BrokerIPTV: Today we are talking with Mike Bradley from Metro Brokers Eagle View Properties and Mike, thanks for being with us. How are you?

Mike Bradley: Thank you, I am very good.

BrokerIPTV: We are talking about a topic that's kind of near and dear to my heart. I am a fitness junkie and it sounds like you are going to put on a triathlon. Is that right?

Mike Bradley: Yeah. This will be first our annual triathlon.

BrokerIPTV: And how did the idea come about? Why a triathlon?

Mike Bradley: Well, Metro Brokers really want to appeal to a new market segment. We had traditionally had golf tournament and it is kind of difficult to get people participate in golf tournament. There is a lot of golf tournaments to choose from. So, we said, "Well, what's something new that we could get a new audience, new participation and still benefit Special Olympics and continue our 10 year partnership with them."

BrokerIPTV: Talk a little bit about that, what's that all about and how you benefit them.

Mike Bradley: All proceeds will be benefitting Special Olympics of Colorado.

BrokerIPTV: Wow. Great.

Mike Bradley: So, for a first year event, we don't really know what to expect.

BrokerIPTV: Right.

Mike Bradley: As a charity event, it's a little bit different from the competitive race, the whole goal is to get it done, prove to yourself you can do something and help a worthwhile charity.

BrokerIPTV: And when you were coming up with this idea in the conference room with all the people involved, did anyone push back and go, "Ooh, exercise?"

Mike Bradley: Yeah. Realtors® are traditionally older, somewhat overweight, in some places and so this is definitely something that's going to change attitudes and it's really appealing to everybody. It's not just real estate agents. In fact, we don't know how many Metro Brokers will be doing it, but that's not our target market. This is just for the public and for the benefit.

BrokerIPTV: So, the public can participate in addition to the Realtors®?

Mike Bradley: Oh yeah, definitely.

BrokerIPTV: Okay. Tell me a little bit about the format?

Mike Bradley: Well, let's say sprint triathlon and it starts with an open water swim in Cherry Creek Reservoir.

BrokerIPTV: How far?

Mike Bradley: It's half mile.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Mike Bradley: So, that's about 880 yards or approximately 34 lengths of the swimming pool and then that's followed by a 12 mile bike, and a three mile run.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Mike Bradley: And then we have the finish line and we have a catered dinner from Lodo's Bar And Grill and beer and party and music and awards and everything.

BrokerIPTV: So, you can reward yourself if you complete this thing.

Mike Bradley: Yeah.

BrokerIPTV: When is it?

Mike Bradley: It's on Friday, June 5th and it starts at 6 p.m. So, you don't even have to wake up early.

BrokerIPTV: So, it's appropriate we are talking about this now. So, we give people plenty of time to get in shape and get ready for this. Is that right?

Mike Bradley: Yeah, you need about three months of good training.

BrokerIPTV: All right. What are the critical things that have to happen to make this successful in the first year?

Mike Bradley: We have been very lucky to bring on Ian Adamson, who has... he is going to be our race director and producer. He has produced over 36 events around the world, including the 24 hours of triathlon at the Boulder Trail Triathlon and then multiple iron man type events around the world. So, his expertise and the USAT sanctioning that we are going to get along with that really will make this a success.

BrokerIPTV: I think it's a different idea. I applaud you guys for thinking out of the box. I mean are you ready?

Mike Bradley: I am getting there.

BrokerIPTV: All right.

Mike Bradley: Work on the run.

BrokerIPTV: Now, if somebody wants to participate because it's absolutely a worthwhile event, how do they find out more information?

Mike Bradley: All the information is posted at metrobrokerstriathlon.com and there is online registration, mail in registration, and we are even looking for volunteers.

BrokerIPTV: Excellent. Mike, great event. Thanks so much. Appreciate you stopping by.

Mike Bradley: Thank you. Thanks.

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Karra Eveleth, the Senior Escrow officer at Meridian Title and Escrow. Welcome.

Karra Eveleth: Welcome.

BrokerIPTV: Talking about affiliated business relationships for those people who dont know what that is, just refresh our memory.

Karra Eveleth: It is an affiliation between usually a real estate agent and a title company. The real estate agents generally have ownership in the title company. We work in correlation together to close transactions.

BrokerIPTV: One of the things we have talked about in the past is that when you do that, you can be incredibly efficient; it may not require as much staff. You can get things done quicker, at a more affordable price. Does that pretty much nail it down?

Karra Eveleth: Thats correct. Generally with the normal standard traditional title company, you deal with maybe five different people in your transaction whereas with an affiliated business, you deal with one person, you have the processor, closer, post-closing, everything all in one person.

BrokerIPTV: So its you and like one or two other people that are closing the majority if not all of the deals, is that right?

Karra Eveleth: Correct.

BrokerIPTV: Okay and do you find that people like working with a smaller staff?

Karra Eveleth: They do because if they have got a question they know that they are only going to one person. They dont have to try and track down the five different people that may have handled that piece of it.

BrokerIPTV: Is that the only difference between a traditional closer and closing company and an escrow officer for an AfBA?

Karra Eveleth: For the most part thats the only difference is with an AfBA, the closer escrow officer can do all of the functions that all the different people at the big companies do.

BrokerIPTV: All right. Now tell me a little bit about your experience, monthly transactions, service, things of that nature?

Karra Eveleth: It has been a positive experience that agents seem to be very happy with the transactions, they seem to be happy with the service that they are getting with the one person, and it seems to flow well for the buyers and sellers.

BrokerIPTV: And I imagine you get to know the agents and the transactions and the way they do business pretty,

Karra Eveleth: Very well.

BrokerIPTV: Intimately so to speak?

Karra Eveleth: Very well.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, but again you function just the same as a traditional closing company. You have title policies, you have you know examiners, all of the above?

Karra Eveleth: We do. We still have a traditional title plan that does all the searches on the properties, there is an attorney that oversees everything, and we still have a group that does all the recordings.

BrokerIPTV: Okay. How about underwriters? How many underwriters are you working with?

Karra Eveleth: Currently we are working with three. We have got Southern Title Insurance, Dakota Homestead, and Alliant and we continuously try and look for new underwriters to underwrite our policies.

BrokerIPTV: And you are looking for a couple of things, you are looking for more affordability and more service I would imagine. Is that right?

Karra Eveleth: Yes.

BrokerIPTV: And so far these three seem to work the best for you?

Karra Eveleth: Yeah, the clients all seem to be happy, the agents are all happy with it, and we have been happy with the service that they have provided us.

BrokerIPTV: Thats what I was going to ask you. How is their service?

Karra Eveleth: It has been great. They are local, which is really nice, so we can contact them directly. We usually have monthly meetings with them and coordinate any issues that we do think have risen in the last month.

BrokerIPTV: Karra, thanks so much. I appreciate you being here.

Karra Eveleth: Thank you.

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Mark Footer, the current member of the board for Metrolist and Owner/Broker of Intero Real Estate. How are you?

Mark Footer: Good Dan. Thanks for having me.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks for being with us. Well, we are talking about PrimeAccess and a new feature thats just coming out called Prospect. Tell us a little bit about that.

Mark Footer: PrimeAccess Prospect is a new product that launched on December 3rd. It is a great feature where brokers can go in, put information about their criteria, and we send an e-mail at the end of every day for prospects that match up to a particular listing criteria.

BrokerIPTV: Excellent. Now, this feature was available in MYmls as well, correct?

Mark Footer: Correct.

BrokerIPTV: Now, we have just migrated it over to PrimeAccess.

Mark Footer: Yes, migrated to PrimeAccess, but it has more features as well.

BrokerIPTV: Probably a little bit more user friendly I would imagine.

Mark Footer: More user friendly and one of the most important features is that you can now include clients.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah.

Mark Footer: Before it would just come to the broker; now, it goes to the clients. You can put up to three e-mail addresses for clients and have them send out a daily e-mail on the prospects as well.

BrokerIPTV: How about set up? Is it easy to set up?

Mark Footer: Painless.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Mark Footer: Have you ever gotten into the power search? You go in, you set up the criteria for that search, you type in a name for the search, and you click the Prospects button, that takes you to the next page where you can enter information, the e-mails of who you like to be sent to, and another feature is to be able to add days back from when you want to start the search.

BrokerIPTV: Okay, so you can say hey, I want this client to see so many days back from the beginning of the month to present time and going forward, is that right?

Mark Footer: Yeah and the idea behind it is say for example, you get a new client today and they are looking in a particular neighborhood, you usually like to show them a little bit of history whats happening there.

BrokerIPTV: Sure.

Mark Footer: So, in my case, I might set them to start on December 1st. So, I type in what would that be, 50 days back based on todays date and they are going to see all the activity thats happened from December 1st on and then at the end of every day, its going to give them the current listings.

BrokerIPTV: Now, in the old MYmls system, when you set somebody up in Prospect, and it only came to the broker, but that also would expire after 60 days; the broker would stop getting those e-mails, is that right?

Mark Footer: Thats the way it was in the MYmls version of Prospect. People commented; they asked if that could either be removed or extended, Metrolist of course listened, and now it doesnt expire until you go in to turn it off.

BrokerIPTV: Thats a great feature. All right. How about some other benefits to this for using Prospects for the Realtor and for the consumer?

Mark Footer: The single best benefit is that by using the PrimeAccess database, you are accessing the IRES database and you are accessing the Pikes Peak database. So, no other product out there can offer that, the access to that database. One of the features that appeals to me is its always available. I have used a number of different services and currently do use other services, but I had to pay a monthly fee with that and it can be anywhere from mild to exorbitant. With PrimeAccess, its there. If you want to use it this week for five clients, you can use it this week for five clients. If you dont want to use it on next month, you dont use it, you are not incurring any charges for it.

BrokerIPTV: And there is no, yeah, no additional charge to the broker who is already paying their regular fee.

Mark Footer: Correct, no additional charge.

BrokerIPTV: Thats great. Mark thanks. Looking forward to using it. I appreciate you.

Mark Footer: You bet Dan, thank you.

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Mark Footer, current member of the board for Metrolist and Owner/Broker of Intero Real Estate. Mark, thanks for being with us.

Mark Footer: Good Dan.

BrokerIPTV: New product for Metrolist or a new feature I should say, its called Walk Score and if people arent familiar with it, tell us what its all about.

Mark Footer: Well, Walk Score is a unique new feature, its available on the public website, REcolorado.com, and its a link. Consumers out there they search for a property, they come to the details page of a particular property they are interested in, and they are going to see bedrooms, baths, and then they are going to see a link to whats called the Walk Score.

BrokerIPTV: Okay.

Mark Footer: When they click on the Walk Score, its going to give them information on the walkability of a neighborhood, what amenities are close, schools, parks.

BrokerIPTV: See when I first saw this, I thought, "Well, this is kind of neat," you know because lets face it. You know over the last several years, people are concerned about how much they drive, whether its gas prices, energy prices, I mean before we all used to live way out in the suburbs and drive everywhere. Now, there is a movement for everyone to live in town and walk. So, if thats the case and you are looking for a property thats convenient to walk to, this feature would come in handy.

Mark Footer: Absolutely and its a quality of life issue as much as it is a savings issue. I found that there are certain segment of my buyers are looking for that experience where they can walk to the restaurants, they can walk to the shops, and where the Walk Score, it gives a rating, anywhere from below 50 would be car access only mostly, but then once you start getting up as high in the 90 scores, its saying it's walkers paradise. You can walk to... you can walk to work, you can walk to the metro stop, you can walk to school.

BrokerIPTV: This is very Web 2.0 of Metrolist. Its kind of really cool, but how does it work do you know? How do you calculate it?

Mark Footer: The folks that created the product came up with an algorithm; the algorithm takes into account the proximity as far as distance and the type of amenities that are available and they have patented it and it... I have tried it. It really does focus on the neighborhoods that have those amenities available.

BrokerIPTV: All right. For Denver Metro area for example, give me a couple of neighborhoods that have a high Walk Score?

Mark Footer: The LoDo District I think came up the highest with 97 and then followed by Capitol Hill and the Golden Triangle area, which are among the highest in the database. The Walk Score folks who created the database are in several cities. Denver is one of the highest for walkability and those are the highest neighborhood among the highest town.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, Cherry Creek I imagine would probably be in there and...

Mark Footer: Cherry Creek is among the top four.

BrokerIPTV: I bet, okay. All right. Now, this is free, it doesnt cost, right.

Mark Footer: It doesnt cost anything, just as REcolorado.com is a service thats available to all of our members, this is just an additional service thats on top of that.

BrokerIPTV: All right. Now, its in MYmls for brokers and agents and its on REcolorado, is this going to be added to PrimeAccess?

Mark Footer: Right now its in REcolorado alone. It will be added to PrimeAccess in the near future. One of the neat things about it, its going to be a searchable field in PrimeAccess.

BrokerIPTV: Wow.

Mark Footer: So, say for example you have a client who really does want to be close to all those amenities, you can search for scores that are up there in the 90s.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, you just select I want to see properties that have a high Walk Score.

Mark Footer: Correct.

BrokerIPTV: Great. Mark, thanks so much. Good information; looking forward to it.

Mark Footer: You bet, thanks Dan.

BrokerIPTV: Today, we are talking with Pat DeFeo, the Vice President of Colorado Home Warranty and Pat, welcome to the show.

Pat DeFeo: Thank you.

BrokerIPTV: Thanks for being here. For those people not familiar with your business, again, lets tell people what Colorado Home Warranty does.

Pat DeFeo: Colorado Home Warranty is a locally based and owned and operated company. We provide home warranties to homeowners in Colorado.

BrokerIPTV: Okay and a seller, someone selling a home, can purchase a home warranty, which may entice a buyer to buy their home because they have a warranty after they buy it or a buyer can buy home warranty plan after they purchase a house?

Pat DeFeo: Correct.

BrokerIPTV: Pretty much.

Pat DeFeo: A seller does not have to pay for it. The seller can apply, put an application in, and his home is covered until its sold.

BrokerIPTV: Wow! I didnt know that.

Pat DeFeo: And if its not sold, then there is no funds collected even if there had been service during the listing period.

BrokerIPTV: And real quick, how does the warranty program work? In other words, somebody finds something wrong with the house, you put in a claim, so forth,

Pat DeFeo: They put in a claim they call... they call our office, they will get a, my service department will take the call. We dispatch a technician depending on what it is and there is a $55.00 co-pay that is paid to the contractor when he gets there and they will fix the problem, whatever it is or they will replace the problem if we cant fix it; if its a dishwasher and it cant be fixed, then we replace it.

BrokerIPTV: Question for you, does business fluctuate or does your business fluctuate with the real estate market? If the real estate market is slowing down, is your business slowing down or it really doesnt matter?

Pat DeFeo: Somewhat, it does somewhat slow, slow down. We are, you know, I mean I hate to even say this, but we are like the low hanging fruit on the tree. I mean home transactions require mortgage, they require title, but they dont require,

BrokerIPTV: A Home warranty.

Pat DeFeo: Home warranty, but our business hasnt dropped as much as I thought it would during this ebb and flow that we are going through right now. So, I guess the answer to your question is we do fluctuate some with the market, but not as much this time.

BrokerIPTV: Which then brings me to my next question about which segment really purchases home warranties the most; is it this crowd thats 300,000 and below or is it really just the people who have million dollar homes and over?

Pat DeFeo: You know it doesnt segment... it doesnt segment at all. I mean I have, we have a requirement and all warranty companies have that, not a requirement, but we ask the buyer, when a warranty is placed, we ask how many square feet is it. The only reason we ask that is because usually if the house is over 5000 square feet, it will have duplicate systems. It will have two furnaces or two water heaters and thats just to protect the, the person thats getting the warranty. At that point, if they dont want to cover the extra system, we will tell them, we will cover the first one that breaks you know and we wont cover the second one. So, there are million dollar houses with two or three systems and we get those too quite frequently.

BrokerIPTV: Yeah, okay, but affordability, if I have got a small house and I live in Aurora and I am thinking there is just no way I am going to be able to afford a home warranty plan; its far more affordable than people think, is that right?

Pat DeFeo: Its very much affordable. If you are the buyer, and we have this special going and we have had it going for quite a while; if you are the buyer and its not covered during the listing period, its $250. So, thats like $12, a little over $12 a month and what that saves you is peace of mind. It gives you so much peace of mind because if something breaks and you dont have a warranty and you call another contractor, they can tell you any number of things is wrong. If you call, have a home warranty and the contractor goes out, they are not going to gouge you at all.

BrokerIPTV: Pat, great information. Thanks for being with us.

Pat DeFeo: Thank you.

BrokerIPTV: I appreciate it.