BrokerIPTV Real Estate News and Videos

Maritt Ellis on the MacKenzie House, its history, and its homes

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Maritt Ellis, Sales and Marketing Manager for MacKenzie House and thanks for being with us.

Maritt Ellis: Thank you Dan [phonetic].

BrokerIPTV: Well, tell me a little bit about MacKenzie House, your history, your homes.

Maritt Ellis: We were founded by Donald MacKenzie back in 1999 and we are a privately owned company with 60 employees. We currently build in Colorado and Missouri, and we have four diverse product types. We currently build student housing, we build multifamily communities, we build senior living campuses, as well as urban infill town home projects. MacKenzie House currently has one billion dollars with the projects either under construction, currently being developed or completed.

BrokerIPTV: All right. Where in Colorado can I find these homes from MacKenzie House or where a future [phonetic] is that I can look forward to?

Maritt Ellis: Sure. We currently build along the Front Range. We have senior living communities in Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and our flagship community is going to be located in Lone Tree, Colorado. It is adjacent to Sky Ridge Medical Center in RidgeGate. It is going to be called RidgeGate, excuse me, and we are going to start pre-selling in September. We just finished up a project. I have one left at 24 Walnut, which is downtown. Those are town homes located two blocks north of Coors Field, specifically those are the projects we are having in Colorado.

BrokerIPTV: All right. With so many builders out there, how does Mackenzie House differentiate themselves from every body else?

Maritt Ellis: We differentiate ourselves because we really think we have done our home work as far as choosing the locations in which we build. We have put a lot of research, a lot of time and hours into performers and taking a look at what works where, and we selected urban infill areas that we think are highly successful and we have been successful in those areas. So, just doing research. We differentiate ourselves also with our employees that we hire. When you walk in to a MacKenzie House development, hopefully, you are greeted with a smile on the sales rep's faces. You are immediately welcomed and we feel that we do a great job in hiring our employees. So, it is just a great environment to be in.

BrokerIPTV: You mentioned downtown and some other urban areas. I was going to ask you what neighborhoods do you like. I mean are you guys focused in on those downtown areas and do you like them and why?

Maritt Ellis: We were one of the original town home developers downtown and we were really successful in that area. We do like high barrier entry areas. We are looking for areas that are close to restaurants, are close to walking trails, and urban infill areas. We like those neighborhoods because we feel like they attract people that are active and that is who we build for.

BrokerIPTV: Good information Maritt. Thanks for being with us, appreciate that.

Maritt Ellis: Thank you. Thanks so much Dan.

BrokerIPTV : Today we are talking with Anne Randolph from Murray Consulting. Anne thanks for being with us.

Anne Randolph: Well, you are welcome.

BrokerIPTV : Real Estate and the internet. Can you ever do real estate, the old fashion way again?

Anne Randolph: Well, first of all we have that the fine old fashioned. The reality is I think that - I use this example frequently. I ask people when do you think, the consumer started really getting control of the information about listings, it was definitely not with the internet, it was when baby boomers like myself would beg last week's MLS book, from their agent, when the agent wasn't suppose to share with them, so that they could look themselves. I mean that's just the nature of the consumer. They want to able to look themselves, so I think while the information is now flowing directly to the consumer and they can access it fully, it has not impacted the number of people, who want to use an agent. We are still saying a well in excesses of 70%, who absolutely will use an agent.

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BrokerIPTV : Today we are talking with Kelly Dutton, Director of Business Development for InVision Homes and DirectBuild. Kelly thanks for be in with us.

Kelly Dutton: Absolutely, excited be here.

BrokerIPTV : Thanks. Tell us about InVision?

Kelly Dutton: InVision Homes is an award winning custom home builder out of Douglas County was founded by Michael New who is a second generation home builder from California. He has been build high and custom homes in Douglas County and several other counties along the front line for the last 15 years.

BrokerIPTV : Small, medium large builder?

Kelly Dutton: We were medium to small builder. We really like to limit the amount of homes that we will do for year, just to ensure a high level of customer service to our clients. We typically stay under 12 homes a year.

BrokerIPTV : Where are you building, what is available?

Kelly Dutton: We are currently building in Douglas County. We have several projects under way there, more recently we have got some projects going on in Cherry Hills which we are very excited about.

BrokerIPTV : Infact one of the homes in Cherry Hills, if I remember correctly, you are actually auctioning off is that right?

Kelly Dutton: Absolutely

BrokerIPTV : Tell us about that...

Kelly Dutton: This is a project that is very special for us. We are InVision Homes is in partnership with the Ken Foundation. The Ken Foundation is an organization that is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. So, as part of that partnership, we are building a 14,000 Sq ft home in Cherry Hills. We have many many sub-trades and designers in a lot of great people that have donated their time, materials and labor to put this together.

BrokerIPTV : How do you put bid-in on this place?

Kelly Dutton: This will be an auction. We are going to have some great events coming this spring when the home is complete. So, we are very excited to announce those up coming events.

BrokerIPTV : Current market, everybody knows what is going on, what are the challenges for customs, semi-custom over it?

Kelly Dutton: It is a good question. I have to say because we limit the number of clients that we work with per year fortunately. The custom home building side is not quiet as affected by some of the more volume building that has been going on, but I really think the key in markets like this is to really find unique ways to stay in the market place and that is what we stay focused on.

BrokerIPTV : It has been about corrections or reactions to the market. We see builders slashing prices, giving things away including basement things like that, is that going on with you at all or...?

Kelly Dutton: Absolutely not. We really a company that is dedicated in working with our clients to find out what it is exactly they want to build. So we are purely here to consult them through the process in the design. We will build anywhere they want to go along the Front Range and so its really just matter of establishing that relationship with your clients.

BrokerIPTV : How about future plans for InVision, where are you going in that?

Kelly Dutton: We are looking to expand, thanks to the good fortune that we had over the years, happy clients, we have a great long list of the client's referrals and sub contractors that would refer our name to them, so definitely looking to expand into market place.

BrokerIPTV : Thanks, great talking with you, good information.

Kelly Dutton: Thank you so much. Thank you.

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BrokerIPTV  : We are talking today with Peter Niederman, the chief operating officer of The Kentwood Companies. Pete I want to talk about profitability in real-estate. Profits are down in the real-estate industry the average profit they say a top 500 company is making as less than 7%. So, the question would be why do you own a company, is it because of dividends, is it because of equity, is it personal satisfaction?

 
Peter Niederman: There are a lot of reasons and everyone has their own reasons of why they would own a real-estate brokers or any company in any type of business and they are trying to get a return on your investment on what you are trying to build. We understand the business very well, my partner Bill Moore, myself are very familiar with the operations running a real-estate business and we have always run a profitable real-estate business and running The Kentwood Companies is no different. We run and operate known very successful, profitable brokerage business.

 
BrokerIPTV  : There are a lot of broker/office owners who really arent making a lot of money and I wonder, if consumers and brokers alike realize that some owners only making a $100 to $150 on a transaction. Do you think thats out there at all?

 
Peter Niederman: Well, I am not understanding what you are trying to address?

 
BrokerIPTV  : I think brokers think that they are going to get into this business and that the office owner is making plenty of money and in most cases for that small to medium group that you pointed out thats not the case.

 
Peter Niederman: Thats not the case at all. There is pressure on commissions. There is pressure on the agents want to get more of the commission dollar from their brokerage and I think the brokerages has to offer full array of services to their realtors members to get a better split to the company. There is lot of discount houses out there, the you can work for 90%-100% type commissions, but their services that the company is going to supply those brokers with are few and far between. When you go to a more traditional type brokers that are going to offer more services, the brokerages is going to expect to keep more that commission share with their individual realtor which in turn leads to better profitability.

 
BrokerIPTV  : There are some people who have complained out there that in fact whats going on at that the internet has actually watered down commissions. Another say

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