Summit County companies pair concierge services with luxury property management to create dream vacations for visitors

Summit County companies pair concierge services with luxury property management to create dream vacations for visitors

An personnel stocks the fridge at a house managed by Going Mountains. The firm is primarily based in Steamboat Springs but has a Breckenridge office and provides grocery fall-off as section of its ancillary providers.
Shifting Mountains/Courtesy image

A check out to Summit County is dreamy in alone, but some nearby companies present concierge providers that change a pleasurable getaway into a luxe getaway.

Summit County has a big luxury authentic estate market place, and quite a few of these qualities act as 2nd houses for proprietors who want to host and collect their multigenerational households for a stop by to the Rocky Mountains. But when not in use, these residences sit empty, and several are turned into rental attributes for other people to get pleasure from, way too.

That is where Steamboat Springs-dependent Shifting Mountains and Breckenridge-primarily based Summit Luxury Estates come in: Both equally businesses not only handle luxurious homes and assist with rental bookings, but each and every also features and coordinates other hospitality products and services to make a guest’s continue to be beautiful.



The leaders at each and every organization have a history in the hospitality sector. ​​Robin Craigen, co-founder and CEO of Moving Mountains, and his spouse made use of to work a luxury charter yacht in the British Virgin Islands right before opening up their personal residence administration corporation in Steamboat in 1997.

“We required to replicate that practical experience in the mountains to do quite a few of the things that we had completed for guests on the yacht to provide the exact same level of support to make the holiday vacation a lot more seamless, additional enjoyable, a lot more satisfying (and) considerably less to be concerned about,” Craigen said. “When we appeared at a ski vacation in unique, we could see how difficult that expertise was, and we decided it was a perfect possibility to test to simplify that working experience for the visitors and to make it a extra soothing and satisfying time to occur with pals and family members being in a household.”



Adam Parker, operator and president of Summit Luxury Estates, made use of to possess a true estate firm in St. Louis, and he and his spouse — who has an affinity for hospitality and inside design and style — made the decision to shift to Summit County and open their individual company in 2017.

Even though each operator has a one of a kind vision for how their companies are run, there is a single factor they have in common, and that is to support generate a lavish encounter for their attendees though also taking treatment of the houses for house owners.

As soon as a guest textbooks by Moving Mountains — which has an place of work in Breckenridge and operates 75 houses locally — a team member operates with them to make an itinerary and provides to take care of some of the specifics, if required. The personnel will work with third functions to reserve activities this sort of as ski lessons, sleigh rides, horseback rides, snowmobile excursions and additional. They can also coordinate transportation to and from Denver Global Airport, e book in-home ski boot fittings and coordinate grocery pickup and fall-off. Nevertheless the staff does handful of of these companies by itself, Craigen reported his front-facing customer company staff’s primary part is to make lifetime easier on company.

Summit Luxury Estates’ workers also has a few particular touches up its sleeve to make a guest’s expertise worthwhile. The enterprise operates all around 20 homes, and when one is booked, a team member greets the visitor at the doorway of their residence when they initially arrive. At the time an agent greets them, they choose the guest on a tour of the property.

“That’s something that our friends have just been blown absent by for the reason that a good deal of these houses are larger houses,” Parker said. “They have amenities — sizzling tubs and gasoline fire pits and difficult stoves and ovens and matters like that. That was one more issue we used to listen to a whole lot is that company would just expend the first two days fumbling all-around the home striving to figure every little thing out.”

Like Shifting Mountains, the staff at Summit Luxurious Estates depends on 3rd events to assistance provide services this sort of as own transportation, grocery delivery, family members pictures, kid care, pet care and in-house ski boot fittings. The crew can protected raise tickets, source oxygen shipping and ebook tee instances, and it also has associations with 3rd-get together organizations that can give personalized chef and in-residence masseuse companies.

The staff members at Summit Luxurious Estates can also set collectively Champagne and flower preparations, and they supply child devices rentals. In the past, they’ve managed little, specific requests, these kinds of as filling balloons and participating in new music prior to the company get there.

Both Parker and Craigen explained people are the major clients who reserve one of their luxurious rentals, but the two have also catered to friend teams and corporate business retreats, way too.

No make any difference who is checking out, equally agree their target is to provide a high-finish encounter from commence to finish.

This four-bed room, 5.5-tub luxury home in Breckenridge is a person of a lot of homes Summit Luxurious Estates manages. The company obtained its begin in 2017 and will work with third functions to give lavish and large-end visitor activities.
Tripp Fay/Summit Luxury Estates

Lessen, Property Services Startup, Scores Unicorn Valuation

Lessen, Property Services Startup, Scores Unicorn Valuation

Newest unicorn is property-services startup Lessen

Lessen CEO Jay McKee and Fifth Wall managing partner Brendan Wallace (LinkedIn, Fifth Wall, iStock)

A historic year for proptech fundraising has produced another unicorn.

Lessen, a real estate management platform that connects property owners and operators to electricians, cleaners and other service providers, raised $170 million in a Series B round, pushing its total funding so far to $214 million — nearly quadruple its previous fundraising — and valuing the two-and-a-half year-old company at more than $1 billion.

Proptech venture capital firm Fifth Wall, which led Lessen’s $35 million Series A round in June, returned to lead the new round. Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and Navitas Capital were also repeat investors.

The Series B was oversubscribed, Lessen CEO Jay McKee said, and the company plans to detail additional investment from special purpose vehicle partners before the end of the year.

Lessen’s fundraise comes at a pivotal time for the U.S. housing market, with an unprecedented combination of high demand and low supply driving home prices to record highs as developers, owners and operators grapple with labor shortages and supply chain disruption.

“Lessen is seeing a difficult hiring environment, complicated materials procurement system, and increased appetite for portfolio scaling all at the same time,” McKee said by email.

McKee’s experience is not limited to tech. He previously founded the single-family rental company Colony American Homes, which merged with a Starwood Capital Group affiliate in 2015.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based Lessen’s client base, which spans 30 U.S. markets, includes large multifamily and single-family rental REITs, who use the platform to source more than 2,000 plumbers, electricians, cleaners and other servicers. Users can manage multiple work orders as well as bill and analyze data from previous jobs.

McKee said Lessen’s transparency, comprehensive data and ability to “optimize workflows” improve the “timing, quality and pricing of jobs,” and set the platform apart in a crowded field.

“We believe that we are approaching the property-services industry in a unique way that combines tech and field delivery in a way that no one has done before,” McKee said.

Lessen, which also has offices in Seattle and Miami, plans to launch its platform nationwide soon and triple its employee count in the coming months, McKee said. “Eventually, we believe there is opportunity for international expansion,” he said.

Proptech investors have produced a few unicorns over the last year. The most recent was Place, a technology and business services platform for agents, which achieved a $1 billion-plus valuation with its first funding round this month.

How to be part of the NDIS property investment boom – Services

How to be part of the NDIS property investment boom – Services

How to be part of the NDIS property investment boom


NDIS service providers tend to rent the whole property for lengthy periods of time.
Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash

Property continues to be a star investment performer during the pandemic with certain types of property delivering even better returns than others. 

NDIS approved dwellings fall into this category.

Property is king at the moment and many people who are investing in property are making significant gains.

What we are finding is that investors who are purchasing NDIS approved dwellings are achieving extremely attractive returns of up to 20 percent per annum. The most common question I receive is how do I find or invest in an NDIS approved property. People want to know what the process involves which is a very good question.

I have outlined some of the most common NDIS property questions.

What is an NDIS property

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is housing that has been specially designed to suit the needs of people who have extreme functional impairment or very high support needs.

There is a significant undersupply of SDA properties across the country. Property investors who invest in the sector are not only generating strong returns, they are also helping to solve a social crisis.

SDA properties offer improved liveability. Improved liveability includes features such as external doors and outdoor private areas must be accessible by wheelchair and facilities such as the bathroom vanity and hand basin, kitchen sink, bench, cooktop and key appliances should be accessible in either a seated or standing position in order to meet the resident’s needs. In addition the properties must also be more robust which reduces the likelihood of reactive maintenance.

The current government incentives and structure for SDA properties means the rental income is much greater, on average by three to four times, than what investors would generally expect from a non NDIS property.

How can I purchase an SDA property

There are several ways you can purchase an SDA property. Firstly, you can purchase a property and adapt it based on SDA housing requirements, however, this tends to require substantial and complex work and the scheme set a minimum spend the investor must be able to demonstrate to qualify as a new build in the scheme.

There are builders and architects that specialise in undertaking this type of work. In addition, there are also advisory organisations that specialise in providing this type of guidance.

Alternatively, you can purchase an SDA property that is already approved and equipped to house NDIS participants. These can be sourced through real estate agents and specialist agents however they are in short supply. Family Offices, investment groups and other institutional investors actively seek out these properties for addition to their investment portfolios.

The scenario we see the most is for retail investors is the house and land package. This involves the purchase of a block of land in an SDA friendly location and then the construction of an SDA approved house on that parcel.

How do I find an NDIS tenant/s

This is a good question and one that many people want to know. How do NDIS participants and SDA dwelling owners connect.

The NDIS operates under a broad market approach. On this basis, participants are expected to find and apply for appropriate advertised vacancies themselves. This is done in two ways. Either a participant finds their own property directly through sites such as realestate.com.au, or via organisations such as NDIS service providers that lease entire properties and rent out rooms to participants.

NDIS service providers normally provide live-in house coordinators and provide other levels of support to participants. Organisations also search realestate.com.au and have connections with agents that know what properties are coming up on the market that are SDA appropriate.

Who pays the rent

The income from an SDA property is structured slightly differently to a standard investment property.

The income consists of several parts: SDA payment and the Reasonable Rent Contribution which is 25 percent of the recipient’s base disability support pension. Given the structure of the payments, the rent is virtually guaranteed which is important when it comes to investment returns.

NDIS service providers tend to rent the whole property for lengthy periods of time. SDA properties are typically not subject to the same market forces as other sectors of the community such as people who have lost their jobs through COVID.

Yannick Ieko is the founder and managing director of NDIS Loan Experts.