“This is in our blood,” said Matt Harrington of selling real estate. “It’s our passion. It’s what we do.” But they do it a little bit different than many local real estate agents. They have largely foregone the high-pressure, high-stakes world of Aspen for the local-domi-nated midvalley market.
Working in Aspen is essentially “arm-wrestling with 100 brokers for sales,” said Matt. “It’s not a pretty picture.” Instead, the Harringtons migrated down-valley and are now helping people pretty much like themselves: young families who are working hard to either buy their first home or upgrade to a midvalley gem. The Harringtons are more like the folks next door rather than slick-talking, snazzy sales people. “I’ve never been a good bull-shitter,” admitted Matt. “I feel like we help people,” added Terry Harrington. “We don’t shove things down their throats.”
She said they do a lot of business with friends and acquaintances. They also rely heavily on an aggressive marketing and advertising campaigns directed at midvalley residents.
Terry has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 25 years and started selling real estate in Aspen in 1988. She gained invaluable experience working with various firms in Aspen. She was a big proponent of continuing education for real estate professionals and helped make classes available while serving on the education committee with the Aspen Board of Realtors.
Matt has been in the valley for 21 years and had sold art in Aspen for a decade or so when he married Terry and became interested in real estate sales. They operated individually, then about eight years ago they both joined a firm called Country Village, which operated in the midvalley and in Aspen. That firm eventually closed its Aspen office and gave the Harringtons the opportunity to buy their midvalley business.
They jumped at the chance, changed the company name to Harrington Real Estate and have been steadily growing their business for the last three years. They made one of their biggest business moves last year when they moved into a higher-profile — but also higher-priced — location in the commercial complex adjacent to the El Jebel City Market. “Terry always had a vision of being by City Market since it opened,” recalled Matt. They felt the location was the best in the midvalley because of the foot traffic attracted to the grocery store.
Nevertheless, the move was also “scary” because of the more expensive lease. But it turned out to be well worth it. Matt attributes much of this year’s tripling in business to the high-visibility, new location.
Although their firm is open seven days per week — “I don’t know how in this location we could be closed on Sundays,” said Terry — the Harringtons are far from absentee owners. It’s almost a given that one or the other will be in the office on any given day, and often both of them. They balance work with raising their sons: Max, who is almost 9, and 3-year-old Oliver.
Leaps and Bounds
Harrington Real Estate has grown so fast that they actually had to rein them-selves in a bit. They recently decided not to expand to additional space next to their site. Nevertheless, their staff has grown to 11, with 10 brokers and an office manager. The first quarter of this year, Terry said, was particularly strong. For much of the year, interest rates have been extremely low, enticing first-time buyers and empowering people who wanted to upgrade.
The faltering national economy knocked the upper-valley real estate market way off its record-setting pace of a year ago during the first half of 2001. Then the terrorist strikes on September 11 wiped out any chance of recovery in the typically strong third quarter.
As a result, the dollar volume of sales by members of the Aspen Board of Realtors was down about 33 percent.
 |
| “Our business is in our back yard. That’s where we want to be.” |
The Harringtons and other midvalley real estate firms escaped the malaise because their primary customers — local residents — kept on shopping and buying. Basalt Realty, now in its 30th year of business, is also enjoying its best year, according to owner Darryl Grosjean.
The torrid pace slowed in the midvalley, but sales have still been steady. Matt Harrington said asking prices have dropped about 10 percent across the board for mid-valley property.
Overall, midvalley and down-valley sales activity and dollar volume is about the same as 2000 through the third quarter, according to Aspen Board of Realtors statistics.
Matt said he expects opportunities to continue blossoming in the midvalley. Winter is always the slower time for the local real estate market, so a dip for the next few months will be natural. But in the long run, projects such as Willits and Kodiak Village, by the water-ski pond in El Jebel, will fuel more jobs. People will want to live where they work, so it will spur the residential real estate market as well, said Matt. The Harringtons believe their business is well positioned for a midvalley boom.
In the last year they have added a property-management division and they are looking to fulfill a primary goal of adding a Spanish-speaking broker. Terry estimated that up to 40 percent of their business is from Spanish-speaking clients; she is currently the only Spanish speaker on the staff to help them. Matt said they have helped numerous Latino clients who bought mobile homes several years ago and now want to upgrade into a single-family homes. In many cases, they have a sizable down payment available from savings and appreciation of their mobile homes.
Terry said the firm averages between five and 25 closings per month. Their listings range from a $32,000 lot in Marble to a $1.7 million home. Their average house listing is about $350,000. While the Harringtons said a significant amount of their business is from first-time home buyers, the natural evolution of the market is putting a squeeze on them.
“You almost have to spend $300,000 to buy a single-family home any more,” said Terry. The Harringtons don’t concentrate on listing property in a specific price range. Rather, they concentrate on the geographic area between Carbondale and Basalt, including Missouri Heights. “Our business is in our back yard,” said Terry. “That’s where we want to be.”
Harringtons Quickly Becoming Real Estate’s Midvalley Moguls 
