Margie Callahan provides technological efficiency and accuracy in marketing and transactions.
 My business focus is on finding great opportunities for residential and resort development investors. While my education, experience, and focus provide added value to buyers, I also fulfill the much-needed service of helping sellers mitigate losses or continue their projects by bringing investors to them. I see my work as a way of creating commerce and adding value to the economy. I believe this is especially important in this time of uncharted economic challenges.
A lifetime of business experience in ski industry marketing, restaurant operations, securities sales, medical massage industry leadership, and insurance sales has brought me full circle to being the best I can be as a Realtor®, where I enjoy utilizing the great variety of skills and knowledge I have acquired. I continue to study real estate and acquire skills which keep my performance at a state-of-the-art level.
As a candidate for Certified International Property Specialist, I have only a few requirements left to earn the coveted designation: specifically two more international transactions! I am currently taking the required courses to earn the Graduate Realtor Institute designation. My college studies focused on economics, which continues to be of primary enjoyment to me. Having been an educator in the business arena of the medical massage industry, I am a believer in furthering my business education—only now, the focus is on real estate commerce.
By optimizing networking far beyond the usual internet marketing, I intend to bring buyers and sellers together from all over the world. I am on several international real estate broker and investor directories, and am in the process of joining more international associations. I am a regular blogger and follower on networking websites. My listings are posted on my website, CoolColoradoRealEstate.com, and via syndication they are on more than 100 listing search engines including Trulia, Craigslist, Yahoo Real Estate, House.com, NY Times.com, Zillow, Facebook, Realtor.com, and WorldProperties.com.
“You Missed Aspen, You Missed Vail, Don’t Miss the ‘Boat!”® (Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA)
Respected economist and demographer Harry Dent predicts great things about just this type of small resort town. His information is based on predictable buying behavior of Baby Boomers combined with Boomers’ use of technology. In The Next Great Bubble Boom, 2006, Dent states: “Baby Boom[er]…trends...show a rising wave of...vacation-home buyers from 2000 into 2024.” In his book, The Great Crash Ahead, 2008, he says “Real estate markets…vary…by region, and there will be many pockets of real estate opportunity in the…Rockies during the downturn ahead.” Related comments in a 2008 EzineArticles.com article support Dent’s theories: “By purchasing in one of these "up and coming" resort areas, a smart buyer can still stumble into a ground-floor opportunity - similar to those seen in Vail and Aspen twenty years ago. While resorts like Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley and Jackson Hole are in their "maturing" stage, look towards those areas that have just recently "hit the radar screen."
Steamboat Springs is a ski resort and resort town aptly poised to come on the radar screen. Because of a great amount of recent infrastructural improvements and continued improvements by both the town and ski resort, and prices historically about half those of Aspen and Vail, I believe Steamboat Springs provides unprecedented upside potential. Add to these positive improvements the opportunities provided by the current economic situation, and investors and developers can position themselves in a wonderful resort with what may be unprecedented upside potential. I’ve lived in other Colorado mountain towns including Crested Butte, Vail, and Denver, and I have chosen to settle in Steamboat Springs.
Although it is nick-named “Ski Town, USA,” Steamboat Springs offers far more than just skiing! It was built by the hardy souls of its mostly-ranching founders who long ago instituted winter events to relieve the pressure of cabin fever. Today, year-round activities abound here in more quantity than one can possibly partake! We not only enjoy “Champagne Powder,” but we have longer summers, usually starting in May and sometimes lasting through October—a rare commodity in Colorado mountain towns. Our adjacent valley terrain is wider than most ski towns, providing more space for more activities. We also enjoy more humidity than any other place in Colorado that I know of, producing the beautiful, lush greens that make our valleys and golf courses look like Scotland!
The Yampa River courses through our cute town rife with boutique shopping and fabulous restaurants competing for the best happy hour that can be offered. The river offers terrific kayaking holes, swimming holes on its banks warmed by many hot springs for you and the kids, and a great bounty of fish for the Angler. Paths along and over the river for viewing the action invite you to bike or hike through and beyond town onto the mix of forested and open trails for every sort of hiker, young and old. Take a horseback ride from Spring through Fall from the base of Howelsen Hill in town or from one of the many dude ranches on the outskirts and in the hinterland. Or meet a local horse-person (like myself) and go for a real “out-West” ride! (Yes, that is a personal invitation!) Enjoy your choice of hot springs, along with swimming pools and water slide at our downtown location, or Strawberry Park Hot Springs ten minutes up the road in mountain terrain, so named for its high production of lettuce and strawberries shipped by train in the yesteryear. If the water slide doesn’t satiate you or the kids, try The Howler alpine slide, on Howelsen Hill in town.
This wonderful community has plenty of unusual flavor generated by its events such as our real Rodeo competitions all summer long, and Winter Carnival where you can watch Skijoring (horses towing kids—and crazy grown men--down Main Street on skis, shovels, and other makeshift items making their way through mazes and off jumps). Winter Carnival has one of the best ski hill shows you could possibly imagine, with The Lighted Man (loaded with blasting fireworks) skiing down Howelsen Hill which is our ski hill in town (where our U.S. Olympic skiers have been produced, and you can watch them train all winter long). Also, you won’t want to miss our Cowboy Downhill event, where real local cowboys (who don’t know how to ski) wear chaps and hats and compete in a race on our big ski mountain. Now that I’m choked up just thinking about all the wonderful offerings here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA, I wonder what else I have to tell you to get you to come visit this Paradise and let me show you the investment opportunities here!
As for the owner and operator of our ski mountain, Intrawest liked Steamboat Springs because…it is a “ski town without an attitude.” In other words, unlike many ski towns, the locals still live here and are friendly and welcoming to its visitors. It is truly a community above all else.
Current Investment Opportunities
By now you may have guessed that I’m an information gatherer and disburser. I like to do research, put it together to give the reader meaning, and disburse it via all the wonderful new technology.
Here’s what I can tell you, in a meaningful way, about what I have discovered regarding the effects of the world economy on our pocket (pardon the pun) of real estate developments in the Rocky Mountains.
Several developers here have taken the “economic pause” with their projects. Some are looking for partnerships, some for buyouts. These include everything you can imagine, from golf course neighborhoods to gentleman rancher subdivisions. Partnerships and buyouts can be found among land-only as well as lots with infrastructure-only and developments which have completed phases. These opportunities cover a variety from exquisite golf course lots to ski-in/ski-out projects. I am in the beginning phase of researching and talking with developers here, and am finding a plethora of investment opportunities. In the process, I am getting familiar with ways of sweetening deals—the creativity is endless in this market!
If Steamboat Springs sounds interesting to you, please contact me and tell me what your investment parameters and goals are. I am discovering such a great variety of available developments, and I’ve only scratched the surface. Also, be sure to visit my website, CoolColoradoRealEstate.com. Although it is under construction to reflect my new passion in this changed economic environment, I’m sure you will find it to be a dynamic source of information about properties here, as well as community information. But you’ll have to talk with me to discover the hidden potential. I’m doing the research so I can bring you “the rest of the story.”
Very truly yours,
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