I hope that you and yours had a very Happy New Years! 2009 was a challenging year in many ways but these are the times that bring out the best in good people and I have been fortunate to witness many good instances of that. I feel closer to my family and friends. Doing business required a lot of thought, hard work, creativity and attention to all aspects of each opportunity. In the same way it was extraordinary because it let us grow and show who we are as people and a community in tough times. I am lucky to have an incredible family along with a group of friends that is second to none.
As I think about my family I can truly say I feel lucky everyday. Many thanks to my parents, grandparents and siblings that made me who I am to my incredible wife and kids that inspire me to my awesome outlaws who have taught me so much.
To all my friends that I get to enjoy Steamboat with, life in general and who have given me such great advice I am truly grateful. While my schedule doesn't allow me to be out having fun most days I appreciate all of you that call to get me out on the bike, skis, river, trails, ice rink and so many more fun places.
While I don't look back and say wow that was a great year the numbers were and it is in great part thanks to friends that trusted me to navigate this market for them and referred their friends to do the same. That makes up 80 plus % of my business. It has been fun to work at every level and property type in the market from several first time buyers to helping a good friend buy Slopeside Grill to a large mix of luxury properties. I am grateful so many people place their trust in me and I work hard to make sure that is a good idea.
If I have one business value that never changes it is take care of others and I won't have to worry about myself. This came from my grandfather when I was 5, it is sometimes expensive in the short term in missed opportunity from saying it is not the time yet but I have no doubt it is what made the great business aspects of 2009 possible not to mention the value of truly enjoying the friends I am so fortunate to work with everyday. It is very satisfying to to not only know that this is how I want to be but see others place value in this approach. It is nice to live in a place where others see the greater good. Heartfelt thanks to all of you!
In 2009 I was able to recognize the fundamental changes in my business and what it takes to help people navigate these changes. It has been a year of much thought and learning. I also increased my dedication to making Steamboat great by being even more active in the Boards of the Urban Renewal Authority that is revitalizing the base area, the Steamboat Chamber of Commerce which helps Steamboat stay strong, contribute to various causes that help our communities and help jump start the Steamboat Walk of the Olympians to name some of few of the biggest efforts. I even got to sponsor half of Santa's visits to downtown Steamboat this year when funding came up short. I am fortunate to work with a lot of great people in each of these efforts.
2009 brought many things business wise that make me feel great about the future. I was able to be successful in a difficult year, grow my market share, increase the quality of my network significantly, made a very active effort to learn more and peel back the layers to really understand what is going on, was humbled to get a lot of calls asking for insights from many leaders of our community, bankers, appraisers etc and usually knew what they wanted to know, Learned from some of the best on a national level that share my philosophy, really brought together my ideas on how to do this business right and have started to implement them. I hired a great guy to help implement many of my ideas, am looking for a great assistant, distilled all of my ideas so I can put together a winning strategy on the web and so many more things. There was a significant flight to quality this year in both properties and who people chose to work with. I saw this happening in several ways but was humbled to have several people point this out.
I am very optimistic for 2010. There are many positive signs that we are working through the problems both nationally and locally, I have been busy for 9 months and see more people starting to get there, people want to be in Steamboat to spend quality time with those that matter to them and have the means to do so, volumes are up significantly this fall, buyers and sellers are getting closer, there is an opportunity to get the best properties as good prices, parts of the market have fully recovered and I am fortunate to have a significant group of people I am actively working with to buy and sell quality properties.
I wish all of you a great year in 2010. Thank you for everything.
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