Mark Gordon, CRS, says he’s successful due to his commitment to his market and community
Some real estate agents view homebuying and selling strictly as a financial transaction. But to stand out from your peers and to be able to represent yourself as the best agent in your market, additional care is necessary. One way to accomplish this is to engross yourself in your market by forging relationships and truly understanding what makes the community in which you’re selling “tick.”
Enter Mark Gordon, CRS, owner/broker at Christiania Realty in Vail, Colorado. Gordon had an unlikely path to the real estate industry, first graduating with a master’s degree in pop culture theory and film studies before going into the world of trade show management. His next career move may be even more unique: “I moved to Vail to become a ski bum, working for $14/hour on the mountain, and I loved it” Gordon says. “I was also elected to the Vail Town Council and was helping with negotiations on a $300 million development deal for the town. I was a walking contradiction—a ski bum doing million-dollar business deals—so at that point I figured I probably should get into real estate.”
First becoming licensed in 2008, and achieving his CRS Designation in 2015, Gordon translated his love of his community into a successful real estate operation. He says that while his customer base is primarily those who are purchasing a property as a vacation home (he estimates that 97% of his clients are those buying and selling second homes), buyers also see the value of integrating themselves in the community. “Everybody who purchases a home in Vail has a relationship with the community—they want the lifestyle,” Gordon says. “They not only want the mountains and the outdoors, but they want the incredible cultural offerings that we have.”
Getting involved
Gordon matches his clients’ enthusiasm for local culture by fashioning himself as a “community ambassador” for his market. “I think that my role as a REALTOR® is almost as an educator,” he explains. Gordon doesn’t want to be seen as just an agent who helps with buying and selling homes. “I let Vail sell itself,” he says. “I don’t look at myself as a salesperson as much as letting Vail be the salesperson. But in order to do that, my knowledge of the community has to be second to none.”
To gain that unparalleled expertise, Gordon is an active member of several local organizations. The groups that he has contributed to over the years is extensive, including:
- 2021 President of Colorado RRC
- Member of several presidential advisory groups for RRC
- Vail Town Council member from 2005–2009
- Founder of the Vail Economic Advisory Council
- Member of the Vail Commission for Special Events
- President of B’nai Vail, the local synagogue
- Board member for the Bravo Vail Music Festival
Experienced REALTORS® know that joining committees and councils in your market can be a great way to drum up leads or increase sales. However, Gordon doesn’t want his community involvement to be seen as a sales tactic. “I do not join any of these groups to help my real estate business in any sort of direct one-for-one,” he says. Of course, he admits it does help his business—however mostly through education. Joining these groups helps him learn more about the community, which in turn “helps me meet people and builds relationships that make my business successful.”
Localized expertise
Gordon says that these relationships made through organizations have allowed him to offer the best customer service in the area. “Because Vail is a second-home market, my clients don’t necessarily have a list of service providers they can go to,” he says. “So if someone’s buying or selling a home, and they need to get it cleaned, I’m going to do that. If they need furniture moved out and brought to the thrift store, I’m going to do that. Whatever it takes, I am there for them.”
“Vail is very good at reducing headaches,” Gordon continues. “We want to make things easy. Your second home in Vail is supposed to be a place that reduces stress, not increases stress. And I look at my job the same way.” He jokes that sometimes this level of service happens to make his own life a bit more stressful, but that his job is to make sure his clients’ lives are as easy as possible.
While he may service mostly second-home seekers, Gordon is also very focused on making sure that the community is thriving with full-time, primary residents.
“I have a soft spot for helping primary residents, because I believe part of the magic of Vail is that we are a real community and not just a cruise ship in the mountains,” he explains. “What makes Vail so great are the people who live here and provide the services, and who make the place so special and welcoming for our part-time residents.”
When he was a member of the town council, Gordon was a huge housing activist, making sure that real people could afford to live within the town of Vail and wouldn’t have to commute from great distances. “I was instrumental in creating inclusionary zoning and commercial linkage, and subsequent councils took that idea and ran with it,” he says. “But that was a big fight making sure there is affordable housing so that we can have a good chunk of our workforce living within Vail or very close by.”
Perfect support
Gordon credits RRC and his fellow CRS Designees with furthering this message that community involvement matters greatly for agents. He references a panel he sat on at a past Sell-a-bration: “It was called Community Responsibility and Service, and I think that is the true meaning of being a CRS. It’s one of the things that I love about RRC and CRS Designees—that’s who we are, we are people who want to give back to the community, whether it would have a direct correlation to our business or not. And that is just the type of person I am.”
His motto rings true as he continues to support his market and community: “Do the right thing, be the right type of person and good things follow.”
