Kittle Real Estate

Kittle Real Estate is a real estate firm founded in 2003 by Rob Kittle who worked under several national real estate brands before becoming independent in 2014. Since then Kittle Real Estate has grown to 40 team members, has been routinely ranked as one of the top real estate firms in Northern Colorado, and experienced tremendous business success in the area’s red hot real estate market. Through all of its growth and success, Kittle Real Estate has focused on maintaining an ethical and trustworthy culture.

Character

Kittle Real Estate’s high character environment starts with their LEAD acronym, which stands for:

• Leadership by Example
• Ethics First
• An Openness to New Ideas; and
• Dedication to Excellence

From this acronym, Rob Kittle and the management team at Kittle Real Estate have created a list of 29 core values for the company that takes the high level concepts in LEAD and turns them into discrete and actionable principles that can guide decision making. These core values are reinforced in pamphlets that each employee carries in their wallet, purse, or bag and at weekly meetings where one employee is assigned to present to the whole company on one of the 29 core values.

Culture

Kittle Real Estate’s culture is significantly different than many other real estate offices, which are often a collection of “lone wolves” rather than a collaborative team. By contrast, Kittle Real Estate has a number of specialists who help agents with the various parts of a real estate transaction which provides better service for customers and individual targets are set based on team goals so that everyone is pulling in the same direction. This keeps team members accountable to the group rather than simply to their own targets. Kittle Real Estate also focuses on “playing hard” in addition to working hard, as burnout is common in the real estate industry with only 50% of realtors making it to their second year and only 50% of those making it to their third.

Customers

Real estate has always been a relationship-based business but Kittle Real Estate takes that to the next level by building and maintaining relationships with clients long before and long after the real estate transaction. Kittle Real Estate maintains a guide to home buying, homeownership, and home maintenance on their website as an educational reference for everyone. A moving truck is available free of charge to clients to help them transition to a new home. At closing, clients with pets are given new tags with their new address as pets are more likely to run away right after moving into a new home. And Kittle hosts events for clients all year round including summer block parties and Thanksgiving pie giveaways.

Community

Kittle Real Estate was an early supporter of Sell a Home, Save a Child, a nonprofit collective of real estate agents and offices that commit to donating a portion of the commission from each sale or purchase of a home to help change the lives of children in poverty around the globe. Closer to home, Kittle Real Estate supports the FoCo Cafe, a nonprofit restaurant that operates on a pay-it-forward and pay-what-you-can model in addition to programs that address food insecurity in the Fort Collins area. Finally, Kittle Real Estate has donated to communities and individuals whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by recent wildfires in Northern Colorado.