Kassidy Benson and Living Room Real Estate were featured in the June 2022 issue of Real Producers Magazine Denver. Learn more about Kassidy’s journey as an entrepeneur in the real estate industry and the growth of her team in the article below.
Brokerage Spotlight: Living Room Real Estate
Real Estate agent, Kassidy Benson, is a true believer in “owning it.” For all the same reasons she encourages her client to own their homes, she decided to start her own brokerage, Living Room Real Estate in 2019.
“When we work with clients, they become our friends. We stay in touch. We love watching them grow and live their best lives in a place they love.”
Kassidy grew up modestly in a small town called Cedaredge in western Colorado. She thinks the key to her success is working harder than everyone else. Her first successful business endeavour was buying two cows and two calves from her grandmother. Two cows turned into six cows with six calves that she sold when she was 17.
“I made enough money to go on a trip to Europe!”
Whether it is cows or a house, Kassidy knows how to grow a financial asset. The end goal is to experiences life to its fullest and work less.
When she started her own brokerage, she wanted to focus on building a tight team that operated like a reliable family. Her goal was always slow, organic growth and she committed herself to mentoring one new team member per year. Camille Sheppard is the newest agent on the team and is like a sister to Kassidy now.
“I’m just teaching her real estate-specific knowledge; she has all the professional skills down already. The bottom line is she selflessly cares about her client’s and I can’t teach that – that is the core of everything when you are representing someone else’s interest.”
Kassidy has been unofficially working with her boyfriend, Michael Harry, since he got his license five years ago. The demands of a real estate career are unique, so having a partner who understands and can offer a second opinion is extremely valuable. In 2022, Michael left Keller Williams and joined the Living Room team. Michael is low-key but puts together big deals. He enjoys working with developers to create higher density for more vibrant communities.
Kassidy also brought on a new assistant this year. Haley Paez graduated from DU in 2021 and is a social media wiz kid. She is working with the team to help with marketing and operations. “We believe social media is key to marketing properties right now.,” Kassidy shares.
The four make a dynamic team that can meet the needs of diverse buyers and sellers. At Living room Real Estate, everyone is working together. Systems are in place so that agents can enjoy a weekend off knowing their clients will be well taken care of.
Living well and having financial freedom is a core value for Kassidy. For her, real estate is the key to financial freedom for her clients and herself. She is working hard to achieve her goal of creating passive income from rental properties. With two rentals and a newly completed Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in her backyard, which will be a short-term rental, she is getting close! The two flips she sold in 2020 and 2022 helped fund these real estate acquisitions. Kassidy loves taking on renovations to improve properties and create additional value in real estate assets.
Similarly, Kassidy loves helping her clients achieve similar financial goals. Her niche is helping people find creative living situations that generate equity and/or more income so they can have passive income to enjoy life a little more. For most of her clients, this scenario includes buying a primary residence, which they sell for a profit or convert into a rental when they are ready to move up. For some, it is finding a property that has a secondary rentable unit to subsidize the mortgage and lower their living expenses. She is considered by many to be a Denver ADU expert. For investors, it is finding a deal that has margin. For Kassidy, it’s all about owning real estate long term. There is nothing else that makes you money while you sleep… except maybe cows.
The Living Room team matches people with homes they love while helping them get the most our of these assets.
“When we work with clients, they become our friends. We stay in touch. We love watching them grow and live their best lives in a place they love.”
To this end, perhaps the best part in Kassidy’s mind is calling clients on their Housiversary and letting them know how much equity they’ve gained through homeownership.
“Most of my clients have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity! Homeownership really does change lives. And we are so lucky to be the professionals who help our clients make these monumental gains.”
