How to Market Your Niche with Stephanie Kroll of MidModern Dream Homes

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There are riches in the niches – particularly when it comes to real estate sales. By finding and more importantly focusing on her niche, Realtor Stephanie Kroll has built a following for her speciality MidCentury Modern Homes in Denver.

Transcription:

Welcome to brokerage insider the podcast where we interview the leaders in real estate and technology. I’m your host Britt Chester Director of Marketing Success at TRIBUS, one of the largest independent prop tech companies in real estate and provider of custom brokerage technology to medium and large brokerages today on the show we have Stephanie Kroll, a broker associate with Mile High Modern Denver’s definitive resource for modern architectural property. New developments in classical collection homes, Stephanie’s expertise and Denver’s real estate market is remarkable.

I’m excited for this discussion, Stephanie, how are you doing today? I’m great. How are you doing well? Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us on brokerage insider. Oh, of course. I’m happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I, I think I was able to provide a little bit of an introduction, but, uh, if you would, for our listeners, just kind of talk about, uh, talk about who you are and where you’re at and what your kind of specialty is right now.

Yeah. So I am a real estate broker with Mile High Modern. I started in the real estate business a few years ago after a very tumultuous first-time home buying experience of my own on a personal level. and I’m also a Denver native. My family has owned properties in the Denver area since the 1970s. And. we’ve, you know, everybody is here in different pockets of the Denver Metro.

You know, and we’ve been here for multiple generations now. So I like to think that I’m an expert in the Denver Metro area, because we’ve lived here for so long , but yeah, I, I really focus on most of my energy on properties of architectural merit, specifically mid century modern homes. I’ve found a lot of success in.

Niching out within that particular architecture type. especially because our market just has a lot of them. but also because I have a passion for the design itself and yeah. Does that answer your question? That’s perfect. Let’s talk about how you got into real estate and kind of what you were doing before and your journey into this as a career choice.

I know a little bit of it, but I’d love to hear it from you. Yeah. So, okay. Well, I mean, I did a bunch of different things. you know, within my entire professional career, but I, my background is in marketing. I got a business marketing degree from CU Boulder and my first like big time job was out in LA.

I worked for Hulu for a few years, in marketing and an ad operations. And, my experience in Los Angeles was great, but I was like, I could only handle it for so long and I really miss Denver. So I ended up coming back about two years later. And when I did that, I was kind of like getting my hands into some other marketing jobs.

And I specifically took on a job working for, a string of different event venues and marketing or sorry, music. Sorry. Wow. Music venues in the golden triangle. And, just, I was the marketing director for them was pretty much tasked with really revamping the entire marketing department there because what I had walked into, I didn’t have a whole lot to work with and they really didn’t have a lot of like preexisting systems or anything like that.

And so I kind of had to build a team to support all of their venues. And in doing that, I was, not only exposed to a lot of the different partners on the golden triangle board of directors, like the Denver art muse and sort of Cerner Conservancy, but then also, one of the venues that we worked with was the church.

And I just was like, so fascinated by, as I was doing all this historic research on the building. I mean, it’s this amazing, incredible church, on the corner. Of things like 12th and chairman or 12th and Lincoln, that has just like stood the test of time. It’s been converted into a music venue, but it was just a really special space to me.

And as I was doing more research, I like learning about what you had to do to preserve the building. And there was just a lot that came like. With the documentation of that building. And as I was doing more research on it for basically just like marketing material. So I became like infatuated with like the concept of preserving historic buildings.

And that really translated. I mean, that was kind of a piece of it. Right. But the mid-century thing also stemmed from. My time living in Los Angeles, it was very much a big deal. They’re very much a part of the culture. There’s like amazing vintage stores all over central Los Angeles. And of course it’s like the Mecca of mid century modern architecture.

And then when I was working with SoCo, I also bought my first home in Harvey park, which is also like a Mecca of mid-century the modern designer architecture. and it’s like, I was just like blown away. Like the cliff may homes where I was obsessed with them. I like, and even like the Carrie holiday homes, like all of them were just so cool to me.

And I was like, I don’t know. I was just hooked. Like I would, I was already pretty into it, but I was like, just seeing how much architecture we have here and how many homes we had to work with here that were of that design. really like blew my mind. And as I started doing more. For historical research, it was just like incredible to see what presence we have here and how many, we got really lucky with some incredible, architects that were, you know, they traveled here after world war two and they were in Boulder and the Denver Metro, and they just designed some incredibly unique properties.

And so. I just became fascinated by that and I feel sick visits around, which is crazy. Let’s talk, let’s talk about that. You had mentioned that first time home buying experience. not, not being, I wouldn’t want to say ideal, uh, first off, when did you buy it? So I bought my house in 2018. I’ve actually synced sold it actually too, because some homes are lessons they’re not meant to be enjoyed, but, I had it for probably about a year and a half.

I. So, I mean, and I think that this story will resonate with a lot of people who are purchasing now, because I think that the market conditions are similar, if not more intense, right. Especially on the buy side. So I think that’s like why I’m actually really, I mean, I’m good on both sides of the business, but I w I think I’ve been a particularly strong buyer’s agent for my clients and finding the deal and making sure they get what they need because of my own experience and like, Just making sure that they’re guided properly.

Right. Because I don’t know that I necessarily was. there’s so the tricky part about my situation was that my dad was my real estate broker. It’s just like hardworking and family and real estate in general. It doesn’t really matter how that works, whether you’re like your family’s a client or whatever.

Like it’s always tricky. Right? Like the whole dynamic was tricky and I looked at homes for over a year and a half. pretty consistently actually, and I looked at over 150 properties, which was a lot. Wow. Yeah. All over Denver or, I mean, how are you, how did you kind of, what was your first time buying process?

Like, did you have a list of wants and, and list of needs or what was that kind of like. I mean, it wasn’t really guided to do that. I do that now with my clients, I have them come up with a top three wants, needs and deal breakers list. Every single time I have like an initial conversation, but, I didn’t have that.

So I was just kind of like, at that point, I just was like, I just want a house. Right. And I was like, ended up in some random things and I’m like, so glad that didn’t work out. I fell in love with this amazing home in like a different neighborhood where again, I wouldn’t have like, had the path that I. I’m on now had I like ended up in some of these different neighborhoods, but there was an incredible deal and I missed out on it.

And now the house is worth like literally three times what it is. I was looking at it. Right. Or like, just like random neighborhoods. Like I almost wonder to contract a house in like Lowery, which is so like now I’m like, I’m never on the East side would have been like terrible for my lifestyle. Like, I’m so glad that none of these things worked out because my criteria was just like, I just think I was like, so desperate to get into a house that they didn’t really have.

Like, this is like awful to say, but I just was like wanting to get in the game. Like, I didn’t really have like high standards. I was like, okay, well, if it looks okay, I’m in, like, I’ll just write an offer. I kind of like it. And truthfully, a lot of the stuff that I was seeing was just like, so rough, like major structural problems, you know, like.

It was a bit scary. Like this is a really rough neighborhood or like, I saw so many homes and it became basically like a part-time job for me. Over such a long period of time. And I was like, I could totally do this as a business, you know? so then when I found, I mean, I looked at so many houses I put in over 25 offers and I was, I was just tired.

It’s back in 2018 too, which is nothing like even the market is now, but it was still pretty hot, you know, three years ago, wires are still submitting some times in this market, like 10 offers. And I mean, like, I’m sure people feel similarly, right? Like don’t you just have to like. Keep playing the game until you get into the house.

Right. So I was kind of in a similar position and I kind of found this house, that in that market, I mean, still things were going like wildfire. And I found this place that had like, it was off market, had been under contract, like once or twice and then got back on. And I was like, well, maybe there’s just, I just needed like an opportunity, like someone who was going to like hear out my case and just be like, all right, Sweet.

Like, because I just like lost out so many times. and like, you know, again, I think I can attribute some of that to just like the team I had around me for, I mean, it was really important on the buy-side side to have like a really strong lender or a really strong broker, a really strong inspector and like across the board, like, I really didn’t feel like I had any of them.

Well, I had a great, I had to fire my first lender and get another lender like across the board. I really ha I, when I started the process, I did not have. Any of those things, you know, and it’s important to have like an ATM all the time. So again, that’s another thing I like to bring into my buy-side process.

But so when I found this house, it seems like a major opportunity to me. So I was like, all right, we’re just going to go for it. Like, whatever. Right. So I write an offer, they counter me and I like negotiate it down in like a crazy market. So.

And even the counter was like below asking. And so I was like, sweet. I got an office, an awesome opportunity here. And so we went under contracts and I thought it was really weird because they didn’t change the status and MLS for like four or five days. I was like, Oh, okay. Like we’re under contract. Right.

Like I don’t really know. And they kept it on the market through the weekend, basically. Technically they did. Cause they didn’t change the status. So. They need to feel more offers maybe. Yeah, I think that was the point, but they, I mean, it was totally like sketch, like the whole thing was not everything about this whole situation with sketch from the beginning.

I should have seen it as a RIS, but anyway, so, we go into contract, they, they must’ve gotten a ton of backup offers above asking cause. All of a sudden on Monday, they’re like we have to submit earnest money and like the tune kind of changes a little bit. Right. And so they’re like, Oh, Hey, just so you know, there’s a lien on the title and we didn’t pay a contractor because the house had been like flipping before I bought it.

Well, we’ll put it that way. Yeah, for sure. And they were like, yeah, like there’s a lien on the title. You can’t actually buy this house. And so. I was like kind of calling a bluff. I was like, I don’t believe you because you’ve been under contract twice. You almost close twice. People would have seen this before.

I don’t know why this would’ve come up right now. And like, it just seems like a ploy to kind of get me to terminate and. I was like, well, I’m just going to wait for the title work to come through and just see what’s on the title work. And I had all of this writing. I mean, technically I probably had some sort of grounds to like legally go after the seller at this point.

But like, because what happened was the title where it came back clean. Right. So I was right called their bluff. And at the time also my inspection deadline for like very fast. And the advice that was given to me was don’t pay for an inspection. If the title work isn’t going to come back clean anyways.

So I don’t get an inspection in time and I missed my inspection. Objection, deadline. And it doesn’t get moved out. I’m a first time home buyer. I have no idea what this is about. Like, I, I I’m like, I don’t think this is the right thing to do, but like, Okay. I trust you. You’re my dad. Right? basically the tower comes back clean and so I’m like, well, I need to get in spectral on his house.

Right. And I do, and it’s really, really, really rough, right? Like pretty bad. Like it was everything that had been done to the house was all cosmetic. It needed a new roof. It needed. There were like a bunch of extra furnaces, just like old furnaces and the crawlspace that needed to be like cut into little pieces and taken out.

My inspector also missed a ton of stuff. There were like galvanized steel pipes, corroded water. That was a raccoon living in the fireplace. There was like, it was like, seriously, like your worst nightmare, but inspection. It was like my inspection, like nature system, like needed to be replaced. But at this point I’d missed my inspection, termination deadline.

So you can’t terminate. Cause like, then you’re not acting in good faith and you lose your earnest money. Right. Right. So I’m like, okay, well I guess I have to like move forward with buying this house. I don’t really have much of a choice. Right. Sounds like an absolute nightmare scenario, but a great starting point.

Right? It’s only, it only can go get, get better from here. It was just crazy. Like the whole thing was crazy. Anyways, I buy the house. The first week is a total trip. It was like so hard to live in that place. They put all this money into it right away to just start fixing all these issues. Cause it was like just so rough.

And then my neighbor even like committed suicide a week into me living in the house. Sorry to hear that it was crazy, like crazy things happened in that house. And I’m just glad. Yeah. So were you, were you working, were you still working with those, the venues? while you’re kind of going through this process, I get the whole process and I was like, no buyer should go through this process.

And have to experience the things that I experienced. Like it should never be this bad. The seller was rough. The listing agent was rough. The buyer’s agent didn’t like properly represent me. And I was like, this was a train wreck. And I had just seen so many agents like do bad things in my process that I was like, There.

I know there’s other good ones out there. And I’ve seen that now, of course. Right. But at the time I was like, this sucks. Like there needs to be better representation for people out there. And I truly believe that I’m the person to do it. And at this time I’m also like trying to figure it out. I want to do a career change.

I’m like, maybe I’ll be a therapist. I love psychology and like h an behavior. And of course, I mean, What is basically more like therapy than real estate. It’s like, you see every single person’s personality. Right. And like, you really see their true colors come out in the middle of the most stressful transaction of their lives.

Right. Or like, not even stressful, just expensive. So, yeah. Yeah. So I felt truly called to be like a leader. Sure. And like do this differently and do right by the people who were my clients. And, I mean, I think sometimes from pain comes a lot of like joy, right? Like you have to go through some really hard things too.

I ended up in a really good place sometimes. And that just so happened to be my situation. But, yeah, it’s kind of what, like filled me to get into the business, but I just was like, I just like hit the ground running from there. I was so excited and I loved the whole industry and I had so much passion behind it.

And like the design for me was just like all of the creativity that goes into like interiors and. Especially the mid-century thing. I just think it’s so cool. Like I’m like fascinated by modernism. And so it just really like fueled me in so many different ways to like want to help other people, you know?

So when did you get, when did you get your license? I technically got my license in 2019. So, I mean, I’m still like relatively newer to the business kind of, but like, I don’t really feel that way. Like I feel like you’ve been through so many transactions at this point. You know what I mean? I’ve done everything from like dealing with mountain property that has like Wells and like septic tanks, which is like a whole different type of offer.

Right. To like, I mean, I’ve, I’ve truly did everything like new construction condos, like you name it. Like I’ve, it’s, it’s interesting, right? Because I niche out in mid century modern and a lot of people will come. Through the mid-March door, be like really interested in that. Right. And then it’s very fascinating to see how people sometimes pivot.

It’s like, we’ll be starting to look at mid-century modern. And sometimes they just only care about good designs. Then we’re looking at like tutors in park Hill. Like it’s a totally people sometimes pivot and that’s fine. And I want them to know that like, I will work with them regardless of what they end up in.

Like, I don’t really care. I just like. I do think that I have an eye for good design. And so if a client wants to work with me, Typically, I like to think that I can usually find them the most beautiful home regardless of the style, but there are a lot of people too, who work with me who like want to be in specific neighborhoods.

And I do everything I can to get them into that neighborhood. Even if there’s no inventory, I’m pretty connected in the mid century, modern neighborhoods at this point. And I have eyes and ears on the ground from Littleton to Arapahoe acres in Inglewood to Harvey park, see Virginia village, like you name it.

I like kind of have people in all sorts of different pockets. And they’ll tell me about. Stuff going on in their neighborhood and what they’re seeing. And so it’s really great. Cause I have, I have a lot of Intel that I think a lot of other people don’t have access to. Yeah. Insider knowledge. Yeah. I felt really grateful for that.

And I think I attribute that to the fact that like when you meet people, it’s really important to me and to develop like an authentic and real relationship with them, if they’re like a client or not, right. Like. I don’t really care. It’s really more for me about like Austrian, really healthy friendships and making sure that like people know that they can trust me and that I’m there for them.

And I think people just reciprocate that and they’ll either like, send me client referrals or write reviews or tell me about, you know, stuff going on in the neighborhood and things of that nature. So, yeah. I’ve been really lucky in that regard, you know, and, and you mentioned a lot of the neighborhoods and, you know, for a lot of our listeners that may not be in Denver, these are just kind of, uh, surrounding pockets.

 , and I’d love for you to talk about more, talk more about those in a minute. One thing, last week we had, uh, Nobu Hata, who’s the CEO of the Denver Metro association of realtors, and he made a very interesting, An interesting stat that maybe you could speak to, but he said that one in four Denver renters currently kind of can’t afford a home right now, or can’t find a home in Denver.

And I think that speaks to a lot of things. Right. You know, Denver’s population has doubled. Over the past 10 years, we’re seeing record low inventory and you know, this is nationwide. Whenever I speak to a lot of our broker clients, inventory is going to be an issue everywhere. I think last year was this big expediter, uh, for people wanting to buy a home and they may have been planning a year out and b p that up, you know, during the pandemic interest rates, you know, being what they were.

So, kind of speak to the, to the Denver market, your view of the Denver market right now and how you’ve seen a change. You’ve been a native here, so you’ve seen. The growth from, you know, what governor Hickenlooper, Hickenlooper used to call the old cow town to now, whatever, you know, whatever Denver is.

 , but yes. Speak to your, your kind of your industry knowledge. Well, it blows my mind, right? Cause it’s like when I was here as a kid in the nineties, a house was like 60 K 90 K you’re like what? You know what I mean? It’s like a totally different place now. And the vibe is so different and I think it really started popping off when I moved back here.

In 2013 from LA, like I just saw like building, like I’d never seen before and traffic and like, you know, it was just a totally different space and it was very trendy. Either lawyers called restaurants. You know what I mean? But, yeah, I think in terms of real estate itself, you know, it’s kind of one of those things, especially first time for first time home buyers, where it’s like the sooner you get in the game, the better off you are because to your point, you can become priced out of market.

And that’s a problem for people. And I, I mean, that’s, I’m not surprised by that because affordability actually is something that I’m concerned about all the time for my clients. Right. And. I think it’s just about getting creative. I like to believe that there is a solution for every single buyer out there.

It’s just a matter of matching the right buyer with the right house in the right scenario. Like I worked with first time home buyers who have very, really like, honestly rough budgets and just like. Found a rental that’s been sitting there for 20 years in a mid-century modern neighborhood and like connected the dots and made it taken me a year to put the deal together because of the different circ stances.

But like, if you can find the common ground between the buyer and seller and get them to like, do a deal. Great. You know, cause if the seller needs to like offload rental properties and then like the buyer just needs an opportunity, like it’s. There are opportunities out there. So you have to think about it from a mindset of abundance, but the numbers, the numbers really speak to what’s going on.

Especially in the last year, I feel like within the COVID environment, we’ve kind of been operating in like a vacuum. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. It’s like there was a beginning and there will be a definitive end and things will change. I think after like we have. Herd immunity and everybody’s vaccinated, right?

I mean, it’s not to say that demand in Denver will go down. That’s not going to happen. There’s no bubble. Right. But just thinking about the numbers, like within the last year alone in 2020, we had 18% price appreciation year over year, which is considered really changed. What’s affordable in this market. I mean, you’re, we, we bumped above 600 K is the average price point for Denver home. And so for a lot of people, like, especially single people, I think it’s like a lot less affordable, whereas like it’s a little bit more approachable for a couple, if they’re both on the loan, but even then it’s tricky. Right. So especially within the last month, I really liked to just to explain like within, you know, since we’ve turned the corner into 2021 to explain what’s been going on in the market, This is kind of what I tell people we’re down 65% year over year in terms of available inventory.

Right? So all of the agents are fighting over the remaining 35%. Plus you add in this market condition of the fact that like all of these people have like been laid off and they’re like, Oh, I’m going to get into real estate. So now you have like, I mean, Denver is already the most over brokered. City and the entire country, I think we have like 44,000 people have their real estate licenses of which like two 20, 2000 might be like active.

That’s a lot of people. Right? So you have all these new brokers and we’re all fighting over this, like a little amount of inventory. And then on top of that, yeah, on the buy side, all of a sudden demand, like basically quadrupled, you have four buyers for every active listing on the MLS, which is kind of insane.

I mean, for the gems, that’s actually a. A misrepresentation, because there’s way more than that. But we’re talking for like the stuff that either is in like bad condition or is not really even desirable, like right now, downtown condos. Right. It’s more of a buyer’s market than a sellers market, but like technically there’s four buyers on average, every single property.

So, you know, I mean, that’s a pretty crazy number, but really what I like to think of and like, I mean, of course. in speaking about this, I’m trying to be compliant with all of the new coming soon stuff, right. With the national association, the national association of realtors and all the things that have changed as of last September, but the data that’s like the most interesting to me is that the, the number of closed with stings or yeah, close properties in our market has exceeded the amount of active listings in the MLS.

Meaning that more people are finding off market inventory and putting deals together that way. So just because it’s active and MLS doesn’t mean that like, that’s all you have to look at, right? Like there’s, there’s other things out there. And it seems like people are just getting really crafty and finding ways to get buyers into properties, even if they don’t hit the MLS, which is a really hopeful statistic for me, because it showed me that there is opportunity out there.

You just have to find it. But the like average showing count two is like up to like 20 or 25 showings per property, which I mean, for some is even low. Right. That’s just on average. Whereas last year it was much lower than it was like 10 or 11. And so it’s just like, yeah, it’s pretty nice. It’s been a wild time out there, but I do truly feel that active inventory will open up more.

After herd immunity is achieved because home won’t be as important. Right. Like, and I could be wrong. I like to, sometimes I like to just kind of like take this with a grain of salt, but I do think buyer demand yeah. Will not slow down in this market. I think the buyers who are actually serious and are like here to make it happen, we’ll get it done.

And they’ll. You know, you have to be aggressive. You have to keep trying over and over and over again, you can’t let failure get you down. And like the people who really want it will get in. There’s a lot of like looky loo people too, right now who call and they’re like, Oh, like, I really need to get out of this state.

Like, I’m thinking about either like Colorado or like salt Lake city, or like maybe Washington. You’re like, okay, well, what do you want? Like, you have to be serious, you know? So there’s a lot of people like kind of interested, but the real people who are like legitimate buyers with enough cash and like are serious, will eventually get into properties.

It’s just a process. So like they have to understand that you have to start the conversation much earlier than you want to get into homes. But I do like to think that like once home becomes less of a focus and there’s less fear around the COVID pandemic. And, you know, we all have herd immunity and things start to open up and there’s more to do, and you can go out to restaurants and go back to concerts and stuff like that.

I just think that there will be a lot more inventory, hopefully in this market. I know we’ve been in a sellers market for a long time, so it’s not to say it will be even balanced at that point, but I don’t think the constraints will be nearly as bad as they are right now. It’s hard to say. I think prices will continue to go up though.

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the demand for Denver is, you know, always going to be around the, the, the lifestyle that’s associated with the state is, you know, health and their skiing nearby. And, you know, we’ve got everything, great sports teams, you know, whether or not they wouldn’t champion, someone, I, a guy named Brad Inman.

 , you know, big real estate publisher, brilliant real estate mindset. I heard him say one time at a conference, the riches are in the niches and that’s always stuck with me because whenever I get to speak with people who are just super successful in real estate, it’s because that they, they focus and they stay in the lane.

Your skill sets are diverse. Your sphere of influences, you know, Very large and your network is huge, but they, they focus on something and really hone in on that, that it seems like you’ve really done that, with, with mid mods and with architecture and those uniques. Can you talk about, you know, just speak about what that’s been like, but getting into that and how you kind of keep that enthusiasm, you know, strong, and then I’d love to hear about like, marketing that, right.

 , being able to market that expertise and market that specialty, because you’re a real estate agent you can help. Anybody find a home, but you’re really, you know, focused. So kind of just speak to that. Yeah. Well, I think I’m really lucky in the fact that like my background is in marketing, right? Cause I’ve been able to apply pretty much 10 years of everything that I’ve learned about merging social media algorithms, whatever.

Like what have you, it’s like, I’ve been able to apply that to my business and I’m not even close to like what my world vision of my business is. Right? Like I’ve only scratched the surface at this point in terms of what I know I’m capable of doing, I would say. in terms of the niche itself, it really provides people an opportunity to

like have it’s, like they almost know. That they can talk to you about a certain thing and that’s how you’re going to relate. Right? So like, again, even if my clients don’t end up actually closing on a mid century, modern home, maybe they have like an affinity for like vintage clothing or they really like cool, like retro mid-March furniture.

And it’s like something that they can talk to me about. And it’s a really great way for them to feel like they can relate to me. And that is where I’ve seen a lot of value in the niche itself. And really expanding on that. I mean, I also just tapped into like a particular community that is like absolutely ravenous and very opinionated about design and preservation and re like remodeling and like the whole spectrum of things.

And everybody falls very different sides of the spectrum in terms of their, their trade-offs of like, what is the trade off between historic preservation and. Like updating out of these homes are kind of like getting to a point of aging. Right. But it’s been really helpful for me in figuring out like what I need to do.

And I think, I mean, social media in particular is where I’ve found the most success in terms of basically just like finding new clients and converting. But then on top of that, like, I want to have all of the systems in place too. So it’s like, I have a list of. All over the mid century, modern homes in the Denver area and not just in the neighborhoods, but like weird one-off ones, like all like drive past a house, stop, write down the address and like add it to my database.

You know what I mean? Or like, I’ll be like looking through Google maps street view, right. And like find one and write it down. Or, like if I just like learn about another pocket, it’s like, I want to know where all the inventory is and it doesn’t even matter. Like what the niche is like. I mean, I have mine specifically from RIS tree modern, but like, anyone can do this, right?

Like in your own market, the broker it’s like, you can figure out where all the homes are and there’s value in that because most people don’t know. Right. And I’ve done a lot of like historic research. I’ve gone to the library and looked through all of the Diane Ray books that talk about like, The iconic mid-century modern homes in this neighborhood, who was the architect?

When were they built? Where are they? What is the address? What is the neighborhood? What is the photo? You know? And like I’ve looked at all of the different neighborhoods and I know a lot about them. And so like, I’ve done my research and I wouldn’t say that every broker has done that, but I think because of that, I’ve found success and I’ve been very smart in the way that I’ve not only niched out, but I’ve scaled and it’s, it’s helped people really.

Relate to me and feel like I’m approachable. If that makes sense. It definitely, you know, you mentioned social media. what is, what is the, the, the , was it midnight dream homes, correct? No, my handle isn’t there. My dream homes. Right. which I feel like I’m, like, I started following it kind of early on. Uh, and it’s just seems like it’s exploded.

 , talking about what you talk about, what you do there, you know, like, just from a, you know, almost like giving advice standpoint because, uh, it’s regular content. It’s always insightful. Sometimes you put some listings up there sometimes it’s, you know, you speaking kind of speak to your, your approach to marketing.

Well, I think I have a pretty specific voice. Which is why, I don’t know if I could like ever shop it out, like, or like give it to anyone else to kind of manage. I it’s what it started as I’ve learned a lot, actually, if I’m being honest, but what it started as, and what it’s become are two very different things.

In the very beginning, I was like, just so passionate about the design. I would find like really cool pictures that I liked and like repost them and stuff like that. And I’ve, I’ve since learned a lot about like, Copyright law and compliance and like, you know what I mean, getting written approval, if I’m going to be sharing, listing photos and things of that nature and, you know, just making sure that I’m following all the rules.

Right. But to your point, I like to have a mix, so it’s like, I like to share. And truthfully, I like to have some standards when it comes to the listings I share. It’s like, I better be really jazzed about the house. I’m going to share it. Right? Cause like there’s so many out there. I’m not really trying to be like the person who shares all the listings.

I know where they all are. I track all the inventory. I have spreadsheets for that stuff. You can find all of the current inventory live on my website. Like that’s fine. When it comes to social, it’s really about like, what is the best design what’s out there that like gets me excited. Like what, when it hits the MLS, what are the home run like?

Whoa, like that came out of left field. The architecture is insane. Like some of the, is the state properties, especially like last year, people are like ravenous about them. Like, it’s unbelievable to me, like the house will need like 200 K and work and people are just like 500 over gasping. Here’s Kevin, yours that are intact, that haven’t been destroyed or a doubt, which is like the case with a lot of these homes.

Right. And because it hasn’t been on the market ever since 1965 and. It’s incredible iconic architecture that will stand the test of time. People freak out. And those are the homes that I really want to share. really just any, or even if it’s like re like a really nice remodel, like something that’s just been done really well, the finishes are great.

Like it’s got to be something that you’re like really jazzed about. Yeah. But then on top of that, again, because I’ve done, I’ve been down the rabbit hole, like doing so much research about these different neighborhoods and the architects and the history and the design, like. I like to educate as a piece of my content strategy.

Right? So it’s like, how do I like tell people what I know, because for me, I always just feel like if you know something you’re doing a disservice to other people, if you don’t share that information and you don’t educate people, and especially with this particular home product, I think there needs to be some more education or like for investors, for example, like, Hey, if you buy a mid-century modern home and you put barn door in it and you peanut gray.

You’re actually gonna get less money out of the flip. Then if you like, keep the original mahogany wood paneling and you design it really cool and put great furniture in it and stage it. And, but like also upgrade the kitchen and like put like the right type of cabinetry and, you know, things like that that are like, It’s like modern or contemporary or whatever, like that fits the style.

There’s just like such a lack of knowledge around like what to do with those types of homes or even people who have lived in them. Like some people live in those homes and they have for decades and they have an idea or they’re living in it blows my mind. And so there’s just like such a lack of like education, especially with this particular home product.

And I would say a really h s of any architectural type, right? Like it could be talking about a tutor. And like some people are just like doing. It’s like, if you’re not respecting the original architecture, like my parents live in a Southern style home, same thing. Like if they’re not designing the house to match the exterior architecture, like you’re doing the house that is service.

Right. That’s just how I feel about it. And so, there’s a lot of that, but then an end, like, I just want to show people like Denver is the coolest city on the, on the planet basically. And. I’ve had some mixed reviews in terms of like layering in lifestyle content and stuff like that. But like Denver really is super cool.

And I want people to know like all around the world and all around the country that like this place has great architecture. I mean, there’s also some awful homes in our mind, but at the same time, it’s like, I want them to know that there’s places like I know, Oh, I know. Like I want them to know that this place is as a destination and that like, we have really great architecture and design here.

And I do actually feel that in my conversations with some of my past clients who are like landscape architects or, you know, work for large architecture firms, I do truly feel that Denver’s becoming a pretty major design city. Like. It’s being put on the map. It’s a little up and coming in that sense and on a global scale, but like we’re definitely getting there and people are moving here who actually care about that stuff.

And. It’s really cool. Right? Like it’s really, it gets me really excited when I hear that. whenever I think about Denver’s architecture, I always go back to, uh, the Denver art muse , both the G Aponte, the original like castle one and then Daniel Liva skins. And I love like, to me, both of those speak to Denver, like so much, because it’s like one is just so historical and like, there’s just so much value to this.

Like. And I don’t, you know, I’m using the wrong words, but this is like traditional, like, look, and then you’ve got leaves, gins, which looks like. Uh, Titanic after it hit an iceberg and flipped over. Right? Like, it’s just, it’s beautiful. But I, to me that those provide such a strong foundation for, you know, I think muse s speak to their, their cities.

 , a lot it’s like a vacation of a city is in a muse . And so I think that speaks to like exactly what you’re saying about architecture being so fundamental here, but it not necessarily being known for it. Right. Oh, yeah. Well, and I love those. I love both of those buildings. Right? The Gio Ponti building is so iconic, but like, it also just went through like a major restoration because again, it needed it.

Right. But it’s like a classic, mid century. Building and they’re making it super cool and adding some like functional upgrades to it. And that’s just kind of how a lot of the mid-century stuff, like that’s what it needs right now. Right. But to your point, it’s like we have a really cool fusion and that’s actually my, my approach.

Like I definitely know brokers who are really far on the side of preservation for mid century, modern item brokers who are very far inside of contemporary. And I like to think that I kind of fall in the middle. Like I like it really like a fusion of old and new. With both. I think that it’s like, do you really want to move into a mid-century modern home that has like, you know, carpet from the 1960s on it?

Like, I mean, if you want to keep that you’re more than welcome to, but like, some things do need to be upgraded. Right. But at the same time, like keep the stuff that’s really cool. And like bring in some vintage stuff. It’s like a novelty item. Right. But then even in terms of like Denver architecture, like we’re getting that new building, I want to, it looks like a.

Like Goudy like crazy. It’s like, I don’t know exactly what it’s called. I think it’s, I forgot what it might be called, like Oculus or something like that, but it’s supposed to be slated to be built on. I want to say 14th, downtown, and it’s like a game changer in terms of architecture and design for Denver, like where it’s like a building that will put us on the map.

For both of those things. Right. And like, that’s really cool. It’s exciting to see like new development slated or even like, I think about, you know, what’s about to happen with, the river mile. I know it’s like a little bit different, but like the, the people who are basically tasked with redesigning a second downtown area for Denver, like they have, you know, they’ve lived in Chicago, they lived in San Francisco.

They understand good design and. They know that they need to integrate that into their plans with all of this rezoning and like using what’s there with the river and like the nature around them and integrating that into the design. Like that is really important to me, but I think I see projects like that slated and like, it’s super excited about like what the future of the city is going to look like, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I mean, and especially, you know, with, with new development on the horizon, I think. you know, fingers crossed. It’s like, that’ll open up some inventory, right? Like we’ll be able to, we’ll be able to, you know, I wouldn’t say it’ll go back to the prices aren’t going to drop, but it’s just going to, it’s going to open it up.

It’s going to make Denver even more in demand, just like you’re saying. Yeah. And like, to some extent too, I know this is tricky, but I do kind of have a heart as well to like work with some international scale who. Like have built good home products that are mid century modern and designed who are like more authentic.

Like, I feel like people in our market, no offense to cellular builders, but like, I’m not going to call them out by name. We know that they exist. Like people have like tried to do the mid-century modern thing. Like I’ve showed so much new construction where they even have like a mid modern model. And I’m like, literally nothing about this house in mid-March except maybe like a slanted roof line.

You like. I think it’s a mid-March it’s like nothing about it is like, you did not take time in what you built and designed to think about, like, what is the brick work I’m going to look like so that it matches this time period? Or like, they, it’s just not thoughtful. They’re like, Ooh, let’s just put like a Sputnik chandelier in it.

And some mind it’s like, no, it doesn’t work like that. You have to actually put more thought into it, but there are other builders on the national scale who. Have done this well, and I do have a heart to work with them and kind of bring some of those home products that are new construction into our market because they do exist.

The opportunities are kind of few and far between they’re really tricky, but like, I would like to provide people with opportunities because I think a lot of people like the alert, new construction, what that provides, right. You’re moving into a brand new home. You don’t have to like do anything.

Everything is turnkey. Right. And the tricky part about this specific type of architecture is. All these homes were built in the fifties, and sometimes you need to do a $200,000 remodel. So if you would be willing to pay a premi for this architecture type, but it was like new construction and you didn’t have to do any of the work.

And this, it was actually like authentic to the design. It wasn’t just some like makeshift thing that is recycled, right. Actually looks like a real, mid-century modern. How many inside with all of the cool features, but it’s new construction. I think there’s like a crazy opportunity there. That’s just totally untapped in our market right now.

You know, your, your passion for the subject is, you know, I think very clear and obviously, you know, very, very attractive to people who are, you know, have even the inkling of interest in pursuing something like that. Do you find that you’re attracting, like, you know, through your marketing, through your social media, you’re attracting buyers who are, you know, Only want mid century modern or are they kind of coming in, like you said before, and they think that’s what they want, but then you can kind of steer them and help them find exactly what they need.

What, what, what kind of, kind of buyers are coming to you? Stephanie? Well, it’s kind of both. I mean, I would say for the most part, if they reach out to me, they have some sort of interest in mid century modern, and they usually love to share this story with me. They’re like, I lived in Chicago and I’m so inspired by the Franklin Wright designs.

And like, I love it. And this is why I love this. And this is why it wants us to kind of help. And some people are just dead set on mid-March, but that’s just all they want. And it’s, those are actually, I hate to say they’re my favorite clients, but they occur. They kind of are my favorite clients because they like want something special.

And to me it’s like more of a fun process. They want something special because I want to help them find it. And it just is more invigorating for me. Right. I think that what’s been happening is like, well, most of my clients, I would say like my best clients are usually they either have an affinity for designer architecture or they are designers or architects themselves one way or another.

Right. So sometimes they just don’t care. Like they really think they want them in mind, but like really what it’s kind of come down to as of late is like, I mean, for example, I think there was like 137,000 ish, like homes built in the 1950s and Denver, but overall there’s maybe, and then, you know, TBD on the number.

Cause I’m still tracking. Right. But like maxim , maybe between like, 8,000 to 10,000 true mid-century modern homes. And of which like a bunch of them have been kind of destroyed and whatever, right? So the inventory is really, really limited. And then the market that already has extremely limited inventory is provided a pretty major challenge because if you want to, mid-March, it’s pretty hard unless you’re finding again, off market opportunities.

It is very, very hard to find that right now. Like, you know, and in previous years there’ve been some neighborhoods that have high turnover and some of those neighborhoods will continue to have high turnover, which is good. But you know, if you’re looking for like some gem cream of the crop home, it’s like, you might get one opportunity a year where that kind of house pops up.

Right. Especially in like luxury price points, like people are pretty specific about what they want or they want a larger size or they want, You know, they want something really special. That’s been remodeled in a specific way. That’s completely turnkey. And I mean, I even seen mid-century modern homes in our market and they are like $1.5 million fixer uppers.

Like, you know what I mean? Or like even same with Boulder, like Boulder, you know, you can find a really cool house for like 2 million, but you can also find stuff that’s like out one. Two, two, one five that just needs a total gut job from the inside out. You have to be willing to take on work. So I think I’m pretty limited with inventory, like, as it is, it’s already limited inventory and that’s why it sells for a premi .

But then on top of that, you’ve layer on this like lack of inventory. And so it’s just been like even more tricky. But that’s why, like I have a process for whenever the inventory pops up. Like, I am the first to know about it. Like if not knowing before it hits, like open record, right? Like, I am very on top of tracking inventory on a daily, if not hourly basis.

And. My executive assistant is kind of tasked with that too. So, I don’t even remember the original question now. I think we went off on a great tangent. I’ve only, I know what we’re coming up on time. I’ve just got two more questions. the first one, uh, restoration versus renovation. What are your thoughts?

 , again, I’m gonna kind of err, on the side of like being in the middle. Right. I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with a renovation, but I just think that like a lot of what we call in the mid century community purists, a lot of purists are like pretty intense about. really triggered by the word renovation, because they think that it means someone’s going to completely gut it, put like really ugly carpet in it, painted gray and put a barn door on it.

Right. Like that’s their fear or, and it means to be fair, even in like some neighborhoods that are on like the national register of historic places, you know, like they, there’s no process sometimes for like, Filtering out what a Homer is going to do to their house. And what’s like acceptable. There’s no like review board.

Right? So the tricky part about that is, you know, and for some historic districts in Denver, they actually have that. They have like a design committee that you have to like. Go through in order to change your house. But for a lot of these, like mid-century modern neighborhoods, they don’t have that. So some of them have been really botched, like even in neighborhoods that are on the national register and it’s like really kind of a sad thing.

Right. And so that sucks. And to come back from that, especially like if it’s bad design, like it’s like expensive and it is hard. And I hope that someday someone will see those homes and just take it on as a project and bring it back to what it should be. But like, Sometimes it doesn’t happen that way, you know, especially if the house has passed or different homeowners who just don’t know what they have.

So it’s a b mer. And I guess I feel like I kind of resonate with the purists in a sense, because like that resonates with me. And I understand that because I, I don’t want that to happen. Like, I don’t want these homes to be completely botched. I also don’t want them to fall into disrepair either though.

So that’s why. I kind of feel that renovation’s not a bad thing, because again, it’s like housing inventory is really reaching this like age limit of like, it’s just falling apart. If you don’t take care of it, like. It will not work. And it’s really cool. If you can find a house that has like, I get so excited when I go to showings and it has like original metal cabinets or has like the original tile work or something like it’s super fun.

Like, and I love seeing that stuff. If it’s in good shape, I think is the filter for me. And like the criteria that I look at, like it needs to be livable and clean and nice. Cause the truth is like, it gets to a certain point where that stuff gets really gunky or it doesn’t work. Right. Like, if you have like an oven, that’s like original cool, but like, if it doesn’t work and it kind of defeats the purpose, like it has to be replaced anyways and then just becomes deferred maintenance and the next buyer, like, they don’t want to deal with that.

You know what I mean? So it’s well, and it’s a novelty item and I think it’s important to keep the really awesome things. Like the exposed beams. Like I like teaching. I mean, some people like to paint them. I like the natural stuff. Like I like the indoor outdoor connection, the natural feel of all these homes.

Love original mahogany. I love like a lot of the original features, but like, you know, a lot of these homes also didn’t have great installation. Sometimes you have to do that. I think there’s a way where you can like redo and renovate things, but still like stay period specifics. Like if you have to rip out original mahogany wood paneling, then maybe drywall over it, do the right amount of installation.

But then like, Replace it with something that looks very similar. Right. But like some homeowners, like they don’t have a choice. Like I have a good friend who owns an incredible iconic home in a pretty like well-known mid century modern neighborhood. And it just so happened that like she had to redo her entire kitchen that had these incredible metal cabinets, but like she had to turn them out because she had galvanized steel pipes.

Like they were corroded, her water supply was awful and it’s like, she didn’t want to tear that stuff out, but like sometimes you have to just to get to what you need to do and like replace stuff and make it functional again, you know? And so she just did it in a way that. You know, mash her style and that’s great.

Like it’s her house. And if you have a problem with it, you can buy the house for the people who like Watson or you can just like, yeah, but like, did you buy the house? Did you do the work? Like, okay. Like if you own the house, it is your house. You have your voice. It is your secret space. Like you can do whatever you want with it.

So total beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s like, Do I want them to fall into disrepair? No. Or I want them to be totally messed up now, but like, we, we can only control so much. Right. So I think there’s a fine line, but I think restoration’s a great word for it. I mean, the word trace around it is whatever right.

But I do, I do think that a lot of these homes need a lot of work right now. So props to the people who are going in there and like spending money and doing it. So my final question, we like to ask all of our guests this, uh, if you, if there was one thing that you could change, maybe in that first time home buying process, or maybe even just early on in your career to be just go back, just change one thing.

What do you think that would be? Well, I think those are like two different questions almost, but if my career in my first year, I really wish, I was like, I was. Taught to live in, you know, have a mindset of abundance and whatever, but like, and I was trying to like do that and integrate that and just, you know, get after it and job in this business.

But I definitely think I was very fear-based the first year I was in this business. I have grown up a lot since I have started real estate, like in a pretty incredible way. Like I think I’ve had to just deepen my, like, Emotional intelligence, my intro, my maturity. Right. And I’ve, I’ve learned a tremendous amount, but that first year I was, I was like a little scared.

Like, I didn’t really know if I was going to be able to make this work. And I mean, there’s still moments sometimes where you have that happen. Right. But like in general, like, I mean, you can totally crush it in this business and do so well for yourself and like build a lot and. Provide a lot of value for a lot of people.

It’s really important to me in terms of the actual home-buying process. I guess I wouldn’t really take back my first time home buying experience, the way that it was because. If I hadn’t had that happen to me, I wouldn’t be in the business. Right. So I’m very grateful that that actually happened the way that it did.

And again, some homes are meant to be forever homes and some are meant to be lessons. Right. But in terms of the actual process itself, like it would have been nice to have had like a full, a team of great people who were on my side and helping me. And, I think it’s really important for people going into that first time home buying experience to have.

A very real set of expectations in terms of what the market’s going to do and what they need to do to win, and just make sure that they have, like, they need to be in the best financial situation possible to put their best foot forward in every scenario, because truthfully, the people who are winning right now are the people who have the most liquid cash.

Whether that’s cash putting down on the house or cash or an appraisal gap. I mean, it’s truly coming down to appraisal gaps right now, you know? And so it’s like the more you have to spend on an appraisal gap and the more liquid cash you have, like the better position you are in. And so I would say definitely save, save, save to my first time home buyers, like just save as much as you can because also even when you close on the house, like there’s a lot of expenses that come up right away.

Like. You just have to dress, like if you didn’t get a certain thing and inspection, and I truly try to make sure that like, they get everything that they need to feel comfortable to move into the house upon inspection, but like say they don’t get something that’s really important to them or they know about a problem and they have to dress it after they close.

You need to have a liquid cash available to like address those points. You know? So I think that that’s kind of how I like to think about it now. Great, Stephanie. Uh, thank you so much for joining us today. Of course. Thank you for inviting me. I sincerely appreciate it. Yeah. and you’ve been listening to the brokerage insider, the podcast where we interviewed the leaders in real estate and technology.

Today, we were joined by Stephanie Kroll, broker associated with mile high modern, and also the owner of the Instagram handle at @midmoddreamhomes. You want to go find her and follow her there immediately. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, wherever you download podcasts.