Enjoy Realty Holiday Update: The Eras Tour

'Tis the Season for Milestones and Change

Season's Greetings folks! Recently, I received a calendar alert with an ominous afterthought of a title:

“Crip's 20 yr real estate anniversary. Geez.”

So I got on DORA and, sure enough, my Colorado real estate license was first issued on November 30th, 2005. I don’t know if I optimistically created the calendar alert in 2005 or what, but in the back of my mind I knew the twenty year mark was looming.

What follows are nuggets of experiences and lessons learned over the last 20 years, mainly from real estate but also from drumming, music, and life in general. I would invite you, dear reader, to perform the same mental time travel exercise. Reflecting on the changes in yourself and your life over a long period of time can be quite impactful. Twenty years ago I found myself embarking on a daunting life change, and, coincidentally, am currently about to do the same.

I’ll begin with a realization: Being happy has been my #1 goal for as long as I can remember. This type of goal ironically contradicts the feel-good info you get at motivational workshops, because it’s hard to quantify what “being happy” actually is. If I gave this as my answer, the hyper host would likely ask, “Well, how many sales will make you happy, fellow entrepreneur?” Then I would get up and leave. 

The happiest and most content I consistently am - and have been - boils down to a quadfecta of constants I’ve had for the last 16, 19 and 20 years (and counting):

• Whenever I watch my daughter crushing it on stage;
• Whenever I see an impossibly mind-blowing piece of art my son has produced;
• Whenever I’m on stage with the awesome people and bands I’ve played with;
• Whenever I’m busy and face to face with my clients.

In all of those situations there’s nowhere I’d rather be, and it's easy to live 100% in the moment and appreciate every second. Often, these overlap in surprising ways, but for our purposes here we’ll focus largely on that last one, since I have YOU to thank for my relative longevity in this field. And if we haven’t been face to face in a while, please accept my apologies with the hope we can get together soon! I’m hoping 2026 is the year of reconnection, for all of us.

ERA ONE, 2005-2009: Realty Executives & Captain Fantasy Real Estate

After passing the necessary exams in late 2005, I interviewed at every office possible and quickly learned:

• Just about every Managing Broker (MB) would have you believe they “don’t want their office to be the biggest, just the best”;
• The MB will then say they weren’t looking for new agents but, by golly, they like the cut of your jib so they'd like to offer you an exclusive spot at their office;
• I will never have my face wrapped all over my car;
• No matter what “foolproof systems” a brokerage offers, your business will ultimately be up to you;
• A lot of the big companies are absolutely obsessed with their numbers.

Realty Executives was built differently. The office was right next to The Aggie, the people working there were essentially a funky family, I was the third North Dakotan in the office (!), and MB Ted Mares had a boatload of REO accounts. [Side note: If you know REO stands for “real estate owned”, then congratulations! You know more than former Secretary of HUD Ben Carson did when he was actively serving as the Secretary of HUD.] 

My first year was trial by fire. I did grunt work for the office and my cohorts, and drove all over the state chasing every lead. At one early HUD home showing, financing options were brought up and the buyers suggested they could use their neat old jukebox as collateral. Eventually, I realized it might be a good idea to start qualifying people over the phone as best I could, no matter how awkward it seemed.

In mid-2006 I had a handful of low-dollar closings under my belt, no real business plan, and a kid on the way. At one point I sold my only guitar (an Explorer Pro from my Las Vegas stint), putting our checking account at $400. Eventually, I moved into an office with my friend Shannon, who was Ted’s assistant. She was (and still is) a miracle worker, and one of the few genuine multi-taskers I’ve ever met. She ran MB Ted’s business, making it easy for him to split for Jamaica at any given time without warning. Because I was learning Shannon's stuff by osmosis, I was the natural candidate to take over her spot when she left for maternity leave. Unlike her, I couldn’t accomplish everything between 9-5, so I regularly worked until midnight or later, often shirtless because of our lousy AC.

When Shannon returned I took a few things off her plate, which led to the HUD listings becoming my dominion. Since we were only getting a couple hundred bucks for each on the listing side, the main benefit was selling as many as you could. Here are some fun facts about HUD homes, and not-so-fun-facts:

• Fun fact: HUD homes are FHA foreclosures. FHA loans are insured by the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development, hence the “appraisal conditions” inherent to FHA loans;
• Not-so-fun-fact: Because of the slightly lower rates and looser borrowing guidelines, FHA loans tend to have a higher foreclosure rate than conventional loans;
• FF: At one point, I had fourteen HUD homes under contract simultaneously;
• NSFF: More than half of those fourteen deals were terminated prior to close, which sadly was often the case (and is the reason a lot of therapists love me);
• FF: HUD had a $100-Down program wherein a qualified buyer could get into any “insured” property by using FHA financing;
• NSFF: Many folks were proud to announce they had $100 and wanted one of them HUDs but would ultimately prove unqualified to buy a toothbrush, let alone a house.

HUD used their FHA appraisals as the basis for the listings, citing only above-grade data in their square footage and bed/bath counts (still common in appraisals). We were mandated to use those numbers on the listings, which came in weekly waves. I was going into every listing to put up signs and do periodic inspections, so I began writing emails about the actual bed/bath/sq footage numbers, and whether the property indeed had a basement. The best part? I could make fun of the goofy conditions because it’s all predicated on price, right? These “HUD Reports” went out every week via email at first. Here’s an example of what a property blurb would read:

“Relisted Again, Again: 208 N 9th Avenue St Rd Ln Ct, Greeley: $52,000. 4 bed, 2 bath 1000 sq ft over 1000 finished sq ft but listed as 2 bed, 1 bath. This house smells like a dead whale, has a repair escrow for plumbing & mold, is missing a water heater, and for some reason they left the stripper pole in the kids’ room, but at $52k it’s an amazing deal for this much square footage and size of the yard. Sorry, no video walk through because this place is more trouble than it’s worth.”

*Note: I started with an actual blurb and changed some, but not all, of it.

Eventually the HUD Report emails morphed into a blog, and the video walkthroughs still live on YouTube. I was going to include one but they are too painful to watch.

Oh, if you’re wondering what the heading of this Era references, part of my early grunt work involved evictions, trash outs, maintenance, and foreclosure postings in the middle of nowhere. Well, one boutique bank was paying $225 to mow the lawn of a Greeley property, but required an actual contractor invoice for payment. Largely for my own amusement (and probably while listening to The Pod by Ween), I gave Shannon an invoice with a ridiculous contractor name. I truly shouldn’t have been surprised - but was - when a couple weeks later I received a check payable to Captain Fantasy Real Estate. Thus, my first LLC's bank account was established with a $225 deposit.

ERA TWO, 2009-2014: Rock Bottom, Recovery & R.I.P. Realty Execs

I’m going to skip ahead a bit and show you the current housing index, taken straight from the https://www.fhfa.gov site:

 Actually, let's go with a more precise version: 
​

Needless to say, this era was tough for a lot of people. However, I was getting busier and Shannon was about to have another baby. I was in charge of interviewing and hiring her temporary replacement for two important reasons: 1) I already knew the various processes, and, 2) Since we'd be working in the same 12x12 office it had to be someone I could get along with, and vice versa (read: they had to put up with my music). Moreover, if things went well I hoped to keep them on as my assistant once Shannon returned. Enter Erica “Eduardo Eddie F”, my Canadian sister. Some Edwardian highlights:

• Once told a group of bettors that eating 100 McNuggets would be “easy” but she couldn't participate because of her gluten allergy, so…
• She suggested her challenge food be hot dogs instead (but I can’t remember how many she would need to eat - 50 I think?);
• During her “training” she poisoned herself whilst discovering certain hot dogs have gluten-y fillers;
• Recovered and beat the challenge, vowing to never do it again;
• Bought a HUD house with $100 down! Which, I believe, she won from the hot dog challenge;
• Was and probably still is a killer wakeboarder;
• Told me at an office party I was “The Worst Boss Ever”. Yes she was serious, and yes, she was totally right. 

During this era, the market hit its lowest growth in nearly a decade, and it was common for us to list an REO at half or even a third of what the mortgagee had against it. Some insights from the world of foreclosures:

• Some homes were in great condition, thanks to the “cash for keys” program. Essentially, the asset company (typically Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) would give the tenant $200 or so to leave the house in “broom-swept condition”, leave the keys and GTFO;
• Most places, however, were trashed, and the worst would be destroyed out of spite. Exploded plumbing, every wall and window broken, copper stripped, flooded basements, mold, etc. One place in Bellvue had “WAMU = Predatory Lending” in various misspellings on every wall;
• I'd say 75% of them had alarm systems and/or an ADT sign in the yard;
• Most REOs, HUDs in particular, had terrifically bad paint as a rule in both color choices and job quality. One place burned in my mind had the tub and toilet spray painted navy blue;
• It was common to see every room - nay - every wall painted some hideous shade of “Ooops” paint. When I go into a house with dozens of interior colors, I’m not afraid to say I need a moment to gather myself and deal with my foreclosure PTSD;
• I showed a bunch of Greeley/Evans HUD houses to a cop and his daughter. One had red carpet, red walls, red ceilings, red everything. I cracked a joke about being uncomfortable since I was a Crip in an all-red house; he assured me that it was 100% a gang house. Ha! Heh. Heh…?

Around 2011 the market began to normalize, and “normal” sales largely became my business. However, I continued to fight the “HUD Guy” stigma for years. By 2012, the market was officially on the upswing, which meant REOs began to dry up. Around this time all HUD contracts with listing agents and the main corporate agent, MCB, were up. Ted and I put together a slick presentation to try and retain the account, but we failed. Didn’t matter though - there weren’t many listings to be had and the new system was designed to frustrate. I was burned out on them anyway.

Ted knew a change in direction was needed so he brought in two investors to rebrand the office and “be awesome”. Two of the top agents split immediately. While I weighed my options, I was asked to come up with a new office name, URL, logo, etc., all of which I thoughtfully created. Predictably, my suggestions were ignored and they went with nCompass Real Estate, which quietly folded a few years later.

Ted passed away in September of 2018 at the age of 52, his memorial held in a church a few hundred feet from Jim’s Wings. He and I went to Jim’s many times so he could talk me out of quitting real estate, while encouraging me to cherish all the good things I had, and life in general. Not only was he a wise and optimistic counselor in that regard, I’ve also never seen someone instantly shut down a belligerent agent with a simple, “This is Ted - I understand you want Fannie Mae to change protocol?” Cue stammering on the other end. It was amazing.

Rest in peace, Ted Mares, HMFIC. Whenever I think of you, I see you smiling and it makes me happy. 

ERA THREE, 2014-2016: 8zzzz

Summer of 2014, I once again entered the interview fray with a new purpose. Realty Executives had little in the way of support, save for our overworked angel of an office manager Kaylene. Offices with support systems were subsequently my primary targets.

Around this time, I called a lender named Joe to get the skinny on some buyers who offered on a listing of mine. We happily chatted for a while and he signed off with, “Oh and by the way, Eddie says hi!” That’s when I learned Erica was working the front desk at the Fort Collins 8z office.

I had been seeing their signs a bit more and, like many people, was both puzzled and intrigued by the name. Around the same time, a client had me deliver a seller “Love Letter” to the prospective property’s listing agent, Brandon, who also happened to be the team lead at the FTC 8z office. [Side note: Even though love letters were a popular tool for a few years, they are now prohibited for discriminatory reasons.] I dropped off the fancy letter and was able to catch up with Eddie and talk with Brandon for a while about the listing, but mostly about 8z in general. 

Shannon, fully aware I was interviewing other offices, mentioned previously working with - and being impressed by - Lane, the MB of 8z. This was during her tenure at the Boulder RE/Max years prior when Lane had created his search page, nocohomefinder. Eventually, I interviewed at the 8z “Mothership” in Boulder and was surprised to be greeted by Lane, who indeed was one of the sharpest people I’d ever met. Lane and I commiserated over Zillow and their lousy and expensive “leads” system, and I gushed about Lane’s nocohomefinder being a powerhouse search engine that many of my clients used and preferred to the national sites.

Lane was excited about their big plans for the site and sounded ready to take Zillow head on. I also learned the mysterious 8z name represented the Colorado 8XXXX zip codes they serviced (or is that 8ZZZZ?). The explanation sidestepped the lone office they had in San Francisco, but it mattered not. I was all in.

A few months after I joined 8z, they surprisingly replaced the “old workhorse” nocohomefinder site and redirected it to the all-new 8z site, which was built on a fancy platform. This also meant folks had to now log in to use it, a significant hurdle the previous site didn’t require.

Shortly thereafter, 8z made an "exciting announcement": Zillow leads were coming to their teams.

By mid-2016, I had begun planning my exit strategy. When I left 8z I had to sign disclosures barring me from saying or writing anything disparaging about the company, so…..

​
​    ERA FOUR, 2017-2023

One unique thing 8z offered was its “Club 10”. If you closed $10M in volume in a calendar year they would send you on an expense-paid trip to Mexico with a bunch of other 8zers. I never made "the club" in the two years I was there and it never drove me, at all. In 2017 as my first year as an independent broker, I came darn close to hitting that mark. More importantly, I was MUCH happier, and the money I saved on my split could have sent me on 30 all-inclusive Mexico trips, conservatively.

Erickson Realty officially opened at the beginning of 2017, and it was a solid start for the company. You may remember a blitz of emails and alerts from me during this period since I gained a huge amount of time by NOT being in an office. However, missing from my new world was the ability to holler at fellow agents and in-house lenders. A small bit of loneliness eventually set in, coupled with the reality of being the dude in charge. The boss. Head man. Top Dog. Big cheese. The head honcho.

In 2018, I decided to establish my own independent broker group, which is now known as The Indies. The group has been extremely valuable in terms of accountability and open dialogue, particularly when contractual issues arise that aren’t easily solved, or wholly solvable. After receiving numerous calls from interested brokers I got sick of hearing my voice and created a page that spelled everything out. So for the sake of brevity, you can learn a little bit more about the Indies by checking out the page if you wish. 

Later that year, I received a call from a former client who wanted to hang her license at Erickson Realty. She lasted one deal with me and left on good terms, which was the best for all concerned. And this, dear reader, is where I'll drop an important life lesson:

If you’re lucky, you may be recognized as someone’s favorite person, but you aren’t going to be everybody’s hero. In fact, you may even be the villain in somebody’s story. But which role would you rather embrace?

The first two years of Erickson Realty involved working the busy NoCo market while figuring out what drove me. Mama Lenny and the Remedy were flying high, so the music side of life was going well. My kids were doing great. I still had most of my hair. My Mini had only fallen apart a couple times. Things were good, so I revisited the idea of being an actual managing broker and not just a one-man show (office name aside, which we'll get to later). 

So I decided to do some recruiting, starting with a client from whom a literal family tree of referrals had grown. That was Deborah Alexander, who joined in early 2019 and is still with us today. She’s been instrumental in establishing the ethos of the company, and getting us to sponsor - and (somewhat grudgingly)  run - in the Horsetooth Half since 2023.

So far, we’ve had a good run (pun intended).

​

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ERA FIVE, 2024 - ??? :

The only other recruiting I had done before or since was in 2017. A fellow 8zer learned I went independent, so we met up a few times to discuss office options and the biz. I had her gather splits from all the places she was considering since, frankly, I had no idea what was typical of other offices. It occurred to me I should throw my hat into the option ring.

She had no problem with the splits since I would basically match the best one she found, she had no problem with me (she’s been an Indie for the duration), and she didn’t mind that we didn’t offer classes or the other fluff a big box brokerage purports to.

She simply didn’t like the name Erickson Realty, citing the desire for an office where she could grow her own identity. My snarky retort was likely, “Would you prefer a name with, say, one letter and one numeral?”

Because going independent is the ultimate passion project, the basic Erickson Realty name just made sense to me. However, I fully understood her point and didn’t want the name to be a future road block for new agents, or expansion in any direction. To that last point, property management became a viable option upon meeting our current director of all things PM, Matt Christensen. Matt is a gem who’s both overqualified and passionate about property management, which is a combination that’s as rare as it is valuable.

Erickson Realty was evolving, so rather than a total rebrand the idea was to merge the old with the new. We agreed having a stylized E was still the best logo carryover, challenging and limiting us to E . . . something. Evo was a prime candidate but it was a bit too generic and made me think of 2-in-1 shampoo. Still does.

But the idea of an evolution, an ethos, in the name was compelling. So, obviously, Ethos became the next choice. But it didn't say what the ethos of the company was, only that we might have one.

An enjoyable experience was always the ethos, even when I contemplated the mission statement of Captain Fantasy Real Estate. And even though it had been somewhat obvious the whole time, it clicked when Deb and I had a blind and simultaneous agreement on this simple name that sums up the ethos of the company. 

Now, I don’t know if the name change was the impetus for getting two more agents shortly afterward, but it happened. And they are "Maui" Jay McCulloch and Emilie Gunderson. Both are excellent tennis players, incidentally. Emilie will kick your ass, guaranteed.

There are more changes ahead for Enjoy Realty, some planned and plenty more that have yet to reveal themselves as we navigate restructure and the ever-changing real estate policies and regulations.

Speaking of changes, here's a brief list:

2005: The Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (CBS1-07-04) was 11 pages long (and the HUD contract was one page);
2025: The latest Colorado CtBaS (CBS1-6-24) is 20 pages, and typically 21+ with extra signers or verbiage.

2005: Paper contracts with wet signatures and earnest money checks tendered at delivery was the norm;
2025: The last time I was handed a paper contract and EM check was 2011.

2005: Legal paper! Fit more on less!
2025: Letter-sized everything = pdfs with a second page with naught but a signature line on it. 😡

2005: U+2 revised and FTC starts actively enforcing it;
2025: U+2 dead as of 2024 thanks to CO law. 🙂

2005: Radon disclosure required for Fort Collins transactions;
2025: The radon lobby has inserted itself into the actual Colorado purchase contract after a rare mid-year revision.

2005: Metropolitan Districts are rare in NoCo, consisting mostly of large, master-planned areas (e.g. Water Valley, Centerra);
2025: Metro Districts everywhere, currently 2000+ in Colorado, nearly 150 in Larimer and over 200 in Weld.

2005: AI is largely considered to be in the realm of science fiction, or used in limited capacity by big tech firms;
2025: Did Crip type this using ChatGPT? (answer: HELL no).

2005: Average price of an attached dwelling in Larimer County was ~$199,000, median ~$165,000;
2025: Average price of an attached dwelling in Larimer County is $450,990, median is ~$409,900.

2005: ​Average price of a detached single family home in Larimer County was $300,498, the median was $246,500;
2025: Average price of a detached single family home in Larimer County is $662,978, median is $572,000.

1992 ➡ 2005 ➡ 2025: Here’s a graph of the housing index with the national line, the Larimer County line, and Weld county, overlaid.

​Bear in mind the housing index isn’t necessarily an indicator of historical prices per se, it’s a record of home price movement over time. Ex. In 2022, Larimer was around an index of 280; in 2016 it was around 160. If 160/2016 is our baseline, that’s a 75% increase to 2022, so, crudely, homes saw a 75% jump in value during that time. You can see more at enjoyrealty.net/stats.

Initially, I had a pile of graphs and charts here but they all basically illustrated the same thing. So for the final 2005 vs 2025 list, I present what I heard the most in 2005, and what I've heard the most in 2025 (and basically every year for the last 20 years):

2005: “I’m waiting for prices/rates to drop.”

And…

2025: “I’m waiting for prices/rates to drop.”

I had clients who bought as many places as they could in Greeley/Evans for ~$40,000 during the HUD heyday, including one for $36,500 in 2008. It sold earlier this year for $285,100. More importantly, the equity they had in each house was used to procure another, and then another, and so on.

You can’t do that if you’re renting or, worse, waiting. So while you might see indicators of prices being down year over year, I wouldn’t take it as a warning sign but quite the opposite, in fact. Some buyers caught in the frenzy of overbidding by $100k on homes a few years ago may have, in fact, overpaid and likely weren’t able to sell for what they had in it IF they needed to unload it a few years after buying (but I’m sure those people were/are just fine). 

Housing values perpetually rise, particularly in NoCo. Much like you can’t buy Apple stock at $22 today, you’d be stoked if you bought it at $100 five years ago. Which, incidentally, is also the best time to buy a house (five years ago that is, or fifteen, or insert-whatever-number-you-like).

So - to those clients that HAVE gotten on the real estate train and benefited from it, a very large and sincere THANK YOU because you are the reason I do what I do. I'm not sure I have another 20 years in me, but as long as you all stay in touch and send referrals my way, I might become the oldest working Managing Broker/Drummer of all time. Perhaps I already am?

My final thoughts therefore pertain to drumming and real estate. For those who don’t know, drumming was why I moved to Fort Collins in 1997 and was my first post-college job. Depending on the context, I still say I’m either a broker or a drummer, or both. I’ve never shied away from telling people I’m either, but it’s understandably difficult for people to imagine any possible overlap in drumming and real estate skill sets. The overlaps definitely exist, at least for me. And they are:

• You are in charge of the time;
• You typically need to be as supportive as you can in every way;
• You may have to put a crazy amount of time and effort into something knowing the outcome is uncertain or bleak;
• You will encounter and work with all personality types & styles, so adapting and "meeting people where they are" is crucial;
• You take in a bunch of different information from various sources/varying levels and try to make it all turn out as awesome as possible in real time;
• Getting somewhat proficient in the field makes you realize how much there is yet to learn, so…
• You Never. Stop. Learning.
• It’s often assumed what we’re doing is simple, particularly when asked to keep it as such. However, "simplicity" often involves a heck of a lot more work than folks realize. People want THEIR part of the process to be simple, or to at least feel easy. So you try to make it feel effortless for those around you. 
• If you’re doing it right, it will be fun for everyone. Sometimes everyone is four people, sometimes it’s four hundred. And when people smile because of something you’ve done, all is right in the world. 

 
Happy Holidays and thank you all for 20 years of friendships and good times. Cheers and I hope to see you in 2026 if not sooner. 🤘🏼 Crip

Crip's OG 2005 head shot. □