Andrew Doud 0:04

It's Thursday, everyone. I'm Andrew Doud. It is time for another Happening in the Hamptons podcast, our weekly breakdown of the Hamptons market, new listings and events on the East End. We are sponsored today by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit NewYorkTitle.com. And joining us today, as always, are Steve Glick, Dave Retiner, and today, shockingly, for the first time, Laura White. Good morning. Thank you so much for finally coming on the show. I can't believe we haven't had you on yet. But welcome, welcome.

Laura White 0:31

Well, it's a pleasure to be here, and good morning. Thank you for having me.

Andrew Doud 0:35

Yeah, so let's start with a bit of good news, right? A special anniversary you're celebrating as we talk about on this real estate podcast.

Laura White 0:42

It's it's a big one and a rare one, I guess, for most people. Forty years in the business of real estate in the Newton.

Andrew Doud 0:48

40 years. That's impressive.

Laura White 0:49

Started in 1983.

Andrew Doud 0:51

I was born in 84.

Laura White 0:55

Okay then. But that makes me feel really old. No, no, no. Experience. You're experienced and knowledgeable.

Andrew Doud 1:04

But this no, this is actually this is a good we've we've talked so much lately on the podcast about the market and where we see it going, but you have a really deep understanding of where the market has been. And I think that that goes a long way in understanding where we are now and and kind of what the future holds.

Laura White 1:20

So I don't disagree. I believe that it's so cyclical that you know we start to live in the present day and panic about the present circumstances or get carried away when the market is way up and think it's never going to change, but it's very cyclical, and you just have to be ready to hold on to your seat when it's going down and save when it's going up. And that's really the big the rule of real estate.

Andrew Doud 1:46

Yeah. Which I guess hasn't, you know, it doesn't change, right? It doesn't change in 40 years. People get so entrenched in the now.

Dave Rattiner 1:56

Well they try to play the game, they try to time the market. And it's like some people they'll spend their whole lives not doing anything. They're just oh, I'm waiting for it to come down. And it's like you it's like, how do you convince some a buyer in this market that there's nothing to be afraid of and it's a good time?

Laura White 2:12

Well, I think smart investors in this market are waiting on the market. They're waiting. The upper end is right now not our lead market. It's kind of they're they're in a little bit of a holding pattern. And I think that's based on the fact that they are a secondary market or investors and that they are waiting for a market to be at a level that they feel that they will have a solid investment, no matter where if it's here, New York, Florida, doesn't matter. This is now not the COVID market that people are just knee-jerk reaction. This is solid investing and looking towards the future.

Dave Rattiner 2:44

Aaron Powell How large of an impact are the increasing interest rates having on the higher end? Is that just psychological for them because they can afford the cash or they're not really mortgaging it, but it's psychological. Are they just saying, well, interest rates are on, so therefore I'm not gonna pull the trigger and see what happens?

Laura White 3:04

Or I believe the interest rates affect all markets, and that is because they most higher wealth individuals maybe they're not getting a mortgage, but they will be b borrowing off of their investments or what they have their savings, and they don't want to take money out of a market that's low. If the stock market's gone down and their investments are lower, why take the money out when it's low? Do you want to sell while you're high? So no matter what it is, if it's not a direct influence on the interest rates, it definitely is intro it is you know affected by the stock market and where the stock market is for the upper end. The lower end of the market, however, oddly enough, has not been as influenced in the Hamptons with the interest rates rising. Our numbers are way up, as I think you will will be noted later when we talk about the weekly updates. Uh the lower end has been very strong, and it's actually our leading market for the last month and a half to two months in the Hamptons.

Dave Rattiner 4:04

That's interesting.

Andrew Doud 4:05

Where do you define the the upper end and lower end? The the idea of like a secondary and a primary.

Laura White 4:09

You know, I don't believe most primary markets out here are kind of top out at about two and a half million. So, you know, below three million right now is really our strongest part of the market, probably primary markets under two million. Interesting.

Steve Glick 4:22

So Laura, you've gotten to the business, you know, you said 40 years ago. Where were the interest rates what what was the highest interest rate you have seen in the course of the 40 years? Because people say, Oh, the interest rates are so high right now, but I don't think that's the case when you look at it in the span of 40 years, right?

Laura White 4:37

In the span of 40 years, they've been all over the place. I think for the lowest, which was during COVID, was you know below three three percent, and we've seen upwards of eighteen plus. And hard to believe it, people were still buying because the stock market was still very strong.

Dave Rattiner 4:52

Right. Interesting.

Laura White 4:53

And then 1987 came and the stock market crashed on Black Monday, um, October 17th, and the world totally changed for the next two years. Wow. In fact, I took a vacation for two years. We were all we moved to Italy and left because there was nothing we could do here. Unbelievable.

Dave Rattiner 5:12

Wow. So did you just say you moved to Italy? We did for two years. That sounds like a good idea, right? Sometimes Italy.

Laura White 5:19

There was no work to be had, so you might as well make hay.

Dave Rattiner 5:23

You know, you know what I read the other day? I think I read it on like the CNBC. It was one of the lead articles that there was like a town in Italy you could buy for like $1.5 million that was a town, an entire town with like a castle. The mayor was like Mayor Dave. I was like, why would we not do that?

Steve Glick 5:39

Like I was like, that is so awesome. So, Laura, how did you get into real estate? You know, 40 years ago, you were just a young kid running around. How did you get into Hampton's real estate?

Laura White 5:50

Well, I had finished grad school at Stony Brook University as a in regional planning, and my professor Lee Coppelman at the time told us he had not hired anyone in regional planning on Long Island for the past 12 years. So it was a bit disappointing. Display disappointment. And I decided I had to look at other other ideas and other work abilities out here that were available to me that I could actually make a living in order to stay here. And I was given an opportunity to sell condominiums at Meacox Landing. Oh, wow. I was approached by a gentleman, and so I spent my first three years at Meacox Landing in Watermill selling condominiums. We sold 30 units in three years. I worked for a gentleman named Eric Ramsay. He's a real his agency still is in in, I believe, Pat Chog, his son now took it over. But yeah, so we sat there for three years and I moved on to other agencies, and that's where I got my start. And actually, I'm still in touch with many of that clientele.

Dave Rattiner 6:52

Wow. So you have that sorry, you have that Hampton's disease that I have where you just really want to be here ever since you were younger.

Laura White 6:58

I love it here. There's no reason not to love it here. It's a very safe, beautiful environment to live in, and I love to travel, but coming home is always here. Yeah, that's interesting.

Steve Glick 7:08

I have the same exactly So we we we do advertising and marketing, trying to sell these properties, and every year we already we're always changing how we're advertising them from social media to you know videography to you know 3D Mataport room scans. Back in 1983 until now, how has it changed and how in in in selling real estate? How has you know the marketing or the efforts from the agents has changed over the course of the 40 years?

Laura White 7:34

It it's changed it amazingly. I don't think people would even understand how real estate was done in back in the 80s. You know, we had each day, I mean, this was ahead of its time, we you would get a pile of new listings put on your desk, paper listings that were Xeroxed off, and we'd put them into our own books. So you have to keep your own listing book.

Steve Glick 7:55

So how would you get the information? A fax machine?

Laura White 7:57

Is that a thing? There was no such fax machine. It was called a mic, it was called a microfiche back then. Oh wow and we did have a Xerox machine. Xerox machines were big, so you would get a paper listing and you'd place it in your own book, and you had to keep them updated, and it was your own listing, your own personal listing. The office would keep a master grouping of that. Wow. And then we progressed into computers. Um that took about 15 years before I got to computers. And it was it was it changed the world because then we had to share with amongst different companies. That's when exclusive listing started to occur. There was no such thing back in the beginning. You just had your own personal listings, and then it was more competitive because whoever had the best listings, whichever company had the best brokers, brought in the best listing, and you always had an estate broker to bring in from the estate section. Um, and it really made a difference. So people would go from brokerage to brokerage because each brokerage had their own listings.

Steve Glick 8:58

So not so you want to go to like one brokerage firm and say, show me all the listings in the Hamptons because they wouldn't have access or know all the listings. There was no centralization.

Laura White 9:05

There was no centralization. So now real estate is much easier from a lot of perspectives that we should do. We do share. And also for a buyer, it's much more user-friendly. Everything's online and you can find things. You go to one broker, one broker generally has the ability to share all listings throughout the Hamptons. So I think it's changed everything monumentally in terms of marketing from cold calling the estate section to it's totally changed.

Steve Glick 9:33

It's unbelievable. And to see where it's gonna go in the next 40 years, uh, you know, I can't even imagine what's gonna happen. You know, every year we're we're adding new things to the marketing department and trying new ways to advertise and promote these properties. And over the course of my career, it's changed dramatically with the introduction of social media. So to see where it's gonna go in the next 40 years, uh, you know, who knows?

Laura White 9:55

Well, the best form of advertising is having a great referral network. And after 40 years, a referral network to me is more I I want to keep that really precious more so than anything else, because that's where I get my best source of the case. Yeah, that's the thing.

Steve Glick 10:08

The old school reputation. The old school approach of just talking to somebody face to face, you know, calling them on you know a phone or just seeing them for a coffee or you know, going to visit them at their home, that's like the best way. It's just a personal.

Dave Rattiner 10:21

It's really the in many ways, it's the only way. I mean, it really is sort of a fantasy that that I feel that is sold to new real estate agents that, oh, if you enroll in this program or if you buy this software, these are just gonna come pouring in. Or yeah, or or if you push this button, we'll get you all these social media followers. It's like, no, man, like everything in terms of growing your social media following to growing your client base, to growing, you know, people that know you is you putting out the effort. There's tools that you have to utilize to do that, but you have to put it in the world.

Steve Glick 10:55

But being being part of the community, talking amongst your peers, your friends, and having a good referral, and doing business the right way. Because, like Laura said, a lot of her business is referral business and repeat business. And she has to treat each client with the utmost respect and and handle it properly because they know that they're gonna tell their friends and tell their friends what a great job Laura has done. And that's how you built a successful career over the 40 years. Right. So during your career, you sell all types of homes. Um, what would you say like your forte is? Where do you you specialize in? Because there's so many aspects of the market. Where do you really like to focus on and and and work?

Laura White 11:31

You know, my specialty from the beginning was land. I understood land. I, you know, went to graduate school about developing it and subdividing it. Um, I married an architect. So developing was really always my forte. And waterfront most especially, because my undergraduate degree is environmental science, and I understood the requirements of building on the waterfront and the regulations. Things have dramatically changed now in the since we FEMA has put new regulations in place. However, waterfront, I always tell people the best investments are waterfront, okay, village, south of the highway, and commercial. If you buy any of those four, you always have a solid investment. Um but waterfront and south of the highway, I would say, in my career have been my forte.

Steve Glick 12:20

This is that's great advice. And most people, you know, they look at waterfront homes, they oh yeah, it's you know it's on the water, it's great, but there's so much involved in it. If you want to build on waterfront or add things to that property that is on the water or resize something, so it's very tricky. And to understand that and have that background and that knowledge is really good to as you're advising your clients.

Dave Rattiner 12:41

Yeah, why isn't why isn't waterfront? I mean, nobody seems to worry about this with waterfront is like erosion. Like, why isn't that like this big huge problem for a buyer? Because it because it comes and goes, 'cause I noticed like properties, like I remember I had a friend that lived sorry to you know interrupt, but I had a friend that lived on Gerard Drive. And I remember they had there's like an erosion problem on Jarr Drive, and it but it's been there since I was can remember, it's like 30 years since I was 10 years old. I can remember this there being an erosion problem on Jarrard Drive in Springs, beautiful street, gorgeous. And the property his grandmother had one year gained like two acres for like no reason.

Laura White 13:27

And then five years later, those two acres are gone.

Dave Rattiner 13:30

Exactly, exactly. And so it's like exactly, and so it's like they would joke about it, but I think when it comes to water fresh, it's just not the land.

Laura White 13:40

You know, Girardi Drive also had a very intense issue with water. Right, they did not have fresh water because of saltwater intrusion. The water levels the water levels there in the fresh water, they they couldn't have wells anymore. They had to bring in town water. So it almost deemed all of Girarde Drive unlivable for a few years until the town brought public water.

Dave Rattiner 14:01

Yeah, they did.

Laura White 14:02

So there's so many aspects of it that you know it's a beautiful place. I love Giraro Drive. I almost purchased there once before myself. Uh it's just there's a lot more that goes into the thought process. And I don't think many people, you know, buyers are not aware. They're, you know, it's a beautiful it's a gr solid investment, but many times not all brokers are knowledgeable of the different issues that are involved with it.

Steve Glick 14:26

So, Laura, you've seen a lot of markets up and down, like every, you know, it cycles through the real estate markets. We've seen a cycle that just passed with the COVID cycle, and now we're coming into, you know, post-interest rates, post-COVID. Where do you how do you relate these swings in the market in the past three years to previous fluctuations?

Laura White 14:45

I I believe it's it's very similar to different situations we've had. We had a very low market in 2019. Um, I always wonder if it wasn't if COVID didn't hit hit hit us hard, what would have happened to our market? I believe we would have probably had something that spurred it on. We would have had a rise naturally. It was spurred on by a pandemic. However, this market coming down, whatever goes up has to come down at some point. This too will level out and we will see what a new normal market becomes. But this that was not a normal market, it was an uncomfortable market from my point of view because we couldn't service our clientele properly.

Steve Glick 15:25

Right, right, right.

Laura White 15:26

And I feel that there was you know a difficult time for buyers because they had to settle for things that maybe weren't what they really wanted. And I think there will be a lot of trading that goes on once the rates equalize and kind of normalize.

Steve Glick 15:41

So that's what you see for the future as you know, we're rounding out the year of 2022 coming into 2023. You see it normalizing a little bit more?

Laura White 15:49

I I do. I think once the sellers' expectations and the buyers' desire to buy kind of realign. Right now, there's a big gap between the two. I do feel we'll have a very strong market, most especially in the upper markets, which are a little bit stale and right now. Uh there there is still a demand for high-level real estate to be transacted and a desire for them. However, I think it's a bit of a wait and see. The numbers rose very artificially, and smart money is waiting for some numbers to come down a bit.

Steve Glick 16:20

Well, what about inventory? Do you see more listings coming onto the market? Because we're going to review the numbers shortly, and the inventory is is is you know slowly increasing, but it's also decreasing in some other areas.

Laura White 16:31

I do not think we'll be seeing a huge rise in inventory, other than maybe someone who purchased something with a expectation of a rental income that they may not be seeing this year. And there may be some people that need to sell, and I think that will be rise, that will be our new inventory that comes to hit the market.

Andrew Doud 16:50

So let's talk about the market.

Dave Rattiner 16:51

Oh, interesting listening to you, man. Sure.

Andrew Doud 16:54

The She's very smart. Yeah. Very, I mean, this is like this is what I was saying at the beginning. It's like you you when you when you've seen the market, and this is getting a little bit of a tangent, but on a previous podcast, I mentioned there was a bunch of people that dove into real estate during the pandemic because they were like, easy money. Like, this is great. Look how quick that and now they're like, where's my where's my list? And large is like, yeah, this is what happened. You know, I've seen it before, we'll see it again. Not necessarily the pandemic, but just the ebbs and flows in the market, you know. It's like this is how it goes.

Dave Rattiner 17:34

You know, video the market's this, market, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're like really excited and blah, blah, blah. And then you look them up and they don't have any listings.

Andrew Doud 17:42

Well, you know, there's been a different thing. Like, oh god, this poor guy, man.

Laura White 17:46

He's putting all his hard and solid this whole thing, and it's like, you know, I never I never had this happen before, but recently there's also some top brokers, not necessarily from here, that I've I've found advertising my listings. Yeah, that's right. And you know, um, because they don't have their own, and right when confronted, I've been told, well, I'm not doing you a favor by advertising. I didn't know. And it just, I know I think that's what we're going to see. So I think buyer beware as well that I think you need to research who you do work with, because I think you need to find the real McCoy, the people who actually do understand the market and are actually working in that market, not someone who's throwing out teasers.

Dave Rattiner 18:24

Yeah, you really have to be careful when it comes to that. You really got to find someone like like yourself, obviously, somebody that's experienced and with a proper reputation.

Laura White 18:33

But I do think what still is selling and has been selling through COVID is new construction, something that's user-friendly, something that you can move right into and enjoy it the next day. And those products are still going to be you know fluid. Um, there's a lot of construction out there. There's a lot of things. And a lot of new construction going up. And the builders are still very busy. So those when they hit the market are still going to sell. We're getting, you know, that is what buyers are still looking for. They went in sync gratification and they should have it for the numbers they're paying.

Andrew Doud 19:05

That's a good point. Uh okay, back to the back to the numbers. Steve, where are we at?

Steve Glick 19:10

Sure. Over the past week there were 14 listings that went into contract. Last year there were 36, and the year before that in 2020, it was 44. So we're seeing decreases of upwards of 60 to 68 percent from year over year. The breakdown of those 12 transactions this week, there was one between four and six, five between two and four, and six under two million. As you could see, it's very active under, you know, three million and under. It's very active market with listings going into contract. The dollar volume was 49 million. Last year, the dollar volume was 101 million, and the year before that in 2020, the dollar volume in one week was 170 million. So, certainly a decrease in those numbers. And new listings coming onto the market. There were 18 new listings that came onto the market. So the increase is the inventory by four listings. The breakdown of those 18 new listings, there was one between 10 and 20 million, one between six and eight million, two between four and six million, seven between two and four million, and seven under two million. Inventory dipped below 1900 listings, so it's 1867 total listings, which includes North Fork active and in contract. If you just focus on the Hamptons market, there are twelve hundred and eighty-four active listings, and there's currently four hundred and eighty-nine in-contract listings in the Hamptons.

Dave Rattiner 20:29

Interesting.

Andrew Doud 20:30

So I'm just looking at the the time, and I know Laura is as always a very busy real estate agent. So I want to make sure she can get to her appointments for the day. So let's jump right over to Dave with what's happening this week in the Hamptons.

Dave Rattiner 20:45

Lots of lots of fun and wonderful things are happening.

Steve Glick 20:47

Still holiday season, right?

Dave Rattiner 20:48

Yeah, it's a peak holiday season. This is it. This is it. Yeah, you got um, so the dance studio three is going to have a classic nutcracker with a twist Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 7 on 11 and 1 p.m. And that's gonna be at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. So it's the Mixed Nuts blends the classic nutcracker ballet with the story of Home Alone. No way. Yeah, so it's Nutway, Nutcracker and Home Alone the movie? Yeah, so it kind of twists.

Steve Glick 21:23

You know what it feels like?

Dave Rattiner 21:25

It kind of sounds to me like a couple of guys were sitting around and maybe they were doing something together, and they were like, you know what would be pretty cool? Yeah. Well, what do they go to? What do they break into? They break into the house and steal the nutcracker. I don't know. It's a pretty wild, it's a pretty wild interesting. But That sounds fun.

Laura White 21:46

It's very creative. You know, why not? Why not?

Dave Rattiner 21:49

Why not? It's the winter time, anything goes in the Hamptons. So all right, so you have the also you have the Longhouse Reserve Illuminated. Um not the reserve, the long the longhouse. Is illuminated and you can see the garden in a different light this weekend. The on December 16th, it's at 4 30 p.m. And on December 17th, it's at 8 p.m. And this is kind of like a nice date night thing to do or something to do with your kids. You just walk around the longhouse and just check out all the cool lights. It's a beautiful place. Um we all know what the longhouse is. And then we've got the Cherry Bombs, uh, which is a band, a local band, that is performing live at Best Pizza and Dive Bar. And let me tell you, they have the best pizza, Steve.

Laura White 22:35

And you should know, Dave.

Dave Rattiner 22:37

Do that Mr.

Andrew Doud 22:38

Mr. Restaurant Review Experience.

Dave Rattiner 22:40

I expect the full. I gotta do a review at Best Pizza, yeah. Best Pizza Dive Bar. So Cherry Bombs Music, they are super local, super cool. Um and they're creating a buzz in the community for sure. Uh, they've been playing at a lot of different venues, um, and they're gonna be doing Best Pizza this weekend at 8 p.m. So go for the fun, but also go to support this cool little local group. And that's your Friday, Saturday, Sunday in the Hamptons. Do you know this place, Laura?

Laura White 23:11

Best pizza, Nat Peak Stretch.

Dave Rattiner 23:13

It's right on the Nappe stretch.

Laura White 23:15

It's yeah, it's a it's a city restaurant that now has to be named for a restaurant.

Andrew Doud 23:20

Yeah.

Dave Rattiner 23:20

What was it before? It's that that's so sad that I can't remember. It was like some other place before, and it's on the tip of my tongue, and I can't remember either. It's one of those places. Well, anyway, it's one of those commercial restaurants that was always something different. Sure. And I gotta try this out. Apparently, Best Pizza has, you know, they've been there for a while.

Laura White 23:38

Well, it's a Brooklyn Outpost. Best Pizza is also in Brooklyn.

Dave Rattiner 23:41

Oh, okay. Well, they are the best.

Laura White 23:42

Oh, okay.

Andrew Doud 23:43

It is an outpost if it's on the Net Peak stream. You can't get more outposts than that.

Dave Rattiner 23:48

It's so weird because I wear that hat where it says I'm the best. I wear that hat every day. You know, the hat where it says I'm the best.

Laura White 23:54

Okay. Is that from Best Pizza?

Andrew Doud 23:56

I can't wait until we have the video podcast going so you can wear that.

Dave Rattiner 24:00

Nobody saw that SNL skit where the guy with the Will Farrell and it's a commercial for a I Am the Best Hat company.

Andrew Doud 24:07

No.

Steve Glick 24:07

All right, well.

Dave Rattiner 24:08

I get it. We'll look up.

Steve Glick 24:09

We're gonna Google that. We're gonna watch on YouTube after this, though.

Dave Rattiner 24:12

What else is going on this weekend? Okay, so Saturday, December 17th at 7:30 p.m., you're gonna have the holiday harmonies starring Darren Otati and his talented band. They're gonna be playing at 31 East Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays at the St. Rosalie's Church. And this is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hampton Bays. And we have a few people in our lives that are members of the Rotary Club in Hampton Base. So there you go.

Andrew Doud 24:44

All right, Laura, final thoughts before we let you go.

Laura White 24:47

Final thought. Well, I wish everyone a very happy new year and the best for 2023. It's gonna be a good year. Um, I do feel that we're gonna do well real estate-wise, as long as you're willing to stay the course. And I thank you very much for having me.

Andrew Doud 25:06

Thanks for joining us. That was great. All right, that's Thursday. That's our podcast, everybody. We'll see you next week. Next week one more. All right, everybody, have a great Thursday. I'm Andrew Dowd, and that is what's happening in the Hamptons.