Brenda Givan - Centennial, CO Realtor

Has it really been a year since I posted a blog??? Wow! Time flies. Surely I've had something to say. Why didn't I write about it? Hmmm... Note to self: Start writing!

I've never really seemed to find my groove in Real Estate. I know I can (and want to) help people. I know I can be a good Realtor. I've helped several friends and currently a cousin find and sell homes. Where do I go from here? People are always talking about finding your niche market. I've pretty much been using the shotgun approach. I'm looking anywhere and everywhere. All my business has been with people who know me, love me and trust me so I'm pretty sure I want to focus on referral marketing. But what is my specialty? Who are the people I'm meant to help? What is my calling in Real Estate?

I usually end up needing an interpreter to help me find my focus and answers when I'm searching and asking these questions. Yesterday, it was my daughter. I must have randomly asked some form of the above questions out loud because she reminded me of working with a mutual friend. He's her age and when he wanted to buy his first home/investment property, he wanted to work with someone's mom. Someone who would take care of him. She introduced us, we worked together, bought his property and now we're family. She doesn't really like that he's now my friend too and we like to hang out, but that's a story for another day.

She pointed out that it must be young first time home buyers that I've been called to serve. (I have been called in this life to reach out to young people. I'm still 16 in my own head!) She told me that I made our friend feel like a real person. >pause< She said that a lot of times 'older people' make them feel like they're not serious. Do we as an older generation really not place value in our younger adults? Is that all it takes? -- to take them seriously? It never occurred to me to view my young home buyer in any other way. He was serious about making a home investment and I was serious about helping him accomplish his goals.

I do have a gift for educating and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the whole buying process with him and helping him understand what goes on through the transaction. I think I've just discovered my niche/calling/focus! Thank you Ceilidh!

So.. I've decided to write about one of my favorite subjects... Colorado. As a girl growing up, I dreamed of one day living in Colorado and, now, for the past 27 years, I'm living the dream.

A college friend asked me this week if I didn't just freeze here in Denver. My answer: "Absolutely not!" Ok. There was that first winter here where there was a streak of 30 days in a row that the high didn't get above zero. But that wasn't typical. We actually have fairly mild winters. Can you say golf in January? When you think Colorado and skiing and the pictures of snow, that's up in the mountains mostly. Sure! We get snow. Early last week it was really cold (I had to put on a coat) and we had several inches of snow. By Saturday it was 70. We had a little dip the next few days, but today and tomorrow it's back up to the 60s. The highs are only supposed to be in the 40s over the weekend, but, hey... it's January.

Typically, April is our snowiest month here in Colorado so even though some of the trees are beginning to bud and I've heard birds singing this week, that will all change in the next month or so. They'll realize THAT was a mistake. It's definitely still winter.

By the way, the friend who asked me about freezing lives in Houston. I'd much rather spend a winter in Denver than a summer in Houston! (wink wink)