Colo. Landmark aligns with Coldwell Banker

BOULDER — Colorado Landmark Realtors is expanding the way it does business, affiliating with the nationally recognized Coldwell Banker name residentially and commercially.

In the coming months the residential real estate firm also plans branch offices in Louisville and Broomfield, says Joel Ripmaster, president of Colorado Landmark. The commercial office is expected to move to a new location near the 96th Street interchange. Ripmaster’s base of operations will continue to be at the 2334 Broadway office.

“What we’re doing is a philosophical change,” Ripmaster says. “It’s just an opportunity for growth in our company.”

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The change means Colorado Landmark Realtors will use Coldwell Banker’s Previews Network, a national real estate network used to sell upscale homes. And Caribou Springs, a luxury home development planned north of Boulder, will be one of the Boulder office’s luxury projects.

“It’s an exciting deal for us because what we’ve ended up with is being affiliated with the premier luxury home marketing system, and that’s what we’ll continue to do for Boulder,” Ripmaster says.

An existing Coldwell Banker Van Schaack office will remain a separate entity from the new office, although there probably will be common marketing, says Don Welch, broker/manager at the Coldwell Banker office. There will be no sharing of business or conditions, Welch says.

An affiliation with the largest real estate organization in the country means Ripmaster’s employees will work with PHH Mortgage, one of the top 15 mortgage originators in the country in 1996, and the company handling Sun Microsystems workers who are moving from California to Colorado, Ripmaster says. The affiliation makes his office part of the largest relocation network in the country, he says. Colorado Landmark did more than $80 million in sales in 1997, he says. The firm’s sales rank it as one of the top five residential real estate firms based in Boulder County, according to Business Report research.

At the same time, several long-time Realtors affiliated with Colorado Landmark are leaving to work for the competition. Confirmed are Art Rolander, Larry McCarthur, Muriel Sharp, Susan Weeks and Tina Heilman, says Sharp, an eight-year veteran.

Art Rolander and Susan Weeks, as well as local independent developer Don Unkefer, were part of the original company created when Landmark Properties merged with Multiprop Inc. about 10 years ago, Sharp says. Multiprop kept its name and continues to work as a commercial development company.

Sharp emphasizes that those leaving Colorado Landmark are doing so under good terms. Two other Landmark Realtors, Lois Purtell and Chuck Oppermann, each with probably 20 years in the profession, moved to Wright Kingdom Realty.

“I’m sad to leave it, but philosophically it’s time to make a change,” Sharp says. “Coldwell Banker offers the kind of services we don’t need. We do a lot of our own repeat referral business; Coldwell Banker offers out-of-state referrals. It’s a different flavor.”

The group of five moving to Remax also discussed creating its own company, but decided to work for another real estate company, Sharp says.

“My main thrust is to stay with the people I work with,” Sharp says. “We tend to do business the same way — good, old-fashioned business with high service, no frills, basic taking care of people and caring about the client because they’re often many times repeat clients.”