Around seven months ago, the Summit and Steamboat Springs Realtors associations merged, and leaders behind the efforts said power in numbers is already proving to have benefits. 

On Feb. 2, 2024, the Summit Association of Realtors and Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors organizations officially merged to form Altitude Realtors. Director Dana Cottrell said efforts to merge the organizations began in December 2022. 

The merger served more than 1,000 primary Realtor members and a total membership of approximately 1,700. The association’s jurisdiction includes Summit, Routt, Lake and Jackson counties as well as Park County up to Kenosha Pass and the Colorado Trail.

Altitude Realtors President Jim Howser said a few different factors got the ball rolling on this partnership. He said Summit Association of Realtors was looking for more partners to increase the scale of its operations to have better negotiating power through a large membership base. At the same time, Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors was looking for a new partner for Multiple Listing Services. 

Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors was previously on the REcolorado Real Estate Multiple Listing Service, who announced to its users it would be changing software systems and prices. Howser said his group started looking into different potential partners for Multiple Listing Services, and Summit Association of Realtors was deemed the perfect fit because they used a similar software platform. 

Additionally, Steamboat Springs Board of Realtors Chief Executive Officer Ulrich Salzgeber announced plans to retire around this time. So, Howser said, it made sense to join forces both on the Multiple Listing Service front and on the associations front as well. 

Cottrell said not only did the Multiple Listing Service merge cut costs, it also helped improve how brokers can service clients. Having more properties featured on a Multiple Listing Service helps create more detailed search fields relevant to what buyers are looking for on the service, such as ski-in-ski-out properties or ones near ideal cross-country skiing spots. 

“It gives us the power to really hyper focus our searches and be able to really identify the search areas that can specifically meet a buyer’s need,” she said. 

She added increasing the size of the database also aids in educating brokers by expanding their knowledge base.

Howser said the consolidation of Multiple Listing Services is a national trend. He said people are merging systems either because they are being taken over by a larger business or for the same reason Summit and Steamboat merged — because it increases information in a database that will better serve a region at-large. 

“I think you’re going to see more of that in unique markets,” he added, noting he anticipates seeing these shifts in other resort-type areas.

Cottrell said, from an advocacy standpoint, power in numbers matters when it comes to getting your voices heard by legislators. 

She said amid the merger, there was a “rebirth” of an advocacy organization which the group joined that supports real estate-related issues in resort towns, the Western Mountain Resort Alliance. She added partnerships like the ones the group has through the alliance are invaluable and only increase buying power for brokers. 

Next steps for this partnership involves finding a new office for the group. Howser said the process is in its “infancy” stages, yet the office will likely be based in Summit County.