Episode 21: Selling Luxury Living Real Estate in Crestone, Colorado with Nick Nevares

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:07
Nate Carver
Hey, this is Nate Carver, your favorite mortgage guy on between two doors. And today we are talking to Nick Nevares out of Crestone, Colorado.

00:00:09:07 - 00:00:29:07
Nate Carver
Hey, I'm Nate Carver and welcome to Between Two Doors.

00:00:29:07 - 00:00:31:03
Nate Carver
Nick, how are you doing today?

00:00:31:05 - 00:00:35:15
Nick Nevares
Oh, pretty good. It's a nice sunny day here in Colorado for, early March.

00:00:35:17 - 00:00:39:03
Nate Carver
Yeah. Early March. Any snow out the window?

00:00:39:05 - 00:00:49:08
Nick Nevares
We actually just got, about six inches of snow yesterday. And, you know, it's been in the, 50s today, so, it all melted.

00:00:49:10 - 00:00:50:00
Nate Carver
Oh. That's weather.

00:00:50:02 - 00:00:56:20
Nick Nevares
That's springtime in the Rockies. You know, it's like snow in the morning, sunshine during the day, cold at night. And then repeat.

00:00:56:22 - 00:01:20:24
Nate Carver
Oh, wow. Hey, yesterday we had it all in. One day, we had straight line winds. Sandstorm, rainstorm, tornado. And then. And then gorgeous weather. It was. It was bizarre. So. Well, hey, so tell me a little bit about yourself. How long ago did you get into real estate? And, tell me why. What? What drew you to it?

00:01:21:01 - 00:01:30:00
Nick Nevares
So, we'll go we'll go back a little farther. So I, in a past life, I was an event producer and festival producer in New Orleans for over.

00:01:30:00 - 00:01:31:12
Nate Carver
Oh, nice.

00:01:31:14 - 00:01:58:02
Nick Nevares
I, and, I was working on projects from 100 to 20,000 and was, the point person and organizer for huge festivals, for a number of years and traveled with the NFL and NBA, for the Super Bowl and for the NBA All-Star game and stuff like that. I, toward the end of my career, I got really burned out, and, really just wanted to find something a little bit more meaningful.

00:01:58:04 - 00:02:18:06
Nick Nevares
So I, left New Orleans, I became an energy healer. I became a Reiki practitioner and spent, a year and a and plus on the road doing energy healings at soup kitchens and homeless shelters. And, you know, what I would do is I'd like, cook dinner in my RV and then go to, like, a Walmart or Target.

00:02:18:08 - 00:02:36:23
Nick Nevares
And they're always like homeless people kind of hanging around the parking lots. And I'd just feed them. And I asked them, you know, they were hungry, and I feed them whatever leftovers I had from, from eating that day and night. And, one day I was in a parking lot in Durango, Colorado, and, this homeless guy was really out of it.

00:02:36:23 - 00:02:54:11
Nick Nevares
He was like, schizophrenic. He was like, just out of his body. And, he, I was like, hey, you hungry? And he was like, yeah. And so he came into my RV. I fed him and, here's this kind of like this. And suddenly he was like, where are you going? I was like, I don't know.

00:02:54:12 - 00:03:32:22
Nick Nevares
He's like, Go to Creston. You belong in Creston. And then he went back out of his body. I was like, whoa, that was crazy. And I look back and it's, it's a it's a neat little town, you know, it's small, but it was, it's a place where over 20 religious organizations from around the world were, invited and continue to be invited to settle as, place to as a, place to, contain and maintain history, you know, in part, years ago, over 40 years ago, this neighborhood and in particular was, was designed by a group of UN delegates as a safe haven for high ranking military personnel and

00:03:32:22 - 00:04:08:09
Nick Nevares
government officials to kind of, like, live out the end of the world. And so they created redundant infrastructure and did all this, like, systems here that, insulated us from the rest of the world. And in doing so, they actually, spent way more money than they were anticipating went bankrupt. And the main investor, he bought the remaining, acreage and for many years gave away 100 acre parcels to religious organizations from around the world, again, as a preservation, as a way of preserving those, those, traditions.

00:04:08:11 - 00:04:34:21
Nick Nevares
It's had the Dalai Lama has a group up here. There are many different Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist traditions up here. There's a few, Hindu, ashrams up here, as well as a group down part of called, Chuma, which is based in ancient Japanese Shinto. And so anyways, I was a world religions major in college, so when I looked up, you know, this place, I was like, oh, wow.

00:04:34:21 - 00:04:56:12
Nick Nevares
There's all these religious places here. That's cool. And so I got here. It's so cool. It's like, you know, because these religious teachers from around the world come here and hold ceremony, you know, the come from the Himalayas with an entourage. You feel like you're, you know, in a National Geographic special when you're suddenly surrounded by Buddhist monks chanting, you know, in, in Tibet.

00:04:56:12 - 00:05:14:22
Nick Nevares
And it's really it's really, really cool. But, anyways, I, you know, I came here and didn't really know what I was going to do. I just knew I didn't want to do what I was doing because I was working for a super elite, and super wealthy and really just wasn't appreciated. And I wanted to make more of a difference.

00:05:14:22 - 00:05:36:15
Nick Nevares
So, I started, you know, just looking for a job in town. I became the town, newspaper ad manager, and I became the town code enforcer. And, I was there's also a little church in town that was would cook, like, a meal every Saturday for whoever needed it, you know? And, you know, honestly, the food was pretty bad.

00:05:36:17 - 00:05:58:18
Nick Nevares
And, I started cooking for them and took it over, as I tend to do. And I, I'm a pretty decent cook, if I do say so myself. So you know, well, at first was like 20 people turned into 40 and then 60 and then 102 hundred. And so, during that time, an area realtor, she approached me and was like, hey, do you to be a realtor?

00:05:58:18 - 00:06:09:18
Nick Nevares
You're like a really good realtor. Okay. And so I, I quadrupled her business and then, and then I started my own company. So that was about six years ago.

00:06:09:20 - 00:06:36:21
Nate Carver
Six years ago. Wow. So when you picked up your license was six years ago. Well, good for you. And she. She picked a winner. Yeah. So you went from a religious major to a community that is religiously and culturally diverse. Yeah, yeah. And wow, that is fascinating. So do you still do, like, food bank kind of ministry?

00:06:36:23 - 00:07:01:18
Nick Nevares
Yeah. So, you know, an homage to what I use, you know, where I came from. I try to cook, what we call free meals, three times a year for the community. So I'll organize, organize 20 to 40 people cooking for a couple days, and we'll feed about 300 people. And so, I do it with a couple of community organizations here, and we'll all get together, figure out the menu.

00:07:01:18 - 00:07:23:14
Nick Nevares
The the county commissioners, they give me a grant for it. And I'm able to feed, like, you know, 300 people with about $1,000. So, and it's great. You know, you have the mayor sitting next to a homeless person with no shoes, right? And everybody's talking and eating. We have bands come and play for free. There's like, it's really cool.

00:07:23:14 - 00:07:24:02
Nick Nevares
It's really.

00:07:24:02 - 00:07:46:12
Nate Carver
Really. Yeah, I love it. I got a connection there. I got a there's a friend of mine that does a, ministry outreach to homeless, and we I've gone so I can throw a cast net out out at the beach. Really, really good. And, went and caught a whole bunch of fresh fish. Had a fish fry.

00:07:46:14 - 00:08:08:08
Nate Carver
Well, cool. We would do haircuts and nice, you know, and help would get cleaned up and, try to identify how individually we can help them. And then, you know, between haircuts and dinner, it would be a weekend event. So good to you. I love it. I love hearing that. And, Yeah, you.

00:08:08:10 - 00:08:24:13
Nick Nevares
That's. Well, it's great because it's like, you know, it's not just for homeless, right? It's for everybody. And it's a potluck and everyone comes and just hangs out. You know, we also do a, the other so I do three of those and then I do a fourth one that's, been a tradition here before I got here.

00:08:24:15 - 00:08:44:01
Nick Nevares
And it's a, community Thanksgiving. And we'll feed about 6 or 700 people, a potluck style, but, I, I help coordinate it and get, like, 30 to 40 turkeys cooked and then everyone else brings everything else, and it's, a whole afternoon of, a Thanksgiving potluck.

00:08:44:03 - 00:09:04:06
Nate Carver
Oh, wow. Lots of people there, too. Good. On a good day. Awesome. Wow. Hey. So, so in your community, six years on, what are the things that you love about Creston on the moon? We hadn't touched on, that are on appeal or that you love to showcase when people are like, hey, I'm moving to Creston.

00:09:04:06 - 00:09:07:19
Nate Carver
You're like, great, let me tell you about this place. What do you and that you're.

00:09:07:21 - 00:09:36:03
Nick Nevares
What are you. So I usually tell them to go to my website. Dot mountainside Realtor.com. I have a pretty profuse, area on there that kind of detail. Some of the community organizations and ways you can get involved and things like that. But, you know, it's a it's actually it was, through the census was determined that it was one of the, had the highest per capita advanced degrees in Colorado.

00:09:36:05 - 00:09:59:06
Nick Nevares
And for a small town, so there's a lot of really smart, cool people here. You know, and, a lot of just amazing things going on. You know, I have, clients who have moved here over the years and even the new ones who, like, sometimes I, you know, I encourage people to come and stay and check it out for a couple months before they decide to move here.

00:09:59:06 - 00:10:22:17
Nick Nevares
If they have never been here because it is unique, you know, we're we're up right again, up against the side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. But we're like, you know, an hour from a major grocery store. We're an hour from most restaurants. You know, we're pretty remote, so that's not for everyone. You know, I I'm, I grew up in Houston and lived in New Orleans for 18 years.

00:10:22:19 - 00:10:49:20
Nick Nevares
And, you know, city life is very different from the very quiet existence of rural Colorado. Yeah. Not for everyone. But, you know, I, I feel like living here, you can really, get to know yourself better and really get to, you know, become the best version of yourself, in my opinion. By that quiet.

00:10:49:22 - 00:11:12:19
Nick Nevares
And, you know, the religious organizations here are really, very unique. The one the, the Dalai Lama's group here called the center for Contemplative Research is pretty cool. It's, it's a group that's focused on understanding the physiology of the human body, as in meditative state. So people who are they bring monks in from around the world.

00:11:12:21 - 00:11:34:14
Nick Nevares
And as they are meditating, they study them with different, tools and see how their body and how their, their, their energy is actually changing in a measurable way. It's really, really cool. And, anyways, you know, I can actually go on all day about that, but, I'd say that the community is pretty cool.

00:11:34:16 - 00:11:56:20
Nick Nevares
The, people are really, you know, I, I've, I've been really blessed to find a place that you can talk to people without them being on their phone. Right. You go into a restaurant and no one's on their phone. Everyone's talking to each other. It's like you. Like you stepped into an alternate universe. What? Phones don't exist.

00:11:56:20 - 00:11:58:00
Nate Carver
It's the coolest. Yeah.

00:11:58:02 - 00:12:02:16
Nick Nevares
Yeah. Well, yeah, that's.

00:12:02:18 - 00:12:21:02
Nate Carver
That's beautiful. Yeah. I'm going. I know where I'm going next. Yeah. And look at me. I'm talking to you anyway. Yeah. The, the phones. We got to have them, but then we haven't had to live with them yet.

00:12:21:02 - 00:12:29:14
Nick Nevares
Yeah, right. I mean, yeah, I wish, I wish I didn't have mine attached to my hip all the time, but, you know, it's it's the way that I work. So it is what it is.

00:12:29:16 - 00:12:52:00
Nate Carver
Yeah. Hey, do you deal? Do you find yourself dealing, maybe on averages. First time home buyers versus seasoned buyers that know what they're doing? Do you see a difference there? And if, if you could give some advice, if you wish they knew this, what would it be about buying a home or selling a home?

00:12:52:02 - 00:13:11:14
Nick Nevares
Sure. You know, I, Okay. Well, to start with buying, you know, I was a first time homebuyer once upon a time, as were you, right? Yeah. And, you know, I really encourage people to understand what programs are out there. You know, there's, in Colorado, we have an organization called cafA, which is the Colorado Fair Housing Authority.

00:13:11:14 - 00:13:39:16
Nick Nevares
Right. And they, they have grants for first time homebuyers. And all you got to do is like, watch a watch a little class, right? Answer some questions on homeownership and boom, you got like, what, $10,000 in grant money? Right. Right there. Right. And, you know, things like that that really make it advantageous and, and easier for a first time homebuyer to access a house.

00:13:39:18 - 00:14:00:02
Nick Nevares
You know, the other thing I always say is like, it's, every one always wants to think they know everything, right? But when it comes to a house, unless you are a builder, and even if you're a builder, you don't know anything about that house until you really meticulously pick it apart with an inspection. Right. And so actually here.

00:14:00:02 - 00:14:27:19
Nick Nevares
So I live in a really unique area. The county that I'm in, Swatch County, is the size, I believe it's the size of Maine. And it only we only have about 6 or 7000 people in the whole county. But we also don't have building codes. And so the crest stone, in particular, has been a place where people have been able to build their own houses for decades and build without building codes.

00:14:27:19 - 00:14:50:21
Nick Nevares
So they've been able to build what are called Earth ships. They've been able to build, straw bell houses or hempcrete houses or, you know, really avant garde and, energy efficient, building materials. But they're also less expensive than traditional building methods, right. However, because they're building it themselves and also oftentimes it's like, you know, trial and error sort of thing.

00:14:50:21 - 00:15:12:04
Nick Nevares
It's like, oh, that didn't work. My, my wall fell down, right? I don't know what's in the walls until you take it apart, with an inspection. So it's always really important for buyers to get a thorough inspection and not cheap out on their inspection, you know? Yeah. Whereas, you know, with sellers, what I, what I tell them is like, you know, this is a unique market.

00:15:12:04 - 00:15:33:24
Nick Nevares
It's not, not everybody is, you know, rushing to come to the middle of nowhere in Colorado. So to have patience. But also that, you know, this is, this valley was, the San Luis Valley that we're in was known as the bloodless valley by seven Native American tribes that would come here from as far away as Canada to train and do ceremony and hunt.

00:15:33:24 - 00:15:51:24
Nick Nevares
But they knew never to fight here because they believed it was very sacred. And then we called it the Bloodless Valley. And as a result, you know, the, Oh, shoot, I forget what was going on with that. Sorry.

00:15:52:01 - 00:16:21:15
Nick Nevares
Oh, you know, it's not for everyone. The the the temperature difference here can be can vary wildly. You know, the energy here is very intense. And so this land is really sacred. And it I've found that no matter what you do, that you drop the price by half unless the land is ready to be sold and chooses what buyer it wants, you have no control over it.

00:16:21:17 - 00:16:45:23
Nick Nevares
So, it's it's like, you know, I tell it's a lesson in letting go and just, you know, I will always do our best to get, you know, to do the best job for our sellers. But also, to some degree, it's it's out of our hands, you know, so I tell people to just be patient and, you know, it'll happen when it's supposed to happen.

00:16:46:00 - 00:17:30:02
Nate Carver
That is so interesting. Because you telling me about all the different, religions that are there, and then you wonder why that is, and then you tell me the story, you know, hundreds or thousands of years ago, the Indians. And this was sacred to them and their religions. And that's a theme throughout history. So in another life, I was an archeologist and, and we would go dig in the Middle East and we would uncover, a religious building, a temple, a mosque, and then discover underneath it another religious from a different area.

00:17:30:06 - 00:17:36:20
Nate Carver
And then there would be one underneath it. And just going back, I mean, I don't know how far you could go back, but, you know. Yeah, these.

00:17:36:20 - 00:17:42:07
Nick Nevares
Are like centers right there, like places where there's no that, you know, you are supposed to.

00:17:42:07 - 00:17:46:22
Nate Carver
Be sacred. Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. That's. Yeah. That's so cool.

00:17:46:23 - 00:18:18:20
Nick Nevares
So. So speaking of the, the building code thing, right. So because there has been for over 40 years, you know, this ability to build your own houses without building codes and kind of like do it yourself sort of thing. There was an event, 35 years ago created here called the Stone Energy Fair. And it is it was originally designed to educate and empower future owner builders on how to build their homes, from from people who had already done it.

00:18:18:21 - 00:18:42:06
Nick Nevares
Right. And so it was a showcase of different technologies. And over the years it has evolved to include, to, to go beyond just building. And now it's like high altitude and desert agriculture and gardening as well as, alternative energy generation, things like that. So that is I'm the producer of it. I've been doing that now for seven years.

00:18:42:07 - 00:19:06:13
Nick Nevares
And so I was able to bring my expertise in, events and, festival production to it. And so now it's, a pretty it's a it's a pretty big deal. It's the longest running sustainability fair in the country. We have thousands of people who come here in September to experience, hands on building demonstrations of like six, 6 to 10 different building modalities.

00:19:06:17 - 00:19:28:02
Nick Nevares
We have home tours that, you can actually go into homes that are both under construction and, and on, and already completed and talk to the homeowners and they understand what their experience was both building the house and living in the house and how it differs from just a traditional built house. You know, because a lot of these natural builds, they don't ever off gas.

00:19:28:02 - 00:19:52:16
Nick Nevares
So, you know, there's there's a small subset subsection of this, of this world that are very sensitive to chemicals. You know, they walk into, into a home that's new and they immediately pass out or have a headache or something like that, and they can't stand it because the off gassing of the paint and the walls and the formaldehyde in the insulation is all creating a toxic environment for that.

00:19:52:16 - 00:20:32:06
Nick Nevares
They are more sensitive to than most people. And so a lot of these natural builds are really cool because they being built with natural materials, they don't have that same issue. They're able to walk right in the moment after it's built and they can breathe no problem. And so so you have, you know, we have building demonstrations, we have home tours, and then we have talks from people who are, you know, on the forefront of building technologies as well as energy generation and, and, agriculture talking on our main stage throughout the, throughout the weekend, as well as an entire area, devoted to healing arts and alternative methods of

00:20:32:06 - 00:20:52:16
Nick Nevares
healing. And also so then we have, speakers on that as well. So last year we had a gentleman named Lloyd Khan who was named the father of DIY by The New York Times. He was our keynote speaker. And, he, he came and talked about his experience with, alternative building over the last 60 years.

00:20:54:00 - 00:21:13:15
Nate Carver
So I think I know the answer to this, but as a lender, I want to ask, hopefully to the benefit of everybody to listen to this on on these, natural builds. Yeah. Are you seeing the buyers have challenged. Are y'all seeing challenges with lenders on the natural builds?

00:21:13:17 - 00:21:13:23
Nick Nevares
Nope.

00:21:13:24 - 00:21:16:01
Nate Carver
Because good inspection, right.

00:21:16:03 - 00:21:46:08
Nick Nevares
Good inspection appraisal. There's comparables. You know, at this point enough has sold here that, you know, we can find comparables for pretty much every building type. And, you know, they're, they're really well done. I mean. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's some really, really spectacular houses that are built of different of alternative building technologies. I just built a, a 900 square foot addition on to my house on a hempcrete, which is really awesome.

00:21:46:08 - 00:22:17:22
Nick Nevares
You know, hempcrete is made from is from made from hemp, right? Yeah. And except it doesn't it doesn't off gas. It doesn't, it's it's, rodent proof and mold proof and waterproof and, it, as it cures, it turns into limestone. So it's harder than cement. It's really cool. Really cool substance. So, you know, and it's and it's like, super insulated EV and super quiet.

00:22:17:24 - 00:22:19:15
Nick Nevares
So. Yeah, it's neat.

00:22:19:17 - 00:22:31:14
Nate Carver
I've definitely learned something. Any, any, along that line, any crazy fun stories that you've run a or experienced so far in the last six years?

00:22:31:16 - 00:23:04:15
Nick Nevares
Oh, wow. You know, this is a pretty wacky little town, you know, it's, it's just full of fun characters. And, the houses are as unique as the people. You know, the houses are, because you're not. You're not dealing with cookie cutter houses. You're not dealing with, large, developments. Every house is completely unique, you know, and and having walking into a house that was designed, you know, being in, in, the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

00:23:04:17 - 00:23:32:12
Nick Nevares
It's cold here. Right. And if you don't build your house with windows to the south where you're getting a lot of passive solar gain, that's just not heating your house, your your electric bill is or your heating bill, whatever you're heating with, whether it be gas or wood or electricity, is very high. So walking into houses that are built correctly with huge windows to the south, really is just every time I do it, I was like, oh, this is so good because it's it's amazing.

00:23:32:12 - 00:23:51:15
Nick Nevares
You almost didn't even have to heat the house. It's already done for you. You know, and just seeing the different, the different styles of architecture and, you know, because everyone wants to build their own weird house, right? And, just seeing what that means for everyone and what was most important for each individual is pretty cool.

00:23:51:17 - 00:24:10:08
Nate Carver
Oh, wow. That's that, that that's cool. This would go to everybody every. But I don't, I'm in an area right now where there is a, there's new construction everywhere. And, you know, it all looks the same.

00:24:10:10 - 00:24:13:10
Nick Nevares
Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah.

00:24:13:12 - 00:24:36:00
Nate Carver
Like, good for you. Let's see, we are almost where we are. Our time's almost up. So let me ask you this because I'm going to tell everybody, go to your website and really read to see the natural builds of crest Stone. Nick, what is the best way for anybody to get Ahold of you if they're looking to buy or sell a home?

00:24:36:02 - 00:24:59:21
Nick Nevares
Sure. Like I said, the website's usually the best place to start your search again, to understand the community and stuff like that. I don't just service crest Stone. I serve, most of the San Luis Valley in Colorado. So that includes the towns of. So watch, Moffitt, and Alamosa, places like that. So my website, mountainside Realtor.com is the best place to start.

00:24:59:23 - 00:25:26:05
Nick Nevares
My office phone number is (719) 256-4444. And then, you know, I have an office in town. So that's always a good place to also, stop in and say hello. The, the energy fair that I was referencing. You know, our website is, Preston Energy fair.org. And I think, those dates are September 11th through 14th of this year.

00:25:26:07 - 00:25:50:04
Nick Nevares
That's a really cool time to come and see what the town, what the best of what the town has to offer, because it's there's some really extraordinary people who live here and who work here and who have knowledge here. And to access that all in one place is really spectacular. So, that's something if you're interested in natural building, you know, we also have a, what's called a continuing education series.

00:25:50:06 - 00:26:12:21
Nick Nevares
So throughout the year we have more deep dive classes that go into I think this this year we're going to be doing, natural plaster. We're going to be, building actually at my house. We're going to be building, walls made of, scoria. So it's, lava rock filled earth bags that we're going to turn into the foundation and into the walls of a greenhouse at my house.

00:26:12:23 - 00:26:34:15
Nick Nevares
And then, and then we're going to be also doing, permaculture. There'll be a permaculture expert who will show people how to turn desert environment into living soil and growing trees and all that type of stuff in, in this type of environment. So really cool stuff. And, you know, applicable everywhere. Not just here. Yeah.

00:26:34:17 - 00:26:35:16
Nick Nevares
Yeah.

00:26:35:18 - 00:26:57:11
Nate Carver
So I love it, I love it. There you have it, folks. I got a lot of new information. I love this, I know I want to go there. This was such a unique conversation. And, Yeah, I really think that. Thank you for sharing. Well, amazing views of Colorado and unique homes. Get Ahold of Nick.

00:26:57:11 - 00:27:07:07
Nate Carver
I'm going to have all of your contact information, and into the, energy fair as well. I'll get that included. And thanks again. I appreciate your time.

00:27:07:09 - 00:27:08:24
Nick Nevares
Absolutely. Have a great day.

00:27:18:03 - 00:27:26:05
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