House Einstein Podcast #128 Transcript

Speaker assignments were reviewed against the isolated Osman and Hamish audio tracks. The transcript was also contextually copyedited for obvious speech-to-text errors, names, addresses, and misheard phrases while preserving the spoken meaning. The standalone sponsor read is omitted from the transcript.

Hamish: Interested in this house on fourth Street. Can you tell me about it?

Osman: Set into the foothills at the base of Mount Sanitas. This home is a study in an organic modernism where limestone, steel and expanses of glass blur the line between home and landscape. Designed by famous architecture, the home is a work of architectural integrity. Realize that the highest level of craft, a smooth limestone spine wall, threads through the home with rough hewn limestone as a counterpoint, steps from the Goat Trail and tucked into one of Boulder's most iconic neighborhoods. This home is a triumph of detail, intention and place.

Hamish: Ready to write an offer sight unseen.

Osman: Tell me that limestone spine counterpoint with more limestone counterpoint.

Hamish: Here's my offer.

Osman: Every. Every wall needs a counterpoint.

Hamish: Should I go over it? Feels like it's gonna.

Osman: With that. Welcome to the House Einstein podcast. This is our 128th podcast. I am Osman Parvez. With me is Hamish Crabb. And before we get started, we should mention that this podcast is sponsored by the House Einstein Brokerage, where the mission is to help you make a smarter real estate decision. But for purposes of the pod, we are just here to entertain you. So please don't make any decisions on anything important, particularly real estate related, on anything you hear in this podcast. Everything is entertainment. Everything's a big joke.

Hamish: Please don't sue us, but please be entertained.

Osman: Please allow yourself to be entertained.

Hamish: Grace yourself with entertainment. Absolutely.

Osman: Okay, so let's talk about our docket today. And our closing table topic is really a bit of a comparison between two deals that have been in play for us recently. And it's all about the value of the counterparty. We won't be naming names, but we're going to talk a little bit about how the deals have gone from a smoothness. And I would say effectiveness perspective between two different agents. And I think this this is something that will help illustrate what we often call the spectrum of competency in this industry.

Hamish: Yeah, a theme we return to pretty, pretty frequently that I think will continue to return to.

Osman: We have agents that are on both sides of the spectrum recently, and I think you'll be entertained to hear how these deals have been going. And then we're going to do a market update. We have preliminary data for the month of July, and I really I'm not a huge fan of hitting the data at this time of the month. It's August 5th.

Hamish: Yeah, it's quite early.

Osman: And boy the data really changes because agents are slow to update the MLS or their admins. And so I usually like to wait at least a week. But I want you to get a sense of where the market stands. And we'll cover the City of Boulder detached single family houses with July's data. And then we've got six spectacular properties to talk about in our sales of the week. 355 4th Street. 8003 Sagebrush Ct, 1950 Senda Rocosa.

Hamish: Perfect pronunciation.

Osman: I'm sure I butchered that pronunciation. 482 West Spruce Street in Louisville and 2905 Vassar Drive in Table Mesa. And then we'll wrap it up with 1301 Canyon Boulevard, unit 409. That's a top floor unit at the Canyon Condos, which are right in the heart of downtown, and the Canyon condos.

Hamish: With a caveat.

Osman: What's the caveat?

Hamish: Well, listen ahead and you'll find out what the caveat is. But that's why it made the sales of the week.

Osman: Well, it will segue us to talking about one of our news items, which will get to in just a second. We have our usual shameless self-promotion sequence or segment sequence segment where we're going to talk about one of our clients and their needs. That typically is a pretty short segment. And then we've got a bunch of news items. JPMorgan throwing $750 billion into the housing market. Xcel is finally burying lines in Boulder. We have people driving their cars down bike lanes and getting photographed at high speed. It's on US 36, skipping the toll lane, creating their own toll lane. I wonder how they got over that little, you know, that buckle that's there?

Hamish: Oh yeah. That.

Osman: I wonder if they went Dukes of Hazzard.

Hamish: I forgot about the buckle. Oh my gosh.

Osman: And then we're going to be talking. Our most important news story is probably the Downtown Development Authority vote, which yeah. By the time you hear this pod will have been made, whether they are voting for it now or they're going to postpone this vote. City Council in Boulder, of course, is what we're talking about. And then we've got a couple of carve outs. Hamish, what are you talking about?

Hamish: I'm talking about lawn reno, lawn renovation.

Osman: Why aren't you calling it landscaping?

Hamish: This is what AI and I came up with as a title. Apparently. No, it's, It's a specific thing you do with your lawn renovating it.

Osman: Okay, so I don't think so.

Hamish: No, I don't. You can look at it. There's no. It's a term. I mean, I could be completely wrong.

Osman: I could be wrong. I'm wrong about everything.

Hamish: Well, we're gonna find out at the end of the pod. Yeah. I'm with you there, man.

Osman: All right. And then I'll be talking about developing systemic efficiencies in a commercial kitchen, which, okay, LinkedIn is really about how the man will burn.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Okay. And that is our docket for this week's pod. What do you say? Let's get into it.

Hamish: We've disclaimed in everything.

Osman: Oh, I think we disclaim. Don't make any decisions. Don't buy anything. Don't sell anything. Don't tie color based on what you're in this blog.

Hamish: That's right. Yeah.

Osman: No. No decisions. It's all entertainment. Okay.

Hamish: We are well ahead of schedule. Look at us go. Okay. First topic.

Osman: The closing table topic. Our core topic. We're getting right into the heat of it. And in a way, we talked about this maybe being tales from the trenches because these are real. This was a real, real time, I would say dynamic that emerged in two deals we had going simultaneously. And one of those deals is represented by a discount agent, and they are representing the buy-side. And the other deal was represented by a full service, highly reputable agent that we've known for years and we've done deals with, but never that got this challenging. And boy, it's been so interesting to see this. So let me draw the contrast for you.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: One of these agents has been asking us to write amendments for her buyer's lender.

Hamish: That's the discount agent. Yeah.

Osman: One of these agents will ask us a question about a deal point, even a minor one, and then ghost us when we reply with information that she requested. And then when the next, the next step is yes or no. And literally four days go by without a yes, we have to reach out. We have to reach out to follow up again.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And the discount agent is never, never picks up the phone.

Hamish: And have you ever talked to them?

Osman: I don't. Maybe briefly. I think they have another full-time job.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And that's yeah, they likely are only available in the evenings. And they likely are also competing with family time with the evenings because they don't answer the phone ever during the day. And based on what I could suss from the bio and background of this agent, plus the discount brokerage commission, it's been a lot more work for us. And interestingly enough, this is a deal point I think people should understand in the state of Colorado where we are regulated, the way the standard listing agreement is written is that there's one commission that's paid to the listing agent, and then the listing agent is compensating the buy-side agent. In most traditional structures. You can you can structure this any way you want, but that's how most of these contracts are written. So if your buyer's agent shows up, with, say, a 1% commission and your listing agreement says 6%, that means you are you as the seller are likely paying your listing agent 5%.

Hamish: So on that, like sometimes it splits it, right? Like the agreement will go on further to say it's 6%. And of that this percentage goes right. Right.

Osman: That's what I'm saying.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Like there's one commission at six. And this is simple. The overall saying yeah, this is and this isn't even the norm numbers for Boulder but 6% commission. And there's a portion of that that's allocated to the buy-side. And the remainder is kept by the listing agent. That's the typical structure. So when an offer shows up and we're the listing agent and it's 1% to the buyer's agent, that means we actually earn a lot more commission than we normally would have. And this is the first deal where the lack of professionalism and responsiveness and additional work that we had to do made it very clear that we probably should have kept the additional commission instead of just granting it to our sellers, because that's what we decided to do, is we did not actually take more than we had agreed in the initial I mean, in the contract, it's what it says is that we actually earn the higher commission.

Hamish: Right?

Osman: But went ahead and credited that to our clients because we felt like because we're saints. Well, honestly, this deal has been a really challenging deal. And they're not walking away with much. And I didn't anticipate the additional level of hassle this agent would introduce into the deal and going forward. I think we will not be crediting automatically. We need to see how this buyer's agent shows up, because if there's an adage and that adage is, you get what you pay for in life. And that is so clear in this deal, right, with this agent, this agent, they, they, they, they offered themselves up at a much lower commission than normal in the contract to buy and sell. And it turned out that that lower commission came with a much lower performance level. And it actually caused challenges in the deal where we are working on basically, we're doing their job right.

Hamish: We're doing we're doing their job short of speaking with the clients, the buy-side, we're doing about everything else.

Osman: It is very unusual for us to have had this level of interaction with the lender and basically having drafted contracts for the buyer's agent because they aren't able to do them or lenders.

Hamish: Great. I had a good conversation lender. Yeah.

Osman: And I knew she would be. Yeah, because this is going to sound like a strange filter. But having been I was in Rotary for a very long time, I have not been in Rotary for the last few years. I got too busy. I might start going back because I missed the community, but people that are in rotary for a very long time, it's a service club. They are typically better communicators, more professional, more invested in community. That's my personal experience. It's a good stamp of approval. It's not the only one, but it's a good one. If people are working full-time professionally and part of Rotary, if they're retired in part of Rotary, or they're not full-time and part of Rotary, they may not be working at that professional level anymore, but they likely still share those values because a lot of Rotarians are retired. But there are a portion of Rotarians who are not and are still very actively in the game. And this particular lender is that person and boy, great communicator, realistic, professional. Yeah, absolutely.

Hamish: So I well that's the discount side. What about the full fee agent.

Osman: Oh right.

Hamish: The full fee agent okay.

Osman: So this deal just closed and it's an agent whom our previous deals just never had this level of complexity. And I've known about other deals within the brokerage as well that he represented the other side of. And they went smoothly.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: But this particular deal had a lot of issues come up on inspection that were widely unanticipated. And this is the interesting thing. After 20 plus years of this business, I'm still seeing novel issues show up in a listing when we are going through the inspection process of deal we had under contract, and it was expensive items that are that are out in left field like holy.

Hamish: We use the word unexpected, but it's just not something you would consider to be as expensive as it turned out to be.

Osman: As much of an issue, especially because the home showed pretty well. And typically we can see the big picture or the big-ticket items right when we are doing our showings. So it kind of caught me by surprise that these issues existed. And this was a challenging deal because the seller had acquired the home a few years ago in a bidding war frenzy, and likely had waived a lot of contingencies on inspection during that frenzy.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And now, four years later, they are selling it at a substantial discount. They originally listed it below what they paid for it, and we came in even harder below that and negotiated a pretty hefty concession on the list price, however.

Hamish: Rightly so. Right?

Osman: Yeah, I think where we ended up on price was market. I don't think that it was a screaming deal. I think it was a good deal.

Hamish: I'd say disclosed market, right? Like if it was exactly as it was disclosed, that's what it would sell for.

Osman: I think it was about right.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Particularly given that the age of the home, the wear and tear on the finishes. But this house is in a fantastic location, right? It's one of these homes where you're not really paying for the house. You're mostly paying for the location and the land, the single family lot that you're buying in a prime location with, frankly, an older house with a lot of wear and tear that needs updates.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So I think the deal was good from that perspective. But getting through the really shocking numbers that started coming out of our inspection process, I so there's a spectrum as well of what there's a norm, right. For certain items. You kind of get a ballpark in your head about what things cost and how inspection negotiations go. And when numbers get this high, inspection negotiations usually fall apart because the seller already is losing six figures on this deal.

Hamish: Yeah, especially having already listed below what they originally paid for.

Osman: And they gave up their inspection rights. And now they're dealing with this. And which is their their fault okay. This is their responsibility. But most people that most people are very reluctant to sell a home for less than they paid for it and then take a beating on inspection on top of that.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So I think this agent did a phenomenal job. I don't know the conversations they had with their client, but we presented things as cleanly and factually as possible. And we focused on the big ticket items because there was a giant list of things that came up on inspection. And our client, thankfully took our guidance and focused on the most expensive items that were not already disclosed in the seller's property disclosure. So that's the other takeaway is that it may in many cases, I would say in most cases it pays to go ahead and pre inspect because then you can address these issues.

Hamish: This is what I was going to say is even if you're caught in a frenzy and you really need this house, you're going to waive inspection. Get it for yourself, get an inspection for yourself. When you go to purchase it. Think of it as like a punch list or just to have it in the back of your mind. If I sell one day, here are the big ticket items that I should probably correct for first, right?

Osman: I think it's an intelligent move. Not maybe. Depending on your familiarity with homes, your expertise, you might feel fine not getting an inspection. I will say that if you waived inspection to win a bidding war, it will introduce a yellow flag into the deal. When you say I want to send over my inspector, you.

Hamish: That's fair.

Osman: That's tricky. Because if you have waived the right to inspect in the contract, you don't have a contingency that allows you to send the inspector so the listing agent can say, I'm sorry, you want to send over an inspection? You can do that, an inspector. You can do that after closing because you.

Hamish: I mean, that's fair.

Osman: Yeah, but the problem, if you if that happens. Okay, let's say you're the buyer and you, you've waived all your rights to inspect. And now you, you've got it under contract. And then you say to your agent, hey, I want to send over an inspector anyway. And I'm the listing agent and I get this phone call.

Hamish: Yeah. You're like, get out of here.

Osman: So there are other exits in the contract that you could potentially use in a disingenuous way to exit.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: But if you. But do you allow that or not. And this is a really weird dynamic. Like if I'm listening.

Hamish: This is an edge case for sure.

Osman: I would have wanted to know, right, that you were planning to send over an inspector despite the fact you waive the right to do so.

Hamish: So that's what I'm like when you when I see waived on a contract, I see it like waived on the objection termination and resolution right where you'd wave it. That also waves your ability to get an inspection.

Osman: I don't know if that's entirely true. So this is an a legal opinion.

Hamish: Yeah. And we're not lawyers.

Osman: Not lawyers. Right. I mean, we can go look at we're not planning to do this.

Hamish: But now that Hamish brought and let me pull up, welcome to a tangent.

Osman: Because you remove the dates in the contract right? When you when you waived it, you waived it most likely.

Hamish: Imagine if that was interpreted.

Osman: Let me keep let me keep going here. Okay. So there there this is you. You introduced a whole can of worms.

Hamish: No, I'm being very off topic.

Osman: That's really kind of on all of this because typically where people waive inspection contingencies and a bidding war is in the table of dates and deadlines, and sometimes they will also, if they're good, they will also write that they wave their inspection rights in the additional provisions and specify what exactly is being waived here. And okay, now we have to go here. So I'm going to pull up my own contract where I did not wave anything, but I'm going to look at it right. And we will look at Section 10 of the contract. And let me, let me just think that just because you waive the dates and deadlines, I don't think you waived the entire right to visit the home measure. But there is no exit in the contract. So let's just look at the language really quick.

Hamish: And to be fair, we're not lawyers. So as we discuss this, it's all entertainment.

Osman: And you're now trying to see a brought this up. You brought up a very odd thing to do which is send over an inspector after you waive the right to inspect. So there's all this stuff in Section 10 about new disclosures, right. Adverse material facts. And then it says that the home is sold as-is, where-is and with all faults. But then it says that the buyer acting in good faith has the right to have inspections. And you have the right to inspect, but you don't have the right to object, or so I think. I think the right is not removed section. Unless you wrote Section 10.3 is waived, right? You still retain. I'm not an attorney. Okay. But it says very clearly you have the right to have inspections. And so that means the ability to send over an inspector or an HVAC contractor or an electrician. And then it says the buyer may at their sole subjective discretion. And this is 10.3.1, you can terminate, but you waive the right in the termination in the dates and deadlines. You can object, but you waive the right to object. So you lost 10.3.1 and you lost 10.3.2.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: And you lost 10.3.3. So if you look at the table of dates and deadlines. Okay, let's let's just finish this process because you're killing me. But we did it right. It references Section 10, but it doesn't reference ten, the subsections. So I think there's still a legal argument, and I'm not making it in this pod that even though you waive the right, even though you waived objection and resolution and termination deadlines, right, you didn't waive the right to inspect. And that inspection can be for your own personal knowledge. You could claim that. But if I'm a listing agent, hearing that I'm going to be in red flag central. Yeah, well at least yellow flag. It also tells me that you don't have great communication with your client, because you really should have told the listing agent that you're planning to do that, because it does seem to fit the contract, though. So I think it's feasible. And then the downside of telling your listing agent that you're planning to send over an inspector, despite waiving your objection, resolution and termination rights, is they may not want you in. They may not want to go to the dance with you. And because their fear, let me finish.

Osman: Their fear is that even though you waived your objection, resolution and termination rights, you'll send over an inspector, find something you changed your mind about, and then look for an exit in the contract.

Hamish: The disingenuous exit. That's exactly what you want to say. Yeah.

Osman: The due diligence objection exit. Which also, if you look at property insurance, I mean, shoot, probably you don't like the cost to insure something.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Right. So this is where good communication is vital and a reputation really matters. And agents that have integrity and good communication are valued in and of themselves when they submit an offer, like when I if I got an offer from this agent because we got through this difficult deal and he had great communication, if I got an offer from this agent and an offer from a Redfin random agent, and even if the Redfin random agent was more money, I would be encouraging my client to focus on the agent that has a track record because they tend to keep their clients from misbehaving and acting in disingenuous and bad faith ways in the contract. Bad faith, by the way, is a default in the contract. It's just proving it is the problem.

Hamish: We're in communication with this agent, the competent one. It's kind of I feel mean, but in the emails and texts where we're in the middle of negotiation and at the end every email or every text from them, we're going to get through this. We got this team like, let's get it. You know, like, we'll make it to close. It's an agent that is committed to finding a solution and working with the other party to come to a solution.

Osman: Right.

Hamish: I think, and an experienced agent isn't going to see beyond the what is it you're missing the trees for the forest or vice versa. But the an experienced agent is going to be like, well, this feels incorrect. I guess we have to terminate. Whereas there's creative solutions that an agent ought to.

Osman: Well, I would add, it's not just the creativeness, it's the attitude. Yeah, and I will I'll be frank. When we submitted the inspection objection, I thought we were done.

Hamish: Me too.

Osman: This is so extensive that we're never going to get past this. And I think the deal stuck because that listing agent had a positive mindset and is focused on finding collaborative solutions. Everyone's needs have to get met in this deal. If they're if the buyer and seller can't agree, there's no deal. So the buyer could always withdraw their inspection objection or rescind it. But more than likely, if we can't come up with a solution that works for all parties, the deal's just going to terminate. And so that's typically how it goes. Sometimes people play inspection chicken where we go right to the deadline on whether and then we rescind at the finish line. I don't recommend that approach. And it actually is reputationally damaging to play inspection chicken. I try to tell my clients that like if they want to play inspection chicken, we will do it and we'll stay up to, you know, I'd like it not to be to the minute. Okay. Like if we're going to play inspection chicken, can we do it within 30 minutes of the deadline?

Hamish: Buffer. Right.

Osman: Like no kidding.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: Like, you may have a problem with the signature system.

Hamish: I've had DocuSign take 30 minutes to send out a doc.

Osman: DocuSign could go down. Yeah, CTM could fail. All sorts of things could happen. And then your deal just terminated when you didn't intend it to terminate. So inspection chicken is is the topic for an entirely closing table topic. So let's let's move on from this.

Hamish: But that discount agent, I think it was 30 minutes before our time of day deadline. Did we actually get our inspection objection, which I think plays into the full-time job and, you know, after work, requirements, but that ultimately, you know, snowballs into your experience as a client for this agent. So.

Osman: Yeah. Yeah, all all of which are true last minute sending of contracts to counterparties is usually a sign of unprofessional and unreliable agents, people that are other distractions going on. Because if you know what you're doing and you've been doing this long enough, you don't wait. There's no benefit in most cases to waiting till the last minute. There is a strategic approach to playing inspection chicken.

Hamish: Yeah, and I'm smiling because of those cases.

Osman: But it should be intentional if that's the game you're playing.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And what we found is that in submitting the inspection objection, particularly if it's lengthy, if you submit that early, you give the seller more time to get over it, like you're basically slapping them in the face with all sorts of new information they didn't know. And now they need to verify and they need to get estimates. And, and if you're if you're focused on things that were not visible and obvious, you're much more likely to have a positive response if you start focusing on cosmetics or things that were visible and obvious, like cracked driveways.

Hamish: That one's still so crazy to me.

Osman: Tiles, a window that lost its seal, like those types of things tend to annoy the seller because their attitude is, hey, this is not a brand new house, right? Like maybe the window seal you can claim you didn't notice that the window was foggy, but the cracked driveway and the worn out tiles and the worn out floors you absolutely saw. And now you're trying to renegotiate over cosmetics, which the contract gives you the right to go do. But it just doesn't usually result in the outcomes that most people think it will.

Hamish: It's not a warm and fuzzy objection, you know, and I don't really know if there is a good I don't even care about being warm and fuzzy.

Osman: I care about good outcomes and good and professionalism and good outcomes are usually more likely to be achieved by focusing on real issues that were not visible and obvious, and then prioritize them by price and then organize them by trade. That has been the formula. I'm giving away a formula that a strategic like.

Hamish: That's true. Yeah.

Osman: This is what our colleagues the other week would have said is intellectual property, but I don't I think this is just best practices. And again I'll say it one more time. Big ticket items that were not visible and obvious. Keep it to 3 to 5 or them by trade and prioritize them in your mind on which ones you really want to focus on, and then hopefully it will get you a few of them. Set expectations that you're probably not going to get all of them. And if you do, if you do tend to put things in there that were visible and obvious, you're going to trigger the seller and they may not give you anything, or they will likely give you less because they think you're disingenuous and that that never helps transactions.

Hamish: Now, right before we move on, we can move on.

Osman: I forgot I'm going to back up that I said it never helps transactions. Sometimes it results in a big concession, but it may be reputationally damaging for the agents involved. And you have to ask yourself, is it really worth it? Is this really what you want? And because and our job is not to make these decisions for you. Our job is to advise and then have you make the call and yeah, I think that's enough on this on this closing table.

Hamish: Well, what I was going to say is if you are at the inspection summary or, you know, you're getting the report, but you're not quite ready to submit an objection. I have seen it where the buyer's agent will call the seller's listing agent and say, hey, like, we found a couple of things that you should probably know about before we even get it together. Like the P-trap is leaking and, you know, like a few little small things. And I've seen sellers proactively repair things that have come in even that weren't on the objection before. You know, I have.

Osman: Okay. So that is an excellent. Well, okay. There are two things you said.

Hamish: Yeah. Separate. Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: So the whole idea of disclosing before the contract is struck is supposed to be done on the seller's property disclosure.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: And if the inspection report, if you send the inspection report and the seller immediately starts repairing things, that's actually usually perceived very positively, usually. So that is not a bad idea, especially if it's minor items. Get the handyman in. And that way when the issue when you when you actually hit the resolution, you've already done these things. Yeah. And there's nothing that prevents you from doing those things. By the way, as a seller, the moment you learn of issues with your home, you still own the home. Yeah, you can you can correct the issues, particularly if they're minor. And we have seen that be perceived very positively.

Hamish: Not I've never seen it negatively perceived by a buyer that the seller went ahead and fixed a bunch of things in the place that being on the listing side that I've seen it come from, from the sellers is, oh, shoot, you know, I didn't even notice this stuff, but it's no time out of my day to just get this corrected real quick or have somebody come in, you know, so that that gets the warm and fuzzy going before either the, you know, there's before there's a huge issue or something comes up on the inspection objection. But I think that builds a little bit of trust before the toughest part of the negotiations.

Osman: You really like this word warm and fuzzy.

Hamish: I know it's I it's coming out today of the first time saying it this week. And I've said it like five times in the last half hour. Yeah.

Osman: And I will say warm and fuzzy is not necessarily what you want good point.

Hamish: Strategically. Not from an agent I mean. Yeah.

Osman: Or in the deal flow. What you want is professionalism. But sometimes you get better results by having a positive attitude and doing things preemptively, proactively and acting in good faith. That's my experience as you get better results.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Versus just being a hard ass and being like rude and abrupt and arrogant. Anywhere in the deal process with our colleagues usually results in not good things in the transaction. And there are some agents in town who have this reputation of not being fun to work with. And it's not that they're just not fun, they're just rude and they're unprofessional and they are. They're challenging because they're so abrupt and short and like, it's really strange that they're in this business because this business is so people forward that having that sort of vibe is, is a strange thing. But then I wonder if they have that same vibe with their clients, or is it just their colleagues they hate so much?

Hamish: I wonder too, I also am like totally reminded of the agent that you had where it's like, my husband's a contractor. This will only be a $7,500 repair. Maybe because I just cut that reel up, but, yeah, that kind of arrogance of like, this isn't a big deal. You need to stop investigating it. Like.

Osman: Right. We'll just want you to stop looking.

Hamish: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Osman: Okay. I think we've we've put a nail in this post mortem and it's time to move on. Yes we have let's talk about tales for the trenches.

Hamish: Perfect. Oh, let me get the time code in as I'm going to need a opportunity. Cost recap.

Osman: What you need to recap of what what an opportunity cost is.

Hamish: Please.

Osman: I wasn't sure what you were, what you meant. So opportunity cost is sort of central to this. Tales from the trench. And basically when buyers are making a real estate decision, they are faced with the cost of losing the opportunity to buy other homes. So let's say you've seen this amazing house in South Boulder and or maybe let's let's get realistic and okay house in South Boulder that isn't ridiculously overpriced and actually functionally fits your needs and is in a good location. Forget about amazing. Okay, let's just say it's an okay house. This is Boulder Real Estate, and now you're trying to decide should you buy this house or should you not? And part of the decision process of that part of the part of that is giving up on future homes. Because once you put a house on your contract, you should not continue to shop for the contract because you're in good faith. You're focused on due diligence for this house. Not it's sort of like the analogy I have in my head is if you proposed to somebody, it would be kind of a surprise if the person you propose to in propose to them for marriage found out you were still dating other people. Right.

Osman: Like there's a good faith expectation that once you have something under contract, you're not still shopping, right? And but that above and beyond the are you still shopping question. The next question is what homes are you possibly giving up? And the best approach to answering that question, I have found, is pull up the last 12 months of sales with their functional characteristics and price range, and show them however many homes would have matched those characteristics and price range in the last 12 months, and that's a good representation of how many may be coming in the future.

Hamish: It's your that's a really good one.

Osman: What's the words they say? Like the past is not indicative.

Hamish: Past returns are not indicative guarantee of future results.

Osman: Yeah that's absolutely true in real estate two. But it is at least something you can hang your hat on. And typically when we do that analysis for our clients, we'll find that there's only a handful of other houses that actually would have matched what they really want in the location, in neighborhoods they really care about, because part of the buying process is getting it's getting narrower. Getting getting focused on what you really want in neighborhoods, property characteristics, price range. And when you do that in Boulder, you quickly discover there's only a handful of homes that sold in the last year that really you would have thought about buying.

Hamish: Most of them you would have dismissed out of hand just at the listing photos, our keyword and buyers that we had this year, I think is the best way to put it. Same exact thing. And were, I think, on our like fifth or sixth showing. And he said to me, he's like, I'm not really worried. Like our specific, I did what I have been told me to do. I looked at the past sales and everything, and he's like, on average, I should see about 7 or 8 this year that really fit exactly what I need to see. So I'm not stressed, but we gave this one a shot, right?

Osman: If the deal doesn't work out, you can let it go. So that's the other aspect of understanding your opportunity costs a little better is you might feel more confident in letting go a particular deal because you know there'll be another one.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And in my opinion, there's always another one. You might just have to wait a while and it may not be in the price you thought it would be, especially when the market starts moving up quickly. And we had two clients that this, this really came home to recently. And one was a buyer in Newlands who was also looking at, I think, their own personal timeline in terms of getting this project complete that summer. And they ended up buying a really lovely home in Newlands. And one of the concerns that they had, and I think legitimately, was that they saw the market softening. The prices have already come down. How much further are they going to come down? And considering that lens, with how many more homes am I likely to see that fit this price range and characteristic I'm looking for? And the answer was, okay, I'm pulling the trigger. There's no perfect answer. There might be a better house for less money next week. Probably not based on the last 12 months of data, and I don't have the time to just keep shopping for homes. I need this process to end and that decisiveness is really important. Some people have a lot of time.

Hamish: Yeah, there are a lot of props to that buyer actually for having that. Just like you know what?

Osman: That's he's he's a CEO. He's an executive. He is somebody that makes business decisions all day. And that's why he had that level of professionalism. They had that level of professionalism. And we also are currently working with a buyer with a lot more patience. They already own a home in Boulder and so they don't feel the same sense of urgency. If the deal isn't right or the home isn't right, they can more easily walk because their opportunity cost is frankly lower. They already have a great house in this town.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So understanding opportunity cost is really an important characteristic of or an important perspective on the buying a personal strategy.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: Like it just whether people realize it or not they're thinking about it. And so helping them get clarity on that, guiding them through that process in whatever ways we can is beneficial.

Hamish: Yeah. And that's I keep on that 12 month like past sale history that match your characteristics and everything. This was really helpful for me. My house was pretty desirable, you know, and there was a bidding war for it. And I was noticed that all the houses in my criteria would be getting bidding wars. So then it became the question of like, we know there's going to be multiple offers, so how much more do I offer over to even get my foot in the door? Especially in these homes. The listing agents couldn't call them, couldn't get in contact in that market.

Osman: Yeah, in that market because this is not the Boulder market.

Hamish: No. Yeah. Westminster. But yeah, it, it helped frame because you could go through and look at the sale history and we're like, you know what actually these seem to average out to I can't remember what it was like call it like 5% over list is what they tended to close for. And they tended to close this quickly. And so it gave me a very clear picture of how quickly I needed to move, how much more over I needed to offer, what range to put an escalation if I was deciding to do that. So it gave me my opportunity cost clarity, and then it gave me my kind of offer strategy. Ruffin as well. And yeah, it's a very solid technique.

Osman: It just helps you. More information is useful for intelligent real estate decisions.

Hamish: Shocker how that works.

Osman: But the information has to be relevant. And for this week's negotiation that I don't think is going anywhere, we looked at sales that sold over the last 18 months in the neighborhood, and in 2025, most of these sold for pretty big discounts. And now in 2026, most of them are selling at a premium and are going quickly. Not all of them, but most of them. And so the market dynamics seems to have shifted. And luckily we have time is on our side. It's going to be fine. It's just a question of when we find the right house and not this one. That's okay. It's super interesting negotiation. It's two real time for me to comment on any further, but let's just say we've provided a pretty thorough analysis of where we think we should. This homes value is, and the answer is lacking any sort of basis for why the list price.

Hamish: The response price. Yeah.

Osman: And we're looking for more info. It's in real time. And who knows, maybe we'll get there, maybe we won't. But I'm going to adopt the positive attitude from our recent closing that listing agent that, you know, if we don't talk about it, how are we ever going to get there? So I'll be calling.

Hamish: Good point.

Osman: That listing agent.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: This afternoon, if they don't respond sooner.

Hamish: Yeah. You know what? How do we get there?

Osman: Okay, so that was our tales from the trenches. Let's talk about a market update. So I'm going to do this in real time.

Hamish: Can I quickly for market update? I know I'm derailing our test thing a little bit, but you reminded me I've been I think roughly since like week 20 or so of the year, have been tracking the market stats and posting on Fridays little a table of updates and granted like our boundaries a little different that you measure for like this market update segment. But I think if I remember incorrectly, we are on the second week in a row where inventory has been steadily declining. Now I'm talking like two houses, but two weeks in a row now after like what, 15 weeks of rising inventory? So.

Osman: Well, I think what you're seeing is normal seasonal patterns. Hamish I don't I don't so typically the market. So when we look at the city of Boulder for example okay, let me make sure I've got the right the right screen up. And we're looking at detached single family houses, the market like let's go back to 2023. The market peaked in September of 2023. That's inventory the number of homes for sale in 24. It peaked in July, and in 25 it peaked in June.

Hamish: Fine. So it might be seasonal.

Osman: So so you know, we normally see a peak of inventory in May, June or July and depending on a lot of things. Right, like if rates are something going to spike upward, you might see that peak earlier as buyers get out of the market and decide they're ready to rent instead of buying. You might you might see inventory rise because there's fewer buyers than you would otherwise. So it's really but there is this little heartbeat. Every year, sometime in the summer, inventory peaks and closings also peak. And then sometime around December and early, usually the end of December. That's the nature of the market. That's where you see the least activity. That's when we like to go on vacation.

Hamish: Yep. December for sure.

Osman: Okay. So let's go through so 100% I think what you're feeling is is the normal seasonality. I personally. So this is the thing that most agents do that they shouldn't do and that they base the market on how their personal business is doing.

Hamish: Totally. And it's so fun to do that. But it's not true, right?

Osman: In which case I would have said last month is crazy. Was crazy busy? Yeah, what a crazy market. The markets reversed so much activity going on, but not necessarily how the whole markets doing. So let's actually talk about the City of Boulder detached single family houses. Last month there were 131 new listings, which is 24.8% more than a year ago. That's a pretty big spike, but it was actually a slight drop from June, where there was 135 new listings. Homes for sale 354 homes were on the market last month, 7.3% from a year ago, down 7.3% from a year ago. We like to do year over year comparisons, okay, if we do anything, month over month doesn't make any sense because you get a lot of swing every month you like to do year over.

Hamish: That's where you trip up with the seasonal thing. Like I just did.

Osman: Exactly okay. Under contract, also known as pending sales, 80 single family houses were under contract in July. That's an increase of 14.3% year over year. And closings. There are 84 lucky homebuyers last month, and that's a decrease of 4.5% year over year. And a pretty big I mean, I just said don't get too excited about month to month, but we saw 121 closings in June and now we see 84 in July. But keep in mind, closings are the data is entered by agents and it's only August 5th. So that number should go up a little bit, but I wouldn't expect it to go up massively. Preliminary preliminary analysis okay. Sale price. We prefer to look at sale price on a on a dollar per square basis. But I will give you also, the median sold price last month was 1,359,425. Very specific number.

Hamish: Incredibly. Median. Yeah.

Osman: Median up 2.9% from a year ago. And on a dollar per square foot basis, the median was 556, which is an increase of 8% year over year. And I think that is our core data for the city of Boulder. Do you want to do you wanna know about attached dwellings? I mean, this is a good time of year for kitty condos, and we've seen a lot of just condo corrections in general, the price the market has corrected really hard for attached dwellings. And yeah, we actually currently have a buyer. Maybe this will be the we'll segue right into shameless, shameless self-promotion. We have a buyer that had been looking for a single family house historic downtown. We've been working with them for years, but their life circumstances may be changing, and they might now be looking for something that's more like a townhome and smaller square feet lock and leave. So because they anticipate a lot of travel back and forth for family reasons to the East Coast. So if you happen to be selling a it's not a student. These are not student buyers. Like I would call this an adult condo or townhome. Three bedrooms, two baths minimum, preferably lock and leave, maybe a little patio area.

Osman: There was one on the market that we actually went and looked at as a good straw man for this investment. They are looking they are very as oriented. They're not into modern. They love historic looking things and they love being close to downtown. So now I know that combination of things makes it very a bit of a challenge to find this, but they do exist. So if you happen to know of something like that or even a single family house, they might still consider it because they are there. They are going to run out the clock on their lease very soon. So this will come to shove. This decision will come to bear pretty quick.

Hamish: From my solely subjective point of view, it's a good time to condo for them.

Osman: So I mean, it makes sense for where they are and in their life. I will say that when I look at my, you know, my, my chart of accounts for rental properties, and I showed this the Leo last night, I was like, let me show you our worst performer. And the home is eating up an a massive amount in maintenance and repairs. Right. That's our our monthly wages.

Hamish: It's that one.

Osman: It is that one. It is shocking how much money were paying the home every year and how little we get. I mean, yes, we get trash, yes we get sewer, yes, we get water. There's a pool and the tenants get a pool. Yeah, but the tenants aren't paying. Are they paying extra for the pool? I don't think so.

Hamish: I don't think so.

Osman: So the tenants are getting a phenomenal deal on a very believe they're paying extra for a pet, but they better be paying extra for a pet. Okay, so anyway, attached dwellings HOA fees I think are what kill people with attached dwellings. And they've been on a tear. I think we'll do some analysis when I get to the next newsletter. I am so sorry. I don't think until after August it's after the burn for sure, but we'll do some analysis on how much does have risen. Maybe we can compare it to square footage, because that would be a reasonable metric to have an X and Y.

Hamish: It's a good point.

Osman: Yeah, that's a good like a little bubble chart and show you how it's changed over the last like ten years. I suspect it's it would not shock me if it's double the rate of inflation.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Okay.

Hamish: You could probably do like a function of your mortgage or something out of that, couldn't you. Like HOA?

Osman: The MLS is not going to spit out.

Hamish: That's right. Yeah.

Osman: But a function of the purchase price as a percentage of the purchase price. That would be a really interesting analysis to.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: All right. Let's look at attached dwellings nerd type data.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: New listings. There were 97 new townhomes and condos that hit the market last month. That's 7.8% more than a year ago. Total inventory 314, which is only 3.3% above a year ago and pending sales, down 12.2%. Only 43 home sellers found themselves. Condo and townhome sellers found themselves with a contract last month, down 12.2% from a year ago. Closings 52 townhomes and condos closed last month, down 10.3%. And then our sale price the median sale price was half a million bucks even. And that's an increase of 14.3% year over year. And then when we look at price per square foot, we see 468 for July's closings, down 3.1% year over year. And so I think I would ignore the change in median sales price and focus on the price per square foot. If you were thinking about how this market is doing, because I have a hard time believing that the market popped up 14%, I think more than like especially the attached, more expensive units sold. And we're talking about dollar, you know, we're talking about volume of only 52 units. So it doesn't take much for sample size issues to show up there.

Hamish: Not to mention we're going to be discussing one of those high dollar condos we are as sales of the week.

Osman: So we are which I think also illustrates how tepid the townhome market can be even in the long run.

Hamish: Yeah, especially that one.

Osman: And interestingly enough, at a price point that is not is not full of inventory, right. You would expect that price to have gone up more, but instead it's kind of gone sideways.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Okay.

Hamish: It's when you've discussed it. Well let's wait until the sales the week shall we.

Osman: Yeah. Yeah I think that's our next.

Hamish: What do you got?

Osman: It's time for sales of the week. Our first sale is three, five, five five fourth Street. And this is a house at the top end of Newlands. I guess it's technically not Newlands. It's in that Kalmia juniper pocket of very high end homes. And this particular house is on the west side of fourth Street, which is elevated over the east side of fourth Street and somewhat preferred by some buyers. It's right around the corner from the Goat Trail, so the location is exceptional, no doubt. No argument. Home was built in 2021 on a pretty sizable lot of 15,000 square foot. Lot has a three car attached garage and name brand architecture. This is the one that were kind of poking some fun at with the listing description in the beginning of the deal, but or the beginning of the pod. But what's really gives? I'm going to jump in with no that's okay.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So it was it was a deal that surprised sold surprisingly fast. So the high end of the market is saturated with inventory. I've said this repeatedly. I'll say it again and I'll in fact, I'll just do an analysis right now for you in real time. We will look at how many high end homes are in. Let's start. Well, let's do Boulder proper with my little sales map. Bear with me one second. I have a little shapefile I use for Boulder that I think more represents what really is Boulder proper, but it includes little pockets of unincorporated Boulder, which is just our patchwork city. So when you look at active listings right now, right, this is August 5th and you look at listings over 5 million bucks in Boulder, how many do you think we have total over 550, 20.

Hamish: Okay.

Osman: What percentage do you think are under contract?

Hamish: Oh, I think percentage. I could integer like three.

Osman: Goose egg zero okay. Goose egg.

Hamish: Well yeah. All sold also in their. Right.

Osman: Well how many sold in the last three months. Let's look at that. How many sold from three months ago to today. Throwing your number three. Three.

Hamish: Number three.

Osman: Okay, so you're looking at a if you say three sold. You're looking at a very slow market. You're looking at almost two years of inventory hovering around that number, give or take. And that's just in the city. We haven't even included the county. So there's a lot of choice and a lot of room for negotiation in a typical deal. But this house pretty new, this location very rare and very coveted. You're right. On the fourth street, I call it the bike path. It's not one path. It's sort of the pedestrian, like, what's the. There's a promenade. It's sort of the fourth Street promenade. If you're from Boston, you know what I'm talking about. Like it's a parade of people exercising every day. And it's a lovely place to live. And you're right next to Sunita. So exceptional. Location, 4218 square foot house, no basement, all above grade. Oh, supposedly we have not been in the house. Three car attached garage and listed for 7,000,950 under contract within. Well, actually, it didn't fly. So this is what makes it interesting. It was on the market for, oh, over a month before it went into pending status.

Hamish: Right. Days to offer was 29, right?

Osman: 232 then it actually sold July 30th for 50,000 over list. So it was under contract for almost 50 days, which is longer than typical. Don't know why. And it sold for more than list cash. Of course at this price point with a $12,500 concession for unknown reasons. It's a phenomenal house, right? So I will say that from a design perspective, there's no argument. This is stunning. It I don't know if I would call it state of the art, but it's darn nice. And the outdoor living area is in particular. And the way they are framed into the, into the backyard and flow into the inside and it's all turnkey. I think a buyer is paying a premium to just have it all done by nameplate, architect, well-known builders and fit and finish. That is top of the line. But boy, there was so much alternative out there and after a month they paid 50 over list, which I think is probably reflective of inclusions like maybe the buyer also picked up some art, the furniture, maybe, you know, they were like, we got to have that exact staging because that works in the home. And it would probably cost a lot more than 50 to get their designer in and choose their things.

Osman: Although I don't think 50 would cover everything in this house, but it probably covered at least the living room and outdoor dining areas and maybe a few other minor items. So interesting. Sets a new high watermark for this type of property I. There have been higher priced homes, but not quite this small because this sold it almost 1900 a square for a used house, not a new house. What? You're going deep. You're you're like your fingers are moving fast on the on the screen.

Hamish: I was going to say the marketing, you know, is about exactly what you'd expect for a home at this price point. Like the pictures are very, very crisp, very cleanly done. The compositions are nice. Some of the pictures have the faucets on, some of them don't. And I remember this is like a trend is to have the faucets running while you take photos. Why I precisely why my fingers went so quick. Because what's the point?

Osman: I mean, the bathtub is filling, but are we missing something?

Hamish: You know, is it?

Osman: I mean, I guess the bathtub filling is.

Hamish: Yeah, the kitchen sink. Just the bathtub. There's one other. It's a copper sink somewhere that's got the faucet on. I don't know, that's that's pretty much all I've got to add. Like the photos. I mean, it's all very nice. It's very pretty. It's pleasing. I do like the shot of the front door, slightly cracked, as though it's like opening to kind of welcome you in. That's pretty.

Osman: That's cool. I think the outdoor living areas are what sold this house. Yeah, this and the fourth street bike promenade location. Large lot right around the corner from the Goat trail. Those things are very precious. And it's an excellent design. It's beautiful. There's no argument. It's a great looking house. I hope to sell. I hope the buyer is thrilled. I hope the seller made a bundle. It is really a home that is is lovely in all ways, but it just surprised me to see the 50,000 over list. And I do wonder of the alternatives they considered and what their investment thesis was.

Hamish: Because opportunity cost, right?

Osman: It's the 1900 to square that gets me like 1900. A square is astonishingly high. So I.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And this is all right. So I want to end this one okay. On, on on some disclaimers that are made in the private remarks.

Hamish: And it says I love that one.

Osman: This one, this one made me laugh. It says listing broker and seller make no representation or warranties as to the accuracy of any information provided in the MLS listing, including but not limited to, square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, lot size, parking, taxes or any other data that is provided for informational purposes only. Buyer to verify all. Well, how does the buyer? First of all, the buyer doesn't see this unless their agent shows this to them. And it's so funny because you're not like the bedrooms and bathrooms may not be accurate. What are they, hallucinations or AI?

Hamish: It's the most absurd. Sire.

Osman: Sire?

Hamish: Sire. Yeah. Oh, you did mention you weren't stoked about. I guess you can see some of the other homes in the photos.

Osman: Yeah, this would have to be truth tested on the ground. And I was tempted to say I wonder about privacy because of the orientation of some of the houses that are around it. When you look at the aerial, when you look at a Google map of where this house is, it looks like it might be a little pinched, but 15,000ft² of yard is pretty substantive. And I imagine the design of this home took into account the orientation and placement of the neighbors, because having a lack of privacy is there's another house very close to this that a very well known agent listed. We looked at it like five times, and we loved the house. We hated the fact that the promenade is at I level to the second story. It's on the lower end, and the way that home was designed was like a glass house. Everyone who's on fourth Street knows the house I'm talking about. I don't need to go any further details, but it was on the market a really long time because of the lack of privacy. So privacy for the high end, the ultra luxury segment is it's incredibly important at all price ranges, but it's really important if you're trying to get to maximizing your investment thesis as a developer.

Osman: And these people probably didn't do this as a development spec project because they lived in the house. So, you know, in some ways you were buying a home that had people that really cared about this process. So it's likely to be a higher standard than a little more thoughtful, right? Yeah, way more thoughtful. Like building that home is a glass house with a second story that's completely visible from the promenade on fourth Street, from the bathroom. The new owners have done a lot to try to protect that. Like to try to fix that issue. Yeah, but they've got some limits to what they can do. Called the city of Boulder and how high your fences can be built in.

Hamish: The city of Boulder loves affluent people, too.

Osman: Yeah, yeah, city of Boulder loves, loves, loves when the wealthy ask for exceptions. Okay, let's move on.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: 8003 sagebrush courts. And this is a four bedroom, four bath, 3762ft², built in 2025 by Rod Wind as the architect and constructed by Burke Builders, both of whom are well known in the Boulder community. And it's on a 30,500 square foot lot located north of Arapahoe and east of 75th Street. So a nice spot. I mean, other than the fact that I don't think it has views of the reservoir, because if it did, you would be seeing the power plant there. So basically it's just east of the power plant that someday will be decommissioned and in an area that probably is a little marshy, based on, on just like proximity to the river there, all the streams that come through there. Right. This is an area that a lot of boulder drainages head towards. So there's some of that. From a due diligence perspective I'd want to want to check out. But when you look at the photos and the design of this house, it is very much surrounded by pastoral landscape that most buyers that want this sort of experience, you know, you want this pastoral home that has killer views and is not in Boulder proper, like you're only a little bit out of side of town. You can get into the city in a few minutes.

Osman: The one, the one dig I would have on it as a as a cyclist is. The bicycling on Arapahoe is pretty horrible. So. Oh yeah, you know, I would be hesitant about this location because it isn't that easy to get east west when you are cycling, and I cycle a lot. You're also a little close to the train tracks, so you might hear a train noise at night. I hope they did their due diligence.

Hamish: That is right.

Osman: Train noise. Yep. Because and that train is going to see more traffic as the commuter rail comes into play. But the big selling point, frankly, is 3700ft², almost 3800ft². All one level. Yeah, like this is a home aimed square at the aging population that doesn't want stairs and wants turnkey. And I'm sure all of this home is going to meet, you know, energy code and all the rest. It's going to be a phenomenal property for the long run with highly reputable contractors and an architect that's well known doing all the design work. And it shows. I mean, it's a it's a great house. It doesn't have, you know, mind blowing outdoor entertaining spaces or crazy acreage or crazy acreage. Yeah, but there's nothing objectionable about it. It has. It does have a little covered patio, which I think is increasingly important as summers continue to heat up. You do see the neighbors from the backyard on the cul de sac, but it's still a lovely property. And I think it, it, it meets the market need the growing need for under 4000ft² all in one level and turnkey, ready to go, energy efficient.

Hamish: I mean, 2025 standards like really high.

Osman: As you know, Hamish, the 2025 standards are very high.

Hamish: A long tease for a later episode.

Osman: But yeah, yeah, long tease for everything you've learned.

Hamish: We, I briefly compared this to we had a listing almost on the same distance, almost the same distance east from Boulder on on Belmont.

Osman: Belmont.

Hamish: Just can't remember the exact numbers, but yeah, it was on. It was off of Almont. And to me personally, I mean, all things aside, it is a nicer drive into town via Valmont than Arapahoe. Arapahoe. That route is very industrial as you run through it, I mean, and that Valmont sold for 2.6, which it was a 90 million.

Osman: It was a 90s arrow home and a far better location. I would have rather had Belmont at 2.6 than this house at 3.65. But the design of this home is superior in every way, without a doubt, through and through. Is it worth a million bucks more? You know, it doesn't have water rights, actually.

Hamish: Yeah, right. It had less acreage.

Osman: It has less acreage. It's less private. And it doesn't have it has a commute that's not as pleasant whether you're in a car or on a bicycle.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Belmont was a better house.

Hamish: Well, well, well, was that two years ago last year?

Osman: Was that last year okay. Wait time.

Hamish: We're both getting terrible memory.

Osman: Yeah.

Hamish: That's your next no excuse. Yeah.

Osman: All right, so let's move on. 1950. You have anything else to say about the house?

Hamish: That's it. Okay.

Osman: 1950. Sender. Streets. Sender. Cosa was like, send us some pizza. That sounds horrible.

Hamish: Send us ricotta.

Osman: It sounds like it might. That sounds vaguely racist. Not my intention in any way, shape or form.

Hamish: Here I am joining in.

Osman: If anything is sort of like sender sounds more Italian than anything else. But look, I really like El Dorado Springs as a community. I think it's really funny. Its historic. And these homes that are along the creek, particularly the ones that abut the creek, are a rare gem. And when you can lock down one at a reasonable price, one should do so because many of them are not in the floodplain, but literally are right there on the creek. I don't know how that math works, but that's how the math maths. This particular house is not right on the creek, but it does. But the ditch. And when you look at the house built in the 90s, it's only 2820ft², but all of it is above grade four bedroom, three bath with a three car detached garage and a horse barn. Check check check check. And finally, Hobie Wagner designed it. And it shows like Hobie Wagner designed it. It is architecturally compelling. And when he. When you and I wondered about this, when I looked at the photos, I'm like, there are some real classic mid-century nods to design, even though the home is from the Indies, and I think it's because it's a hobby. Wagner. And if you if you know real estate in Boulder, you know this name.

Osman: It's not quite as as famous as Hertling. Definitely know it's right up there.

Hamish: And so excellent house and to contrast hobby with Hertling hobby looks to be a little bit more functional as far as daily practicalities.

Osman: Yeah, it'll be way more functional.

Hamish: Yep.

Osman: Way more functional than than Hertling. I love Hertling houses. They are gems, but they are difficult to live in. And this particular house looks like it would be easy to live in.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And even the three car garage is is, you know, added a little bonus to it. So it's not a surprise that it flew off the market. It went under contract right away three days into the deal. So that means pretty much first weekend somebody somebody locked it down. They went 50 grand over list to do so. And the one thing I really wonder about, because having worked with buyers on Hertling and Wagners, is what premium was put on the nameplate of the architect.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: And it's such a tough one to answer. And basically the only way I could answer this question was it's not about the comps, it's about what you feel this architects art is worth.

Hamish: It becomes personal and subjective.

Osman: Well, how do you value famous artist's work? And it seems like some artists work continues to appreciate and value year over year over year in shocking ways. And the affluent acquire this art as an investment. And Wagner's right on the edge of this is something that particularly a functional Wagner House is something that I think has value of its own, like it's both artistic and functional and built in the 90s, which which means it's not going to be decrepit in terms of it's not going to be deficient in electrical and insulation, and environmental issues are largely patched. You. So I wonder how the listing agent priced it with that in mind. And clearly the buyer sell value. And if I have to say, I think that this is a type of listing that might have benefited from the California model.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Rather than list it, normally you pre inspect it, have a have all the documentation available for any buyer to look at for two full weeks and then accept highest and best offers after two full weeks on market with no contingencies, zero not even loan contingencies and take it or die. I think they probably would have crossed three. I think it wouldn't have been a it would have been buyers. It would have gone over 3 million on this house. And by the way, just on a dollar per square 2.5 is only 904.

Hamish: You mean it's not 1500, but almost 2000 square?

Osman: Sorry for the fourth Street house. This is so you know, I, I think this is a phenomenal deal. But from a location perspective. Look, you're not Newlands. You're out there in unincorporated Boulder County. You do have immediate access for you and your horses to trails, which is fantastic. You do have the quirky and interesting historic town of El Dorado Springs and the pool in the summer. That's cool. You don't have walkability to grocery, like, you're not going to stroll down the street and you're not going to, like, walk to Santo for dinner.

Hamish: Yeah, right.

Osman: Like, you are car dependent for all your activities.

Hamish: For the most part, unless you're really athletic and I mean that location on fourth Street, you're still a little ways from Santo or something like that.

Osman: You could conceivably do it in an evening walk, right? You could walk to dinner, you could walk home, or you could easily Uber or ride your bicycle down the street, like literally five minutes away on a bicycle. But not this house. You're a little further.

Hamish: Yeah, a little final, I, I guess. Note on the design side of it too is I think just because it is so practical and everything is like, even if hobby doesn't mean anything to you, it is still a fetching home. It is still extremely practical. It has all of the kind of lifestyle amenities to it that you'd want.

Osman: I used to do an Osmond score years ago. I would rate all of our listings, all the homes.

Hamish: We still have it. I need to update it.

Osman: I haven't done the newsletter in a while, but I used to actually score homes. This home would score very high on every criteria because of its design, its location. It's not too big. It has the features that so many buyers want, the three car attached garage, and it's a horse property. On top of that, it's it just checks so many boxes. I'm a little bit envious of the buyer that I and even though they might be wondering if they should have gone over 50,000 over the list, I'm confident that this would have gone a lot more over list if it had been marketed longer in the California style.

Hamish: Yeah, credit for going 50 K over actually, and jumping on it as as quick as they did.

Osman: It's only 50 K over.

Hamish: That's the way I look at it.

Osman: Yeah, it could have been a $3 million deal. Okay.

Hamish: Let's say will be with some updates and everything maybe.

Osman: Right. Like there's certainly room to update this house bathroom. Yeah.

Hamish: It's like a Turkish bath.

Osman: Total competitive. Very valid point.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: The interior finishes. Some of them are looking a little long in the tooth. Right. The kitchen looks like it's from the 90s. And that that bathroom with all the, you know, the green room lights up in the sky, up in the, you know, above the vanity.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Very 90s.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Right. There's a lot in this house that screams 90s. The windows might be 90s. And yeah, that bathroom and that tile. Yeah, 100% 90s and likely had an elderly seller given the grab rails that are installed. But that also means the home is more set up for people that might have some mobility issues. And yeah, that that sync with the raised the to it's just bad. That's bad. People don't like it.

Hamish: Yep okay okay.

Osman: Ready. Complete 482 West Spruce Street in Louisville. And when it comes to Louisville real estate, the 2.5 mark is starting to get toward the pretty high end of the market. And this particular house originally had been listed at 2.6 back in March before the seller cut the price two months into it, to 2.5 and then short. Nope. It still took a little bit of time, 141 days of time before a buyer finally came in and negotiated a price that the seller was willing to accept, which was 2.46. Not much of a discount, actually, from the last list price. Location wise, you are steps away from downtown, and Louisville's historic downtown is spectacular. It's lovely. It has very few of the downtown issues that Boulder has. It has great restaurants. It's family friendly. If you want to bar, there's a bar, a couple of bars, there are places to hang out. It's got an amazing summer of street scene, the street festival, the street fair. So I love Louisville. I'm a huge fan. I always drag our buyers from Boulder over there to just consider it because it's a value play compared to Boulder. The same house in Boulder and Newlands would be 3.54 million, maybe more.

Osman: It's a 4000 square foot, five bedroom, four bath built in the 90s.

Hamish: A very comfortable three at least, I think.

Osman: Easy, easy threes built in the late 90s. Three car attached garage acre lot, two half an acre lot. The layout of the home has the most of the bedrooms on the upper, which is the conventional layout that most buyers want to see. So all of these things check so many boxes. And then inside the look, if you if you look at the map a little more closely, you'll see it abuts open space. It's not it's on a cul de sac. It is. And you are.

Hamish: I mean, it's just it's not a golf course to I mean, there's a good deal of open space that goes through Louisville, but that golf course, I mean it different strokes for different folks, especially in golf. But being off of, you know, you're not on a green, you've got actual open space. You don't run the risk of a golf ball, right?

Osman: Oh that's true.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Okay. So what do they do wrong in this listing? I think the only honestly, the only thing that they did wrong is they should have repainted the outside of the house. This color, this this green is really dated. I know, because this was the color of our house that we repainted.

Hamish: Three. Oh oh, that's true, isn't it?

Osman: And the difference in the way our house looks painted just like this house with white trim, green paint, kind of that forested green look. And the way it looks now, it looks like a brand new house. It aged the house by about a decade by going with a current paint scheme. So that's the only critique I have about this listing. Otherwise it I mean, okay, sure, there's some gray and white dated interior stuff going on that's maybe a decade old, but most of it is looking very durable in its finished choices. Most of it's looking like it'll look great in ten years. I mean, maybe there's a bathroom that needs an update or something like that, but the biggest issue was just the paint color on the outside.

Hamish: Okay. You know, I'll also say it is fairly close to West Pine, the street that runs from like Via Appia down to downtown.

Osman: I think that was the issue.

Hamish: I think it's not helping. I if I remember that, stretch correctly, there's like a decent elevation difference.

Osman: But I imagine I mean, it looks like it was really well screened in the backyard and so that but you're right. It is. Let's see. Let's actually measure. We can measure how.

Hamish: Oh yeah. You can.

Osman: That's super easy. So when you look at the actual house, how far is it from West Pine Street.

Hamish: And in like West Pines had a lot of mitigation in the past. They've got speed traps. They're, you know, 241ft from West Pine.

Osman: Yeah. You're going to hear traffic 241ft and there's no structures blocking it. It's just trees. Valid point. No argument.

Hamish: Bummer. Because it is such a compelling home.

Osman: Well, but there's that open space that gives it a sense of spaciousness from the neighbors off playing that. And for a lot of buyers, West Pine is not that busy. Yeah, especially, you know, Massachusetts buyers or well, or New York City anywhere in the northeast.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And you know, what I'm noticing is that there's not a lot of fencing in the neighbors, too. So there might be some restrictions that prevent you from because you can see all that vegetation is an attempt to screen. I know it's seasonal, but and it's seasonal, but I and there might be rules that prevent you from putting in proper fences in the subdivision or in this neighborhood. So that could have been that could have been why it took so long to sell. But sometimes you have to wait for the right buyer. And I think that's what this home represents is priced right. Clearly there was a buyer and they waited until they got the right buyer. They cut it a little bit on price after a couple of months. But yeah, I do think the buyer got themselves a good house. When they go to sell it. They may also have to wait unless they do more screening to try to create separation from West Pine.

Hamish: Yeah, evergreens. You know, it's not to harp on, but yeah, I mean, they decided to list before the trees had bloomed out bamboos and pots. So we had a buyer that was very into the different various bamboos and putting them up. So it might be all right. We should check in with him.

Osman: I wonder if he's doing I think it's a fun idea, but if they ever escape, you're in a lot of trouble.

Hamish: Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Osman: 2905 Vassar Drive is our fifth sale of the week. And if you're not familiar, this is in the Table Mesa neighborhood. And it's that part of Table Mesa that has a lot of the college names in it, very close to Enchanted Mesa and Collier Mesa. So very accessible to spectacular open space. Home was built in the 60s, and it featured 3120ft², a split layout and typical 8000 square foot ish lot. Yeah, it was priced at 2.19. It attracted probably multiple offers because the buyer ended up paying 60,000 over list for this house, and they did not pay cash and they did get $10,000 back on inspection issues. Most likely. When you look at the photos, what I see is classic midcentury with beams going through glass beams going through through walls that continue to the outside. And this look and feel of a house has been enduring and very attractive for a lot of buyers. The kitchen design creates kind of this captain's kitchen feel like the center of the Starship Enterprise. I don't know if that's as current today as it was when it was built, but yeah, it's still it's still such a cool house.

Hamish: Just the huge windows, right? And the light filling the whole the whole space and hopefully windows that have already been replaced once.

Osman: So they're nice double pane, not stuff from the 60s. I see some great updates like that. That primary bath looks fantastic. All of this looks really, really lovely with its own quirks, right? You're still buying a 60s era house, and the homes that are built on the hillside in this location have had some foundation issues. So due diligence. Note if you're buying in Table Mesa, don't skip full inspections, particularly if you have a slope in your yard. If your home is sloped, is your foundation is subject to it being on a slope, I would look very carefully for issues in the foundation. And of course it's 60s era, and it's unclear if the, you know, when the when the roof was replaced, did they upgrade it to current insulation standards because that's become a thing.

Hamish: Very vaulted. Yeah.

Osman: And you need to know that it might be really expensive to insulate or just heat. Well, no. Well when you go to replace the roof. Yes. To heat it to. But when you go to replace the roof, you are likely going to be required to bring it to current code for insulation standards in the ceiling, which could be really expensive with a beautiful vaulted ceiling. How to figure out how to get that up there.

Hamish: Last I checked that was R 49. It might be more now to.

Osman: I'm not sure that is for retro or could I don't I don't want to quote that the current at least is yeah, it's going to be much higher than the 60s, that's for sure. So something to keep in mind that that primary bathroom.

Hamish: I from a quirky standpoint and from a functional standpoint, I love that the bathtub is in the glass cell of the shower. Like, yeah, that shower stall is huge.

Osman: I mean, it's like a whole room in there. Yeah, that is a giant shower stall. I don't know who you know. Goes from the tub, I guess. You know, actually, you do go from the tub to the shower. So that's. I mean, it's very well designed.

Hamish: At least you get out. It's draining. You don't have to worry about, you know, like.

Osman: Yeah, it's a little bit of a I don't know, it's punky. It's a little showy from. Yeah.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: But who's gonna see your, your your primary, your primary fishbowl. Primary fishbowl bathtub.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: I do like the exposed beams in the lower level. Two. I think that that creates a little bit more sense of Taunus in the basement.

Hamish: Yeah, especially for a 60s home. You need that, you know.

Osman: Yeah, absolutely. I like the color. The color tones are very nice in this house to.

Hamish: Yeah I so I filmed a Highland Park video tour with Ian and I'm 90% sure I have this home. This was last year I believe different color. So at the minimum I think they replaced the repainted the exterior.

Osman: You think this home was on the market at the same time? Is that what you're saying?

Hamish: No, I, I mean, I, I think I have a video of it before they prepped for market.

Osman: So I think it was like a this house was in the video that we had for our Highlands, for the.

Hamish: Yeah. No, for the Highlands Park neighborhood tour.

Osman: Oh, the neighborhood tour.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Got it. Okay. Cool.

Hamish: So just kind of an interesting I'm like, Yeah. I remember shooting that that house. Yeah.

Osman: 1301 Canyon Boulevard 409 is our last sale of the week, and we looked at this one pretty closely because of our upcoming hot takes on the Downtown Development Authority. Because this house, this this condo is smack in the middle of that. And 13 and on one canyon was built 24 years.

Hamish: Okay.

Osman: Mostly luxury condos. There's a I think there's a few affordable housing units in this building by requirement.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: Memory of selling one. And you're looking at a pretty sizable property, 1650 nine square feet, all one level, two bedroom, two bath, and you get two underground parking spaces with it. What's what's super interesting about this particular building is that if you are on the side of the building, that is where the busses line up. You are subject to a lot of bus noise, and maybe I would even say some bus pollution. Although more and more of the busses are electric, they still make quite a bit of noise coming in those air brakes, those air brakes and the bus station downtown can sometimes be a locus of interesting characters hanging about. So you are four storeys above the street level, but if you were given the preference for fronting on 14th Street or fronting on 13th Street, there's no comparison. You should. You should really aim like 13th Street is much more valuable than through and through 14th Street. And what? So this property was listed originally at oh, it was listed at 1,000,375, and it was available for six days before it went under contract. And then it took 100 days to get to closing. So I don't know why it took 100 days to get the closing over three months possibly.

Hamish: Oh, at lease, possibly.

Osman: It was rented. Possibly. They wanted to stay in the property for three months. It's not entirely clear, but they got their list price and they may have gotten a post closing occupancy. Or maybe they so they didn't get a post closing occupancy because it didn't close for 100 days, maybe. Well, the way I would structure that, right, if the if the buyer doesn't want to close or the seller doesn't want to close until the end of July in this particular case, right, they went under contract in April and they don't want to close to the end of July. Well, then let's get through our contingencies in the contract. And then you throw 100 grand into an escrow account that's nonrefundable, because if you don't come to closing at the end of July, I'm keeping your 100 grand.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: That sounds like a reasonable deal to me, but normal timelines for all the contingencies. And then you still get your walkthrough in case something bad happened between your last contingency and closing. But otherwise the seller could be dangling out there waiting for the closing, and the buyer could walk for very little earnest money. Right?

Hamish: Right.

Osman: Imagine that the earnest money that was requested in this deal was only 50 grand. That's not a lot on a $1.38 million.

Hamish: If it's three months like that, I don't probably, as the seller, a bit more than 100 grand I would ask for.

Osman: I would add that deal contingency, but once you're through or just fund it, like if you know something fun, a bigger portion of it, like some something that makes sense, like nonrefundable, earnest money at some point in your past. Everything. Why are we delayed? It could have been the seller that wanted the delay. So it really depends. I don't know who wanted.

Hamish: Yeah, true.

Osman: Slow this process, but this is a luxury. This is a luxury downtown building. It's a it's an exceptional location other than the bus situation. And if you want lock and leave for Boulder, you want to fly in, spend your weekends here, visit the grandkids. This is an exceptional spot to do that because you're right in the heart of everything downtown, provided you don't mind the busses and you don't mind the $1,300 a month HOA that this property commands.

Hamish: And there's the rub. The really big rub.

Osman: What are you getting for 1300 a month? Great question because that is a really high and all the hose in Boulder have become really expensive. One thing I do want to mention is how flat the appreciation has been on this particular property. So it traded in 2006, which was at or close to the peak of that cycle at a million bucks even. And then nine years later it sold for 1,000,001, which is astonishingly low appreciation. I have not done the math, but that is really low 10% over almost a ten year period.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: And then it's sold again four years later for a million. 150. So 55,000 more than it sold in 2015. And then these owners, these are the people that were the current sellers. They paid a million won 50. And that was in 2019. So seven years ago. And they closed it for 1,000,375. So also relatively flat compared to what single family detached single family houses have done in Boulder. So I think it is a product that is rare, the luxury downtown condo that's bigger than like a small Martin Acres Ranch, but it's also a product that does not appreciate very quickly and if at all, if, well, in some cases, I mean barely, right?

Hamish: You're barely escaping commission.

Osman: I think that you are. The way to think about buying downtown is you're getting the functionality. You're paying a lot for the privilege in terms of the way. And it might keep pace with inflation because there are enough people that are affluent that want to have a lock and leave experience in Boulder, particularly as Sundance comes in.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: This may increase. So it's not going to be a home run for you. At least I don't think it will be a home run for you as an investment, but it will be a very livable and private and sort of like you live the downtown lifestyle, or at least you can have you.

Hamish: I think you are free. Yeah. I think you've used a term where it's like you rented it for like $0 for however long, right? Like it's maybe this is a different scenario to that, but, yeah. Where you're like, oh, you lived in it, you basically broke even. You basically lived there for free, right?

Osman: I mean, the way to think about it is you're you're just keeping pace with inflation on this investment. It didn't cost you anything to live in it. Maybe.

Hamish: I mean, the whole cost you.

Osman: But you know, honestly I if this type of situation were to arise for me, I would seriously consider renting. Like for instance, we have lots of friends and family in the New York metro area. I wouldn't buy a property in the New York metro area, particularly given what's happening in luxury real estate in Manhattan. I would just rent one and rent one, sign a two year lease, and maybe you pay a little bit of a premium for it, but you won't have to worry about maintenance. You're not the one absorbing the increasing HOA dues, and you're not the one taking resale risk.

Hamish: Yep.

Osman: All right.

Hamish: I think we've cut that sales.

Osman: Sales of the week.

Hamish: Yeah. Shoot. What's next. What have we got?

Osman: Hot takes. We've already done. Shameless. Yeah we did right to hot takes.

Hamish: Yeah I've got shameless. Logged.

Osman: All right. You waited this long. You want to hear about what's happening in the news?

Hamish: Okay. Are we going to talk about the day now?

Osman: Nope. We're going to wait. That's the last one.

Hamish: Okay, I've got a good segue. All right, so remember this condo?

Osman: Well, then just segue to it. If you want to talk about the DDA, then let's just do it.

Hamish: Hey, I'm a alternative benefit to owning a property like this is you may in the future get a say as part of the DDA.

Osman: True.

Hamish: You get a seat at the table of the DDA.

Osman: That's true. You might have a vote. The rest of us will be paying into it and not get a vote.

Hamish: Precisely. And the I guess zooming out, what is the DDA? What the Downtown Development Authority.

Osman: That's right. The Boulder is Voting Council is voting tomorrow on whether to refer the Downtown Development Authority to the November ballot. And there's a lot of debate happening. Plan Boulder is sending out their emails and their perspective on it, which is largely against it. There are other other particularly, I think, people in downtown that want it. They want to have more control over the process and less have it be less subject to bureaucracy, bureaucracy, the bureaucracy, well, the bureaucracy of the city and the inefficiency of council. And so what they want is a bunch of business owners and residential owners downtown, and one council person to be in this DDA. I think I got that right and do this. And they'll also have the ability to raise capital independently through taxes for funding downtown rejuvenation and revitalization, which I would argue we need at this point. We actually need downtown to have a bathroom that people can visit. My man, my my sister in law, there is no one there, right? There is a bathroom downtown. Okay.

Hamish: I'm just I'm like, I'm not crazy.

Osman: There is a bathroom right on 13th Street and Pearl, I don't know how old it is by looking at it. It was built in the 50s.

Hamish: Oh yeah.

Osman: And it is scary. It is. The reason it is scary is because people experiencing homelessness and drug addiction issues who hang out downtown also use that bathroom, and sometimes they're using drugs in that bathroom. I have shared that fear, like totally my sister in law and my 6 or 7 year old nephew had to go to the bathroom and went to that one, and we're dealing.

Hamish: Where else are you going to go?

Osman: Well, I'll tell you where you go.

Hamish: Oh, okay. But sorry. Carry on.

Osman: This is where where you go is called the Saint Julian.

Hamish: Okay.

Osman: Everyone who lives. I'm sorry. Say, Julian, but you probably know this to that. If you were desperate for a bathroom downtown and you're not near a restaurant, you. Your safest bet is to just go into the Saint Julian. They're not going to card you and walk to the bathroom and use their lovely bathroom. That has could use an update at this point as well. Saint Julian, but that's your best bet for a clean, safe, meth free experience in the bathroom. So 100% that downtown bathroom needs to be re vital. I mean, we need to figure out a way to get it to be used for its intended purpose, not as a place to do drugs.

Hamish: There's people skulking outside of it and stuff. It's not a safe feeling.

Osman: It is sketchy. And I when I heard my, my nephew and my sister in law went there, I was honestly just I felt so bad.

Hamish: And welcome to Boulder.

Osman: I'm so glad they were okay. Yeah, but I felt so bad. Like this could have gone really badly. You didn't. It's not the kind of place you'd bring children to. There should be a warning on the outside of it that this is not a normal bathroom.

Hamish: It's a public bathroom.

Osman: It's more like an opium den.

Hamish: Yeah, right.

Osman: There might be people passed out inside with needles sticking out of their arm.

Hamish: Genuinely.

Osman: Unfortunately, the state of affairs in our public bathroom. So I guess that's emblematic of the need for downtown to have its own rudder, for lack of a better term.

Hamish: That's a good way to put it.

Osman: I think the problem becomes when the money gets pulled out of other endeavors for which it was intended, like open space.

Hamish: Well, I've got a few. Yeah. So that like, I agree, I think like if it has its own rudder and especially where it's kind of guided by the people that are there every day working in that space. And depending on I, I'm hoping my information is reasonably correct, but it looks like you can have a vote for every LLC registered at that address. So there might be some things to work out there. And then there was one where it was I think it was they also have the ability to, kind of make or break sales. So you say you have kind of a cabal on this DDA you can sell, make or break what kind of sales? I gotta make sure I remembered what I read correctly. I believe there's like a parking structure.

Osman: Oh, you're talking about private property.

Hamish: Yeah, you're.

Osman: While it's not private public property. So they could actually enact sales of.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Of our parking lots on the hill, for example. Yeah.

Hamish: That that kind of bit worries me, but I totally think, like, one of the counterarguments to this is like on the city council, just do this already. But as I think we've discussed, enough is like the city council is fairly out of touch with Boulder.

Osman: I hate to say this, but I think a small group of business owners and residential owners and a council person could make better and more efficient decisions than city council. And let's face it, there's no tax that city staff do not like, and their track record of spending is atrocious.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And Alpine Balsam is just one example of money that has been thrown into the money hole, which we wish we could get back because we are looking at $400 million of unfunded liability in our city buildings, which is completely the result of mismanagement and absurd.

Hamish: There's a I didn't put it as a news article because it was to drop in the drop in the pen, drop in the bucket. But, the city of Boulder started a juniper reduction program or whatever. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. You know, maybe they'll help homeowners remove junipers. No, they're going to build example, I guess, juniper reductions on their open space to show what homeowners can do. It's on their website. My read of it. Yeah. My read of it was like, this is I mean, they did finally like a virtue signal.

Osman: They have funded it.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So if we wanted to remove junipers from our property in the city of Boulder, I don't know if it's just for residences or it's landlords also apply, but they will give you money to get out of there misreading it. But it might also be that you're doing a demonstration program, which is sort of like it feels it felt read very, very just give us some YouTube videos and we'll figure it out. Like give us the cash and the YouTube videos. Let's have a town or one saw and everybody can just go grab it or the or the city department that will pay the, the, you know, the hourly or whatever for the staff to go take out junipers at a reasonable rate like that might be revenue neutral. But yeah, no, the city loves programs, loves to spend money, and council loves to stamp rubber stamp it. So that's where we're at with the way our city's running. So a special carve out Downtown Development Authority might be okay, but with some caveats. I'd love to see the debate. I don't have a I mean, I guess I do have very much a skin in the game mistake a bone, a bone in the dog in the fight we go to work on. There's some analogy there.

Osman: Okay, I do check in the city and I would like to see downtown revitalized. And I would like to see more efficient decision making. And is the Downtown Development Authority the way to get there? Maybe. I don't have all the. I don't have I don't have an opinion right now. I'm still thinking about this because it really just came to my awareness just recently.

Hamish: Right? Yeah.

Osman: So this is relatively new to me that were even thinking about this.

Hamish: And it's voted on tomorrow night. So when you're listening to this, we'll see how council votes.

Osman: And we'll also honestly what I want to see council do is not vote in block. I would like to see council actually vote independently. How they feel is the right way to move on this. When I see council all approve or when I see council all approve something, I find it really disturbing.

Hamish: I think there's got to be some dissent somewhere, right? Like some sort of I mean, we lost him. He's gone.

Osman: Council meeting is is. Well I thought you know normally it's on a Wednesday. It's on Thursday.

Hamish: This was everything I'm saying, right.

Osman: It says Thursday night I did everything as he says Thursday. So I guess that's when it's happening. Okay. So that is our, our core hot take item that we've been teasing you.

Hamish: If you want a seat, check out the condos in downtown Pearl Street.

Osman: If you want a front row seat to this this eventually happening. JPMorgan Chase has announced they're going to invest 750 billion into housing supply, increasing supply of and financing options for homeownership. And that's not an insignificant amount of money. But when it gets down to the nitty gritty of this article, I found a little bit vague on what they're actually going to do. So when you read the article in this article is from CBS news, it says JP Morgan said its efforts to expand the nation's housing supply will focus on collaborating, collaborating with states and local communities to streamline zoning and building codes. So why do we need JP Morgan to collaborate with our municipalities to streamline zoning and building codes?

Hamish: What it sounds like to me is JP Morgan is getting ready to sell a whole lot of debt.

Osman: I mean, sure, yeah, sure. But what are they actually, why do we need. I don't understand why JP Morgan is needed to streamline zoning. Okay, then they say, as well as to expand tax credits and private public partnerships, and they plan to assist half a million customers, including 200,001st time homebuyers, in buying homes by increasing mortgage lending by more than 40%. I'm sure all the lenders are like, great, you're going to up your lending operations by 40%.

Hamish: Yeah. Hell yeah. Right.

Osman: How is that investing 750 billion?

Hamish: Okay.

Osman: The bank plans to accomplish that partly by adding 850 new home lending advisors and by developing loan products for modular and manufactured homes.

Hamish: Right.

Osman: So I do think that there is a big opportunity to have zoning that allows for more modular, factory built homes. And that and financing for the way we build homes is really archaic.

Hamish: Yeah. Oh, yeah. You mean like the standard stick frame, like drywall deal?

Osman: Mostly what we see in the city, in our communities that are established as rebuild and custom custom new homes, right? We see renovations, we see additions, and we see brand new homes after the old home has been demolished. And those new homes are largely built by hand.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And the larger builders are also mostly building by hand. They're not bringing in robots, which I think is likely the future is robotic home construction, just like a factory that builds cars. If you look at factory car manufacturing, humans are doing less and less and are doing more and more.

Hamish: If we're talking like future, I'm thinking most of the systems of the house or, you know, like the walls are prefab, everything's prefab, and then it's trucked out to the site and then constructed, you know, put together kind of in a very Lego type of why not have the factory on site when you can have robots that can literally build the wall right on site?

Osman: Why does it have to be in a factory? What's the difference of the dimensions of the wall panels? The pieces the modular pieces have to conform with roadways, right. And the show are really high. Yeah, but if it's assembled on site, you get rid of that fact.

Hamish: Pieces still have to conform by road, of course, but those pieces are stick frame construction or they can be CIPs.

Osman: Right. I mean that's true, but it seems like there's a big opportunity to take out some of the cost and construction because it's out of control.

Hamish: There's and we're very much in discussion. But there's a YouTuber Stewart Hicks, and he made a video about, kind of the birth of the larger, more open floor plan homes that we see. And it's due to prefabs trusses, like right around the 50s to the 70s, two decades spend. But trusses used to be built on site. And then over time they've got the stamping technology. You've seen it. It's like a nail plate and they stamp together, trusses them being pre-built, kind of standardized, what you can do with the house. And so the design and everything just kind of expanded from there. So looking at, yeah, more things to be pre-built or built on site robot. Sure. Yeah. A lot of the townhomes right on Broadway, right over here. You know, the ones that are, like, real ugly and sticking out of Newlands. I think we'll just see a lot more of those. And that's pretty standard.

Osman: Sorry. Owners of.

Hamish: Yeah. No you're right. That was a little premium for those. That's on me.

Osman: No it's I mean it's legit. I don't think they're right on Broadway. I know they're right on Broadway, but people have been buying them.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: You know, I think this is I hear you.

Hamish: We're just disgusting.

Osman: We're just taking we're spitballing a little bit, and for sure, the way that homes are constructed and the technology that has evolved through the process dictates the design in many cases. And trusses are an example of that from the 50s and 60s.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: The part that I think is really just puzzling for me is this this reads like a PR story. This reads like LinkedIn posts. We have gotten so much complaints. We have heard so many complaints about institutional money in housing, and we're worried about further restraints being put on institutional investment in housing that we need to move ahead of the regulation, and we need to set the tone and tenor of Wall Street's engagement in one of the biggest problems our country faces, which is the high cost of housing, we either can react and be regulated, or we can move ahead and try to fix the problem and at least get some PR benefit, like whether you know what you know, you know what nobody does when you see stories like this?

Hamish: Anything.

Osman: Nobody goes back and audits what they actually spend.

Hamish: Yeah, that's a good point.

Osman: They could spend $0.75 after this.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And no one's going to track this and hold JP Morgan accountable for actually spending 750 billion. Their investors care about the profitability of JP Morgan and the share prices. And their staff and executives care about their bonuses. That's that's how Wall Street works.

Hamish: This is a yeah. What is a business ran on money like it's all money wise.

Osman: This just smacks of greenwashing.

Hamish: What they're saying here too, like the, unveils the American Dream initiative. I might be misremembering, but I remember there's a quote from our current administration that's like, I don't I'm not concerned with affordability. And so the American Dream Initiative. So like but trying to get ahead of the regulation thing, I don't necessarily think regulation is going to go in the direction that JP Morgan is trying to get ahead of, but I get I completely agree. Keep in mind of the city thinking past the Trump administration. Yeah that's true.

Osman: Well past it there. And they're seeing great point. The pendulum swing. And if you're intelligent and your leadership of these large organizations, when you see yourself being the arguably rightful target of criticism that housing should not be about making money for Wall Street, and that there recently was legislation passed that limits the number of institutional the number of homes institutional investors can own that just passed.

Hamish: Trump didn't sign it. Yeah, but it still passed.

Osman: It passed because if he ignores it, eventually it passes by itself. And I can't remember the number. It's either 300 or 350. I immediately looked it up because I'm like, hold on, I'm I close, not even close. You have to be over 300 for this to be an issue, which sadly, I'm nowhere near that.

Hamish: But but also but relief right?

Osman: It is another. Yes, that too. And it is a sign of the pendulum swinging.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Look the millennials like if you look at the attitudes towards homeownership, I don't have this chart in front of me. But the percentage of people, the younger they are, the less they believe in ever owning a home.

Hamish: Totally.

Osman: And that's a huge problem for our country. We need to be able to fix this. And so I, I think that this is mostly JPMorgan window dressing. But but clearly the issue is rising to the attention of politicians. And that is going to continue to increase as baby boomers, as baby boomers, frankly, die and lose political power and the younger generations come into political power. We're seeing that happen happening in politics across the board. So the writing's on the wall. There's going to be a lot of attention to fixing affordable housing. And so it's a good strategic move of JP from a technical perspective, from a regulatory perspective, from a political perspective, from a financing perspective, all the angles are going to intersect on housing in the next decade.

Hamish: Yeah, guaranteed. Well, we'll be here to take you to give you the freshest takes. As that happens. Maybe I'll say, you know what else the millennials, if you look at a chart, they're still buying avocado toast. They're still going out to eat. They wanted a house.

Osman: That's the treat economy.

Hamish: That's the whole treat economy argument that's booming because they can't afford a house.

Osman: They're buying a toast. Yeah I don't I think that's really insulting to millennials.

Hamish: It's something that a boomer would say, yeah, I had to do that.

Osman: That's an okay boomer moment for sure.

Hamish: Super.

Osman: All right. Let's talk about Xcel burying power lines. So if you've been part of our community for the last few decades, you know that we have gone to bat with Xcel. In fact, we as a city attempted to create our own municipal utility and failed miserably and eventually renegotiated with Xcel. It's part of that settlement with Xcel was that they would bury more lines. I don't have all the details in front of me, but this is the first time I've in a long time. I've seen an article, anything in the news about Xcel actually burying lines, and it's like I had to put it in there. And so Hamish noted it and I said, yeah, oh my God, it's true. From, from this is the 1.7 miles, 1.7 miles of line along 75th Street, which these are the looming power lines, right? This makes that street really unattractive. A lot of people are concerned with EMF from these looming transmission lines. There's also a substation there. So I'm glad to see that they're finally doing something. It's only 1.7 miles, but the part that caught my eye was it was between Wind Hover Lane and Lookout Road. I'm thinking hover and wind hover doesn't matter.

Osman: However, wind hover lane and I was like, where is wind hover lane or wind hover lane? And it wasn't even coming up on the maps. I had to go and pull it from the tax assessor because it turns out there's one property on wind hover lane. Google maps doesn't even consider it a road, but basically it's one amazing property. By the way. It's a giant amount of acreage, so if you're curious about that, go check it out. You'll have to do your own homework, but it's right across from the water treatment plant, right? So basically from the water treatment plant all the way north to look out road, they're going to bury the line. And that's exciting news. It's amazing they're finally doing it.

Hamish: Apparently it's part of like I think 50 miles that they're working to do statewide.

Osman: 50 miles statewide.

Hamish: Yeah. And then the reason they're targeting this spot first is, apparently the water treatment plant nearly spilled sewage into Boulder Creek during the first public safety power shut off in 2024. So. Yeah.

Osman: Yeah, if we're turning off the power, can we not turn off the power to the sewage plant, please? F and a like yeah, 101 guys just seems like intelligent to stage some fire trucks and keep the sewer plant going.

Hamish: But staying on the no to real estate. You're right. If they get these transmission lines underground and I, we have seen buyers turn their nose up at some of these houses in this area because of EMF.

Osman: So, yeah, I'm sure the Grape Street owners that are on the west side of town are still rather angry that they're not getting underground because that street in particular gets such a such an impact, market impact to those looming transmission lines. And it's weird because they run right down the middle of the street. So why can't we bury them below the street? We're right down the middle of the street.

Hamish: Oh, the sewage is under there.

Osman: Yeah, well, even if there's a sewer line there, you should be able to run a power line adjacent to a sewer line like this.

Hamish: Isn't one would imagine.

Osman: Why is this? That I don't know, but I'm sure the Grape Street owners are are gritting their teeth and wishing it was them. But it's not so.

Hamish: I should have, should have moved next to Boulder's wastewater treatment plant.

Osman: Right?

Hamish: That's right.

Osman: You should have considered that neighborhood instead. Okay.

Hamish: You like Vox?

Osman: Our last hot take story is really just kind of. I don't know, it's just such a boulder moment. And that is. I don't know if a car was found speeding along the bikeway on US 36. And the sheriff is asking for help in identifying who this vehicle driver is and who owns the car. It's one of these things where we're going to see more and more of it. I was thinking about that driving back from the diagonal today. I had to go to Longmont to go to the DMV for a 730 in the morning appointment this morning, and as I'm driving, I noticed there's a few bicycles using the new bikeway, bicyclists using the new bikeway that runs right in the middle of the diagonal. But there is nothing that protects that bikeway, and it will inevitably see cars that try to use that turn on the wrong spot. Don't realize that's the bike way. This happens all the time. And so I don't know what the answer is, but this photo and this story is pretty funny to see and I'm just grateful.

Hamish: It's just. Yeah. No kidding.

Osman: Right. So there was that terrifying to be I think this is where the concrete was buckling. So how did this car not go? Dukes of Hazzard style into the air? I don't really know. Maybe they fix the buckle, but I know a couple of cyclists got injured by that buckle.

Hamish: Yeah. Also this I'm looking at the video now. This car is matching the flow of traffic. Like they aren't like, oh, no, I'm on a sidewalk. I better slow down there like 65. We're gonna go 65.

Osman: GPS says 65. Yeah, yeah, I think I don't know if we need better barriers or removable barriers where the cars cross something, something to make it harder for cars to get on the bikeway while still allowing snow removal equipment, emergency access to access the bikeway if they need to get vehicles on it. But this is all the time we see this sort of shenanigan. So if you're new to our community, welcome. Please know bikeways are not for cars. They are for cyclists. They are for pedestrians. You know, I used this bikeway when it was first built. It was magical. We actually we bicycled to Cinnabon. No cinema. The movie theater in Lewis.

Hamish: Oh, I know it was called totally cinnabar, cinnabar, cinnabar.

Osman: And we watched movies. Then we had Indian food and then we bicycled back. It was amazing. Yeah, it was such a fun experience. When they built this bikeway.

Hamish: There's that bollard Twitter page, I love that. Yeah, we need some bollards, but we need some balls. We need.

Osman: Right. Like Boulder. You know what bollards are, right? Like, what are you doing?

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Bollards that are removable by law enforcement or emergency access only. Even if it just lifts up and out.

Hamish: Yeah, right. Plenty.

Osman: I think something that would, would prevent this because somebody's going to get hurt. It's only a matter of time. And the diagonal highway is going to see it happen as well.

Hamish: I often think, yeah, that was a huge criticism, right?

Osman: Every year when there are snow events and on the diagonal casket off the highway and into that where the bike straight to the center, right to the center. So it is something to think about if you are cycling on those, on our bikeways. All right. I think that's a hot takes.

Hamish: Yeah. To worry about as a cyclist. But I think you're good I think that's I think we are we have a lot of things.

Osman: Cyclists have a lot to worry about. You don't even bike.

Hamish: No not really. I don't think I bike enough to say that I bite. You have a helmet here. That's how much you bike.

Osman: I have a helmet here. Because we hide a bike in the garage for Thursday night cruiser rides.

Hamish: So you going to morrow?

Osman: I'm not going. Well, I might go this week, actually. We'll see. I think I've wrapped up most of now. I, I've got still have a lot of projects. Okay. Let's talk about carve outs.

Hamish: Tis the season. Yes. Should I go first?

Osman: Yeah. Let's talk about your lawn renovation.

Hamish: Well, I'd originally written it long Reno, Nevada, which I thought was kind of fun, like Reno.

Osman: All right, so, supposed to be a joke?

Hamish: I don't know, that was perfect delivery. The dry, the dry, except the all white.

Osman: That's funny.

Hamish: Okay. So, Oh, basically, I've just got this, I've mapped it out. It's about 22,800ft² of lawn that is more bare dirt and weed than anything else, especially with how dry it's been. And the king of the Hill lawn dead in me really wants, you know, the perfect green Kentucky bluegrass you aerate to lay down sand. You get it perfectly level all that stuff. And I've been.

Osman: Why, why do you want that?

Hamish: Oh, it's just to meet the or what is it to meet the Jones to fit in with keep up with the Joneses. Like there's a couple of houses in the neighborhood that are, you know, pristine lawns. And I'm like, wow, it'd be really nice. Like, I, I kind of feel a little bit and I have no right to feel this way, but a little bit like a black sheep in my neighborhood because I'm like, young. And then I've got a ton of cars and then my yard isn't perfect and I've been getting work done, so, you know, it just doesn't.

Osman: I've got that keeping up with the Joneses feeling and speaking about it out loud with you now why why lawn that you have to pay for water versus like Ian that that built like a beautiful hardscape.

Hamish: Yeah, yeah.

Osman: Hardscape. It's rock.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: That allows for.

Hamish: Is that different?

Osman: And it's not concrete. It is stuff. It's stonework. It's landscaping, but it's not grass.

Hamish: So for the front I am I'm like still thinking like I might do like a hard scape deal or something to that extent. The backyard I want to split into two. And I'm not going to do Kentucky bluegrass because after looking at the maintenance for that, like you have to either be paying somebody to maintain it or some sick individual who really enjoys looking after your lawn. No actual judgment. But like Kentucky Bluegrass takes some work. So there's a Colorado blend of, of Kentucky bluegrass, a type of rye. And then like another grass, I'm going to do like section off, just like a nice little section in the backyard for, you know, like a classic grass pad. And then I found a Colorado Prairie wildflower mix and like, I'm going to dedicate like a good probably 50% chunk of my backyard to that.

Osman: Did you see CSU has a whole program for you for that online?

Hamish: Okay. And, yeah, totally going off of CSU's and all that, but, Yeah. No, I'm actually pretty excited. I thought it was going to be a lot more expensive than seed. But it won't be too bad. It'll be expensive in soil because I have to, like, kind of scree the area with, like, soil to cover the seed. I guess I'll need some aeration and things. But no, I'm kind of looking forward to it if there are any tips. And this is why I brought it on. The, carve out is you are the one who even told me that there is a type of grass called Kentucky Bluegrass. I didn't even know until I met you. Like the most common type of grass, this is my level of experience, listeners. So if you have any tips or anything, I'm starting from an essentially barren, dead long with the occasional weed, and my current plan right now is to water it to get the weeds to grow, so then I can glyphosate the whole thing and just not do a scorched earth.

Osman: Oh, please do not. Oh. Hey, man.

Hamish: Family. That's part of the renovation.

Osman: Hamish.

Hamish: That's like, like the worst possible thing for like, I will be like Doctor Death doing this.

Osman: Yeah, this is like that. It's a like a phosphate is horrific for the environment in 1001 ways. So obviously doing a little section, you know, I don't control what you do.

Hamish: I'm coming to terms with this also.

Osman: It's also a health hazard for you.

Hamish: It is. Yeah.

Osman: It's tied to all sorts of non-Hodgkin's I think.

Hamish: Yes. Yeah.

Osman: So why okay. I mean, this is your I don't get this is your house, but why not grow a vegetable garden in half of it?

Hamish: I still have a vegetable garden. I've got a huge plot.

Osman: Why not?

Hamish: It's like half 20ft by six feet.

Osman: Why not have the whole thing be a garden?

Hamish: It's way too much. From the little veggie garden thing that I did like two years ago. That is a full-time job, you know.

Osman: It does not pay itself a tiller and equipment.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Get to.

Hamish: It's the weeding. It's the irrigation because it's always popping apart. That's the big one for me. And I can't start from a seed in that video garden. I got to start from a starter anyhow. I might not go scorched earth. I, I'm probably going to go scorched earth. Maybe I'll just salt it. But then nothing's going to grow for thousands of years.

Osman: I mean, you can you can burn it.

Hamish: Could burn it.

Osman: I think you'll probably go to jail.

Hamish: Oh, gosh. Yeah. Right now. Right now.

Osman: Don't set it on fire right now.

Hamish: Yeah. Wait for, like, the first.

Osman: No, but, But no, I mean, there are other are other ways to remove vegetation from the backyard. Besides, there must be better ways than than Monsanto's Roundup.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And also I it's just, they're like. So it's so interesting because Kentucky bluegrass is, I think, our largest non edible crop in the United States. It seems massive amounts of water grass hugely inefficient.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So I, I, you know, I if it were me I would look for anything but grass because your water bills will thank me. Your wallet will thank me because how expensive water is in Colorado as well as such a limited resource. But even if it was, even if you're okay with that, just the cost out of your pocket to maintain grass, there's got to be a better solution.

Hamish: So I and that is partially like I really want to keep the section that is true grass small. So it is less on the watering. And that is like talking about like what Ian did. I am thinking like I'll probably revisit what I do with the front yard. I and it's so funny to like, I recognize the irony and like, I'm like, scorched earth, and then I'm gonna put Colorado prairie seeds, like, you know.

Osman: All right, well, I'm horrified.

Hamish: Yeah. Thank you.

Osman: You're using the word scorched earth, and you're talking about using roundup to destroy what's in your backyard. I'm honestly just horrified, and I don't even know where to go with it. That was a complete shocker ending to this podcast. And I don't know if you want to keep talking about it, but I'm good with that. You're I hope you find it better and more environmentally sustainable solution. And if you're listening to this listeners and you have ideas for how Hamish can not destroy the environment and get rid of his backyard landscaping, you have a start over. You have a week. Yeah. Please message him directly with alternatives to round up in your backyard. I can't even believe they still sell roundup.

Hamish: It's really be everywhere.

Osman: It's not just bad for humans, it's bad for the environment. It's bad for pollinators in particular.

Hamish: I know, and there is nothing that the pollinators are currently pollinating in the lawn like I am at the moment in my life.

Osman: Also, all sorts of life in that yard that you may not this one particular, it's been grazed down by rabbits like.

Hamish: And I'm not gonna just like I don't want to just constantly justify it because I believe there might be a better way.

Osman: Okay. Okay.

Hamish: And but where I'm like, I'm like, at the starting point right now, this lawn isn't doing much for anything currently. I mean, it is supporting a family of rabbits.

Osman: Can you just put black plastic over it? I've thought about, like, black plastic is cheap and it will kill everything.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And the heat of it and the enclosure of it, that's. I mean, it won't be as effective as Monsanto.

Hamish: Cheap. Yeah, but. Well, I mean, it's not Monsanto though.

Osman: That's the has run its as roundup. It won't be as, as cheap as as glycol phosphate.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: But it will it will kill everything. You basically bake it under plastic.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And that black plastic liner you can buy at Home Depot a big. We buy it every year, which is a good segue here for me to go past you.

Hamish: That's fantastic.

Osman: But we use we buy it's pond liner you can buy at Home Depot. It's not that expensive. They sell it in big rolls. We use it to create evaporation ponds on Playa, which is not the best method for drying water. Gray water. But that's what we use it for. And I'm sure you could cover your entire backyard for not that much money.

Hamish: Yeah. All right, let him do. Sold it. So I will look like. Yeah.

Osman: Let me know what you learn.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: I'm very curious where you go with this. This this horror.

Hamish: Yeah. You were like, you're gonna talk about it. You didn't know I was gonna go.

Osman: I did not know you were going there.

Hamish: I was going to go. Roman.

Osman: All right, so I'm talking about developing systemic efficiencies in a commercial kitchen. And really, what I'm talking about is the man so well spoken man will burn. So that's a new documentary on HBO about Burning Man. And this past weekend, we had a number of strangers staying with us at our house, and my lovely wife was leading among the leadership of co-leading, if you will, the process of cooking food for our Burning Man camp of 70 ish people, which involves renting a commercial kitchen in Denver, cooking from scratch large amounts of food and concentrate, and then bagging it, freezing it, bagging it flat so it lays on speed racks in a commercial walk in freezer freezes solid. Is it flash freeze to right like it's I mean it's for it's not really flash frozen but it's frozen pretty darn fast. And then it is then you can stack them vertically in the box freezer. So we have two box freezers full of stacked vertical food that are now in my in my garage, waiting for us to drive to Burning Man in a few weeks for, you know, in service to this nonprofit and this lovely camp of people that I adore in love.

Osman: But really, in addition to that, taking up way too much time this weekend, every year on, you know, it's on cue. This is that one weekend where it's like, I've got to balance real estate with my obligations to this nonprofit. And luckily, my real estate obligations were all on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were relatively light and I could help out. And then Monday you covered our walkthrough and closing, and I was able to go run and pick up the food so that you finished that in record time. Anyhow, it was fantastic. Every year we get more efficient, and the big efficiency this year was rather than drive a pallet full of food, which is the amount of food we're talking about to cold storage, we loaded it into my van, the van that happens to be for sale, and that van right now has a full four by eight sheet of plywood sitting in the back. That van has all sorts of capability and easily took that whole palette of food, and it took 15 minutes to load the van and haul it to our house. Everything was still solidly frozen, covered it with blankets, strapped it, strapped it in case there was a rapid braking event, and then drove it home. And it was still everything was completely frozen.

Osman: I mean, it's a lot of thermal mass that you're moving. We ran the AC and cranked it to keep everything cool, and now everything's in the freezers in the garage. But I do want to mention this documentary, and I feel like this is what I want to say for you burners out there. If you read the feedback in various online forums, it seems to be like, I would say 70 to 80% negative on this documentary. But my personal experience watching it was really quite different. I think having Kimball must be a protagonist or a key character was probably not the right move, certainly a choice. I think that they pitting him against Marion, the CEO of the Burning Man project, in terms of whether or not to cancel the event in 2021, was an interesting due to like Covid. Yeah, during Covid it was a cliffhanger in the in the in the tale. I don't think this is a spoiler because everyone knows how this played out for the most part. But if you're watching it, just like with any other docu series or episodic content online that is stream able, they do cliffhangers at the end of every one of them so that you watch the next one.

Osman: And so they did that in this documentary, and that was my only kind of like, oh, I kind of wish they didn't need that dynamic, but I get why they did it. They put that in there. So you watched the next episode.

Hamish: That's showbiz.

Osman: But I will say every single one of those episodes had me become very emotional. I got very emotional in every single one of those four, four episodes. And the storytelling of the veteran army officer or army soldier who's struggling through PTSD and some of the benefits he's experienced at Burning Man, were very moving.

Hamish: Wow.

Osman: Walking through death's door, that was something that caught me by surprise as a metaphor and it was very moving. So I think the documentary was excellent. As long as you can get over Kimball Musk being in it and people hate on Kimball, and perhaps legitimately for his involvement in the Epstein files and all the rest of that. And I have no, you know, dog in the game. These billionaires be billionaire in.

Hamish: But that's the best way to put it.

Osman: Without their without their support, the organization would not have continued. So that's the part that I'm like, well, it is what it is. I'm glad they continue to support the event and it has changed so many lives, including my own. And we now that's why we have weirdos. I mean, they're not really weirdos. That's why I have strangers I've never met before that come and stay at our house every year.

Hamish: But it's like you've never, you know, like you've known them for decades.

Osman: In this particular case. Yeah. This one person who stayed at our house, I felt that way immediately. I'm like, that was a very strange vibe. It's almost like a filter.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: Like you're going to volunteer your time on your dime to come to the Front Range. And they were like 4 or 5 people. Six people that did this, flew in, stayed in hotels or stayed with other people in our community. Like we had a house full of people and spend three days cooking, cooking in a commercial kitchen for 8 to 10 hours a day to make this thing happen. As a volunteer, you paid to do this that is just so kind and tells you the type of people we're dealing with.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: And including, by the way, one of our, one of our clients and, and now close friends has, has come to the kitchen three years in a row. He's never even been to burn.

Hamish: This is the shame of self promo. Same people. Yeah. Yeah.

Osman: They have volunteered their time three years in a row and have never even been to the event, and that is just beyond generous. So I just wanted to give a shout out to all the people that supported Cooking Weekend this weekend, and All You Burn are curious people. It's worth the 20 buck subscription for a month to go watch The Man Will burn, and then you can immediately cancel it. If you don't like HBO or HBO plus, it's easy.

Hamish: I think Taylor's got it, so you should watch it tonight.

Osman: Maybe you should watch it. I think you'd like it. Although if you decide you want to come to Burning Man, I know that's not me. It can happen. It can happen. We just need to plan, that's all.

Hamish: Lots of planning. Question for you. All this talk about food. What do you got? What are you cooking? What kind of what kind of meals you got in there? What are you looking forward to the most?

Osman: We have, like, a meal plan.

Hamish: Okay.

Osman: That's been developed over 20, 26 years of planning. Has a meal plan. So I think that one of the most delightful items we have on the menu is called strawberry soup. And strawberry soup is served cold. It I made it this year. It's so it's made with frozen organic strawberries. It's whole milk sour cream and red wine. And it's mixed together. The red wine is, is, is simmered and reduced. So the alcohol is removed and then it's dumped all together and blended together and then frozen. And when it's 110 degrees on a summer day and suddenly you're drinking or eating a bowl of cold strawberry soup, it's incredibly refreshing.

Hamish: I mean, that sounds great. And that's just one of our in the South cream with the milk that that all plays really well.

Osman: It is so well done. Although in past years we have screwed up and over beat the sour cream and half and half not milk sour cream and half and a half and ended up churning it to butter. So I was give it very, very clear instructions. Do not over whip because we don't want butter and strawberry butter soup. Right. Yeah. It was still good. But that on your toes are expecting is butter in their soup.

Hamish: Yeah.

Osman: So one of my friends, one of the people cooking this weekend's like, why aren't we just calling it a smoothie? What's the difference?

Hamish: And it's like, it's not even a soup, though.

Osman: You don't put sour cream in a smoothie.

Hamish: I call it like a it's not a creme brulée, but like, you know, it's almost like closer to a cheesecake.

Osman: Maybe it's excellent in any event. All right, everybody, you have squandered another two plus hours probably.

Hamish: Or 16 roughly.

Osman: Yeah, a little over two hours with us. I hope you have enjoyed the House Einstein podcast. As always, we deeply appreciate your comments, your likes, your subscriptions to our podcasts, and wherever you happen to have found us. If you'd like to learn more about the House Einstein Brokerage, where we actually serve our clients that are buying and selling real estate here on the Front Range and into the mountain towns, you can find us at House Einstein. And thanks again for joining us. We will catch you next time.