Updates from Sally Shiekman

I moved to Aspen in 1989 and started selling real estate here in 1992. That's long enough to have watched children who learned to ski on Buttermilk come back with children of their own — to the same house, the same bunk room, the same view from the same kitchen window. It's also long enough to have watched families let go of homes they swore they'd keep forever. The difference between the two usually wasn't money. It was the house they chose in the first place.

That choice matters more every year. Cerulli Associates estimates that $124 trillion will pass between generations in the U.S. through 2048, and roughly half of it, will come from high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth households. A meaningful share of that wealth lives in homes like the ones in this valley. So when a buyer tells me they're buying for their grandchildren, I take it literally.

Start With What Can't Be Renovated

Finishes age. Kitchens get redone every fifteen years, and nobody's grandchildren will love the tile you picked. What holds across generations is what no contractor can add later: the river, southern light, a protected view, and being close to the things a family does together. I wrote this summer about how Aspen's viewplane protections and growth limits keep the view you buy protected. For a fifty-year house, that's the foundation. Choose the setting, and let the finishes be the next generation's project.

A Layout That Works for Three Generations

The homes that stay in families tend to work at both ends of life. A primary suite on the main level, or an elevator, so grandparents keep coming long after the stairs become a question. A bunk room or lower level the grandchildren can claim. A guest suite with its own entrance, so a grown son and his family can visit without anyone feeling like a guest. A great room that seats everyone during the holidays, and a kitchen with room for more than one cook. Square footage alone doesn't do this. Plenty of large homes are built for two people and a party.

Plan the Ownership, Not Just the Purchase

Inheritance is where carrying costs become a family conversation. A property that needs a full-time caretaker, a long private road, and constant upkeep can be a joy for one owner and a burden for three heirs in three cities. That doesn't rule out an estate. It means planning its operation as seriously as its purchase: who manages it, how costs are shared, how the holidays are scheduled. Families who set those rules while everyone still agrees have far fewer hard conversations later.

How you hold the home matters too. Individual names, a revocable trust, an LLC, or a combination each carry different consequences for privacy, liability, probate, and taxes when the house passes on. That's a conversation for your estate attorney and tax advisor, and the right time to have it is before closing, not after. Re-titling later is possible, but it costs time and money. I'm glad to introduce you to Colorado attorneys I trust.

When It Isn't the Right Goal

I want to be fair here. Not every family should buy for fifty years. Children build lives in other places, and sometimes the kindest legacy is a well-chosen asset the next generation can sell without guilt. I would rather help you decide that honestly at the start than sell you a dream your children inherit as a problem.

If you're picturing an Aspen home your family will still gather in by 2076, please call me before we look at a single property. Thirty-four years here have taught me which houses families keep, and why.

Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Broker/Partner, Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty

970-948-7530 | Sally@SallyShiekman.com | SallyShiekman.com

This post is for general information only and is not legal, tax, or estate planning advice. Please consult your own attorney and tax advisor about your situation.

Source: Cerulli Associates, "Cerulli Anticipates $124 Trillion in Wealth Will Transfer Through 2048," December 5, 2024

#AspenRealEstate #AspenLuxuryRealEstate #LegacyHomes #FamilyEstate #GenerationalWealth #EstatePlanning #RoaringForkValley #AspenLiving #MountainsOfExperience #AspenSnowmassSothebysRealty

Every fall, a certain conversation finds me. It usually comes from someone who has owned a large home on Red Mountain, in Starwood, or out on McLain Flats for twenty years or more, and it almost never starts with price. It starts with the driveway in February. Or the guest wing that sits dark ten months a year. Or the realization that their favorite parts of Aspen — dinner downtown, a night at the Wheeler, an evening by the river — are the parts they have to drive to.

I've had that conversation for thirty-four years, and I always begin with the same reassurance: moving to town isn't giving anything up. It's choosing a different way to have Aspen.

What You Actually Want to Keep

The things that made the big house worth buying were rarely the square footage. They were the view, the quiet, the privacy, and the feeling that a piece of this valley was exclusively yours. The trick is keeping those while shedding the rest: the plow contracts, the caretaker schedule, the rooms you heat for no one. In Aspen's core, that combination is harder to find than people expect. Most in-town homes trade quiet for convenience.

960 East Hopkins doesn't make you choose. It is one of only four residences in a landscaped riverfront enclave, at the end of a street that doesn't run through. The Roaring Fork River runs beneath the primary suite's private deck, and Aspen Mountain fills the arched windows to the south. The volume and spaciousness of the social spaces set this townhome apart. A private elevator serves all three levels, so the stairs become optional. The primary suite is on the main level, with its own gas fireplace, sitting area, steam shower and indoor jetted tub, and a second en suite bedroom shares that floor. Up top, a rooftop terrace and private hot tub look straight at the mountain. The home was completely renovated in 2010, it is offered furnished, has underground parking and storage and the HOA handles the heat, the snow, and the grounds. You can arrive with a suitcase and leave by locking one door.
I sold its neighbor, 990 East Hopkins, this summer, and I wrote about that buyer in The Buyer Who Saw Past the Finishes. 960 is the other side of that story: the same river and the same mountain, with the renovation already done.

What the Market Is Saying

The numbers support what I'm hearing. In the third quarter of 2026 Aspen townhome and duplex sales tripled from a year earlier, nine closings versus three, and the Estin Report credits their central locations and a price point below single-family homes. Single-family sales in Aspen more than doubled in the same quarter, 26 against 12. Year to date, Aspen is still down about 20% in sales, so I won't call it a boom. But if you've been waiting for buyers to return before listing the house on the hill, many have come back this summer.

960 E. Hopkins drew serious interest in its first weeks on the market, and it is available today for a showing. I live nearby and can show it on short notice.

It Isn't for Everyone

To be fair, a townhome is a shared building. There's an HOA, there are neighbors, and some decisions belong to four owners instead of one. For some estate owners that's a deal-breaker, and I'd rather say so plainly. For others, it's exactly the relief they're after: someone else worries about the roof, the snow, and the grounds, and you spend that time outside instead.
If you've started having the driveway conversation with yourself, call me. I'm glad to walk 960 East Hopkins with you, or any property that seems a good fit, and I am just as happy to tell you honestly what I believe your current home would bring in today's market, with no expectation either way.

Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Broker/Partner, Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty

970-948-7530 Sally@SallyShiekman.com
www.sallyshiekman.com
960EHopkins.com 

Source: Estin Report, Q3 & Sep 2026 Aspen Snowmass Real Estate Market Snapshot
#AspenRealEstate #AspenLuxuryRealEstate #RoaringForkRiver #AspenMountain #RiverfrontLiving #AspenTownhome #LockAndLeave #AspenCore #MountainsOfExperience #AspenSnowmassSothebysRealty

A client called me last week: "Sally, I keep reading that the market is struggling. Should I be worried?" I told her what I tell everyone — to properly respond, I have to know which market you're reading about.

The headlines are real. The Aspen Times reported this week that statewide buyer demand has decreased as the 30-year mortgage rate has climbed above 7%, driving loan application volume down more than 10% in a single week. Across Colorado, that's a meaningful headwind — mountain town inventory is up, median prices have pulled back, and sellers are negotiating in ways they weren't eighteen months ago.

But here in the Roaring Fork Valley, the picture is more nuanced. Yes, some buyers have stepped back—rate sensitivity is real, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But many buyers don’t need financing and are able to pay cash, and they’re taking advantage of the increased inventory and greater selection.
I’m also seeing serious buyers—people who have been watching and waiting—finally finding properties that meet their needs, with more time to consider their options, fewer competing offers, and sellers who are genuinely willing to engage.
The frenzied years weren't always as great as they looked. Buyers may have waived contingencies they shouldn't have, overpaid in the heat of the moment, or sometimes won properties they later regretted winning. What the current environment allows for is something that got lost during all of that: good judgment on both sides.

Call me today and Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Broker/Partner, Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty
970-948-7530 | Sally@SallyShiekman.com | SallyShiekman.com

The question comes up more and more, usually by email and usually a little apologetically: Do I really have to sign something before you show me a property?

The short answer is yes, and as of August 12th, it's Colorado law. But I never want that to be the whole answer, because the reasoning behind it is what actually matters to you.

What's Changing, and When

House Bill 26-1426 took effect on August 12, 2026. Before a broker performs licensed work for a client — writing your offer, negotiating on your behalf — there has to be a signed written agreement in place, and that agreement has to state clearly what the broker is paid and who pays it. MLS rules across the country have asked something similar of agents since August 2024. Between the two, this has quietly become the standard way real estate is done, here and everywhere else.

In practice, it's far less involved than it sounds. It's an electronic document nearly every time. I email it to you, we talk it through on the phone for as long as you'd like, and you sign it from your laptop, or when we meet for a showing.

Why I Think It's Good for You

Here's what I'd want to know if I were a buyer.

A transaction in this valley has more moving parts than almost anywhere else I can think of. Well permits and water rights up the valley. HOA documents run to hundreds of pages in some instances. Short-term rental rules can change from one block to the next. Easements, viewplane restrictions, surveys that don't quite agree with one another, and deadlines that nobody — not the seller, not the lender, not the IRS — is willing to extend. Every one of those details has to be handled correctly, and somebody has to be responsible for watching them on your behalf.

That's what the agreement sets forth in writing. Before we start, I want to establish that I represent you. I represent your interests ahead of anyone else's; whatever you tell me is kept in confidence; and you get my honest read on a property, even when it isn't the read you were hoping to hear. Absent an agreement, Colorado treats a broker as a neutral facilitator rather than your advocate. Signing an agreement is what changes that, and it's the reason I've never minded asking.

What You Get to Decide

Nearly all of it, honestly. How long does it last, whether that's a season, a month, or for a single property? What geography and price range does it cover? What your agent is paid and who pays it, which the majority of sellers still offer to cover in whole or in part. How the agreement ends, and on what notice. It's a conversation rather than a form letter, and nothing obligates you to buy anything.

Where I Land On This

I've been selling real estate for a long time, and the transactions I'm proudest of are the ones where everything was clear from the first conversation, so that nobody had to go back later and reconstruct what had been agreed to. This new requirement simply puts that clarity in writing at the beginning, rather than leaving it to good intentions.

So if you're thinking about buying in Aspen, Snowmass, or anywhere in the Roaring Fork Valley now, this fall, or in the future, send me your questions about the agreement along with your questions about the property. I'll walk you through every line of it before you sign.

Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty
970-948-7530 | Sally@SallyShiekman.com | SallyShiekman.com

This post is for general informational purposes and isn't legal advice. Every situation is different, and if a trust, an LLC, a 1031 exchange, or a developer's own purchase contract is part of your transaction, please consult a Colorado real estate attorney — I'm glad to suggest a few I trust.

Sources: Colorado House Bill 26-1426, bill text at leg.colorado.gov; Colorado Division of Real Estate, dre.colorado.gov; National Association of REALTORS® MLS policy changes effective August 2024.
 

A buyer stood in the kitchen at 990 E. Hopkins and said something I don't hear often: "I don't want to change a thing, yet. I want to live in it first." Everyone else who had walked through that riverfront home spent the tour mentally gutting it — new counters, new baths, open up this wall, refinish those floors. He was the one who looked past the finishes and saw the bones. That's the buyer who bought it. And finding him is the whole story of selling a property like this one.

990 East Hopkins was a legacy home in the truest sense — high-end, beautifully sited along the Roaring Fork River with front-row views of Aspen Mountain, and largely untouched for years. Homes like that carry a particular tension. The quality is undeniable, and the location is irreplaceable, but the finishes tell you the family was living in it, not staging it for sale. A lot of buyers can't hold both of those truths at once. They see the dated kitchen and stop seeing the river.

So the challenge was never the home. It was matching it to the one buyer who valued what couldn't be renovated — the setting, the scale, the address — and wasn't scared off by what could. That's a narrower pool than you'd think at this price point. Plenty of qualified buyers want turnkey; they'll pay a premium to avoid a project. The right buyer for this property was someone who understood that you can always update a kitchen, but you can never move a home closer to the river or duplicate mountain views.

I'll be honest about the price, because pretending otherwise doesn't help anyone. We came to market strong and made an adjustment along the way. That's not a failure of the home — it's the market being clear-eyed about the cost of the work ahead, and it's my job to read that signal early rather than let a listing sit and grow stale. A well-timed adjustment on the right property doesn't lower its value. It removes the buyer's last hesitation,er who was already leaning in. This buyer had seen the property months before.

If you own a home like this — something that's been in the family for years, exceptional in every way that matters, and simply not the version a magazine would shoot — please don't let the fear of "it needs work" keep you from the market. The work is negotiable. The river isn't. And somewhere out there is a buyer who already knows that.

Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty
970-948-7530 | sally@sallyshiekman.com | SallyShiekman.com
 

I recently spent money on something that might have been completely ridiculous. They say you waste half of every marketing budget — you just never know which half. So this time, I decided to find out.

I hired musicians from the Aspen Music Festival to play classical music at an open house.

The home is 990 E. Hopkins — one of only four residences in a quiet riverfront enclave, with the Roaring Fork River on one side and Aspen Mountain on the other, and a rooftop deck built for a hot tub and views in every direction. At $16 million, it's built for someone who already loves the rhythm of an Aspen summer — the kind of person who spends evenings under the Music Tent before coming home to views like this home provides. Bringing musicians into a house built for exactly that life wasn't a stretch. It was the whole idea.

So I took out a full-page ad in the music festival program. I had it catered with delicious food. I invited everyone I could think of — and people walked through that door who never would have found this listing otherwise.

Here's the truth about real estate, and honestly about business in general: it's a gamble, every time. But Aspen makes the bet feel a little more romantic. The river sings. The mountain shows off. And every summer we're spoiled for choice — the Aspen Music Festival, JAS Aspen Snowmass, the Aspen Ideas Festival, nights at the Belly Up, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, evenings at the Wheeler. Weekly free valley-wide outdoor concerts. 

Try pricing any of that into a per-square-foot number. You can't. Out of context, our prices rarely make sense. In context, they're the whole story.

Was the gamble worth it? Ask me again once this one closes. It's all about matching the right buyer with the right property. For this property, I'd do it again tomorrow.

If you'd like a private tour of 990 E. Hopkins Avenue — music optional — I'd love to show it to you.

*Mountains of Experience*
Sally Shiekman | 970-948-7530 | SallyShiekman.com | 990EHopkinsAve.com
 

I get this question often, usually from a client sitting across the table from me who just watched a headline scroll by about tax reform in Washington. There's a flicker of worry in it — like they could potentially miss their window.

So let me give you the same answer I give them: no, the 1031 exchange isn't disappearing. It's been part of the tax code for over a hundred years, and it's weathered more reform cycles than most of us have owned property. What's worth your attention isn't the rumor. It's the details.

Why This Keeps Coming Up

Section 1031 gets pulled into budget conversations in Washington fairly often, and for a simple reason — when investors defer capital gains taxes through an exchange, that deferral shows up in federal revenue projections. So every time Congress builds a large tax package, someone floats the idea of capping it or narrowing it as a way to help pay for something else. Most of those proposals never make it into law. But they make headlines, and headlines make clients nervous.

What Actually Changed

The real shift happened back in 2018, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Before that, you could 1031 exchange more than real estate — equipment, artwork, even cattle. The TCJA narrowed that down to real property only. Investment real estate, commercial property, multifamily, rental homes, land held for investment — all of that is still eligible. It just tightened the lane rather than closing the road.

If you're doing business across state lines, there's also California's "claw back" rule to be aware of — if you exchange out of California property and later sell the replacement elsewhere, the state wants you to report that, and there's potential for previously deferred gains to come back into the picture. It's a state-level nuance, not a threat to the exchange itself, but it's exactly the kind of detail that trips people up if nobody mentions it early.

What's on the Radar for 2026

The one piece of legislation actually worth watching right now isn't a 1031 bill at all — it's the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which the Senate passed in March. It targets large institutional investors, aiming to limit their ability to buy up single-family homes, with the broader goal of easing housing prices. It doesn't touch Section 1031 directly. But policy like this has a way of rippling into the market — shifting who's buying, how much inventory moves, and how sellers time their decisions. That's worth watching even if it never lands on your exchange paperwork.

The Real Lesson: Partial Exchanges Happen, and That's Okay

Not every exchange needs to defer a hundred percent of the gain, and I think this gets lost in all the noise about reform. Sometimes a client wants some cash out of a sale, or they're moving into a replacement property with a smaller mortgage than the one they're leaving behind. Either of those creates what's called "boot" — and boot is simply the portion of the transaction that doesn't qualify as like-kind. It's taxable, but it isn't a failure. It's a choice.

If full deferral is the goal, there are two things that have to happen: every dollar of net equity gets reinvested, and the replacement property carries equal or greater debt than the property you sold (or you make up the difference with cash). Miss either one, and you'll owe something — which, again, isn't necessarily wrong for your situation. It just needs to be planned for, not discovered after closing.

Why the Clock Matters More Here Than Most Places

This is the part I really want clients to sit with, because it's specific to where we live. A 1031 exchange gives you 45 days from your closing to identify replacement properties, and 180 days to close on one of them. Both deadlines are firm — the IRS doesn't grant extensions for a slow ski season, delays in new construction or a property that "almost" worked out.

In most markets, that's a manageable window. In Aspen and Snowmass, it can be the whole ballgame. Inventory here has run roughly 40% below pre-pandemic levels for some time now, and even with transaction volume cooling off some this year, well-positioned properties still don't sit long. If you're thirty days into your identification period and the handful of properties that fit your criteria have already gone under contract, you're not just frustrated — you're at risk of losing the deferral entirely. I've watched it happen. It's the single most avoidable mistake I see.

My advice, every time: start looking before you list or go under contract, not after you close.

Where I Land On All This

Reform talk isn't new, and it isn't going away either — I expect we'll keep hearing about it every time there's a big tax bill in Washington. What I tell my clients is this: don't let a headline dictate your timeline. Talk to your tax advisor, understand what a partial exchange might mean for your specific numbers, and give yourself the runway to plan properly rather than reacting to news that may never become law.

That runway matters especially here, where the right replacement property might take longer to surface than your 45 days allow. If you're weighing a sale up here in the Roaring Fork Valley and wondering how a 1031 exchange fits into your plans, I'm always glad to talk it through — early, before the clock starts.

Let me put my Mountains of Experience to work for you.

Sally Shiekman | Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty
970-948-7530 | sally@sallyshiekman.com | SallyShiekman.com

This post is for general informational purposes and isn't tax or legal advice. Every situation is different — please consult your own tax and legal advisors before making any decisions about a 1031 exchange.
Sources: Asset Preservation, Inc., "Partial Exchanges"; First American Exchange Company, "The Future of 1031 Exchanges in 2026: What Investors Need to Know" (firstexchange.com)