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Ryan Carter
Courtney, I'm super excited to talk with you today. I saw you on my calendar as I. Cool. I'm excited to spend some time with Courtney. Learn more about your business and just have you give you an opportunity to share with others kind of your background and what you love about real estate and all those things.
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Courtney Bitner
Well, thank you. I'm really excited to be here.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. So you're a cloud native?
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Courtney Bitner
I am. I am born and raised in southeast Aurora. I went to high school at Eagle Crest and I haven't moved far. I'm still in that area.
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Ryan Carter
That's amazing. I mean, I think Colorado, as you know, has been become such a great place to live. And the secret is out. People are coming. And a lot of in-migration. But to there's not a lot of true natives, right?
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Courtney Bitner
There really aren't.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. And I'm sure that's actually gives you you probably bring some cool skill sets to the table for clients, particularly buyers, I imagine, because of being a native. I mean, you know, the area you know, Colorado.
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Courtney Bitner
Yeah, I do. I do. I know my area really well. There's other areas of town that I've learned just being around for so long. So I do have a lot of expertize there.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. So I'd love to just kind of hear a little bit about, you know, your story. What were you doing prior to real estate? Yeah. What is your professional background been?
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Courtney Bitner
I've had a couple of different careers. I started about 15 years ago in insurance, so I was working with people that were close to retirement, kind of helping with their financial planning and insurance needs that they had. I decided that that wasn't for me. I loved working with the people, but I just that wasn't the field I wanted to be in.
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Courtney Bitner
So I took some time. I had a couple of my own businesses that I did from home while our kids were growing up. And then real estate is something I've always been interested in. So I just finally decided that it was time to do it. So, yeah, that's kind of how I got here.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. Good for you. Well, you know, insurance, you're really thinking about the structure of people's lives, right? And and and I'm assuming guiding them to make some decisions for generational wealth or smart decisions about their their finances, and then just being an entrepreneur with your other business. There's definitely qualities and skill sets that I imagine have transferred into your real estate business.
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Courtney Bitner
Yeah, for sure. I definitely feel like I love helping people and always at the end of the day, that's really what makes me happy. And I can sleep well at night knowing that I've helped someone with a very major purchase. Or, you know, when it was real or insurance when it was something like that to protect their family.
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Courtney Bitner
So yeah.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, I may be a little biased, but I agree with you that the seeds, it sounds like the seeds of being insurance really led you to real estate. And the impact, again, being on a bias that you can make in real estate is just really big and so impactful to people. So. Well, we're glad you've made that transition into real estate from your previous career.
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Ryan Carter
And I'm sure your clients, your clients will be really benefited to have you as well, right?
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Courtney Bitner
I agree. Yeah.
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Ryan Carter
So we've talked about your for some professional background prior to real estate. You've been with our organization, with 8z, with the Parker Castle Rock team for about a year now. What's it been like building your business in partnership with 8z?
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Courtney Bitner
It has truly been amazing. It's been better than I could have ever expected. 8z to me, has been really like gaining a family. Yeah, I love my office, but I also love the company. When we are doing things together as a whole group, I see people from all different offices that I've met and are very friendly with and it's just it's really nice to know that we have so much support from our smaller office, but then also from the company as a whole.
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Ryan Carter
It really is true, you know, I'm just so grateful to be a part of it. Also, you know, you said it, but you see the collaboration that happens. And when you think about the amount of expertize that is across our brand and across our brokerage, it really is impactful to everyone. Business. Yeah, and that and that sharing and learning together is also in, you know, your partner catalog team is a really special team.
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Courtney Bitner
It really is.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. And you nailed it. It truly is a family. And you guys can lean on each other and bring all of that collective knowledge together to serve your clients, right?
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Courtney Bitner
Yeah. And we do.
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Ryan Carter
Do for sure. For sure. So pivoting a bit, a little birdie may have told me, well, you're an avid reader.
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Courtney Bitner
I am an avid reader.
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Ryan Carter
Just how many books do you read a year?
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Courtney Bitner
Around 100.
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Ryan Carter
Wait a minute. A hundred bucks a year? Yes. That's really impressive. That's really cool. I yeah, that's really impressive. Is there any particular genres that you lean towards?
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Courtney Bitner
Mostly fiction. Yeah, I have kind of given up TV and just spend my time reading instead. So I do like fiction because it just kind of takes me away from my everyday life. Yeah, but I also read I love memoirs, I love occasionally a self-help type of book, but yeah, mostly fiction.
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Ryan Carter
That's so cool. I mean, it's interesting. I can, I can, you know, hearing you, I can understand how replacing reading, particularly fiction reading with television gives you that escape and sort of you're transported but through a book and through the word.
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Courtney Bitner
Right, that's super cool. And I feel like, you know, when I'm watching TV, it's just kind of brain numbing. Know when I'm reading a book, I'm actually engaged and actively thinking about what's going on. So I think it's helping my brain.
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Ryan Carter
Your neuroscience brain cells, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. What else? Any. Anything else? Sort of that maybe many people may not know or kind of we know what else you love. So tell me about your family.
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Courtney Bitner
So I've been married to my husband for 12 years. We are a blended family, so we each came into the marriage with two kids. They're all adults now, which is really nice. I do have a one year old granddaughter who is, I think, the apple of all of our eyes. She is the sweetest thing. And then we also have three rescue dogs.
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Ryan Carter
Oh, wow.
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Courtney Bitner
Yeah. So it's a full house.
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Ryan Carter
I'm sure it's a really full house. And everyone comes back together right? Yeah. It is the first grandbaby she is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sure she feels it.
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Courtney Bitner
She does. She has everyone wrapped around her little finger.
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Ryan Carter
I bet. Oh, I bet. That's really cool. Yeah. I going back to real estate and what, what is sort of some of your favorite pieces or parts of real estate? What do you really love, enjoy doing?
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Courtney Bitner
I really love helping buyers. I love meeting people when they are making a change in their life, whether it's just because they want to make a change or if maybe they have to because of some life circumstance. I really love drilling down to exactly what they are looking for and then being able to present them with options. Yeah.
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Courtney Bitner
And then just getting to the closing table and seeing them with their keys and walking into their new home for the first time has really been very fulfilling for me to be part of their journey.
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Ryan Carter
I think that it is it is really fulfilling. And you mentioned something there, drilling down and drilling down. And really, I know what that is, particularly for you, what you bring to the table to buyers. That's a really smart, extensive, thorough buyer process. Right. You know, people think about a listing process or having a process on the sell side, but it is really critical to have a buying process and to, as you say, drill down and to really dial in with buyers what their goals are, what they need, and really guide them through that process.
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Courtney Bitner
Right.
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Ryan Carter
I know that you really have had some great experiences with buyers, and that's a particular piece that you love. And what's cool about real estate is every transaction is different and you really get to help so many people in so many different flavors. And, and there's just a lot of opportunity for different experiences in our business. I'd love to hear perhaps ones one experience or one client where in closing that kind of stands out in your career thus far?
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Courtney Bitner
I think the one that stands out the most to me is probably within like a week of getting my real estate license. One of my girlfriends called me and said, Hey, I'm getting a divorce and I'm hiring you to help me sell a house or I mean, to buy a house. And I was like, Oh, okay, I'll tell you that I.
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Ryan Carter
Have a really it perfect. Yeah.
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Courtney Bitner
So she actually wanted to move to Jules Verne, Colorado, which is the very furthest northeast part of the state that you can get. You can see Nebraska from her front yard, which is kind of funny, but it was a great transaction. They've lived out there for a couple of years now and I love seeing on social media that her and her kids are just thriving.
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Courtney Bitner
They love that small town community and it just makes my heart happy that I was able to help her with something when she was going through that very difficult transition in her life.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah, that is such a perfect example of how we can show up in a professional sense in real estate and really be there for someone in a transition and then to see them on the other side of that is really rewarding.
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Courtney Bitner
Yeah, it really is.
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Ryan Carter
Yeah. Courtney It's been really cool spending some time with you and speaking with you and learning more about you and your business. I'm super thankful to have you and I know that Inger and your Castle Rock Parker team is as well, and thanks for being on its ear share.
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Courtney Bitner
Thank you. I love it. So thank you very much for creating this environment and such a great company.
