I would call this areas of competency when it comes to both mountain property and, um, hobby farms, ranchettes- actual farms, and there are agents that have depth of knowledge and whom you will feel values alignment with, and there are agents that don't have depth of knowledge, hide behind their brand name of their brokerage- um, rely on their employing broker to answer the questions behind the scenes, or now increasingly AI- Yeah to answer the

Hamish: Questions, but Oh, my God

Osman: Can lead you astray. Mm

Hamish: So mountain

Osman: Specific factors I wanted to talk about because people often get it so wrong, and it can really affect not just the valuation, the, you know, the market value of the property, but the, the, the degree of aggressiveness you should pursue this property. And the biggest one people get wrong is buildable lots. Like, they assume because it has a buildable lot determination letter that they can build a home-

Hamish: Boy

Osman: When in fact they probably can't because of all sorts of location specific factors that would make it excruciatingly expensive to comply with county- level ordinances that would allow you to build on this lot.

Hamish: Yeah. But there's

Osman: A lot letter because it, in prior to 1979 that they, the owner got a buildable lot determination, but that doesn't remove-

Hamish: Eons ago.

Osman: That doesn't remove all the rules. Yeah. So that's the thing people screw up all the time. And the other thing I see people screw up is using comps from the wrong neighborhoods in the mountains. And neighborhood is kind of a funny term because, like, I don't really think of-

Hamish: In the suburban sense, not at all, right?

Osman: People, people think of, like, the suburban sense of neighborhood makes sense, Yeah in mountain communities you're really in canyons.

Hamish: Yeah. It is.

Osman: It's not really a neighborhood in the same way that other And then your there's subsets within the canyons. Like, our home is in Four Mile Canyon. But really we're in Logan Mill.

Hamish: Right. Right?

Osman: And, and then-

Hamish: 'Cause you take a left or whatever and

Osman: And then within Logan Mill, we're at, at the top of the neighborhood. And boy, all of the

Hamish: Uh, why is that important?

Osman: It's important because guess what? We're plowing a lot.

Hamish: Yeah. It's important because guess what? We don't have

Osman: Trash service. We have to truck our trash.

Hamish: Yeah. Right?

Osman: It's important because our neighborhood burned. And in theory, that makes it less likely to burn in the future.

Hamish: In theory. Right? So there are all these things. Mm

Osman: So what we've recently saw was, was a deal where, um, we lost the listing because our competitor used-

Hamish: Fanciful language.

Osman: An algorithm that included comps from Pinewood. And the Pinewood neighborhood in the mountains, it, you shoot down Linden, you're probably 10 minutes to downtown Boulder.

Hamish: Oh, wow. Okay.

Osman: It's a great spot. It's a great neighborhood, but valuations are inflated compared to Mountain Meadows in Sugarloaf. Right? So the Sugarloaf Canyon, uh, real estate is, is not comparable to Pinewood. But she used Pinewood comps and came up with a number that was either 500 or 700,000 above- It was so where I thought anything made any sense. And they went with that agent, and I don't blame them because boy, if this person can actually deliver 500 to 700,000 more. And so her enthusiasm- and reliance on a, an AI model to show valuation convinced our client that this was the way to go. And, and it's, you know, it's wishful thinking, it's tell me what I wanna believe, you know, speaking to my listening. And, and, and if you do that, you might get the business, but they ended up on the market for a really long time, and it eventually sold at pretty much exactly the price I told them it would sell

Hamish: Many months later.

Osman: And they, they event- they actually apologized for having chosen this agent.

Hamish: And they were very sweet, yeah.

Osman: And two or three times they reached out to me

Hamish: During their transaction,

Osman: And I had to tell them, "I can't advise you or interfere with this." "If you wanna break up with your agent, I will absolutely

Hamish: Pick up-" Even then

Osman: And I think that this agent is the kinda agent that

Hamish: Will- That's, like, fearing or something

Osman: Will, will probably sue her client if they try to break up and list with somebody else. They- they'll say, "I'm sorry, you signed an exclusive. We are married, and that exclusive runs till whenever it runs to. So your choices are, we can continue to market your home- Mm

Hamish: Or you can

Osman: Withdraw it, but I've done the work and I'm not getting out of this deal." And that, I'm pretty sure, is what happened.

Hamish: Yeah. So

Osman: They stuck it, and stuck with her, and they eventually did sell the property.

Hamish: But- 'Cause they had to

Osman: But the part that drove me crazy was my God, she used Pinewood comps.

Hamish: Yeah. Well, 'cause we were like, "How the hell did she get to this price?"

Osman: How, how the hell did she come up with this number?

Hamish: So we had to, like, reverse engineer the price.

Osman: And, and, and the answer was, and he told Yeah is that they were comparing it to Pinewood. You can't compare Sunshine to Sugarloaf- Mm-mm to Four Mile, to, to Left Hand Canyon, to Pinewood, like- To Martin

Hamish: Acres to Martin

Osman: Like, like, you might as well throw Martin Acres in there. Like, you're talking about every neighborhood in town that- You, you, you can't cherry-pick the comps- when it comes to the market. You really need to use the appropriate comps. So,

Hamish: I,

Osman: Um, but, and it Let me just wrap up the mountain one, and then we're gonna move off of that. But there's fire defensibility, um, and, and then there's the difference in design language from homes in the '70s and '80s to homes in the 2000s. It is night and day. You might as well be talking about a Tesla versus a Model T. And the market perceives these very differently. And I, I recently saw, in our neighborhood, a buyer acquire a home that we looked at twice, and my wife and I thought about it until we went inside and realized that-

Hamish: No way

Osman: It, the design language of the '70s was so dark and

Hamish: Cramped- Super

Osman: And awkward, and the build quality is really poor. But it was priced as if it was a home built in the 2000s, and eventually it sold at a number that was, was lower, but not low enough. And we happen to be

Hamish: Not to measure it. Yeah

Osman: We happen to be friends with the owners, so we don't bring it up, but I, I totally think they overpaid. Like, this home- has got a lot of functional problems, and they've been investing more money to fix those problems, but I think they paid hundreds of thousands more than they should have.

Hamish: I mean, you just spoke about it with Mapleton Hill. You're talking about these houses, you know, they're historic and they're great, but it's less is more, right? The, the house kind of dictates the lifestyle that you live within it. So when you go for '70s homes, you know, you don't have the closets and it, like you said, it's cramped and darker and-

Osman: It's just- Um not as well-designed- Yeah or as well-built,

Hamish: Typically. Mm

Osman: Not always.

Hamish: Yeah, oh, yeah, typically.

Osman: Like, there's that

Hamish: Home in Marshall- A big asterisk

Osman: That was built in the '90s that is unreal.

Hamish: But Yes

Osman: That home, did, have you seen it?

Hamish: I know No, I-

Osman: Have to go see that house

Hamish: I saw the listing photos, but

Osman: It is unreal, and I can't tell you the address 'cause it's still actively listing, but wow, that house is actually something special- built in the '90s. Um, so it, there are different design languages that, that, um, come from different decades, and you have to adjust your valuation on the basis of that, particularly in the mountains.

Hamish: Uh, touching on the seller, and, uh, maybe this is the next bullet, but, um, you know, to, to the opposite of that, where the agent included comps from a neighborhood that, you know, this house doesn't compete with at all, um, it's similar thing. You could have a, a selling agent or a listing agent that doesn't notice the difference between Devil's Thumb and the rest of Table Mesa, and so they wanna list your home in Devil's Thumb for greater Table Mesa comps. And, and you could be, you know, ecstatic because you got six offers in a down market, and then you went, ended up over list. But of course you did, because your agent didn't know any better that your Devil's Thumb home was worth more to begin with.

Osman: Or this agent, and this is what I suspect happens, okay? It's, it's a, there's a listing right now that's on the market that's priced way below where it should be. And so it's getting a ton of showings. Like, the showing

Hamish: Calendar- Oh, this is the text thread-

Osman: Is completely booked up

Hamish: From yesterday?

Osman: And so I think this is what sort of the, the backstory of that. The listing agent, who is experienced-

Hamish: Very

Osman: And, uh, met with the seller and asked the question, "Well, what do you think the home's worth?" And they said, "Boy, you know, if I could get-"

Osman: "$800,000 For this house, I would be thrilled." And the listing agent-

Hamish: The listing agent- "Sounds good to me." I I, I was

Osman: Not there. Okay?

Hamish: Yeah, yeah.

Osman: I think the listing agent's like, "Boy, you know, this market's been really tough. You're right. The market's been really brutal." "And so, and we're in the fall, and if you really need to sell it, then, you know, this is a price that it will sell for." "And I think we may even get some offers above that if we're lucky. Only if we're lucky." And so the, and the seller's like, "Okay, that sounds good." And maybe they don't live in town, or maybe- they didn't do their homework, but it looks like you're starting off 50 to 100,000 below, maybe 150,000 below where it should sell for this particular property type- and location. And so of course we have clients interested in it. And of course everyone else and their mother is interested in it.

Hamish: 100%. That's the belle of the ball.

Osman: So I don't really know what happened, but it's gonna have a frenzy this week, and we'll, we'll find out. I- You know, our clients are not bidding war people. Our clients are, are, are So bidding wars do not favor prudence. They do not favor conservatism. They-

Hamish: Restraint restraint. Yeah.

Osman: They do not, they do not discipline A disciplined conservative investor or buyer that is very careful with their money is not rewarded in a bidding war. Um, they are likely to not get the house, but the people that don't know the comps, that throw money at this, go way over, are likely to get the comps. And some homes are worth it, and we're gonna talk about that in a minute, but not every home is worth it.

Hamish: Right. Right?

Osman: And so, and I,

Hamish: And this- And this, very- This one is, is

Osman: Too close to a busy street, and I already told our clients- It's a bad idea, yeah that I think it's a bad idea.

Hamish: That street too is I, I told them that at, uh, the showing that I had with them as well, that that particular street's a busy one, so.

Osman: Yeah, and Google Maps- It,

Hamish: It, it said a-

Osman: Routes people through the neighborhood- Mm on the street, and a couple of the other ones. So it's, uh, that's the other due diligence piece is if you were thinking about buying a house, you may wanna try Google mapping around the neighborhood and seeing how often it recommends driving on the street you're about to buy a house on.

Hamish: A great tip. So what if, uh, your client's dead set on working with you, and you're in a market you don't know much about?

Osman: I mean, okay, so that, it's a it's a great question, and can you compensate for lack Yeah neighborhood knowledge, deep neighborhood knowledge? And maybe, right? I think that there's a place for agents that have high integrity, that work hard, that have earned your trust by their behavior and their values. Um, agents that care about due diligence, agents that have expertise in bidding wars, and also agents that are data nerds, that can go deep

Hamish: Into

Osman: The data and help you learn. But even a data nerd, I consider myself a data nerd, data nerds alone is not enough- because there's not enough data.

Hamish: Right. Right?

Osman: There's not, when you get down to which side of the street, there's not enough data. You have to have seen it over the course of many years and how they've traded over the course of many years. There's some hints, right? So you should always look at the previous listing history of the home you're about to buy. If it was sold in the last 30 years, it's probably on the MLS, and if it is multiple times and during multiple sale periods, you see it took a long time to sell-

Hamish: Yeah then you can

Osman: Map over what were market conditions like at that time. That gives you key insight into the desirability of this particular location and property type. It's not everything, but it's better than nothing. So data, being a data nerd can be helpful-

Hamish: It's like-

Osman: But it's not, it's not the, it's not the only thing that counts.

Hamish: It's like you have a, to, to compensate, you are, like, almost required to have, like, a, a mental toolkit of, um, you know, attributes to yourself that will help you get close to being able to compensate, right?

Osman: I mean, so I, I had this exact scenario with a past client. The trust was there. They bought a property at the Peloton, I helped them sell the property at the Peloton, and then they wanted to buy something in Colorado Springs. And I told them, "I'm not an expert in Colorado Spring neighborhoods." Yeah. Like,

Hamish: This is outside- This outright, yeah.

Osman: This is not my market. Um, I'm licensed, I can do business in Colorado Springs.

Hamish: Could find you a referral.

Osman: So it's up to you. Would you rather I find you a referral, or, to somebody I, I will interview and make sure is a good fit for you, or would you rather that, work with me, somebody you know and trust? Your choice. And here's how we'll approach it, here's my recommendation if you choose me. We will do most of this online. Like, we're gonna develop a, a show list. And then we're gonna have a video call to talk about the show list, to narrow it down.

Hamish: Reasonably.

Osman: And then I'm gonna spend the whole weekend, I'll rent an Airbnb in Colorado Springs, and we'll spend the weekend- looking at as many houses as you wanna look at, and we'll get this, this accomplished. And so they chose to work with me, and it was nice staying in an Airbnb. We had a lovely dinner together, and we looked at a lot of houses. Like, we looked at over 20.

Hamish: You saw, like, 20. Yeah

Osman: In the course of a weekend.

Hamish: That's so much.

Osman: And they knew what they really wanted, and they found a, a, well, they found a great deal. I also got to experience the culture of Colorado Springs agents in a time that the market was pretty soft, and one of the interesting pieces I saw was this one agent who knew the time of my showing and started texting me while I'm in the showing with things I could point out.

Hamish: Oh, cool.

Osman: Um, features. And it was super interesting. I'm like, "These are actually useful things that I wouldn't

Hamish: Have noticed." Yeah, you're like, "What is this? okay, good point." You know?

Osman: Right. I mean, well,

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Kind of annoying to be getting text messages during a showing- but the information that she was spoon-feeding me was actually really useful information, and my clients- appreciated it, too. So, uh, at the high end, that is something that, I mean, agents at the high end really should be doing their best to be attending showings. To, to accomplish the same thing, but, uh, but even better, read the room. Right? Read the, the temperature of the buyer and learn things that could be useful in negotiation.

Hamish: And where you hit on that, what, last pod, I think?

Osman: Yeah. Yeah. Charisma matters with, with respect to that approach.

Hamish: And I'll say, too, you know, when you have enough experience to kind of start identifying mountain-specific factors, um, cross streets, you know, sheltering, stop signs, all these things, um, I think you can also begin to apply it to market segments that you don't know. Like, if you're at, down there in the Springs, you can still have the sense to be like, "Okay, pretty close to the highway," or, you know, like, "This is a busy intersection," or, "this looks like a, a pretty busy street." one of the things I think most agents are saying it now, the double yellow line, and it's becoming pretty common knowledge, and I think one of the edges that buyer's agents maintain is kind of looking for that next quality of life factor in, in the various homes within, like, a neighborhood. You know?

Osman: I, I, I hear what you're saying, and the way, the lens I apply to that is that you can be looking for house-specific things. Right? Like, we Yeah homes all the time, and, and often the problems with the home are visible and obvious to us, but the buyer may not realize it because this is not their forte, is evaluating houses. But then there are things about the neighborhood you might know that somebody from out of town would not know. And for example, the Hill and the red cup zone. The red cup zone is real. And it's recently very, it's been made very visible by the Quiet Enjoyment project.

Hamish: That noise map, yeah. That noise map. Yeah.

Osman: That heat map of noise based on

Hamish: Actual complaints- I'll link it again

Osman: Is brilliant and illustrates something that we've talked about for a long time, and that is there are parts of the Hill that are really noisy. And if you're okay with that, great, but if you're not okay with that, then we should look elsewhere. And even if the most amazing house shows up and you're ready to buy it, you're gonna get that same piece of advice from us, that, hold on a second. Are you okay with living next to young people? Maybe we should check the recycle bins and see how many red cups are in there. Because the red cup zone is a, it can be unpleasant for people with families- for people with noise sensitivities, or people that care about their cars not getting trashed, or their front yards I

Hamish: Mean, just property health and safety.

Osman: Right. Like, quiet enjoyment. Do you care about quiet enjoyment? Do Do you

Hamish: Care if the neighbor's yard is covered in Yeah.

Osman: Sometimes it's not obvious, and sometimes it changes. One of our rentals has a red cup, um, table on it.

Hamish: Signal, we'll call it.

Osman: Uh, they, we used to call this game, I think it's beer pong is what people call it today.

Hamish: They had dice. It looks like some newfangled thing.

Osman: I don't know what game they're playing- Yeah. but that table is clearly designed for adult beverages.

Hamish: Yeah, pure,

Osman: So. So, um, I hope they're not annoying our neighbors with their loudness in the yard, and that'll be a subject of our conversation- soon, because they wanna talk about landscaping. So that's great. It's a good segue for us to talk about please don't annoy your neighbors. Um, because they will call the cops, and then I'll hear about Yeah and then we'll have a problem that may involve fines.

Hamish: And we'll end up on the noise map and Yeah.

Osman: We do not wanna be- on the noise map.

Hamish: Okay. All right, I think we

Osman: Have done a good job of hitting this closing table topic, and one of the many of the reasons why you want to choose representation that isn't just competent, but goes way beyond competent. And we're not the only game in town. There's lots of other great agents. But this hopefully gave you good fodder for things to think about that maybe you hadn't thought about with very location-specific factors here in the city of Boulder or in, in the mountains around Boulder. Mm

Hamish: Yeah. I think those are We, we weren't expecting this closing table topic, I think, to go as long as it did, um, which is kind of I don't know.

Osman: How long has it gone?

Hamish: Fun chain. No idea. Oh, it's been about, uh, half an hour, so.

Osman: All That's fine. Tales from the Trenches, and this is a good segue directly to it, because, um, this is where that deep market knowledge can really matter, when the listing agent's from out of town and has intentionally or unintentionally priced the property too low, and the location-specific factors led us to First, their systems, okay? And systems really matter. Um, our listing alerts and our availability meant that on a Thursday we're getting messages from our client that wants to see it first thing on a Friday. And the client's been looking for months. They're an architect. They know demand. They know what they want. Uh, they know the demand side because we've been in a bidding war already and lost.

Hamish: Oh, that's true

Osman: Um, we were in, no, we were, sorry, we were in a backup position. We were too slow and lost. Um, they know the data for this particular property type in this location, and because it's mispriced, we decided to go aggressive and go fast. We were first available Excuse me.

Hamish: Bless you. The

Osman: Very first available window for showings, we were there. And at the showing, there was already another agent there, and I think this agent, um, either got permission to go in early or, um, or they just had an overlapping showing and deci- I had to go in 30 minutes ear- early anyway because it was- a going show

Hamish: And There's blood in the water, man.

Osman: But we were their very first, um, agent, I know, and, uh, so I guess we were the second agent to show the property. And w- our client said, "This is what I want. Let's, let's go into the war room." So went into the war room. We got really granular on the comps in the neighborhood.

Hamish: And you already know the street, you know?

Osman: And, and we

Hamish: Know

Osman: She knows the street, I know the street. And we could see what else people have been paying for very similar properties in this spot, and so we decided to-

Hamish: Fairly recently, too

Osman: Submit the offer by 3:00. So we got the offer wrapped up by 3:00, which includes a detailed contract to buy with, um, with carve-outs around certain contingencies- that we wrote to focus on key areas of the home that are actually, that actually matter- um, and communicate that to the other side, and then we went to a list price that was substantially above the- sorry, went to an offer price substantially above the list price. But we could justify it. It wasn't thin air. Um, but at the end of the day, where it came down to plus or minus 50 grand, I had to tell our client, "I c- I can't make that call for you." "I don't think it's gonna matter in 10 years that yous paid 50 more for this or didn't." "But it's up to you where you wanna go." And they went with the lower number, um, and we ignored The seller asked for a 48-hour response deadline because it's an estate sale.

Hamish: Yeah. Because reasons. Because- Because reasons.

Osman: The people, because the And the, the reasons are all over the place, you know? Seller's on a boat. Seller's in, you know, decided to The seller decided to go on vacation the weekend they listed their home. I can't tell you the number-

Hamish: Seller's hiking the Alaskan wilderness.

Osman: The number of excuses- okay, I've heard for why the seller needs 48 or 72 hours as a response deadline. So these are requests. They are not You can write the contract any way you wanna write the contract. The listing agent is legally required to present the contract to the seller. Yeah. So in this case, we decided to ignore the request for 48 hours and, and when she reviewed the offer with me on the phone, I called the agent after we submitted, she was upset that I I, I, we gave them a little more than 24 hours. And I told her that we respectfully decline- Yeah to comply with your request because we would like an answer faster, and 24 hours should be plenty of time. And then she went into, "My my sellers are elderly, they're in different states." I think she even said, "One's in the hospital." And I said, "Okay, well, we're not dealing with the US Postal Service." Get

Hamish: The anesthetist to wake 'em up.

Osman: "We're, we're dealing with emails- Yeah. and phone calls and text messages, and we're giving you more than 24 hours, and we're giving you a really good price." And, and the logic of that was we're giving you a price that will force the seller to make a decision. Do you take the bird in hand- or do you tell them, "No, resubmit your offer on Monday"? And what happens on Monday if they resubmit the same offer- and the offer turns out to be the winner, do they still want it? Do you increase the chance of the buyer- Right not submitting as strong of an offer or submitting the same offer but flaking? And the answer is you dramatically increase the risk of breakup- Mm if you tell the sell- this buyer, "No, we want you to come back on Monday." Or a

Hamish: Competitor showing up.

Osman: What's that?

Hamish: Or a competitor showing up, you know? It's, it's totally possible something else could show up that would distract the buyer.

Osman: True. Right. There could be a competitive listing show that's better than your listing. Like, so there are all these So this is why time is of the essence in real estate, while there, while, why there is a concept called deal momentum. And we gave them a very reasonable plus It was, like, 26 hours is what we actually gave them for a response. And despite the agent telling me that they were unreachable, and it was difficult-

Hamish: Apparently they were. Yeah

Osman: We had the contract signed by 8:00 that night.

Hamish: I think, It was, it went

Osman: Under contract the same day with us, and then I, my understanding It was

Hamish: Very quick, all of it. Like, the contract to going under contract, that was a very quick timeline.

Osman: I mean, it, it Yeah so this is what I call, I call this approach hurry up offense. Submit the offer the first day, be the very first showing if you can do it. And the being early in the showing, as early as possible, buys you more time to make a decision on your strategy. And if you wanna choose the hurry up offense approach, you can do that. You can submit the offer the same day, within two hours if you really wanted to. You could go to a coffee shop, write up the offer. You know, if you've been through bidding wars before as a buyer, you already know the key terms. You've already been through the contract. And this is why if you're looking in a competitive market segment, one of the things you can do, and you should do, is do the practice offer. Like, let's pretend we're writing an offer. Let's do our homework, because what, the segment you're looking in actually still has bidding wars. And I know this is, like, sort of crazy to hear.

Hamish: Yeah, but you gotta be primed for it, right?

Osman: But if you are in a competitive segment- okay, desirable houses still attract a lot of attention. Mm. Believe it or not, even up to-

Hamish: That's why we're, we saw these comps and we were like, "We have to be on

Osman: It." Well, the data can tell its own story. So y- if you are well-versed in the contract, you as a buyer will feel more confident in the terms that you are writing into the contract. Your agent, if they're competent, can do this contract in less than 30 minutes. So you can get this offer on the table really fast. And you can present this conundrum to the seller. Take bird in hand that's offering you way more than you thought the house was worth- and has very few exits in the contract, legitimate exits- Yeah that still protect our buyer and their concerns. Or do you tell them, "Wait a minute, I wanna give it 48 hours and hope a better offer comes"?

Hamish: Yeah. Or get chopped, right?

Osman: Well, if the buyer doesn't wanna get chopped- and they, they wrote a killer offer and the seller was wise to accept it, I think they made the right decision, um, because not accepting it opens up the, the door to all sorts of breakup risks- Right that wouldn't have existed if you took this offer. But you are potentially giving up even more money, and this is where that Jim Cramer saying comes into play. Ugh. Right? And Yeah the saying is, "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered." So when you see something that's really generous and really above where you thought you would land, you may wanna take it.

Hamish: Yeah, just get fat.

Osman: Right? Just get, get, get your fat deal and get it closed- in two weeks, or do you go for the hog approach? Right.

Hamish: Especially when, you know, it's ultimately the client's decision. So the client listed their home at this price. They're seeing how much more they're already getting. Get fat, right?

Osman: And in theory, they trust this sell-- this listing agent. Um, and at the same time, this listing agent doesn't do a lot of business in Boulder,

Hamish: Boy

Osman: And, and they got a very sleek website that's that actually mentions smart real estate decisions, which I think is kinda fun.

Hamish: It's We should have copyrighted that. Uh

Hamish: Uh,

Osman: It's a trade- it's, I mean, I House Einstein is trademarked. I don't know if Make a Smarter Real Estate Decision is- I don't remember the, our trademark, but it doesn't really matter- right? Like, you can't trademark int- making smart decisions. That just seems absurd. But w- but I hear you-

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah, yeah I'm just

Osman: Like And so my point is that, um, that if you are,

Osman: If you are working with an agent to buy a home or sell a home, you should be having conversations with that agent about strategic options before you are writing an offer or receiving an offer. And unfortunately, most agents, I don't think have this conversation with their client. But they should, because it's too late when you're under pressure, right?

Hamish: But to have a Q&A session on what section five is in the CTB, you know,

Osman: It's like- It's, it's better if you already were well-versed, particularly if you as a buyer wanna, uh, take the hurry up offense. And the hurry up offense option, in my experience, has a really high success rate. And by that I mean, like, 50/50, like, pretty good shot at it.

Hamish: I, I've, you, you know, I've heard you discuss it with clients beforehand. This is probably one or two times that I've seen it, uh, implemented, and yeah, it's, on the times that it's been elected, it's, it's worked. I guess when you say 50/50, and I've got my little question here in the bullet, and I'm kind of apprehensive about asking the full thing. We should probably wait till the closings happen. But, um, is there any time this is gonna upset the seller? I, I mean, I guess it's kinda dependent on how much over the offer pr- the offer is. Or, uh, you know, does it create any regret or, um, the, you know, bad feelings, bad, bad air between the seller and the buyer doing this approach?

Osman: Buyer and seller remorse is a real thing. And experienced agents become therapists and help guide you through that process. Because you, like, all sorts of thing, if you think you sold the home for too little, six months later, the market's, like, I'm sure, it, during 2000-

Hamish: 2022

Osman: 2020 To 2022- there were a lot of remorseful sellers, because the prices were moving up so fast. And you, if you held the house for six more months, you could have made another 100,000 bucks. Right? That's painful. But there's no Hindsight's 20/20. Nobody has a crystal ball. And what most people should be focused on is a smooth closing process, um, and ethical- Your

Hamish: Likelihood to close

Osman: Ethical, um, and, uh, a, a, and a process that has, has high integrity. Um, one that is a fair price and a good closing. Like, it, it, it's, the buyer and sell, the buyer, the buyer's need is to pay fair market value and get through their due diligence. Make sure they didn't buy a lemon, okay? And the agent's job is to educate and to guide that process. The sell side, you wanna sell the house for the most money- with the least amount of risk that it fail- the, the deal falls apart and you're stuck on market for months and months. Right?

Hamish: Or, you know, getting raked over the coals with inspection.

Osman: So there are ways to limit and manage- Without

Hamish: Going into a whole new topic

Osman: And without

Hamish: Going into a whole new to- yeah. Yeah.

Osman: There are ways to limit and manage the process on both sides. And those are the conversations you should be having with your prospective agents before you sign that exclusive right to buy or sell.

Hamish: Yeah. And credit where it's due too, I think there's soft signaling of that integrity and the intent to close and the seriousness of the buyer that comes, uh, with the offer that we put together, you put together and the, and the letter you wrote, as well as the hurry up offense.

Osman: Yeah. There's some techniques I don't wanna go into in this podcast. I, I

Hamish: Know, and that's why I was just saying soft signaling and letting Right? Um,

Osman: There are ways to signal high integrity on the part of the buyer and the ex- the experience and integrity of the agent that's representing that buyer. Um, but we don't wanna continue. This is not, this is not If you wanna

Hamish: Find out, become a client at HouseEinstein.com.

Osman: No. Okay, so let's move on to the market update.

Hamish: Yeah. I

Osman: Think we covered this pretty thoroughly.

Osman: All right, let's do a market update, and I'm doing this live, and this is actually what the MLS looks like, but we're gonna start with InfoSparks,

Osman: And we're gonna look at data that is specific to Boulder County.

Osman: And we're only gonna do detached single-family houses, no townhomes and condos. You wanna make sure you're set to monthly. I like to see all the data, but five years is probably plenty. Mm. And, um, this is market data through the end of September, and today is October 7th, so keep in mind it might change a little bit, but this is mostly baked. And what we see is 378 new single-family houses were listed on the market last month. That's down 3.3%. Total inventory also down 3.2%, 948 houses that were available for purchase. Under contract, also known as pending sales, 240 single-family houses, down 11.1%.

Hamish: Sorry, month over month?

Osman: From year- Or year- Year over year. So the down, uh, the percentage change is year over year. And you can kinda see as I flip through these charts, that there is a pattern here, um, particularly with homes for sale. You can see that we've been on an upward tear, uh, since 2022. New listings look like this year was a little less activity than it peaked in April, but a little less activity than, uh, in previous years. This little September pop is kind of unusual, although not crazy unusual. We had a small pop last year, but the previous year it was a it was, it was flat between August and September. So people do talk about this, this September Resurgence- in the market, and you can kinda see that in terms of new listings, at least for the last few years. There's a little bit of a, you know, a little- echocardiogram pop-up. That's what I I mean, that's, I, I, it's not exactly- That's what

Hamish: It is. It's the heartbeat of real estate, baby.

Osman: Yeah, the heartbeat-

Hamish: Of real estate. Okay, so let me keep going

Osman: Through this. Closings, and this is what people seem to care the most about, um, 240 single-family houses closed in the month of September, down 6.3% from a year ago.

Hamish: These other data

Osman: Metrics I'm very hesitant to show because days on market can be easily misread if it's not complete days on market. Um, same thing with months of supply. Um, so I'm, I don't really trust days on market and months of supply, but sale price I do, and, uh, this is the median. I don't like the average 'cause it can be easily skewed by a small-

Hamish: It was

Osman: Sample size as we look at, like, Louisville or Lafayette And then

Hamish: The ultra-luxury segment. Mm.

Osman: Can totally get skewed. Oh, and this is all price points, all bedroom counts. These Yeah the other filters I should mention. So the median sale price was 844,000 in Boulder County last month. And price per total square foot, uh, 350, which is up 8.7. And the sale price is up 5.5% too, the median- Yeah sale price. So

Hamish: There you have it.

Osman: Prices are up, um- and, and, and inventory is still pretty high, but it's started to come down from a year ago.

Hamish: That's I thought when we last looked at it, it was going up still. But yeah, inventory is about what- Well, That's called support or, for technical analysis, when you hit the ceiling.

Osman: You're, you're asking the wrong person. I'm a fundamental analysis person, not a technical analysis person.

Hamish: My apologies.

Osman: Um, all right. Let's look at the City of Boulder.

Osman: And again, starting at new listings that have entered the market in the month of September. There were 132 houses, down 2.2% from a year ago. Total inventory of homes available for sale is down 8.1%. Uh, so there are 342 houses available. And again, you see that trend line of, of upward movement from 2022. When we look at all data, by the way, for the City of Boulder, we didn't do this for the county, you can see that inventory is, is substantially elevated over what was the normal period prior to, to COVID. We're s- we're way above that. And I saw an analysis on national real estate, which is, I mean-

Hamish: Is this the news?

Osman: Completely irrelevant. Um, but it was saying that inventory levels were still not above, above the pre-COVID period, but clearly are well above the pre-COVID period for Boulder County and the City of Boulder.

Hamish: Locally

Osman: I'm, I'm gonna flip back to Boulder County because I just said that, but let me show you. I'm, I'm from a show me state, so let's Then we're back to Boulder County detached, and we're looking at total homes for sale. I bumped the, the, uh, the length of time to all data, and you can see it's true also for Boulder County, that today's inventory levels, inventory levels basically beginning in 2024 were elevated above the pre-COVID period for Boulder County.

Hamish: That much I remember when we took a brief look, that it was, uh, ca-

Osman: Noticeably higher than

Hamish: Noticeably higher- Yeah

Osman: Than pre-COVID. Under contracts, or also known as pending sales, 84 single-family houses under contract last month in Boulder, an increase of 20% from a year ago, so that's a nice little pop-up. And also the pop-up from August. So the September bump is real. You see it also in pendings going up.

Hamish: Closings,

Osman: We had 82 sales last month, an increase of 41.4% from a year ago.

Hamish: Wow.

Osman: Yep. Small sample size. Small sample yeah, small

Hamish: Amount of closings last year.

Osman: I mean

Hamish: Last September- Yeah. Yeah

Osman: It was dead. This September, 41% more homes sold.

Osman: Single-family houses sold. Um, let's look at sale price. The median sale price last month was 1 point $1,258,750, down 3.2%. I really like to look at dollar per square here because, again, the skew is very, is very high between, um, with, with such a small sample size, and you have 562 bucks, up 1.3%.

Hamish: That's median dollar per square, right?

Osman: That's the median dollar- Yeah, yeah per square. And you can kinda see since 2022, prices have not, you know, the median dollar per square has not really been-

Hamish: They It's been, it's been

Osman: Trading within a seasonal range.

Hamish: Yeah. Right?

Osman: And this is typical that you see dollar per square and prices. You see bigger discounts in the fall. Spring hopes, uh, you know, spring hopes eternal. Hope springs eternal, there's the words. And so the spring market typically is much stronger.

Hamish: And that's, um, like you said, like not since 2022, but they're kinda stuck since the 2022 price increase, right? Or dollar per square? Um,

Osman: I don't think that's accurate. But the problem is that we're looking at the whole market. And if you were looking at the higher end, larger homes, you're gonna see a, a significant decrease in value.

Hamish: Yeah. Being median, you wouldn't Yeah.

Osman: And if you're looking at the smaller entry-level homes, they've been moving up. Like, this is a, a top-down correction. We're seeing $4 million homes that would've sold for four, four and a half, five, selling for three and a half. Um, and that is the reality of this market. So if you, if you own a home at the ultra-luxury category, three million plus in Boulder County, it was worth a lot more in 2022 or 2023. And it has been on a steady slide. But I think we're reaching, um, a point where sellers are actually capitulating and setting a new normal at the ultra-luxury segment. Um, if you're buying or selling at any price point, you really need to understand market dynamics, and this analysis, while interesting and, um, and, uh, and, and I'm including Uh, I'm gonna do Command, Shift, Escape and get out of this screen sharing. Um, while interesting, this is also not reflective of actionable intelligence for your specific real estate situation. You really need to understand the market down to the street level. And the only way to do that is a, is an analysis that's based on the neighborhood and the property type you're looking for. And if your agent can't do it in real time-

Hamish: As we just saw.

Osman: It doesn't, it doesn't mean that they're not competent, but they better be able to walk you through the comps in detail. And especially as, as AI continues to improve, the data alone fed into AI can produce some really interesting analysis. And I'm starting to see that by downloading directly from the Yeah um, into a spreadsheet and uploading it into AI. I've actually been kinda surprised at its level of-

Hamish: It loves raw CSVs. Like- It loves Yeah Yeah.

Osman: So your agent should know how to do that. If they don't, well, find one that does. All right, it's time for Lessons from Sales of the Week, and this is the segment where we talk about actual closed transactions, often in the city of Boulder, but sometimes we venture further afield. And these are properties that illustrate market conditions at certain price ranges and locations, or maybe just property we think is cool- and wanna talk about it.

Hamish: There anyone here you're more excited to visit than the others?

Osman: I just thought we'd do this in low to high. Mm

Hamish: You

Osman: Know, keep the listeners

Hamish: Waiting- Oh, yeah. I'm just-

Osman: For the sexy, high property.

Hamish: If you're like, "Yes, what's the third one in," or something. No, they're

Osman: All interesting for their own reasons. The first one is, it's 4933 Eagan Circle in Longmont, and this is a nice two-story house, decent square footage. You're looking Mm about 4,000 square, four bedroom, four bath, conventional layout, three bedrooms on the upper, one in the basement, with a three-car attached garage. It's a tandem three-car, but it's a three-car garage, and a typical size lot. It's in the Renaissance neighborhood, which was constructed in the early 2010s, and they've held up. These houses are actually, in my opinion, well-constructed, and this is a very smart location for people that don't wanna pay Boulder prices but still be Boulder adjacent. This is southwest Longmont. It's close to open space. It's on all the cycling routes. And these are I would call these family-friendly houses- that work for a lot of different types of buyers. And there are, there's not all, they're not all two stories. There's some ranches in here. There are homes with, um, primaries on the main, and it's, it's a lovely

Hamish: Neighborhood.

Osman: I know because I bought an investment property there years ago.

Hamish: It's like this is better, right?

Osman: And I lived in

Hamish: This house

Osman: For a year, so I know this neighborhood really well. And this particular house actually checks a ton of boxes. It doesn't have upgraded finishes, in my opinion. It all looks pretty original to me. Maybe some upgraded light fixtures, maybe some upgraded paint. Maybe they did some carpets, but it, it really is what it looked like in 2013. I also would not have recommended you buy it, because this house backs to Clover Basin, Mm Clover Basin Drive is a busy road, so you're gonna have constant traffic on the backside of your house, and you're gonna have decent traffic on the front side. I mean, Egan Circle doesn't serve a lot of houses, but wouldn't you rather have a quiet backyard? So I you know, I would not have recommended somebody jump on this house, but it did sell for 8449, and that, it represents $302 a square on total square footage, including the basement. Listed on July 22nd at 8499. On August 12th, they cut it to 8449, and it sold at 8449. So this is interesting because typically buyers expect to get a one to 3% negotiated discount. Um, and even bigger one in the fall, but this particular seller ho- held firm and said the price is the price. Uh, so, but there was a $23,000 concession for something, and that's in the MLS. It's not disclosed- Okay what that was for. Um, it, it, it just says it's a cash concession. Um, so I'm curious what that concession was for, but likely just inspection related.

Hamish: Does it have days to offer on there? It does.

Osman: So days to offer on this transaction was 42 days.

Hamish: Oh, wow. Okay.

Osman: And days to sell- Yeah was 72. So that's, you know, a, little- over a month on, on market before they had a buyer, and they had to cut the price a little bit to, uh, to get that buyer attracted to the home. Um, this would suggest a home that's in a better location should be in the nines.

Hamish: It would.

Osman: Which is holding value, in my opinion. I, I'd have- to look more carefully at the comps. I don't track the neighborhood that closely, even though I own property there. Because in the long run, it doesn't matter. The, the market's gonna do what it does. Um, I'm not You- Trading real estate is not-

Hamish: Are you planning to sell tomorrow, you know? Like-

Osman: Well, there are massive, you know, there are massive, um, transaction costs in real estate- Mm as well as home prep, so it doesn't, it's not like selling your stock. Um, this should, buying or selling a home should be a long-term planning decision. Mm. And the Renaissance neighborhood's a great option, so I think this is a cool house, just not a good location within the neighborhood.

Hamish: Yeah. From the photos, I, I really like the layout of it, too. Um, I'm a large fan where the second story opens into either, like, a little loft area or kind of just an, a more open space before you get into the bedrooms. Um, the, the design of the houses in this neighborhood are, are really, um, functional, I think.

Osman: There, there's a couple of locations in Longmont that I think buyers sh- should look at if they're considering Longmont. Old Town, um, for sure. The Renaissance neighborhood, absolutely. And, uh, Prospect. Prospect is an amazing location.

Hamish: All day.

Osman: Um, and beyond that, you know, it's still, there's still lots of great real estate and locations in Longmont, but those are my favorites. And this particular style of house just works, right? All the bedrooms on the upper. Decent square footage, four bathrooms, and then the garage is a bonus, right? Like, it- Sure having extra space for bikes and gear and all the things that people live with today.

Hamish: This is, well, um, being so close to The Diagonal, it's decently close to, to the city of Boulder.

Osman: Yeah, you can get into Boulder in about 20 minutes.

Hamish: Yeah. However,

Osman: The Diagonal sucks, and is prone to really scary conditions in the winter, and is prone to backing up- and has been under construction forever.

Hamish: Never not

Osman: Has never not been under construction. And so, um- Yeah be warned That you may not like driving on the diagonal, but the back roads way to the Renaissance neighborhood is so much more pleasant- Mm that when I lived there, I would, if I had the time, wasn't trying to rush back and forth, I would take an early exit off the diagonal and drive through farm country.

Hamish: Oh, cool. So near Fifth- And

Osman: You're really close to Niwot too, so the restaurants and shops in Niwot are very close. And the cycling route options are endless.

Hamish: Okay. I'm gonna say this through gritted teeth, but the, uh, automated speed cameras on the diagonal are creating an excellent impact on the traffic and flow of the diagonal.

Hamish: I agree. Yeah.

Osman: You know, I'm not, you and I are not into being monitored and

Hamish: Automatically

Osman: Ticketed, but it has changed driver behavior. And the, the tailgating and the high speed whizzing around has stopped. Um, everyone's gets it, that this is our life now. And we go 60 miles an hour through the cameras.

Hamish: Yeah, yeah. And it works. And, and, and traffic flows, um, when, yeah, when there's not construction and ice and snow And now

Osman: There's a bike lane right up the middle of it all the things.

Hamish: Perfect.

Osman: You just have to be watching No

Hamish: Bollards.

Osman: 360, Cars coming at you, because there's no guardrails, there's no barriers to keep cars from flying over onto the bike path.

Hamish: It looks really good in the renders, though.

Osman: And I'm sure there will be those drivers that decide to drive the bike

Hamish: Path

Osman: To get around things.

Hamish: Yeah, we just talked about that.

Osman: So it's gonna be a thing.

Hamish: Oh, I never thought of it.

Osman: It's gonna be a thing. Okay.

Hamish: The Texas Express lane. The Texas Express lane.

Hamish: 'Cause you know the Texas exit. I,

Osman: I know what you're saying. Anyways, I, I get what you're driving at.

Hamish: Yeah. Okay.

Osman: Our next one is 405 South 44th Street. And Hamish, this is in Martin Acres. Um, I think it's a, you know, the location is on the southwest, southeast corner of the neighborhood, further from retail. Um, and also possibly subject to some driver running around edging- uh, to get around the neighborhood. But it should be reasonably quiet in the neighborhood. You saw this house, I believe.

Hamish: Yeah, I did. I showed this one. And it showed great. Um, I don't, I'm not sure if the sellers did a whole lot of prep, but it was very clean, it was tidy. Uh, the overall layout was okay. I wish they hadn't have converted that garage. There's no interior access to it. Um, it's just sliding doors out the front. So it's, it's a very weird space, it didn't seem-

Osman: It's disconnected. The garage is disconnected from the house?

Hamish: Yeah, the garage that they've connected into, like converted to a living space.

Osman: Oh, they, they did a, they did an unpermitted- garage conversion. Well, I mean, likely. We don't know for a fact.

Hamish: Likely.

Osman: But that, that's what that looks like.

Hamish: Yeah, I don't Maybe they don't need a permit because who'd live there? But yeah, it was like a pretty,

Osman: It, it still- And Hamish, this is Boulder. Yeah, they have

Hamish: Students.

Osman: Do they need a permit? The answer is yes. Yeah, yeah. Do they breathe?

Osman: Um,

Hamish: So yeah, there were like some oddities there. And then, I mean, nobody from the permitting department was in the basement because none of the walls are floating. Ask me how I know.

Osman: Well, but Hamish, it depends on when the basement was finished. Because if the basement was finished prior to that code change, it could be a permitted basement. I don't know if the basement's permitted or not, but the garage looks very unpermitted.

Hamish: Doesn't it?

Osman: Um, having removed the parking space and put in sliding doors, and there's no connection to the house. That's very strange.

Hamish: Yeah. But hey, uh, so we toured this home as a reality check for one of our buyers who ended up settling on and closing on a different home, and the overall s- uh, kind of impression was that, yes, this home is a little bit more buttoned up, but the home that they were looking at offered more, uh, I think long-term and, and lifestyle value. Um, and it was a nice one for our buyers to benchmark against because the home showed so well. Um, and even compared to the home that we did close on that was tenant-occupied at the time, and they were preparing to move and all sorts of stuff, like, even though the home showed differently, um, our buyer still made their decision that they were most happy about. Um- and so

Osman: Well, well these ranch style houses with basements are very popular in South Boulder. They work for a lot of different types of buyers. They typically are very liquid. And this particular one was listed at $1,000,012- in July, and it went under contract on August 7th. But then that buyer had a change of heart, or they saw inspection things that could not be resolved in a way that worked for them, and the deal terminated on the 17th. It went back to active status. It was active for over a m- let's see. Hold on. Active on the 17th, and then back under contract on the 9th of September, so three weeks, and, uh, a little more than three weeks. And then went back under contract, and, uh, eventually sold. So it, they had one price drop from $1,000,012 to just a million. Interesting. And then the price, uh, the final closing price was $990,000. Let's see if there were any additional con- disclosed concessions. And there were no additional disclosed concessions. Um, $990,000 strikes me as a pretty darn fair price for a, a finished basement, updated house.

Hamish: Personally, yeah.

Osman: Um, the lack of a garage, I think you could take out those sliding doors and restore the garage.

Hamish: Be like first point of order for me.

Osman: And maybe it's not a real conversion given that it's still concrete in there. I, I think it, it's a fixable issue.

Hamish: Yeah. Um- And, uh, the, uh, kitchen was a little narrow. It showed well, but it was a little narrow. Um- But having lived, and you

Osman: Know, this is what we talked

Hamish: About earlier

Osman: In the segment, having lived in this neighborhood for a long time, I think you would be happier if you were further north and west. Mm. Um, like that 32nd to 35th Street zone, um, or even, uh, 36th Street is also in that zone. Backing to the creek is a spectacular spot.

Hamish: Yeah. And maybe the, uh, first buyer bowed out on inspection because the inspector noted cut I-beams, uh, in the basement.

Osman: That's a funny story. Well, what Hamish isn't referring

Hamish: Maybe for another time.

Osman: Is there's a, a handful of streets in this part of the neighborhood that have garages, and beneath the garage is a storage room, and there's an I-beam in there that our inspector was concerned with. And we were able to prove that a- like, every house on these three streets that had a basement also appeared to have the same cut I-beam- Right and post supporting the garage. And that, that satisfied our buyer that that's original to the neighborhood.

Hamish: And it, it, it illuminated us to that.

Osman: And you learn- Yeah. And you learn something new. Even though I know this neighborhood like the back of my hand, I, um, had, did not know that there were these two or three streets that had garages with storage rooms- that had I-beams, and that would cause an inspector to flag it, that turned out to be original, so.

Hamish: And yeah, you know, interest of time, but those I-beams were poured into the concrete. Like, they had very obviously not been cut since time of construction. Flagged anyway. Anyhow.

Osman: Inspectors do their best.

Hamish: They do their best.

Osman: Okay, let's move on- to our next property. 844 12th Street. And this is a historic twofer. Um, it's called the, it's now called the Heilman- Bethel Stepanek property. And the Stepaneks owned the property for a long time, and prior to selling it, they initiated the landmarking process. And were successful, because on, what date is this? So it's not clear. But it was approved as a landmarked property, so the buyer acquiring these two houses together knew what they were getting, was not a surprise. Um, and what's interesting about this house, and if you weren't, if you're not part Or these houses, there's two of them. If you are not familiar with these properties or this location is it's right in the heart of the red cup zone.

Hamish: Ugh. Wow

Osman: Right in the heart of where that noise map shows a lot of noise complaints happening. Um, so 1.5 million for both properties. Five bedrooms, four baths, no garage, historic- Um, not just subject to historic review, but now landmarked means that you'll need a landmarks alteration certificate if you wanna do anything significant to these homes. Um, it will be interesting to see what the owner does, but I think they're very likely gonna be student rentals, as they have been. So-

Hamish: So what's the incentive to landmark your home, um, you know?

Osman: Uh, you know, I, so I th- I think it's because somebody living in the neighborhood for a long time cares about the neighborhood not turning into-

Hamish: They-

Osman: A bunch of student dorms

Hamish: They saw Grant, right? The proposal.

Osman: Well, maybe they- Yeah saw Grant or maybe they're really into historic preservation and they care about historic homes. I know that it's, it's derided by the progressives to care about the character of the neighborhood, but people that live in these neighborhoods very much care about the character of the neighborhood. And as you get older- your values might have shifted, right? Like, if you care more about the character of the neighborhood than you do about maximizing the sale price- then landmarking might be the right approach. I, I personally try to not invite the city- into my business,

Hamish: Any who, anything.

Osman: Into anything, right? Yeah. 'Cause boy, they Like I, I gotta, and this is gonna sound controversial, but I'm gonna say it. There's enough people, I think, at the city staff that they almost resent, um, anybody that goes in to get a permit.

Hamish: Like They resent the city.

Osman: Well, they, they resent it where they work. They resent the, the, the community members that fund their paychecks, and it's just, you, you, once you've felt that vibe, you really know what I'm talking about.

Hamish: I saw it on, uh, the live stream. They were just telling you about where they had the public comment. You could see it. Um, to be fair too, this is Sorry, the, the abrupt subject change, but I mean, the architecture's a little unique.

Osman: No, this, we should be talking about the houses- Yeah. not city staff.

Hamish: Yeah. I think the architecture is great. Yeah.

Osman: These are really cute historic houses- Yeah that deserve to be updated inside in ways that are in line with the character of these homes- and be preserved. Like, these are really a piece of Boulder history, and they could be great places to live. 1.5 for two houses- Yeah is actually not bad. And, and you know, one of the things I wanna mention is it, it may not be student renters.

Hamish: There is a massive amount

Osman: Of demand for family estates or properties where- Hm adult children can live in one house, and the elderly parents can live in the other house, or, or other family members. It could be, like, my wife's a twin. I'm, I'm pretty sure at some point that that twin's gonna be living in a house right next to ours because they're that close.

Hamish: Yeah. And they wanna do that.

Osman: Lots of siblings wanna live together as, and family models are changing. So that's could be the end user of this property. I just sure hope they know the noise issue and the Red Cup Zone.

Hamish: And that, and also, um, Sundance. If you're buying two homes for one and a half million and you're renting out two homes for Sundance, you know? I mean, possibly. Yeah.

Osman: Yeah, it could, they could be Sundance rentals too. I mean, there's a lot of buzz around Sundance and, and the amount of money people expect to make for renting for a week or two.

Hamish: Lots of buzz.

Osman: Um, and so I, maybe. I, I'm, I, I'm not sure I believe the hype, right? But I've heard the numbers, and some of them astound me.

Hamish: I think- Some of them

Osman: The big numbers are for, like, giant houses to throw parties. Yeah.

Hamish: Seems like best case penciling. Double, yeah.

Osman: I will mention, by the way, as a footnote on this, I attended a lecture in Denver

Hamish: That- Oh

Osman: Uh, invited by our clients, and learned about Robert Adams and 18th century British country homes. And the interior design very much was intended to impress people at parties. Like, that's why these

Hamish: Homes- Oh, okay

Osman: Like, it, and I said, I, it felt, felt like

Hamish: Nothing has changed. Yeah. Right?

Osman: When you get to a certain level of home design- people really want a home that impresses others- at parties. And so it doesn't surprise me to see that occur, particularly at the ultra-luxury segment, which is a good segue to our next house.

Hamish: Fine. All

Osman: What, you have something to say? Go ahead.

Hamish: Double ended deal.

Osman: Oh, the, the, the listing agent also represented the buyer?

Hamish: Yeah, looks like it.

Osman: Okay.

Hamish: I mean- Anyway

Osman: Good for them. It's just We don't advise that behavior

Hamish: Point of interest. Yeah.

Osman: Um, I, we think that you're better off served by somebody who will represent your interests and argue for, advocate for you in the deal and try to get things resolved. I mean, that's what we do when we represent buyers, um, and sellers. When we represent sellers, we're trying to get the deal done for a fair price and, and work through the issues. But when you have one agent involved, it, who, who do they represent? That's really a sticky wicket.

Hamish: You had such a good segue. I'm sorry to kill- I know.

Osman: You ruined it

Hamish: The thunder for a

Osman: Double- You ruined it. Yeah. All right. It's only- 1285 Meadow Place. So this property is super interesting for a variety of reasons. But first and foremost, it illustrates how far the mighty have fallen in Boulder real estate. Prices at the ultra-luxury segment, particularly above 3 million, have slid downward hard. And it's taken sellers a while to finally come to terms with this. And this is, this is the autumn of opportunity, in my opinion, because I think we've reached the bottom. But I'm not, I'm not 100% making that claim. Okay? But with the stock market hitting all-time highs, and we've now had multiple years of growing inventory and declining prices at the high end, sellers are finally capitulating, not en masse, but we're seeing more of these transactions occur. Hm. I think that it could be the, it could be that we're nearing the bottom of the ultra-luxury segment, and this home illustrates the, the opportunities that I think are on the market, um, at this price point. So it's a big house, 7,800 square feet. Sure. Built in 2008, three car attached garage, five bedrooms-

Hamish: Six baths,

Osman: 15,000 Square foot lot. It's a little close to Broadway, in my opinion. It's on Norwood. Or I'm sorry, it's on Meadow Place, which is just off of Norwood. So it's, I mean, if I had to, let's actually measure how close are we to Broadway? We are physically-

Osman: We are looking

Hamish: And it's east of Broadway

Osman: We are looking at 350 feet to Broadway But there's structures in between, and there's, there's landscaping in between, but I bet you you can hear from your backyard- the trucks and buses rattling up Broadway all the time. You are, are also really close to Lucky's. I love the Lucky's Empire. Um, all the, all the options there for It's a great grocery, um, and, The Chinese

Hamish: Restaurant's pretty good too

Osman: I I like that Chinese restaurant. It's not hoity-toity or pretentious. The grocery's a little expensive, but it's really nice to have that around the corner from your house. Um, so it was designed by award-winning architect David Wo, okay? Uh, interiors web by, were by celebrated Mickey Ackerman. I'm not sure who celebrating Mickey or how many awards David won. It doesn't really matter. The home was overpriced, and- they, they were, they were into the tailwind of the market. So, Oh I happened to look, I happened to notice the tax address of the, of the seller and looked at that house and when they acquired it, and basically the story looks like they bought a house in Niwot in August of 2025 that closed August 29th, but went under contract in, uh, went into active backup status June 19th. And then went pending June 26th, and then had two months before it closed. So they, they identified the replacement house. And frankly, I'd like to just spend all my time talking about the replacement house. 6487 Cherry Court, the home they bought in Niwot, is amazing. Also, almost 8,000 square feet, six bedrooms, seven baths, four-car attached garage, in-in-ground pool-

Hamish: Wow

Osman: Up against the open space. Awesome house. Okay? 100% amazing house. And they, they bought that house for 4.787, and then they listed their house here in Boulder at 1285 Meadow Place for, for initially they thought they were gonna make money. They listed it on August 14th for 5,850,000.

Hamish: Mm.

Osman: And then they probably weren't prepared for the disappointment that occurred because nothing happened. It was on the market through the fall, into the winter, and by January they said, "Okay, let's cut the price to 5.5." The January 15th of this year, that's what they did, but guess what? There were no takers, and they dropped the price again on April 10th to just under five, and then all summer long, no takers, but by the fall they finally got a buyer. That buyer negotiated 11.1% below their last list price, so it closed at 4.4. So that means it sold at 1.5 I'm sorry, uh, almost 1.5 million below what, like 1,400,000 and change below what their initial price was. So that's pretty painful- Yeah to have, uh, to felt that paper losses. But keep in mind, paper losses, I still think they got a fantastic deal by trading Meadow Place for this house on in Cherry Court. And you know, this is, I, I jokingly wanted to call this Boulder flight, right? Like people leaving the city of Boulder.

Hamish: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Osman: The wealthy, affluent, large home- decided, "I'm outta here. I've had enough of the city of Boulder." "Let's move to Niwot where people are more sensible," and it still has a historic downtown.

Hamish: Still in the county

Osman: It's still, it's like 10 minutes away from this house. A much better house, much bigger, much more luxurious, with that in-ground pool. Like, wow, that's a kill- I hope they realize what a killer house they bought- and don't feel such pain for the, what was paper losses on the high end. But here we have a home that was in the upper fives that slid into the fours. And so what's happening is that what, what are now fours are sliding in the threes. So if you're pricing a home that's in the threes or fours, you need to look up market at what's gonna be sliding into your market next year. Yes. Because and as you think about your final numbers, as you think about what you have to do to prepare your home for sale, and if you're buying a house, this fourth quarter is your opportunity season to pick up a potentially massive discount, 10-plus percent, on a high-end home in Boulder, and you have tons of options right now, so don't believe the hype from a listing agent or a buyer's rep that tells you you have to move fast, because you don't in this price point.

Hamish: No names or anything, but I am thinking of our clients, uh, in Newlands that have been looking for kind of like a hobby ranch property, and those prices have come down a serious amount. I don't know if they're quite ready yet, but,

Osman: Me either. They also invested a lot in updating

Hamish: Their house

Osman: Because they couldn't find what they were looking for.

Hamish: But when they're ready. When they're ready. Yeah.

Osman: So I think we should do some manual searches for them. Yeah. Make a note in our- task management system- to do some ma- manual searches. Uh, that could be part of our Monday review. We

Hamish: Really should- That'd be a good one

Osman: Get back on pipeline. Uh, and that could be a good thing we do is go through that on Monday.

Hamish: Well, before any, uh, too much, this listing agent, um, it's pretty in line now for them to mention things like the architect and the interior designer. And then, um, look at the amenity photos for me.

Osman: I know. I felt the same thing. I saw the same amenity photos on multiple listings. Multiple.

Hamish: And this is North Boulder. It's not even the Lucky's Empire.

Osman: I know. I know. We're seeing the same amenity photos in, all over town. All over, all over Boulder County, which makes me laugh. Like-

Hamish: Yeah, this one is so typical.

Osman: I know. I know. This is- right, this is the classic photo of people running on a trail. But it's the same generic photo of people running on a trail. I don't know what to tell you, man. Mm. You're paying a lot for the listing. Can you get, like, some amenity photos that reflect the amenities actually near this house?

Hamish: Yeah. Like,

Osman: And if you want me That,

Hamish: Yeah, that's like South Boulder

Osman: If you want me, I would gladly run on the trail for the photo.

Hamish: Yeah. Uh, uh,

Osman: That would be pretty hilarious, actually.

Hamish: You'd look better.

Osman: We should do this for all our listings- is we should have, like, the

Hamish: Listing agent- A Where's Waldo

Osman: Run on the trail. Like, say, well, we could get our photos in the listings. All

Hamish: And then when- From now

Osman: On, at all price points

Hamish: And then when other agents use the photos, it could be like, "Well, that's him,

Osman: So" Right, like literally you have the listing agent in the photo running on the trail- or bicycling on the trail- or walking into Lucky's. That would be hilarious.

Hamish: It'd be kind of fun.

Osman: All right. It's our new thing, Hamish.

Hamish: Little Easter eggs.

Osman: Easter egg photos.

Hamish: Keep a, keep an eye out, listeners.

Osman: Okay, let's talk about shameless self-promotion. And Hamish, I think you know more about this property than I do, but I will say we've got a listing, 850 20th Street. It's a rental. It is on the sixth floor of a, the seventh story San Marco North building with really nice views. It's decent square footage. One bed, one bath. And nice finishes because the owner updated it for their family member who lived in it.

Hamish: Oh, okay.

Osman: It had, has had one renter that wasn't a family member, and that person stayed a long time because it's such a great unit.

Hamish: Like six years or more?

Osman: Something like that. And it's, it's a secure building. It's a really nice spot. If you're connected to CU in any way, you don't need a car. You literally could just walk across the street to campus. Though I think it's a really cool property if you're looking for a longer term rental in the city of Boulder, and it's I mean, there might be some students, but I don't think you're gonna hear them. I think it's a concrete building. And it's, it just, it does feel like you're entering the '60s because, hey, the building was built in '67. But it is Oh, it has on, an onsite super, which I think is why it's so nice.

Hamish: Oh, is that Yeah. Okay.

Osman: It does not feel like some rundown student- student ghetto.

Hamish: A super is like the-

Osman: Am I allowed to use-

Hamish: Property management

Osman: Am I allowed to say ghettos anymore?

Hamish: I don't remember. I, nobody's told me off yet when I say it.

Osman: I don't know.

Hamish: That, that's not an endorsement, but

Osman: I hope that wasn't okay. Or I hope that was okay. I don't know.

Hamish: Yeah. I

Osman: Don't know. Are we allowed to say these words? All right. It is what it is. It's not a student ghetto.

Hamish: Yeah. Well, so I think you basically hit it all on the head. The one person that I saw was, like, a young adult coming in, and seemed very respectful and kind. 'Cause I was like, "Oh, shoot, I'll hold the elevator for you," type of deal. Um, and it, right next to The Hill if that's your flavor. I know there's some decent eating there. And, um, yeah, I mean, you covered it all. There's a 3D tour. It's on Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads,

Osman: And, What's it available for?

Hamish: 1750 A month, which, uh, you know, ought to find some interest. It's lower than, uh, I think our initial thinking. We were thinking around 1850 or 19.

Osman: I mean, we showed it to somebody, and she liked it, and then- Yeah ghosted. That's great. So I don't know what's going on with that.

Hamish: Yeah. I don't know.

Osman: Anyway. Or, Renters. Okay.

Hamish: Yeah. I've got an idea about that. Remind me, or I'll write down a reminder. I'll shoot you a

Osman: Message. Sure.

Hamish: Bam. Um, all

Osman: Let's talk about our Hot Takes.

Osman: The city, surprise, surprise, has gotta make some budget cuts. Shocking.

Hamish: Or we could write them a blank check.

Osman: And it's planning to close the gap by cutting 24 positions, trimming services, and raising fees, and the final vote is coming up. There's a very interesting, um, can you balance the budget tool that somebody vibe coded-

Hamish: Oh, really?

Osman: Which is cool and interesting. Um, so what happened here? What's your take?

Hamish: Oh, yeah. Well, the, I've got an ad for Tara on the link when I opened it up.

Osman: That's fine. Yeah.

Hamish: I thought they were, like, putting her on the face of

Osman: The That's good for her

Hamish: And I was like, "That's rude." Maybe she's

Osman: Advertising in the right places.

Hamish: Yeah. But, um, oh, what do I think? I mean, what are we We're just constantly been barraged with budget shortfall news at this rate. Um, maybe you have the solution.

Osman: I mean, Boulder gets a lot of its revenue from sales taxes. And when you make it very difficult for businesses to operate in the city of Boulder by having very high property taxes- Fewer things

Hamish: Are getting sold

Osman: You're getting fewer retail businesses in Boulder. When you make it really I mean, look, I don't want a big box Walmart here either. If we had one-

Hamish: We've got a Target. It's enough.

Osman: We had a We have a Target. We had a Walmart grocery that failed. This is the only place I've ever heard of a Walmart failing. Um, but for sure I don't think our, our council people- make it easier for business in Boulder. And if you want revenues to be higher, we need to make it easier, less expensive to open restaurants, fewer regulations on I mean, I, I've been part of this twice where I've seen, three or four times actually, where I've seen the insane things that the city of Boulder requires in commercial properties- that have added hundreds of thousands of dollars of cost to construction budgets- which then eventually get passed on to

Osman: The tenants of the spaces, which eventually get, which make it harder for the business to operate. So, um, I, I think that this is a mismanagement issue, um, a budgeting, a budget forecasting issue- um, that's based on an idea that budgeting just forever goes up. And you see that in the next s- story too. The library district is cutting 20% of staff. That's a huge cut, and that's just two years after going independent because they have a two and a half million dollar shortfall, and this is where they blame the trustees who budgeted 6% yearly growth in pro- 6% yearly growth in property values. And for sure, we've had years where property values increased, but 6% long term with no up ups and downs is, again, budget forecasting- Yeah in, you know, incompetence. I, I don't know what else to say. And, and it's damaging to the culture of these institutions because you have Look, any layoff is really damaging. But two years after you got hired, you're getting fired because the city doesn't have the money. It's-

Hamish: I never, I didn't even know the library district went independent, so that was interesting to hear.

Osman: It was a battle.

Hamish: And then, yeah. Was it?

Osman: And, and I was against it. uh, and I don't, I don't wanna rehash that, but the library district is now its own thing.

Hamish: I mean, they're, like, I'm looking into this vibe code, and it's like, uh, could get some flack, but we are increasing by 0.1% of the budget to the city's attorney's office, and the only places there are budget increases are to the Housing and Human Services and to the city's attorney's office. Everything else is getting proposed reductions. Um,

Hamish: I was gonna You talked before about, like, um, budget cuts or, uh, you know, like, um, funding cuts made to be the most painful point for the public in order to justify more-

Osman: Oh

Hamish: Taxes and more things like that.

Osman: For sure.

Hamish: And, like, ooh,

Osman: Just- They look for the most

Hamish: Painful- You just look at it. Yeah

Osman: Emotionally painful

Hamish: Places

Osman: To cut because that- uh, it, they believe will result in fewer cuts because the, the public will- sign off on all these ballot initiatives coming up in the fall- that, uh, will, will refund the coffers of- our out of control city spending. So- I mean, the part that I find really kind of disturbing is it says, "The finance director says Boulder has, quote, 'Never experienced three years of flat or reduction.'" Ah, no. It has. 2006 to 2009, I was here. Property values fell, and, and budgeting on the basis of forever 6% is just bad budgeting.

Hamish: This Yeah. And I can't tell you the news because that's insider information, but when we take our next break or, uh-

Osman: All

Hamish: At the end of the pod.

Osman: Can't wait for the insider information. We will stop recording before Yeah. All right, let's talk about the Supreme Court case. And mostly I just think it's cool, okay? That the city of Boulder has pushed this so far that we're headed to the Supreme Court, and it's super interesting. The liberal justices sound like they're sympathetic. Uh, Kavanaugh is firmly with Exxon and Suncor. Um, and so Roberts is worried about copycat suits, but hey, uh, that's the point, okay? Is that-

Hamish: Precedent

Osman: There needs to be a precedent, and this is gonna set a huge one on whether corporations can be held accountable by communities that are affected by climate change. And for sure, Exxon and Suncor are the sellers of these products that are contributing to global warming. We could say this because we're not a federal lab. We just I, I actually- Yeah,

Hamish: Good.

Osman: I actually just, uh, met with a, a person who's pretty high up at one of the agencies, and I asked her, "Are you allowed to say global warming anymore? Are you allowed to say climate change?" And the, the language has shifted to things like extreme weather risk.

Hamish: Oh, you're kidding.

Osman: They, they are not allowed, they don't say those words because of the current administration, which just feels so infuriating, but it is what it is. This is the world we live in.

Hamish: There's, um And I was frantically searching for it when you came in this morning. Um, either it's Dr. Ben Miles or Simon Clark, they're two pretty prominent YouTubers. Um, one of them brought up, uh, I think the, you know, another hugely culminating study has just been released that kind of catalogs and documents the misinformation and propaganda that, um, I think Shell is the company that it was focusing on. That, uh, but large oil companies have been propagating since like the '70s, and then it's got their co-f- you know, Shell co-funded X report that, you know, predicted 500 parts per million of CO2 back in '89 or the, the decade we're in now. And so I like democracy. Um, if the city of Boulder can, uh, you know, get

Osman: Something- You think we're living in a democracy?

Hamish: Oh, I don't wanna go into that. But But you know, nobody was asked if we wanted to pollute the world, and essentially, you know, we did vote for it in a sense with our dollar and our demand. Um, but this, yeah, like you said, it, it offer, it offers a great, um, possibility for a precedent. I'm surprised the Supreme Court even wanted to hear it. So

Hamish: We'll see how this turns out, but you're right, it's cool.

Osman: It's nice to see the, our, our, our little community here pushing this issue. Mm

Hamish: Impressive

Osman: There are times that I feel like our community is getting involved in things they should not be getting involved in. Like sister cities, right? And whether they should def- they should be involved and have an opinion about what's going on in the Middle East. Not I think that's like outside of the jurisdiction of city council. City council should be focused on fixing potholes- first and foremost. Making our streets safer.

Hamish: Why don't we have another parade?

Osman: Right?

Hamish: Like- Like, like

Osman: We need to focus on what improves the quality of life of people that live in our community.

Hamish: But every once in a while,

Osman: And this is one of them, we see, um, Boulder actually maybe making a difference at, at the national level, and so I, I'm excited to see the outcome. Um, and I, I think it will be very interesting if, if Boulder is successful in this, in this lawsuit.

Hamish: Yeah. Hopeful. Okay,

Osman: Let's talk about this national news that Colorado is leading the nation, and Denver has its, had its slowest September on record, leading the nation in price cuts for real estate. And September closings in, um, I think this is Denver. Yeah, Denver closings- are down 21% from a year ago, the lowest since 2008, though one-plus million dollar sales are up. Okay, great. Okay. CPR found 32% of Colorado listings had a price cut in August, the highest of any state, and Zillow says rents rose nationally. So the debate, uh, is Colorado correcting faster than everywhere else? Or, or is this just a rate pause? What do you think?

Hamish: Classic debate tactic, I'm not gonna I'm gonna ignore the debate and ask, well, how are they defining, um, listings that had a price cut? Was the first thing that I picked out because it's a pretty common tactic. You see it when you're looking at listing history and Sales of the Week and things, where, um, listings will have basically just a token price cut, like 5 to 10K. Get it in front of buyers, um, view again, and granted, it's a price cut, but materially, you know, like we talk about a home that's super desirable, 50K, it could be a rounding error in 10 years. So-

Osman: Well, at certain price points.

Hamish: At certain price points, for sure. Yeah.

Osman: At other price points, 50K-

Hamish: Oh, yeah

Osman: Is 10% of the home's value.

Hamish: Yeah, it is. It completely is. Um, I don't know. I, I'm, I'm not We just did like a screen share Boulder County, City of Boulder market update, but I do not have the, the information for Denver.

Osman: I, I mean, this is interesting news. I, I think treating Colorado real estate as one market is absurd.

Hamish: And Denver even more- Even treating

Osman: I mean, we just did our market analysis for City of Boulder and Boulder County for single-family houses, and I told you that's not granular enough to make intelligent decisions. Mm

Hamish: And even within

Osman: This paragraph of information, you see that one-plus million dollar sales are up, and yet- 21% of listings just had a price cut. So this information is just designed to get clicks. And is not actionable, is not even useful. And in some ways it's sort of annoying because it just-

Hamish: It's filler. Like- It's filler. Yeah.

Osman: It's, it's content that's real estate-related but is not useful to, for anybody other than this pondering sense of, "Oh, Colorado's correcting faster." Like it's fear-mongering and it Yeah just designed to get clicks. So the take home for me is, uh, at least for me, is to always be focused on the granular

Hamish: While keeping an eye on the

Osman: Big picture, okay? Like you can't ignore rates going up. We might be at 8% mortgage rates next year, okay? You cannot ignore that. But that piece of

Hamish: Information

Osman: Has a lot of nuance to it- because not all market segments are rate sensitive. And there's a theory out there that the high end of the market, and I think this is correct, trades closer to what's going on in the stock market- Mm

Hamish: Than it has

Osman: Anything to do with what's going on with mortgage rates. So take it all with a grain of salt. Don't get excited by news like this.

Hamish: Interesting. Yeah.

Osman: Get granular with respect to your specific real estate situation.

Hamish: Yeah. Mic drop. I mean,

Osman: It'You're just saying that, Hamish.

Hamish: Well, you look

Osman: At You're just saying that.

Hamish: Yeah, ps- No, there's, um, you'll see like YouTube videos, and I've seen it probably since I started even having an interest in real estate, but it's like, "Next big crash coming?" You know. And it's like you click on that and then the algorithm's like, "Oh, here's a million of those videos." And there are people, and I think it's just their full-time content to make fear-mongering, but like, you know, maybe they have a point and they could be proven right. Um, but the, there's just a whole industry on if and when or but or, you know, when this big thing happens. When is 2012, you know, the end of the world? Like, there is It, it's stuff like that.

Osman: I mean, ask yourself if the content you're consuming is actually useful to you in your life. Or have you just been sucked into doom scrolling and clicking on one article after another- at how the world is ending. There's a plague in Russia.

Hamish: Doommaxxing.

Osman: Like, it's all coming at you.

Hamish: Yeah. Doommaxxing Oh yeah, the plague in Russia.

Osman: It, it's all coming at you right now. It's all bad

Hamish: All the time. And I

Osman: Think it's really important to consider therapy if that's- your approach to life- Get

Hamish: Some help

Osman: Because you get what you put out, and boy, it is so easy to go- I think these, the fear, uh, helps people in, in the evolution of humanity to be worried about the- the next worst thing, right? But constant negativity is so damaging to one's soul- and unlikely to ever occur or have any impact on you.

Hamish: But boy, does it sell. It's great for any You know, if you wanna sell fear, you sell it in politics, you sell it in anything. And it, it Fear is oppressive in nature. And without going too crazy, but, like, if you live in the fear, then you are more easily If you're like, "I am so scared of what's happening in this world," you're going to be too afraid to live your life and possibly do better for the world.

Osman: I mean, we're getting very philosophical- Yeah. Hamish. And I, I don't mind doing that. Um, it, it also, I think I feel like this is an entirely separate podcast, but one

Hamish: Thing- Yeah, I'm gonna leave it

Osman: I do wanna say is that I think it You, you can't be in sales if you're not an optimist. And I think it also is not just sales, it's in terms of how your lived experience happens. And if you, if you're completely Pollyanna-ish, maybe you're still having a great life, okay? But you probably are missing out on opportunities and you probably are subject to risks that you didn't intend to take. But if you're constantly negative and focused on everything coming at you, you also are living a very different lived experience, and one that's primarily negative and constraining and fearful-

Hamish: Constraining

Osman: And feels awful.

Hamish: Yeah. And we all end up dead,

Osman: So how you choose to live your life, I think, is done on a daily and intentional basis. And I'll add something really interesting I heard today. And, Today?

Hamish: Today.

Osman: And it was a quote, um, it was Yoko Ono that was talking about, uh, doing things that make your heart dance. And-

Hamish: Cute

Osman: Her suggestions were smiling in the mirror in the morning, looking up at the sky, and finding things in each day and each moment that- brighten your day. And of course, I think she said these things after John Lennon was shot, which is way before you were even born. I'm surprised you even know who John Lennon is or Yoko Ono.

Hamish: Just slightly. Yeah.

Osman: But, uh, but anyway, so I think that's a happier note to end the, the fear-mongering on, and it's time to talk about carve-outs.

Hamish: I was dropping my brother off at my grandparents' before coming here to the office, and I saw a tree and the leaves were falling from it and it looked like snow. And I made a point of being like, "That's very pretty. Enjoy that." And it's things that make your heart dance, you know? So that was my prettiness of today. And with that, fences, neighbors, and building relationships. Welcome to my carve-out. This is where we kinda talk about off-topic things, but whatever's top of mind. And for me and my neighbor, we have been tackling our joint fence. And it turns out my,

Osman: The This is the fence that you share?

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Okay. Whose fence is it? Um,

Hamish: It's ours comrade. Um- You know?

Osman: Okay. All

Hamish: And like as I'm, I don't I can assure you it's not, it's not

Osman: Like, somebody paid to build the fence.

Hamish: Yeah. So where The way I'm looking at it is like the fence benefits both of us, it's our fence.

Osman: I like it.

Hamish: Like we gotta hit it.

Osman: That's, that's a good approach.

Hamish: And so it turns out that the previous owners before me weren't great neighbors, and also we're trying to figure out the rationale, but they dumped probably, I don't know, how to A foot of dirt by five feet in width by 20 feet in length. Lots of dirt.

Osman: Dumped it where?

Hamish: Right up against the fence between my neighbor and I.

Osman: Oh, that's not good.

Hamish: And so the fence is caving over and-

Osman: Now it's rotting.

Hamish: Yeah. So our plan is like, yeah, okay, we'll go in and, and, uh, replace some posts and stuff. And the more we're digging into the dirt and pulling up posts and things, um When the two houses were originally built, we're guessing, there was like a concrete curb poured from the front of our property line all the way to the back between us, and in that curb were four by four post holes. It, we're unearthing it, right? 'Cause it's just been buried. Um, and so it, it turns out, yeah, uh, it's his fence by property line 'cause the dirt that my previous owners, um, dumped pushed the entire fence over, uh, snapped it off at the base of the posts a couple of times. And, um, we're gonna give it a shot just, uh I mean, we're He's a fun guy, um, and pretty quirky. Uh, so he's got like just a ton of materials throughout his backyard and stuff. But we picked out, we found, you know, replacement, uh, posts and, um, little bits to repair the sections and things. We're not doing a brand-new fence. Um, but we've unearthed You know, there's, there's a, what looks more You know, we're not doing a survey, but, you know, we have a, a better boundary of what the lot line is. And, um, the whole dirt thing is super strange, but he's, it's all on my land, uh, or my property. Um, he's gonna split the cost to take that dirt and put it elsewhere. So other areas around my house where I've needed pro- uh, positive grading to keep the water away from the foundation, so great, now I have a ton of dirt uh, coming up, so. It's been a lot of fun and I've been getting to know him, uh, really well and, um, the entire time I've lived at that- house, it's, his house has been kind of less and less maintained. Well, turns out he's been dealing with health issues for, like, the past five years, the entire duration of my ownership. And so getting to know him now, he's doing better and everything, and, um, I mean, the, the dude's got a fire under him. Yeah. So it's really cool to kinda, like, chat to him. Yeah.

Osman: It's nice to have good neighborly relations.

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: And building a fence together is definitely one way to do it. Well, well done.

Hamish: One of those teamwork things. Thanks.

Osman: Well done.

Hamish: Yeah. So that's my carve-out. Um, the fence is currently disassembled and I've got a temporary one up, and, uh, we'll get to it when we get to it. But we're also, um, I think, patient enough that it doesn't have to be done yesterday and, you know, we're realistic to the, the how things go and we'll get to it when we get to it. Or we'll have a huge backyard split.

Osman: Nice. Yeah. Sounds great. You know what I, I think is, uh, one of the nicest things y- in some neighbors' fenced yards, fenced yards is when they put in a friendly neighbor gate.

Hamish: I was thinking about that.

Osman: When they put in a little, uh, "Hey, you wanna hang out?" and usually it's for kids, right? Like, they both have kids around the same age, and now they can actually access each other's- backyards and houses. I mean, that, that's usually a sign of a really nice thing.

Hamish: Yeah. I'm I've been thinking about it, but I don't know. I don't think there's too much of a reason.

Osman: It'd You could always put it in the future.

Hamish: His opens up pretty big, and forever I've wanted to put a car back there or something in my backyard 'cause it's real classy.

Osman: Yeah. Like up on blocks.

Hamish: Yeah. It No wheels, preferably rusting. Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: Leaking, leaking fluids

Hamish: And is a bit Yeah, especially. Uh, but, um, his, he's got, like, a bi-fold gate. I don't think it'll work out or anything, but thinking out loud.

Osman: All Good carve-out.

Hamish: How was your chili?

Osman: All right, so my carve-out- is that at the request of my beloved- um, I agreed that I should be cooking more. And when I like to cook, I like to make a giant meal that then can serve for, like, several days. Or it could be frozen and be used later. And, uh, I asked AI, 'cause I'm also somewhat lazy, I wanna do it in the most efficient way possible, and I asked AI to come up with a recipe for the Instant Pot. And I said, "I want high protein, chicken or beef, like it to be spicy, and I'd like it to, you know, last for this period of time, and I'd like to use the Instant Pot." And it came up with this red Texas chili that turned out to be really good.

Hamish: Good. Good.

Osman: Uh, there are, there are dried peppers that we soak and puree as the base.

Hamish: Not the Hatch peppers? Not, not the Hatch. Okay.

Osman: That's the next recipe I've gotta ask for. And, and we put in four and a half pounds of chuck roast, chopped it Yum seared it, put it together with garlic and spices, and, and it's amazing. It I've now made this three times, and this is the It's even better this time- Mm than it was the first two times. So we've adapted the recipe a a little bit. The first time, it AI asked me to Uh, I, I think I asked AI to just use an Instant Pot, so the searing was even in the Instant Pot. In this case, I, I seared- Forced it, yeah it in cast iron and, and cooked the onions in, in the cast iron, and then transferred things into the Instant Okay rather than trying to sear three and a half, four and a half pounds of chuck roast in an Instant Pot. You can do it, but it's actually- Yeah better to sear it in cast iron separately.

Hamish: Your cast iron is on the grill 'cause your induction stove, right?

Osman: I do have an induction

Hamish: Stove

Osman: And the cast iron works perfectly on the induction stove.

Hamish: Oh, really?

Osman: Oh, absolutely.

Hamish: Well, damn.

Osman: It's magnetic. It's ferrous metal.

Hamish: I was wondering. Yeah, that's perfect.

Osman: No problem.

Hamish: That's wicked.

Osman: Anybody that has not used an induction stove,

Osman: I will say that you should try it before you think gas is better. Uh, although you won't have Holy power outages keep, keep knocking people off the grid, but assuming you have reliable power- uh, induction stoves outperform gas stoves all day long.

Hamish: I think, um Yeah.

Osman: And you're not introducing combustion gases into your home. So there are so many reasons to be on induction, but a lot of people are just so anti-

Hamish: There's a-

Osman: Electric

Hamish: There's a, um, nostalgia for how things were done, and I think, uh, gas stoves fit in there, and yeah.

Osman: They just don't know. That's my take. I've never heard anybody that's had an induction stove wanna go back to gas. Mm

Hamish: Yeah. It's, uh, the only thing that concerns me with induction is scratching the surface.

Osman: We've been You know, we've now had this stove for

Hamish: Six years, Pretty sturdy

Osman: It's holding up. It's fine. So we've not You have to be a little I'm always really careful 'cause you've got heavy metal- and a glass top, and I'm like, "Oh, man, gotta be really gentle- Yeah with this thing." But it's held up.

Hamish: Yeah. And that's also not really a barrier, 'cause it's like, "Oh, no, I scratched the thing that I use to cook." Oh, I'd

Osman: Be more worried about- But

Hamish: At least, like, it still works

Osman: Like, not just scratching it, but actually shattering it- or something.

Hamish: Okay, well. Yeah. I made a roas- a roast using an AI recipe.

Osman: I'm sure it's tempered glass, by the way. Yeah. It's gotta be.

Hamish: It's not Yeah, they're not doing, like

Osman: I bet you, you can find a YouTube video where people just try to stress, stress test these induction- stove tops 'cause I They appear to be durable. Knock on wood. Yeah. Yeah.

Hamish: I made a roast with an AI recipe. It was delicious. Um, I, I We got a I think I've done a pork shoulder with AI, a roast with AI, and then I used it to reinvent a, um, or reinvent or, like, find me, reverse engineer a family recipe that I couldn't remember the name of. Um, and yeah, it's like, you know, you gotta check it. Like, searing in an Instant Pot, crazy idea, but, like, yeah. And it's turned out. Yeah. They're yummy. Mm

Osman: A surprising use for AI was recipes.

Hamish: Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: And, uh, and you can basically tell it what you, what your end product you want to be or what the cooking experience is like- and it'll spin up something that actually works really well. Go figure.

Hamish: Meal planning too, and you get the cost proportion down with Aleppo- And also

Osman: Got the wife points.

Hamish: Yeah, wife points. Taylor's, uh, um, she brought up that I'd never cooked for her before, and I was like, "Well, that just can't be." So planned a couple meals out and stuff and cooked for her. Hey,

Osman: Okay.

Hamish: Yeah. I was like, "That's, this doesn't count, but

Hamish: All right. Well, that's the end

Osman: Of the House Einstein

Hamish: Podcast.

Osman: If you made it this far, thank you so much for joining us today. This podcast is sponsored by the House Einstein Brokerage. Please do us a favor and visit HouseEinstein.com. You can also check out our other content at YouTube, on Instagram, Facebook, all the socials. Liking and subscribing also helps us a lot. We deeply appreciate your comments. We can't always answer your comments and questions, but we do read them, and they do impact our programming.

Hamish: Thanks so much for joining

Osman: Us today. We hope to see you

Hamish: Out there,

Osman: And we'll catch you next time.