‘Golden Real Estate’ Is Now ‘Century 21 Golden Real Estate’ — What It Means to You (and Me)

On July 9th, I finalized an “asset purchase agreement” with the owner of several other Century 21 franchise branches in Colorado, headquartered at Century 21 Elevated Real Estate in Grand Junction. Here’s the new logo for our company — the same, but with CENTURY 21 branding added:

They also purchased the Century 21 branch across the street from us in downtown Golden, and will be closing that office, inviting its agents to affiliate with our office.

This is a big change for me, of course. I started Golden Real Estate, Inc., the same month that Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007.

At the time, I had been a RE/MAX Alliance broker associate for four years. I was purchasing a building on South Golden Road (currently the Golden Outpost), and RE/MAX wouldn’t allow it to be a RE/MAX office, because there were already three franchise offices (including my own) within a few miles. My solution was to start a new brokerage, which I was able to do, having attained licensure as an “employing broker” the year before. My vision had been to create a new RE/MAX franchise with the name “RE/MAX Sustainable Living.”

A big reason (for me) to purchase that building was its frontage on South Golden Road, where I could park the box truck which I was providing free to buyers and sellers. At the RE/MAX office, the truck was parked out of sight behind their office building. On South Golden Road it would stand as a billboard promoting me.

So, Golden Real Estate, Inc. was born, and I quickly attracted some broker associates, which made the enterprise more viable.

I followed through on my sustainability values by adding 5kW of rooftop solar panels and, later on, another 15kW of ground-mounted solar panels to power not only the office and its heat pump HVAC system, but also my electric vehicles, those of my broker associates, and even those of the general public. It was a good life.

Toward the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, a storefront became available next to the Ace Hi Tavern, and I moved Golden Real Estate into it, renting out the building on South Golden Road, but continuing to park our box truck there. Finally, I sold the building to Joe & Stacy Fowler of the Golden Hayride, who have done an amazing job of converting it into a venue called the Golden Outpost. I’m so impressed with their improvement of the site.

So what does this change to a Century 21 branch mean to you, my readers and clients? Not much, really. All our broker associates have signed on with the new owners, and I’m committing to staying as managing broker for another 12 months, after which I may stay or choose to retire. Since I’ll be 78 years old, probably the latter.

One difference you’ll notice is that this advertising becomes my sole expense, not the company’s, so I’ll continue it as long as it brings me clients. I will continue to promote our broker associates’ listings and get a small referral fee from them when I refer a reader who contacts me about listing or buying a home. In other words, please support my continuation of this column by contacting me if you’d like to buy or list a home. If I can’t serve you myself, I’ll refer you to a broker associate who I believe can serve you just as well as I would.

Thanks for your support!