Colorado Landmark Realtors Acquired by Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate (SSF)

Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate (SSF), an independent brokerage firm headquartered in Avon, Colorado, with 34 offices located throughout Denver, the Vail Valley, Summit County and the Roaring Fork, has expanded its reach to the Boulder Valley with the acquisition of Colorado Landmark Realtors. Joel Ripmaster, who founded Colorado Landmark in 1977, will become a strategic advisor to the SSF Board of Directors, and his daughter, Orly Ripmaster, a Niwot resident, will become SSF’s new Front Range Market President.

With the acquisition, SSF will now boast more than $4 billion in 2021 sales volume, $15 million in average broker production in 2021, and more than 320 brokers in 34 sales locations from Aspen to the Front Range.

"The transition has been made easy by the fact that these guys are the best,” Joel Ripmaster said. “They're the gold standard in this business. This relationship enables our brokers to do business as they always have – as independent brokers – and with a locally owned and operated powerhouse network behind them.”

The Colorado Landmark team will rebrand as the Colorado Landmark Team at Slifer Smith & Frampton.

Joel Ripmaster graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he played varsity football for the Buffaloes. After founding Colorado Landmark Realtors, he ran the company independently for 45 years. Since then, the firm has grown to include over 55 brokers, $1 billion in sales in 2020-2021, and three offices located in Downtown Boulder, Louisville and Niwot.

Over the years, Ripmaster forged global partnerships with worldwide networks such as Luxury Portfolio International and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. In 2022 he welcomed his daughter Orly into the family business.

Orly Ripmaster graduated from Harvard University, where she played soccer and lacrosse, and then returned to CU Boulder where she led the Buffs to a Big 12 Championship in soccer in 2003. Before coming to Colorado Landmark Realtors, she spent nearly 20 years in the travel and leisure real estate sector, most recently as chief of staff and head of investor relations at KSL Capital Partners.

“When I joined my dad at Colorado Landmark last year,” Orly Ripmaster said, “my goal was to allow his legacy to stay grounded while also ensuring the business could evolve to address the changing market and industry. We weren’t for sale, but we both recognized the value of the Slifer Smith & Frampton partnership. Bringing a world-class, independent company to our town reinforces our world class nature.”

Slifer Smith & Frampton celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. Rod Slifer, a ski instructor and realtor, started his one-man operation out of the lobby of the Lodge at Vail in 1962, selling properties for Vail Associates. In 1968 he opened his own brokerage, Slifer & Company, on Bridge Street. The firm has grown to include a team of more than 270 brokers and 100 support staff across 30+ locations. SSF’s network in Colorado includes more than 320 brokers and 100 team members supporting them, including support staff, licensed assistants, branch brokers, marketing and online media specialists, technical support staff, and in-house closing experts.

"Both companies are both part of the Luxury Portfolio Network, but additionally, Slifer Smith & Frampton are affiliated with Forbes Luxury Real Estate,” said Colorado Landmark Realtors agent Deborah Read Fowler. "So that's good for us. And they affiliate with Mayfair International (Realty) out of Mayfair, London, so we have some additional layers of exposure. It’s a good fit."

Fowler said Colorado Landmark Realtors is committed to supporting the community. The company contributes a portion of every sale to the preservation of important Boulder County landmarks. After the Marshall Fire this past winter, the firm raised more than $175,000 in less than three days, negotiated more than 1,000 hotel rooms for evacuated families, set up an aid station in its Louisville office and assembled a free pop-up shop at its Niwot office that provided more than 400 community members with collected donations.

“Colorado Landmark has been invested in Niwot for over twenty years,” Orly Ripmaster said, “and has been honored to be a part of building and protecting this special community.”