Zana Leiferman Reprint

PROOF

ZANA MEET

LEIFERMAN

Many people come to Boulder for the mountains, but not many people come for the thrilling, grueling experience of competing in triathlons. Zana Leiferman did. A Colorado native, she was raised by her grandparents in Lakewood and attended Colorado State University with a swimming scholarship. There, she discovered triathlons and, within a year, was a professional triathlete. She moved to Boulder because it’s a triathlon mecca.

Zana met her husband, Chris, through triathlons and they competed together until back issues from a car accident made Zana give up triathlons. However her husband still races professionally, and she still loves to cycle and run. She has a bit of a love/hate relationship with swimming, which most people who were encouraged (or required) to compete in a specific sport as a child can relate to.

Even though she doesn’t do triathlons anymore, Zana does compete in run and cycling races. She sponsors the Ride or Die Collective, a Boulder women-only cycling team.

The last trail race she competed in was 50k in San Francisco. She loves travelling to races or watching her husband compete at triathlons on the international triathlete team BMC (Bicycle Manufacturing Company).

Last year, Chris raced around the world and Zana went to his races in Spain, Hawaii and St. George, UT.

Zana often brings her bike to tour the places they travel to and says, “I love sports, being outside and the meaningful relationships I get to build, but I do not miss triathlon training.”

Becoming a triathlete takes hard work, consistency, persistence and a compounding effect. Zana knows a failure isn’t a failure if you keep going. She brings those traits and more to her career as a real estate agent.

Like in her races, Zana thrives on connecting with people. She knows any real estate agent’s clients will be the people who know, like and trust that Realtor®. “The coolest part about real estate is getting to meet new clients,” she says, “It feels like people are pulled together for a reason.” She puts everything she has, which is sometimes too much, into her clients.

Zana enjoys the challenge of knowing a little but about everything in real estate because each deal is unique. Every day she gets to ask different questions to guide her clients in the direction they choose. Her motto is “real people, real advice,” meaning she really listens to her clients’ needs and desires to give them the best advice for their situation and goals, not something generic or sugar-coated. This is the motto for all of

the agents at Real Realty Colorado and why Zana created the boutique real estate firm. They all give the advice they would want to receive.

In order to offer such great advice, Zana does a lot of market research, listens to economists and reads statistics. She arms her clients with this information and lets them make decisions from there. When asked about the current market (in February), she said, “I think we are in a normalized, leveled market that is finally balanced.” She likes to challenge herself to think about what could happen and make predictions. “The one thing that could change everything is the unemployment rate, which could lead to a mild recession,” she says, “Not a housing market crash but a small correction.”

Zana is forever grateful for her previous boss Mark Hochhauser at Homestead Real Estate. After earning her license, he allowed her to learn both the buying and selling sides of real estate at the same time. He let her run with her new knowledge, setting her own (fast) pace as a real estate agent under his guidance. Mark later encouraged Zana to start her own firm, knowing she had always been a leader and had already earned her managing broker’s license. Being Mark’s assistant gave Zana the experience and knowledge she needed to start Real Realty.

Because of her experience with Mark, Zana likes to hire new, freshly-licensed real estate agents and teach them both the buying and selling sides of the business through things like ride-alongs and her office manual. She looks for people who are compatible with her and her team and that she has the bandwidth to guide and give the attention they deserve. In particular, she looks for a new hire to have the drive to be successful—something that can’t be taught.

While Zana raced in triathlons and before real estate, she taught early childhood education for 7 years. That inspired her to create the nonprofit Real Realty Colorado Cares. Her organization raises money for classroom supplies, field

trips and more for classrooms that are underfunded. A portion of all Real Realty Colorado commissions are donated to Real Realty Colorado Cares. Zana and her team also donate to local nonprofits like Harvest for Hope and the Community Food Bank, and her husband volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.

As you can see, Zana is the type of person who likes to be busy. “I will create projects to keep busy,” she says. Right now, she is renovating her house in-between Niwot and Haystack Mountain and a stone’s throw from her mentor Mark. The house hasn’t been updated since it was built in 1973, so it was a complete gut job. Zana and Chris have been living in the home throughout the renovation process and even had to build a temporary kitchen in another room while they updated the kitchen. Zana and Chris are going for a classic-meets-modern style and built an office with a bathroom above their two car garage for Real Realty Colorado agents to work from if they choose.

At their house, Zana and Chris tend to their 2.5 year-old child, Cruz, chickens, a 3.5 year-old toy Aussie, Stevie, and a vegetable and herb garden. Zana comes from a Latin background, so she loves making spicy food and salsa and uses her garden to destress and decompress. She feels lucky to have such an amazing home and family as well as the hard-word ethic, determination and integrity to be in the top 20 Boulder County real estate agents.

YOU CAN REACH ZANA LEIFERMAN AT ZANA. REALTOR@GMAIL.COM OR (303)810-1059.

Zana worked with us for 18 months while we sold our condo, then turned our attention to buying a single family home. She was incredibly patient. Living in California during this process wasn't ideal as we couldn't see homes in person, but Zana went to every open house we asked her to and took a video walkthrough of the property for us. She also helped us manage a very turbulent market as we were getting outbid by >$100k on multiple homes. Eventually the market cooled and Zana was able to help us find the home we ended up buying and made sure we didn't overbid in the process. She also had our backs throughout the closing process (also virtual), and a period after closing where the seller continued to live in the property. We would recommend her to anyone looking to buy or sell. She's awesome.

-Robert

Helvestine

This was our second time working with Zana to purchase a new home. She is incredibly responsive and knowledgeable about the real estate economy and local market. She guided us on the best time to start our home search and once we got the ball rolling, she quickly provided us with a multitude of potential options and keenly pointed out a home that we viewed the next day and ended up purchasing! Thanks to Zana's efficiency and professionalism, we were under contract the next day! The sellers accepted our offer despite having higher offers partially because they liked working with Zana and with the mortgage lender that she recommended to us. I really don't think we would have landed our dream home without her! She and her team guided us on every step of the process from home searching to closing date (and after) and made it as stress free as possible for us. Not only is she a master of her craft, but Zana is also incredibly approachable and fun to work with. I would highly recommend her to anyone searching for a home in Colorado!

-Mariana

Guerrero

From start to finish Zana was a pleasure to work with during our first home buying experience. Zana is trustworthy, reliable and has deep and expansive knowledge about Colorado and the Denver/Boulder area. We leaned on Zana's expertise and appreciated her ability to put her clients best interests first. With every home we visited, Zana made it clear she listened to our needs by pointing out both the positive characteristics and potential drawbacks of a given home and was instrumental in guiding us through the contract and closing process. Zana's efforts ultimately led us to our dream home and we couldn't be happier. We would recommend Zana without hesitation!

-alisonleigh489