Everyone has a story to tell. People, homes, neighborhoods, even companies. Stories interpret the past and shape the future. They add meaning to life and are integral to changing the world. Stories connect us with people and places. As a real estate company, we've been invited into a lot of great stories that have inspired us to become Love Your Hood. This is how we got here:

A LITTLE HISTORY

FEBRUARY 2011

Deb Albrandt, Mark McClung, and Jen McClung (Starbuck) teamed up to launch Starbuck Realty Group. It was a humble start (as in working from Mark & Jen's 1890's home amongst barking dogs and crying babies) since they vowed to not take on any debt.

SUMMER 2012

While working hard at residential real estate, we heard a message series "For the Good of the City." From that, Love Your Hood was coined. We dug it and made some cool swag.

JANUARY 2013

We started offering property management services to help our clients do more with their real estate.

MAY 2013

Our first non-related broker joined our team. But, we were still working out of our house. We promised her we would get office space (sans barking dogs and crying babies) soon.

SEPTEMBER 2013

We found our first office space to rent at 3080 Larimer Street. At that time only the front half of the building was for rent. It fit us perfectly.

SEPTEMBER 2014

Unexpectedly, we had the opportunity to purchase the building we were renting. We were ecstatic to call RiNo our permanent home.

DECEMBER 2014

Our first employee joined the team to help with the rapidly growing property management side of the business.

DECEMBER 2015

Our team kept growing, but something felt too status quo. What was driving our work? We dug deep.

WINTER 2017

Our soul searching led us down a different path. Same awesome work, but with a clear vision behind it. Love Your Hood was no longer just a fun tagline, but became who we are and what we aspired to do.

"Most people spend their lives climbing the ladder of success only to realize, when they get to the top, the ladder has been leaning against the wrong wall."

Stephen Covey

A New Name

Some people think we're crazy for choosing the name we did, like we missed the memo that "hoods" are not places people want to live, or heck, even drive through. So why in the world would we choose this? Co-founder Jen McClung sheds some light:

Why the name change?

"Make a name for yourself," is such a sought after idea. So of course, it's common to name your business after yourself - which is exactly what we did when we first started out as Starbuck Realty Group. But, what we found is that no one gets excited about building a name for someone else. I mean, think about how many times you've seen ABC Team at XYZ Brokerage.

But you have to be named something.

Sure do. People may not get excited about building a name for someone else, but they love to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Love Your Hood is more than a company. It's a vision for how we want to live and what we want to see happen in our communities. It's a call to action. It's a name that, at the end of the day, isn't about building ourselves up, but rather it's about building up the communities where we live and work.

Why now?

When we started our business back in 2011, we did so like a lot of other brokerages; to be local experts in our real estate market and provide a high level of service to our clients. Sound familiar? Well, when everyone in real estate is saying and chasing after the same thing, how do you measure success? By the number of agents in your brokerage? Your company's sales volume? The number of transactions closed? Having "the best" URL? When we fast-forwarded our life to the end, we thought we would look back on it and say, "these things just don't matter to us."

So what does matter?

People. When we looked at the work we do, we realized that we are the lucky folks who get to connect people to place, and ultimately to other people. So, shouldn't how we define success reflect that? Our goal isn't to be recognized for the number of transactions we close, our sales volume, or the square footage or number of properties we manage. It feels a bit shallow. At the end if it all, we'd rather be known for making a positive impact on our community and on the people we work with and serve. We realized our old name didn't reflect who we were becoming and what we aspired to do.

So that's nice and all, but what do you actually do that's different?

Ultimately, there are a lot of companies that do what we do. They have a similar what, but it's the how and the why that makes people want to work with us. We're not just about buying, selling, or managing real estate. We're about real relationships with each other, our clients, and our community. We don't see the end of transaction as the end of a relationship. We don't see the people we work with as a way to pad the bottom line. We see them as our community, our team, our family. And it's this mindset that shapes all the decisions we make. If we had to sum it up, our motto would sound like this:

Be Genuine

and tolerate no compromise when it comes to integrity.

Have Courage

to love people, communities, and the art of bringing them together.

Bring the Fire

to ignite each other with the passion to accomplish great things.
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