New Episode – Inside Aspen: Luxury Market Update with Michael Latousek

We’re walking in a winter wonderland through one of the most sought-after luxury markets in the world — Aspen, Colorado — and it’s not slowing down. This week, Haley welcomes back Michael Latousek of Douglas Elliman for a fresh look at what’s changed since 2024 and what’s ahead this ski season.

From record-setting sales to the rise of “quiet luxury,” they dig into tight inventory, construction pressures, privacy trends, and why winter remains prime time for buyers in the Roaring Fork Valley. Whether you’re exploring an investment in Aspen or simply love a peek at world-class alpine living, tune in for a little mountain magic and big-time market insight.

Links
Douglas Elliman – Michael Latousek
Michael’s Listings

Want to watch this episode? Check it out on our Youtube Channel!

Haley (00:06):

Welcome back to the Land Bulletin podcast, where every other week we bring you experts in the field to impart their knowledge when it comes to the ranch and sporting property market, buying and selling advice, the latest, best stewardship practices, as well as topics that impact landowners every day. I’m your host, Haley Mirr. Let’s jump in. 

Welcome back to the Land Bulletin podcast. I’m Haley Mirr, and today we’re bringing on a guest that you guys have met before Michael Latousek with Douglas Elliman up in Aspen. Thank you for coming on the show again, Michael, to talk about current trends that you’re seeing up in Aspen and just like the resort markets at large, what has changed since 2024, what we’re looking at now. So without further ado, welcome Michael Laic back to the show.

Michael L (00:49):

Awesome, thank you, Haley. Now this is, it’s always a treat to get on here and catch up with what’s happening up here in the mountains. And yeah, we’re just rolling into the holiday season and actually just had, just to get right into it with some of the market updates just in the last two weeks, there’s been quite a flurry for single family home sales overall this year, 25 compared to 24, I think we’re on track to be about the same, around 3 billion in total volume. But what’s happened this year is transactions are up considerably, what is it? 12, almost 1300 total real estate transactions this year at around 3 billion last year, 2024, there were 850 transactions.

Haley (01:41):

Okay, so sizeable.

Michael L (01:42):

Ultimately, that kind of brings down the median sales price, but like I said, just in the last two weeks we had really strong, we had, despite transactions, there were three of ’em were off market, 135 million in those five transactions that just closed in Aspen. So average home sale price was right around 27 million there. And so fourth quarter, obviously going strong, let’s see, just since mid-September 16, single family home sales totaling 344 million, which brings the average around 21 million for home sales. We’ve had four single family home sales over 25, I’m sorry, over 50 million this year. The high, I think is 58 million. And some of this though, what we’re seeing though too, as we all, we talk about quiet, luxury, et cetera, details, but the amount of NDAs that are going on, we kind of joke in the business here. I meet up with other realtors and we talk about what we have going on or what is going on, try to find out what’s going on, and we joke that we can’t talk about anything we have going on because we’re all signing NDAs on these deals.

(03:01):

And so you just sort of have to respect that per your client, and that’s what we’re here for. Aspen continues to be a haven for the ultra over wealth, and I don’t see it changing one bit and even a little bit this summer, I live downtown Basalt just about 15 miles down from Aspen, and we had some kind of interesting market this summer for Basalt even where there’s kind of the next level of sort trophy properties come on to market some over 15, 20 million fly fishing properties, et cetera. None of ’em sold, but we did get a lot of Aspen moving down to basal dairy or at least looking at everything that’s going on because of, so to speak, getting pushed out of Aspen and pricing and just sort of how chaotic it’s become. But the whole valley is getting looked at these days for some of these substantial properties, but overall kind of on the same trend as last year. So it’s still been strong and I think we’ll have a good winter. We need some snow, but here as of mid-November, but we’ll get it. We always do.

Haley (04:22):

Yeah, I know. I was seeing on your social media that you do so well that you guys have had no snow, so we’re hoping that changes.

Michael L (04:33):

It looks like we got some coming in this weekend. Next week California is getting hammered with all these atmospheric rivers, so it’ll help really does.

Haley (04:42):

That’s good.

Michael L (04:44):

I think in one of our records, snow years, I think it was 2007, it was completely dry until beginning of December, and then it just was nonstop, so just kind of at fake,

Haley (04:56):

So the people will still, and I think it’s always super interesting in the ranch real estate market, our heaviest season is this summer as is you ares. I mean, that’s usually when people are coming out, but you also have this really remarkable opportunity during the winter to also capitalize on people that are coming to your area and experiencing Aspen during the winter. Do you kind of see that shift happening again? This will become a heavier time in the market up there during the winter season?

Michael L (05:28):

Definitely. It’s one thing, I’m a huge skier. I ski a ton, and what’s really exciting about the wintertime, unlike summer, summer, everyone tends to be spread out the winter, everyone sort of convenes at the ski areas and you get to, I feel like I see people a lot more in the summer. Everyone’s spread throughout the valley. They’re mountain biking down valley or playing golf down valley or they’re around Aspen going for hikes, et cetera. But the nice thing is about the winter of the ski season is really getting to see a lot more people and be with them and more of capture their presence, whether you’re in the gondola with ’em or getting to see ’em in only the mountain restaurants. So yes, I feel like most of the second, third, fourth homeowners around Aspen two still come in for skiing, so it seems like it’s a little more contained to where you can see ’em, whether it’s at Snow Mass Mountain or at Aspen Highlands or at Aspen Mountain. That’s what I love about it. And my office is right across the street from the gondola downtown Aspen too, so whether I’m skiing or just hanging out near the office just to get to see everyone, and in the wintertime, that’s a lot more fun than in the summer where everyone’s kind of spread out.

Haley (06:52):

Yeah, it feels a little bit more communal. Do you feel that inventory, you said that the amount of transactions increase this year. Do you foresee that inventory will continue to be at the rate that it’s been over the last couple years, or do you think because a lot of things have sold in the last couple that maybe that will normalize a little bit more?

Michael L (07:15):

Well, it’s interesting. Our inventory still is pretty tight, and I think what’s going on, I think that trend is going to continue here simply because our construction costs are through the roof right now. Aspen general contractors, they’re bidding 2000 to $4,000 a square foot for new construction.

Haley (07:38):

Geez, that’s crazy.

Michael L (07:40):

With construction costs, et cetera being and how restrictive and how long it takes to build, whether it’s in City of Aspen or whether it’s in Picken County as a whole, I feel like those that own property here already are a little more reluctant to giving it up because what are they going to move into next? And

(08:00):

There’s still the big drive for finished product, but it seems to be coming out slower than it used to just because these builders are kind of throwing up their hands saying this, the restrictive or developers in general, the timeline’s taking forever. So I see inventory still being an issue, which will inevitably continue to drive up pricing, which is scary to think about. My mode always in this whole market, I’ve been doing this 25 years and I don’t care if prices go up or down, I just want transactions. And it’s nice that I’d love to see a correction. I would love it if we had one, you get some new people into the market, just sort of a cycle that I’d love to see, but at this point it doesn’t seem like we’re going to have anything like that. So I still see inventory sort of being pretty tight.

Haley (08:53):

That makes a lot of sense. And I mean inventory, space, all those things. Could you tell us a little bit for the people listening, when you talk about the restrictions in Pit King County, how has that changed over the years? I know when people think of Aspen, they think of, other than the really cool Victorian houses that I love in town and things like that, there are some big houses that you see on Red Mountain and things like that. How has that changed? How has the county changed to such a degree where the building has shifted and that kind of mindset of these big mega mansion has changed a bit?

Michael L (09:31):

Yeah, no, good question, Haley. And that has changed a bunch, and I have one particular sale that I can talk about, even though I did.

Haley (09:43):

So yeah, you can’t really talk about any of ’em.

Michael L (09:47):

It was actually this month. It was two years ago this month, November. Pickin County had a committee together put together, and it’s all sort of an environmentally clean, efficient, whatever the technical jargon is for it, where they came together and they lowered the maximum single family home size for Pickton County. Two years ago they did it in certain rural areas of Pickton County. The largest you could do is 15,000 square feet. They dropped that to 92 50 and even 87, 50 8,750 square feet depending on the lot size, depending on your HOA, et cetera. That was huge. That went down two years ago, and that was one, I had a sale in West Aspen recently where I sold a vacant piece of land to a family for 22 million in 2022, and they got the approvals on it, and literally a couple days prior to the restriction going into an effect two years ago, November, they just got their approvals in the nick of time to do a 15,000 square foot home.

(11:03):

We just recently flipped that for 48 million. And that being because you cannot build anything like that ever again. So the family bought the land, they went through the approvals, they got the architect builders, everything in place. They had full intention of building this. It’s going to be a five year build that just shows a value that goes on something that you can’t get anymore. So what’s happening is those single family homes that may have 12, 13, 14,000 square feet, even if they’re dated, even if they’re older, they’re still going to have value because you can’t build those anymore. And in the same breath too, I think some of our buyers that we’re seeing out those that want those, it’s usually Texas or Florida that want those big houses, but we are seeing still some that’ll pay up. That’s where the price per square foot’s gone up.

(12:03):

If it’s a three or 4,000 square foot home, as long as it’s done absolutely perfect, beautifully and high-end finishes and landscaping, then that’s where our price per square foot, we just had one last week, a former Apple exec that sold in the east side of Aspen. I think it was in Mansion Global this week. I think it was 37 million, but that was an 80 that sold for $8,600 per square foot per finish. So Pickin County and the building restrictions continue to come down because they’re, and doing swimming pools is really tough to do, very expensive of the carbon footprint on all these, so

Haley (12:47):

Got it. So that plays into what you get approved for and whatnot.

Michael L (12:52):

Exactly. Especially, and that’s what they have a checklist that they suspect the county, the way they look at this and their inspectors, they expect that house to be filled 365 days a year and the swimming pool heated to 85 degrees and it being used every day. That’s how they judge their carbon footprint. However, that science works as well, taking into effect snow melt for driveways, heat tape, et cetera. All that outdoor stuff has gotten a lot more restrictive right now. So they’ve either taken it off the list completely or you’re only allowed one or the other.

Haley (13:32):

Okay. So if you’re a buyer that’s coming into the Aspen market right now, what are some of the pieces advice that you give to buyers? These are what to expect. This is what the price per square foot can be. These are what finishes are going for. What are the big pieces of advice you give to buyers?

Michael L (13:49):

Yeah, typically, rarely do we see ultra motivated sellers at this price point. It’s just a matter of their family not using it anymore, that kind of thing. So you don’t find many deals on this. I tell buyers just suspect you’re going to pay or near asking price. Okay. I think we’re getting about 93% of ask this past year, but I also, you’re not going to, like you and I have seen, we’ve had some customers out there that say, Hey, they want Scandinavian design, or they want an Asian design, or they want certain styles of home. I mean, there’s not that much inventory in Aspen, especially if someone’s going to put that much custom finishes to their house, they rarely let these go. So basically what I tell buyers, find the location, find the property. There’s plenty of builders out there that can remodel for you, so we get

(14:51):

What you want. You’ve got to be low, even as expensive as it is, and Aspen may not be the place for a lot of people, but I’m definitely discouraged them on building. But if they’ve done it before and they want to build their own property, by all means, but never is kind of a first time, Hey, let’s respond to a piece of land and build on it so that really, they’ve got to be pretty open and patient. That’s one thing. I’ve worked in this business 25 years doing this. I mean, I’ve worked with buyers for years and I get it because for what they may spend or what they’re looking for, it doesn’t come out every month. So you just got to be patient on it, and they continue with So many families I know that have been looking for real estate in Aspen still continue to rent hotel rooms at the Little Nell, or they might have a house that they rent, just they haven’t found that perfect property. But anyhow, that’s kind of it in the gist.

Haley (15:56):

Yeah, so we’ve kind of talked about the buying market and selling market. Is there even a rental market up in Aspen at this point with

Michael L (16:07):

Yeah, the rentals have gotten really big. I don’t do a whole lot of rentals. They’re

(16:13):

Difficult and those, I’ve got some great agents in my office that I refer all that to. Yeah, it’s crazy. I mean, pre COVID, we never saw homes that were rented for over a hundred thousand a month, and now there’s dozens that will run for over a hundred thousand a month. There’s a listing on McLean Flats right now with the base of Starwood that’s asking a million dollars a month for rent. So it’s interesting. And Haley, that’s just the kind of thing where if you think about it, if you’re a billionaire and you’re coming to Aspen, you want to try it out for the first time and rent for a few months with your family, and you’re used to those sort of high-end, ultra perfect amenities, then spending that kind of money and being able to walk away from it and not having to make the

Haley (17:08):

Decision, the

Michael L (17:09):

Financial commitment of buying something, that’s what’s happened with our rental market.

Haley (17:13):

Interesting.

Michael L (17:14):

It’s people that are, it’s almost like they’re curious. They just want to try ask, okay, it’s going to cost me 40,000 a month or it’s going to cost me 60, it’s going to cost me 150,000. We need six bedrooms or whatever. So yeah, that rental market’s gotten really hot and I mean it really picked up, I think through COVID, was

Haley (17:38):

It? Yeah, I’m sure.

Michael L (17:40):

And now what happens is people just return to their favorite properties. That’s what it is. It’s got to return visitors,

Haley (17:46):

And I’m sure it helps you too because as you said, be patient, get to see the properties, see them come on the market. It takes some time. Inventory is tight. So that’s probably what drives some of those numbers too, is people who want to experience Aspen and spend time, but they just haven’t found the place they want to invest in yet.

Michael L (18:07):

A hundred percent. And I’m primarily sales, but I never want to talk myself out of a sale. But whenever I’m working with someone for a while and they’re not finding anything and then they go home and come back always, then I say, why don’t you look at spending three months out here and out and find out what your daily routine is? Where do you like to go for a hike? Maybe you like running in Snowmass if you’re going to spend more time there, maybe you want to rent up Castle Creek in the summer because there’s better hikes up there. Or you want to be downtown Aspen because you guys are going out to dinner every night kind of thing because you jump in and buy a house to our advantage, they may want to sell it in a couple of years and they don’t like the location. But yeah, I’m always urging them to rent if they can’t find what they’re looking for.

Haley (18:59):

What are some of the, other than the one we’re working on together, what are some of the, I don’t know, most interesting properties that have sold this year that are on the market that, I dunno show how the market has changed and what’s available today?

Michael L (19:20):

Yeah, that’s obviously people. They’re still looking for size.

(19:28):

Red Mountain in Aspen. The cachet of being on Red Mountain is still huge. What’s really neat right now we’ve got our fall tour of homes going on, which is all the material that’s on the market. So it’s a lot of fun. There’s no one here, town’s really quiet. And yesterday we had Red Mountain Open, the West End was open as well. And you see quite a few of these properties. Willoughby Way, which is kind of our billionaire’s row is under construction. The size of these homes that are getting built in here are nuts as far as most interesting, like I said, this one that just sold the other day on the east side of Aspen on Eer Lane, that was an Apple exec. It was only 4,000 square feet and I think they got 37 million for it, but it’s on a few acres and it’s that kind of, as long as the size isn’t always an issue for them, they just want the right spot, the location, maybe getting some views, et cetera is big. And forgive me for not thinking of anything right off hand besides the bonus that we’re working on as far as one of the more unique properties. Elk Mount Lodge is still in the market for 125 million. That’s up by hash cropped top of Castle Creek, but it seems like the handful that we’ve had in the 50 million range seems to be the hot range right now.

Haley (21:15):

Do these prices ever discourage people from investing in Aspen or are those people always going to invest in Aspen?

Michael L (21:24):

Best think about the internet and best thing about some of those real estate searches. And I think most people that come in, if they come in, if I meet them for the first time, rarely are they in shock of what

Haley (21:40):

They know what they’re getting into.

Michael L (21:42):

They know what they’re getting into. What’s been interesting recently, I’ve got a few clients that did sell before COVID or during COVID, and they’re still out there, they want to come back, but they’re like, geez, Michael, I used to be, I was looking for something that’s still going to ask for three, 4 million for a house now that 6 million at a minimum. And so those clients, I’m sort of pushing them to go check out Crested Butte or check out Steamboat, which happens working on referral hate agents in those markets or in Vail just because if they are fully discouraged, I’m working with a couple clients right now with budgets of 15 million and we just started about six weeks ago. They have now come to the realization that they’re going to have to do a remodel on something.

Haley (22:43):

Got it. Okay.

Michael L (22:44):

We’re hoping to find something turnkey, but again, the stuff that’s finished ready to go prime and pressed out, it’s got such a high premium to it because it takes such time and effort in doing it. So that’s why I’m always recommending to buyers. I’m like, you’re got to come to the realization you’re going to have to do the work on your own if you want to get exactly what you’re looking for. Because so often too, Haley, I’ve shown people properties that are I think are pressed out and in perfect shape and they kind of look at me like, Nope, not our style. We would completely redo this even though it’s remodel. You’re like, well, okay, then that’s up to you.

Haley (23:25):

Yeah, that’s your choice. You never know.

Michael L (23:28):

And as we’ve learned years in my first two years in the business, I learned the hard way. I don’t form an opinion on what I think is good taste. I’ve shown properties that I thought were just hideous as far as design. And I’ll never forget my second year in the business and I talked about how they’re not going to like this house, it’s horrible paint, et cetera, furnishings, and they fell in love with it and they bought it. And so just from then on, I just put, I’m a resource, put it in front of a, show ’em the menu, see what they want to order.

Haley (24:04):

Yeah, they make this decision. You just show them what’s out there and give them context on why things

Michael L (24:09):

Exactly. And you and your dad know, you and Ken know these sort of clients. They know how to spend their money. They just want us to put everything in front of ’em. They want some of the input, but they don’t need my opinion on telling them what’s a bad idea, what certain things they’re not going to like or because they fully know how to get past that and spend the money in the right areas, see what’s worth the investment. And that takes some time here. Like I said, this business has really taught me to be patient because people come in and they know what, they know what they’re going to need to spend. But I think the reality of it setting in of going, okay, this is a huge investment, are we going to appreciate it? Are we going to use it? And is it a good preservation of our money and our investment to do this? Because whether it’s 10 million or 50 million, the best thing about selling Asper real estate is seeing that client use it and fall in love with it. And that’s what you want. That’s the best there.

Haley (25:27):

It’s our favorite place to visit. Whenever Michael and I are like, where do we go for two weeks? In the wintertime, we always choose that valley. And in my opinion, while the prices are increasingly higher, it just shows that it’ll continue to be a good investment. So while there might be sticker shock, it will just continue to grow. I don’t think Aspen is slowing down on who wants to invest in there and the businesses that are even moving there.

Michael L (25:58):

And it’s just, I guess some of my things that I get nervous about is the Attracts always there. And I love, like I said, I’m a huge skier. I do a lot of fly fishing, I do a lot of mountain biking. I love playing, obviously working here, make a living here, raise a family here. And I just love seeing people get that feeling as well. There’s no better satisfaction. I was a ski instructor all through the nineties and I’ll never forget that look on people’s faces when they learned how to ski, when you can get them top of buttermilk to the bottom of buttermilk for the first time for a few days. Same thing when I have clients that I sold them a home a couple of years ago and to see them, I’m Michael, we’re just loving this. We’re so much fun. We’ve been going here a bunch.

(26:46):

Here’s our favorite restaurants, we’ve been skiing here, yada, yada. It’s the best feeling in the world. And I guess point B, what gets me a little nervous though is just on the local basis and it’s that whole service factor that’s gotten really tough here. And that is where are we going to get the contractors and the restaurant servers and all the workforce here that I hope can continue because everyone’s been pushed way down valley and it’s a struggle that every mountain town is dealing with. And fortunately Aspen jumped on the whole affordable housing thing 30 plus years ago, which was really exciting that they did do that because as we only need more. But anyhow, that’s one thing in the back of my mind that just gets me nervous in the long term because people will always like yourselves and clients of ours that will always fall in love with this place and I’ll love it forever, but you just hope that certain details and things just don’t go away if we can’t continue having the workhorse here.

Haley (28:01):

To your point, it’s something I think all, especially mountain towns like Crest Butte and Aspen, that kind of, it’s a pocket and it kind of ends at that pocket. It’s like you do have to,

Michael L (28:13):

Same

Haley (28:13):

Thing Telluride. Yeah, we need,

Michael L (28:17):

Whenever we do a big Douglas Element event here in March and for 48 hours, you hear everyone complain about how hard it was to get here and for anyone. And even driving up from Denver, it’s difficult, but that, fortunately I always tell people too, as expensive as it’s gotten, as tough as it is to get here when you ski and you’re skiing right into these lift lines with minimal to zero lines, it’s best every second of problems that he had getting here because you can’t tell a Saturday from a Tuesday here as far as when you’re on the ski slopes and enjoying it. So except for the holiday Christmas Presidents weekend, it’s really busy. But other than that, that’s one thing. Those places that are tough to get to those destination resorts like this, they tend to be less crowded as far as where the recreation’s concerned. Same thing with the mountain biking and the fly fishing all summer long. I rarely see anyone on the trails here or in the rivers. So

Haley (29:28):

Yeah, you get off the I 70 corridor and you get this kind of privacy, which is really nice and makes it stand out. So now that we’re kind of towards ski season, which I’m so excited for and so excited to come up there and ski with you, what are your predictions kind of looking at 2026 and what we can expect

Michael L (29:51):

Coming into the ski season, which I love. I love coming into the holidays here. I don’t know if I’m traveling anywhere even outside of the state until probably spring break into March. So looking forward to this winter, I still think, like I said, the kind of community feel around the ski areas. This is when everyone sort of convenes based of the mountain. I still think the high end is still looking at Aspen Central core base of Snowmass. The base village has been just crazy in sales. They’ve had some four or $5,000 per square foot in some of the new base base village sales there. The new Stratos Electric Pass Lodge, the Viceroy Aura, they continue to sell crazy and a lot of that’s still under construction. So that being said, Haley, I still think it’s that convenience factor. I mean, we always say that the center of the bullseye is basically the Gond at the base of Aspen Mountain and that price point is the most expensive, and as you go out from there, it tends to get less expensive depending on the product. So a turnkey property near skiing is still going to be sought after Lift one A is the, what is that? The west side of Aspen Mountain that is going under approvals right now. They’ve got a new development called Chalet Alpina, which is going to be stunning. It’s going to be beautiful, I think the start of construction next year. That’s exciting. So that’s going to be new improvements as far as the lift that’s out of the mountain as needed it for a few years.

(31:41):

And Aspen Mountain, I’m sorry, Aspen Skiing Company has announced there’s some new lifts going on at Snow Mass.

Haley (31:50):

Oh, great.

Michael L (31:51):

Yeah, over at EL camp they’re doing a six pack over there, so they’re replacing the four man chair to a six man chair. They’re replacing the circ chair left or the surface lift is now been comma. And yeah, that’s another thing that makes my job easier sometimes is the amount of money and investment that Aspen Skiing company continues to make and the ski areas here is so satisfying. It’s such a pleasure to see the Crown family that owns ski company. They live here, they play here. They constantly make these wonderful investments and the improvements at all four mountains.

(32:41):

So it’s wonderful to see that kind of investment made and constantly improving things. Of course, we have new restaurants opening up every day and yeah, that’s gotten a lot more expensive. I think a lot of the uber wealthy as well now, they’re using private chefs. I’ve seen that happen a lot more at their home so they don’t have to deal with going out to restaurants a little bit more. But yeah, this year I still think Haley, I still think the type of clientele that we’re getting is expensive. It’s getting, you got to keep your deals a lot more confidential

(33:22):

And being in the market, knowing the market, like I said, our fall tour that’s going on, I love it this time of year seeing everything. In fact, when we’re done with this podcast, I’m going to go look at properties and in Woody Creek they’re open today and Snowmass area as well, but knowing the inventory and being able to just give that personal touch with these clients that what are they looking for? What are they want to spend? And the pricing’s always going to be crazy, but hey, they love it here enough and we continue to see this valley be as fun as it is recreational wise, it’s going to be another awesome winter. I know there are, it sounds like a lot of the uber wealthy too, a lot of people have been sitting on, even though we’ve got quite a bit of good activity in the last two weeks, some of them I’ve heard have been sitting on the sidelines just because of this administration. They don’t know what’s going to happen. The government shutdown, that’s obviously tell people off, but perhaps people that have been looking for the last year are still ready to pull the trigger. But I think if there’s anyone coming in new this winter to take a look, who knows, they may not be making any investments or commitments still after the first quarter potentially.

Haley (34:43):

Yeah, I think that’s what we’re seeing is a little uncertainty, but towards the end of the year, that uncertainty kind of changed quite a bit and people started placing their money in bigger opportunities.

Michael L (34:55):

One of the trends I think we’re seeing a little bit more is obviously the security and privacy for some of these buyers. Notably, so Aspen’s most popular, longest running gated community is Starwood. And Starwood has always been known for privacy and views. I think ultimately there may be a few more neighborhoods that can consider security or gate type thing just to protect their homeowners and their homeowners may demand it. I know in the rest of the country, and I feel like everyone owns a gun these days, I could never imagine having to worry about that in an everyday situation. But for the clientele that we get coming here, that comes from the Miamis, that comes from Los Angeles, that comes from New York where they’re definitely private about their family and they want to be secure and protected, I think we may see a little bit more of the gated community coming up. We don’t have a lot of ’em.

Haley (36:09):

Yeah, I was going to say, I don’t really know a 10.

Michael L (36:11):

No, there aren’t. John Denver’s the one that got Starwood started as a gated community because it was to keep its fans out of there in the seventies and eighties. They’re always driving up to find his house and then Starwood’s gotten the attention because it is a gated community,

Haley (36:28):

Private,

Michael L (36:30):

An ultra private. But yeah, other than that, some of the trends we’re seeing, I talked to some of my property manager friends and what do you guys got going on? He goes, everyone wants a golf simulator in their house.

Haley (36:44):

Oh yeah, my household is, well,

Michael L (36:47):

Dell Courts right now, no one’s not so much pickle, it’s too noisy. But the Padell courts had been the latest

Haley (36:56):

One and probably some of that Miami influence, some of that stuff. I know Poel is taking off everywhere. That’s interesting. People have private ones. I love that.

Michael L (37:08):

I was told that there was a 24 million lot sale on Red Mountain last year, next door to someone, and they were going to put a Padel court.

Haley (37:18):

Wow. God, it’s different in the ranch. Well, if you buy a ranch, you could have three Padel courts

Michael L (37:23):

Right

Haley (37:24):

By the monastery,

Michael L (37:26):

The way to go filled with those. But no, overall, it just seemed, like I said, it looks like we’re going to be at 3 billion again this year in overall volume. If anything, I think the trick is going to be figuring out the construction

Haley (37:47):

Building costs

Michael L (37:48):

Because that, and they’ve got some great builder friends and they do amazing products and they’re used to dealing with the high-end clientele, but the struggles they have obviously is their contractors. Getting them to keep those crowds and keep prices relatively sane, which is rough, but that’ll continue to drive finished products up. So yeah, we’ll see what happens.

Haley (38:19):

One thing I wanted to hit on, since you were talking about privacy, and obviously we’re very familiar with NDAs and client privilege kind of information, but have you seen, and I don’t know if it happens a lot in Aspen, but we see it from time to time, are there a lot of off market things that happened in Aspen

Michael L (38:39):

To help

Haley (38:40):

With some of that?

Michael L (38:41):

So glad you asked about that. Yes, that is definitely a trend we’re seeing a lot more of is off market. And I feel like right now when working with high net worth individuals, we’ve got our MLS. It’s interesting that people that I haven’t even met yet, but they hire, Hey Michael, we’re looking in Aspen up to X amount, we’re looking here, we’re looking there. And so you send them what’s in our MLS. They’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re already,

Haley (39:12):

We’ve seen it. We know that they’re available.

Michael L (39:14):

So it’s two tiered now. So now we get new clients, Hey, what do you like that’s in the ml? Then something may fit their search criteria right off the bat that’s available in the MLS, but now we have to go, and this is what I’m doing now, we have a great broker to broker email system amongst the whole Aspen board of Realtors and we call it our member clicks. And I can send out, Hey, it’s ISO in search of Aspen, up to 30 million in search of Aspen, in search of Woody Creek or Old Snowmass or Basalt. And that’s a whole new tier for us that we have to do. Now we go to the NLS and then like you say, the off market is big and there’s a handful of clients that are a handful of agents out there that definitely, we all have some in our pocket, so you got to definitely shake the bushes and see what comes up.

Haley (40:09):

What’s so important about working with a broker is you need those relationships to know and understand those things, and especially as inventory continues to get squeezed, having someone in your corner be able to speak to these brokers and know what’s out there and what you might not be seeing is crucial. So I just didn’t know with that inventory comment what you’re seeing.

Michael L (40:30):

Yeah, a hundred percent. We’ve got, just in the last two weeks, agent in our office had sold, there was 24,000,030 5 million. Both of those were off market. That just closed in the last two weeks. So yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t know personally if I’m a huge fan of the off market sort of strategy. I get it. If someone’s not so sure they want to sell, but they’ll take a certain number. So you sort of, Hey, how bad do you want it kind of conversation with a buyer. But hey, if they’re real sellers, they’re ready to go put it in the

Haley (41:13):

Amount they want to do it,

Michael L (41:14):

Get it done. But that’s where you can I get, as a homeowner estate owner, maybe you don’t want the open houses, you don’t want the lucky lose kind of stuff. So again, yeah, doing this 25 years, I can pick up the phone or send out an email or a text any minute and hit up half a dozen of the local agents that are doing 80% of the off market stuff and hopefully find something.

Haley (41:43):

Awesome. Well, I just want to hit on that, seeing that a little bit more, but always when we talk to sellers, we’re like, if you really want to sell this, the off market thing is not the way to go. It’s you’re not going to get the brokers who are looking at the MLS or Zillow or what have you. You’re not going to get buyers who see it in a magazine after a day of skiing and they’re like, that’s what I want. If you really want to sell, you have to have the public see it, but it is a good vehicle if you’re very private and don’t want all those things.

Michael L (42:17):

Right, right. No, I’m glad you asked about that because that’s definitely occurring more and more these days. I do want to put a little plug in for our company right now. It’s really neat what we’ve got going on because we’re expanding into Europe and Caribbean. We just announced, I was just in Vegas last week at the Win Douglas Elliman. We had 420 agents there. It was a blast seeing everyone and beautiful event, but they also announced that we’re opening up element offices in St. Bart’s, in Monaco, Bordeaux, Paris, and it sounds like we’re looking into the Caribbean a little bit more besides St. Bart’s and Mexico. That’s the network that we’re building has been fantastic. My office, I am located right across the street from the gondola. Anyone that’s skiing or going to Big Wrap, my office is right next door, the big wrap in between Big Wrap and Surefoot.

Haley (43:19):

It’s, it’s my favorite place in Aspen, right

Michael L (43:24):

Up in there, right across the street in the little n Come say hello and yeah, happy to help anyone out with whatever they need.

Haley (43:33):

Well, we appreciate you being on the show and like Michael said, he is right in town in Aspen, so if you have questions about the residential market, especially up there, just what that entire valley is looking like. Michael’s your guy. We always work with him when we’re up there, so we trust his knowledge base and his team at Douglas Elliman. And if you want to see really good property, we call it property porn, his Instagram is incredible. So make sure to find Michael Latus with Douglas Elliman on Instagram, but reach out if you have a question after this dialogue that we’ve had about what the market’s looking like, what to expect, what is the inventory going to be this winter? He’s your guy. So thank you so much for being on the show, Michael, it sounds like you have a lot in the fire right now. There’s one in particular that we really wish and hope that it all ends up the way we want it to, and we’re praying if you will actually, actually it’s

Michael L (44:31):

More this, yeah, it’s more

Haley (44:32):

Praying, it’s more

Michael L (44:33):

This across. No, thank you. I appreciate you bringing me on. I think the World of Mirr Ranch Group and all you guys at Mirr and this is a great opportunity and yeah, looking forward to working with you guys a lot more and anyone wants to reach out or is in Aspen just to go for a ski or have a coffee, give a shout. Happy to catch up.

Haley (44:58):

Awesome. Well thanks for being on the show, Michael. I hope to see you on the slope soon.

Michael L (45:01):

Great.

Haley (45:02):

See you soon.

Michael L (45:02):

Thank you, Haley. For sure. Alright, take care.

Haley (45:04):

Bye.

Thanks for joining us today. To learn more about the ranch real estate market or our ranch marketing process, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our [email protected] or give us a call at (855) 859-5207. See you next time.