AE SPOTLIGHT ULRICH SALZGEBER

AE for Steamboat Springs Board of REALTORS®

Membership numbers: 347 REALTORS®How long have you been an AE? 8 years.

How did you get your start as an AE? I was a REALTOR® for 11 years before I became the AE for Routt County. A good friend of mine, Doug Labor, and I played on a softball team together, and he introduced me to being a REALTOR®. He told me I should be a REALTOR® because I knew everyone in town. His clients would come watch him play softball, and I always thought how cool it was to make friends from clients.

What do you love most about the job? I love being involved in my community, and I love my Board of Directors. My board has a single focus, which is what’s best for the members. They realize that if it’s good for the members, it’s good for the end users - their clients.

What would your members be most surprised by about your job? I love my job and my members, bringing them the support and education that they need. Some people say the hours are long, but I want to be available on a 24/7 basis. I do it out of the love for my career.

What is your biggest success as an AE? The programs that are community focused are my favorite, including our community Christmas dinner, now in its 30th year, where we feed 500 community members. Another is our scholarship program, where over about 25 years, we have awarded 10,000 scholarships totaling about $1 million. One of our new programs is one in which we made sure everyone has access to carbon monoxide detectors. Community members pick them up from our office for free. Just last year, through the work of Glenna Clark Olmstead, we started CUSP, the Consumer Utility Support Program, which helps people pay their utility bills.

Of course, our collaboration with mountain community entities has been extremely successful. We’ve established a wildfire council in Steamboat to work with CAR’s Colorado Project Wildfire. We are integrally involved in the council, offering wildfire mitigation planning and education.

What CAR benefit do you use the most? The camaraderie and education that we REALTORS® find through CAR’s Education and Events, which then builds out to our members, including state advocacy through our Government Affairs and Legislative Policy Committee. I’m comforted that CAR is protecting the industry from bad policy.

What is your goal for your REALTOR® Association? I will semi retire next June, and I want to leave the association with a seamless guide to running the organization.

Which talent would you most like to have? I would love to have a better singing voice and learn Italian.

What is your most treasured possession? My marriage to my wife, Janet, and my two daughters, Elisabeth (also my office manager) and Anya.

Which historical figure or literary hero do you most identify with and why? Martin Luther King, Jr. His leadership and non-stop commitment to his goal of nonviolence. It must have been so difficult to not strike back and to be committed at that level.

Motto or piece of advice you live by: Laugh every day and find humor in everything. Wherever you are or whom you are talking to, look people in the eye.