Andrew Doud 0:14

All right, everyone, it's Thursday. I'm Mandator Doubt. It's time for our Happening in the Heavens 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. Joining us today, Steve Glick, Dave Retiner, and today, the newest member of the Saunders team, John Healy, agent for 26 years out here, new, not new to the business, but new to Saunders. So first of all, thanks for joining us. How are you today? I'm great. Thank you very much, Andrew. And just give us a little bit of background. How did you how did you get into real estate? Where'd you come from and and why Saunders?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

I got okay. I got into real estate probably in the early 90s when I uh moved out here weekends from the city. Uh I was uh living on a sailboat with my then girlfriend, now wife, for six years, and uh she thought maybe it was time to go to terra firma.

Steve Glick 1:11

So you took the sailboat from Manhattan to the Hamptons?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Tailboat stayed in Sag Harbor.

Steve Glick 1:16

Okay. What kind of boat?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

So that was uh it was a Pearson 10 meter sailboat. Ten meter. We used to race it there on Wednesday night races and all of the uh the Saturday races that were out in the bay. Um we really enjoyed it uh living on that. We actually lived on it with a dog.

Steve Glick 1:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

And so For how long?

Steve Glick 1:32

How long did you live on the boat for?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Six years.

Steve Glick 1:34

Six years.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Six years. So I was six years in Sag Harbor, I would sail it from there to South Beach in Miami for the winter time uh offshore with one friend of mine, and uh my wife would not do that trip. But she would um we would live down there in the wintertime, so uh it worked out really well. And uh she figured that if she could live on that sailboat with me for that long, she could probably marry me, so that worked out well.

Steve Glick 1:59

Now, what were you doing in Manhattan before before you're coming out here to the Hamptons?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Uh when I first came out here, yeah, that's exactly what it looks like.

Dave Rattiner 2:06

Wow, I can't believe you lived in that one. That's hardcore. That's hardcore.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

You'd be surprised. Yeah, it really is. And it's a really, really strong uh vessel in the sense of just the the the uh safiness of it in terms of storms and so on. It was a really good, powerful sailor.

Dave Rattiner 2:21

I never even heard of this. I never even heard of this, Bo.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

My wife and I had just come back from Europe. We were in Europe for I was in Europe for three years in Paris. Um we ever since I got out of uh Boston University, um, I started modeling, got got found by someone, and went over to Europe for three years, and then continued that for about another 14 years in New York. Um when I was in Boston, uh, I got into a little bit of acting. I was on a show called Spencer for Hire, which uh is a long time gone and no longer. And then I got on a couple soap operas in New York City while I was working there. So um we were back and forth. She was traveling a lot for work, I was traveling for work, but New York was our home base, and uh Sag Harbor seemed to be a good place for us on a sailboat, it was great. Uh my first um uh foray into the Hamptons uh when I was at that age was Montauk, uh a share house at Ditch Plains on Otis. Okay. Um very interesting. And uh after that, uh one summer uh I went and looked for the sailboat that I found up on the North Fork and purchased it and sort of made it our weekend home for six years. And um it was great, it was a lot of fun. We were able to travel up to Newport Nantucket and stuff when we could. And um, you know, we learned very quickly that uh sailing uh it it the wind is never right when you want to go in the in a certain direction. So you do a lot of motor sailing.

Andrew Doud 3:48

Do you still do you still sail? Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I still sail not for myself. I well, interestingly enough, my wife then turned and said, you know, a lot of times we say we're gonna go to Nantucket, but we get as far as Block Island because of the wind. Okay. So we we then moved into a powerboat of which she said, can we get there when we say we're gonna get there?

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

And uh my father was a really, really big uh offshore uh fisherman back in the day, and so he taught me fishing quite quite a bit, Montauk, and we've been to the canyon a bunch when when I was younger. So I really kind of morphed back into that and ended up with a 40-foot uh sport fishing boat that I fished you know regularly uh with uh you know sort of a semi-regular crew. And um we had a great time, and my wife was happy because we could still go to Newport or places on that boat, stay on it. Kids grew up on it, they grew up how to learn how to fish and how to boat and so on. So um you know it was great. But then getting back to real estate, I uh we bought a place in Wainscot on Sayers Path, um and uh we did some renovations to it, and then I got lucky and down the street another little cottage was for sale, so I bought that and said I'm gonna be able to do a little renovation work and then I'll flip it. Okay. And that's sort of what got me thinking like I might as well get my real estate license out here, and this was in 95 and 96, and that I'd have better access to you know property and so on. And just one thing led to another. I I joined with uh Cook Pony Farm, and um not probably within six months, I ended up permanently working out here in real estate. I had a choice go to LA and wait a lot for everybody else to become an actor, or not. And I chose not to because I really liked it out here. Wow. And the real estate was great, and I had a lot of friends that were uh in Manhattan that said, you know, geez, I'd like to buy something and renovate it and flip it, make a couple of bucks. So that was the start of it. Um and uh and then we were uh we were purchased by Corcoran in town and country. So I got absorbed into that, and and and again, that you know, that was a corporation that basically um started, it was new for them out here. Uh they bought Alan Schneider, and then they became basically the largest firm out here at the time. Um and I was there for I think about eight years. Then I moved on to um helping open up in Bridgehampton uh town and country real estate with uh Judy and and um Janet Hummel. Um and that was more boutiquey. Uh it was it was you know it was good at the time, it worked out well. Um and then I made a move to Sotheby's, which uh, you know, I was there for the last eight years, uh back sort of to obviously a corporation. Um and I think in recent recent times, you know, we've gone through such a transition in the last five years of pre-COVID, COVID, and then post-COVID, which we're in now, and uh a lot of changes very quickly. Um but now it seems like the change has has been sort of to tighten the belt. And um when a corporation tightens a belt, the first thing to tighten is the marketing. And um I I felt that uh probably in the last couple of months over at Sotheby's. Um ironically, I've known Andrew probably for 24 years or so, 23 years since our kids uh are similar in age, and um we ended up standing drinking coffee on Sunday mornings in the cold watching kids play soccer at a very young age, of which everyone just runs for the ball in the organization. Um we met then and and you know, every time I run into Andrew often uh or not, um I get a I get a question of would you like to have lunch? Got it. And I just have not had lunch with him until a month ago. So um it was good timing. We ran into each other in uh uh Bell and Anchor, um enjoying good food there, and he asked me to have a chit-chat with him, and I did. And I think it's probably something that I would have loved to have done earlier when I looked back at the timing is everything though. Solid week and a half that I've been here, but it's a great week and a half. That's awesome. Um it's it's really I'm I'm fortunate that it happened when it happened. It was good timing. I was kind of ready to make a move because of of what I mentioned before. Um yeah, Sotheby's has a phenomenal brand. I just think there's you know, in times like this and and possibly going forward, you know, brands are gonna shift around a little bit. And and I I know that uh, you know, a corporate uh entity has to listen to their investors. And if they've got a cut, they've got a cut. And the problem is that the only thing real estate has is marketing. There's no other no other aspect of mar uh of real estate that that helps you become successful without marketing, whether it's digital or or uh any other type of media. So if you cut that, it's it's directly relating to cutting down on your clients' exposure.

Steve Glick 8:57

Well, you're you're you're a local guy. You're super local. I mean, you've been living out here for over you know a quarter of a century, right? And and you know, Saunders is a local firm, so it just goes hand in hand, you know, the localness of the company, the locals localness of your brand and being in the community, it just all all intertwines to together. And we're excited to have you here. We're happy to have you here. Thank you. And we're looking forward to just branding you and just putting you out, putting yourself out there more and just focusing on the listings that you you bring over here to Saunders because you have a great portfolio of listings that we just love to brand. Expose them and use the marketing team here to just get all put all the assets together and get you on different platforms. So we're excited to be working with you here at Saunders.

Andrew Doud 9:41

You know what's funny about this the podcast, not really funny, but what I enjoy about it is that everyone everybody has a different story.

Dave Rattiner 9:48

I was just having John, you're a special guy, man. You have such an interesting background. I was just about to say that, Dad. I was like, but I don't know if it's your communication skills, but you have like I was like right there with you when you were telling that story. You're like really good storyteller. It's like I'm not even active. Like you've been living on the sailboat and like tooling around.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

I don't have a problem speaking.

Dave Rattiner 10:15

Yeah, I know this time.

Andrew Doud 10:17

I always wanted to live on a sailboat, and before we had kids, I'd like toss an idea to Sarah, and she was like, I'm biting my tongue.

Dave Rattiner 10:25

Steve knows this. I I think you know this, but um I when uh when I first moved uh from college, I bought a sailboat for it was like six thousand dollars. It was a 25-0 day, and my plan was to live on it, and I did not last long, I lasted about four days. I was like, no way am I doing this, man. This is like no AC. I was like at the Gardner uh Gardner's uh marina right on the highway, like the town marina. I'd hear the cars, oh my god, and I just said forget it, and then ended up in Montauk four days.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

An interesting story. I ran into someone who was living on a 25-0 day.

Dave Rattiner 11:01

Yeah, it's not easy.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

I was in Virginia. Um, I do a lot of deliveries with friends, boats, and stuff back and forth to Florida in the uh in the fall and and back in the spring here. And uh we were stopped at uh a marina for the night and just came out from dinner, and there was a lady there who was on her 25-0 day and she lives full time on it. There's no tricking out a 25-foot boat.

Dave Rattiner 11:31

Well, you get a C. I mean, all of everything. It's still rough. It's still rough.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

There was no room for anything.

Dave Rattiner 11:39

Like I said, I lasted four days, so that didn't I ask you?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

And we I actually we gave her all our leftovers from dinner because I said, you know, you're on a 25-foot O day, and if you think about it, going from A to B on a boat that small, you might not get to the next marina in a day. Yeah, forget it. You're you're moving and it could be a couple of days, like three miles an hour problems with an engine or no wind. Yeah.

Dave Rattiner 12:01

So it's minimal minimalist living. It's amazing the difference between a 25-foot boat to a 32 or a 10-meter boat, which is about what is that, about 35 feet? 33, 34 feet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing the difference.

Steve Glick 12:14

I like the line. He said, if you you know, you you and your wife were lived on the boat for six years. So she's like, you know, if we could live on a boat for six years, we could we could we could be married in the house.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

We've been married 30 years. She tells everyone the same thing. That's embarrassing. That's a great thing. She said, if we could live on this little boat, and you know, I I'm I was probably pretty strict because we also raced it on weekends, so you tried to make it light. It wasn't a light boat. Yeah, yeah. But I remember one day telling her, like, she came on board with you know a duffel bag when I first met her. And that was fine, it was perfect. And then she at one point she broke out a blow dryer. And I looked at her and I was like, You think that's really necessary on the boat? Like, can't you please let your hair air dry? And she looked at me like, really? Like this little bro dryer is gonna cause an issue for you?

Dave Rattiner 13:01

And I was like, So you're a competitive guy, competitive.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

You know, listen, it was the only time that's awesome when it was blowing over 20 knots. Because we were a heavy boat, so then we could charge through it and so on. But there's no competition now out there. I mean, it's it it you know, if you've ever been to Sag Harbor and seen a Wednesday night race, it looks professional. Yeah, it's got the newest and lightest and greatest. I know, it's pretty cool.

Dave Rattiner 13:22

Carbon fiber and all that stuff. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

You've got to be serious. There's no more drinking while you're sailing like they're used to.

Andrew Doud 13:30

I took I took sailing lessons when I lived in St. Pete, and it was like the little boats, like the little 10-foot things that you, you know, if you can learn the basics so you can master like the bigger boats.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Pram was one of the big things to learn on.

Andrew Doud 13:41

Yeah, and uh the problem was it was like a little St. Pete's sailing center. It was like in in this little uh like alcove, and so if there was no wind, yeah, it would take you. I mean, there was no motor on the boat, so you just have to wait for the wind to like push you out to Tampa Bay, and then it could like if you had like 10 knots or something, it was a fun day. But if it wasn't, you just sat there and like baked in the sun in Florida, and I was like, I don't, you know, it's like I like I think there's like I romanticize this idea of sailing and like you know, offshore and the wind and all that.

Dave Rattiner 14:13

It can be like that, it is like that. It is it is amazing. It was not my experience. It should be great. There is a romantic like all the things that you fantasize about sailing, it is that, but to get to that point, there's this whole process of nightmare. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

I'll tell you interestingly, so when I would sail offshore to go to Florida, we wouldn't we wouldn't come back, we wouldn't come in until we got to Florida if we could. That was our goal. And that's that's you know, anywhere from 10 days to three weeks, I'm sure, depending on which way you're going. Coming up in the Gulf Stream, you've got the free ride, so you could do it in ten days. That was our best time.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

But when you're when the first day you're out, there's a lot of anxiety of leaving, leaving your friends, leaving your family and stuff. It's interesting. Then you go into this almost meditative mode where the second day, the third day get better, and by the fourth day, you kind of don't want to see anybody. You don't want to come to shore because now you've sort of settled in with the environment and with with you know the ocean, you've got birds, you've got fish, you've got stuff going on. Even though it it seems like it'd be a long day of nothing, there's always something that's happening, and the weather's always changing too. So even just four hours later, you know, if you've got your sail set and it's only blowing 10 knots, in four hours, suddenly you're in 25 knots of a of a of a gale, and uh and you have to adjust to that. So there's always something going on. We would do four hour shifts, so you do 24 hours at a time, everyone's on for four hours, you're sleeping for four, then you're on for four, and so on all the way through.

Steve Glick 15:48

So you're always you're never awake at the same time?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

You're never during the day, you end up because if you think about it, you're still gonna get a ton of sleep. If you took your four hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, you're gonna get more sleep than you get at home. Right. But you end up during the day because it's daylight, sort of sitting together in the cockpit and you're chatting or whatever. There's a lot of reading that goes on. There's a lot of inventing that goes on. You know, we we'd sit there some days when it was just flat calm and you don't move at all, and you don't want to run the engine because you don't want to burn up the fueling so much. And you know, we had a we had an outboard, we had like an inflatable to get around a dinghy. And one time we said, Look, I wonder if that five horsepower outboard, if we hang it on the ladder properly, can push this boat more efficiently than the engine that's in it.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

And that probably did that led us to, you know, getting finding a couple of boards and strapping the engine down, dropping it in the water from the ladder, and then firing it up, and then you know, we're going along and now we're looking at each other like, well, how do we know how much fuel we're so then we dismantled that? But that was like a three-hour, you know, project that got us three hours of time out of the day doing something other than what do you what do you do if you're on a boat on a on a on a trip like that and you and you get into a dis disagreement or you don't like the person you're with?

Andrew Doud 17:02

You're like, you know, do you like want to go to the ball once in the stern? You don't get on a boat with somebody.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I mean, ironically, we we did have a gentleman who I knew well from Europe. He was Canadian, he came on the boat, he wanted to do a transatlantic. So he said, Can I do one of the legs with you from New York down to Florida? And I said, Well, that's a good practice, that's great. Um, we happened to leave just before the perfect storm set in in New England. Um we had you know, horrible weather, uh 20 foot seas, howling wind. Wow. And the wind was out of the north, so at least we were headed south, so it was helpful that at least we were basically going bare pole, we didn't even have to have sails up, um, and and surfing down huge waves. And we got all the way to just off of Charleston, and uh in that in that sort of last day evening, I looked over and and Michael, who was from Canada, um he was unresponsive, uh frozen up, laying on the uh in the uh cockpit.

Dave Rattiner 18:06

Just freaked out.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Um just freaked out.

Dave Rattiner 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

And so he had a sweater on, he was shivering, it wasn't that cold. Um I basically kind of strapped him in so that he wouldn't just be gone when we came up one time. And I turned to Charleston and I said, We gotta get this guy in. He said he's not gonna get better if if unless the weather was sunny and beautiful and perfect, and I could see land is probably what he needed. And so as we came in, of course, uh, you know, as everything happens, I couldn't get the engine started to motor into the wind into Charleston. And um, so we had to tack all the way in from the outer buoy. The outer buoy's 19 miles outside of Charleston, it's pretty far. But I told him, he I said, here's the chart. When we go past a buoy, if it's a green and it says two, oh, three or one, and if it's a red, it says two. I said, let me know and let me know where we are on the chart so that now I know where I am. And it gave him sort of this project that started to get him a little out of it where he would speak. And because he had something to do. Yeah. I was down below trying to fix the carbon.

Dave Rattiner 19:06

You never know. Like, I remember even we went out on a fishing trip for my I think it was my 35th birthday or something. We all got together, and one of my friends was really enthusiastic about it, and he got seasick within 15 minutes. Yeah, and it was just like, oh man, I feel so bad. Like DNA, I don't believe that's anything to DNA. That would have been me. That would have been a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

There's people that get seasick and there's people that don't. Yeah. And I've never been seasick in my life. Me neither. And it just happens to be that way. You're lucky. Yeah. Um, there's times when I felt uncomfortable when it's really bad. Yeah. But it's not like it's going to debilitate me. Although I've seen people that, you know, they get on a boat at the dock and they're they're they're ready to throw up. So it's just it's just your DNA and your balance.

Dave Rattiner 19:48

And I got we gotta talk about the market. We gotta talk about we gotta talk about real estate. Let's go. I do want to shift to real estate because we can spend the whole podcast.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

This will be my first and last podcast. That's awesome.

Andrew Doud 20:03

That's compelling stuff. That's actually that's a lot of good stories, and I'm sure there's plenty more where that's at. But let's yeah, let's talk about the market. I mean, so you've made the shift, Saunders. Yep. Uh you bring a couple really great listings with you. Um, but what you know, what's what's your rate on the market as we get into the summer season?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Uh you know what's interesting because it seems like every couple of weeks something new happens, either politically or economically. And the political stuff seems to affect the economic stuff and so on and so forth. But it in general, we're going back to seasonal, seasonal sales. We're going back to, you know, before COVID, and for for all the years I've done this before that, you had, you know, your fall and spring listing and selling time. When people were you know, you want to get into your house if you're buying it uh before summer. And if you're selling it, you know, you're either going to maybe go to Europe for the summer or you're looking for another house. Right. You're moving. Um and uh and I see that we come back to that now where our you know June and July is very quiet. Uh I remember uh you know, easing up marketing on a lot of my listings during June and July, and then you ramp them up end of July and August and fall because that's when people were serious and looking. It makes sense. You come out here to rent a house. If you rent for two months, your first month is just party time. You're just having a good time, you're relaxing, you're enjoying it out here, and then you start to say, you know, hey, honey, either way. Uh look, do we want to rent again, or maybe we should start looking at houses? We love it here, or our kids are in camp and and our friends are here for whatever reason, and it seems like we're going back to that. Um what's interesting is in your speaking uh at the meeting the other day about the increase in inventory. You know, we we've had such a decrease in inventory due to mostly due to COVID, and then a myriad of things thereafter. Um you know, obviously it's transitional. Interest rates are up. Um a lot of people didn't want to sell their house if they had a low mortgage. Why would they? Sell because then they got to buy something and they're going to be stuck with a higher mortgage. So that that doesn't shake it's hard to shake the tree to get people to sell when they've got you know a two and a half percent mortgage. Um and unless they really need to move or they really need to upsize or downsize one or the other. But I think that um watching this increase, which was a big increase this week in inventory, the question is is there is there going to be an increase in demand to to sort of help match that? If if we don't see the increase in demand, and this is the time, it's spring. But if we don't see the increase in demand, increase in in pendings, increase in closings before summer really starts, which in my opinion is June 1st, not not even, you know, maybe maybe mid-June. Everyone now seems to come July and August minimum. You know, camp doesn't start till August 1st, so you don't have to be here at that time. I'm sorry, July 1st. So really June, kids are still in school and so on. And I we've morphed into that, but that's a different thing. But the fact is that if we don't see the demand kick in, then we're gonna start to see an increase in inventory, and we're gonna get possibly to more of a fatter inventory without the demand. And that's your flip side of a really good market. It's and it it means you know, everything if you're gonna come down off the highs, you're gonna you're gonna get to the bottom and then go back up, and we're gonna be somewhere stuck on our way down in terms of transactions, in my opinion, until we get this late summer fall, because it'll be a season again where people will be interested in looking in August and then committing to you know, purchasing by the end of the year, or for tax reasons, possibly first of the year, whatever, uh, for one reason or the other, and bonuses and so on. I mean, you know, it depends. Um we are still driven a little bit by the the stock market and Wall Street and so on. Um but not as much as of course we used to, because there's there's so much un other uh money made elsewhere in this world now, it seems like. But I do think that inventory increase is good. We need variety, as long as it's the right inventory, too.

Steve Glick 24:00

It's gotta be a good balance. It's gotta be a good balance of inventory coming on and listings going into contract. But again, pricing is key too. So you have to keep that in mind.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

If it's overpriced, it's it's not gonna be taken care of. And again, this is when it's a little late to start pumping because summer's almost here. You're not giving a lot of time for people to come out here and look, but because it's a low inventory, there's not a lot of things to see. So at least if you come out from the city, you say, Okay, I'm gonna see 10 homes. You used to probably see 30 in the weekend period, two days. Uh now you're gonna see 10, and that's what you got. Um, and if you're really interested and there's one that that really works well, then it's gonna trade. Um I do think that um the new construction, because of we had so much new construction that was pushed through COVID because everyone wanted a new home and everyone. And the interest rates too. The interest rates, but the new home, the the technology in the last couple years has just been taken off for homes. So everything about it, whether it's the spray foam, uh, you know, the efficiencies, geothermal, but but in technology in terms of you know, it's not uncommon now to have electric shades. Um it used to be really, really luxurious to have that before. Now it's not uncommon to have even in a in a spec house. Um but I think that that's that's that's shifted the buyer's mind of I like new. I don't think that would work. And think today if you have to do anything, it's not like it used to be where you called up a you know three three contractors and you got one and they were available and you started. Right. No one's available to the city.

Dave Rattiner 25:26

No one's available.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

There's no there's no material.

Dave Rattiner 25:29

And it's very expensive.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

What took six months is gonna take you a year or more just to even do a renovation of the interior.

Dave Rattiner 25:35

We've heard stories about people buying uh Viking appliances like a year and a half in advance. 15 months now. Yeah, uh yeah. Somebody really yeah unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

15 months, I heard, and the same thing with a generator. If you want a whole home generator, uh I don't generac might be different, but if you want a um uh a good size, you know, probably like over a 30 kilowatt generator, it's 15 months for them to order. So obviously the generator companies or the elect, you know, whoever's whoever does that that kind of work, they're pre-ordering because there's a lot of new construction out there. They know they're gonna need it. Right. But uh the gentleman I spoke to the other day said it's 15 months.

Andrew Doud 26:13

Wow. That's wild. Let me uh let me send it over to Steve with the numbers because we are talking about the inventory, talking about the market. So let's get a rundown on what the the previous week looked like and then get John's take on that.

Steve Glick 26:23

All right. Over the past week there were 29 listings that went into contract from West Hampton, the Mod Talk, compared to the same week last year in 2022. There were 39 listings that went into contract, which is a year-over-year decrease of 26 percent. However, 29 is the second best week in 2023. Last week there were 31 listings, which was the strongest week in in 2023. So 29 is still very strong and it's trending up. So two strong numbers in the past two weeks. We're gonna get to that in a minute. Yeah, but you're right. So we're gonna look at that. But this um same week in 2021, there were 68 listings that went to contract. That's a decrease of 57 percent. The breakdown of the 29 transactions this week, there was one over 20 million, two between 10 and 20 million, one between six and eight million, two between four and six million, fourteen between two and four million, and nine under two million. The dollar volume this past week was 120 million, and last year the dollar volume was 109 million. So we're seeing an increase in the dollar volume. So it's the first time we're seeing an increase in the dollar volume for 2023. In 2021, the dollar volume was 320 million, so it's a decrease of 66%. But new listings coming onto the market, Dave, you're correct. It was a high of 39 new listings that came onto the market this past week. So that's a high for the year.

Dave Rattiner 27:44

That's a real number, right? That's a real number.

Steve Glick 27:45

It's a strong number, so it's the most we had so far in 2023 in a one-week period. Um, so we had 29 going into contract, so that increases our inventory by 10 listings. And the breakdown of those 39 new listings this week, there was one over 20 million, six between 10 and 20 million, three between six and eight million, five between four and six million, sixteen between two and four million, and eight under two million. The inventory stands at sixteen hundred and ninety-four total listings, which includes twelve hundred and twenty-seven um active listings and four hundred and sixty-seven listings in contract. So it's a healthy week. We're seeing a lot of listings going in contract, a lot of listings coming onto the market. So I would say this is definitely a positive week, and it's trending upwards as we round out the first quarter of 2023.

Andrew Doud 28:31

And you've you've seen multiple markets, you know, and I mean I think you know, people, a lot of people got into real estate, you know, they're like, hey, COVID, it's so easy to make money in real estate, you know, and it's like, and then it's like, where'd the money go? You know. So what did what is this market, these kind of numbers look like to you as you compare them to, you know, life before the pandemic and and what you've seen over your career.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Well, I've seen a yeah, I've I mean, in that time span, I've seen kind of everything that's happened in real estate out here, pretty much. Um obviously the 80s were different, but um interestingly enough, there's uh there's obviously so much more product. You know, when I started, there was a lot of farm fields. You know, there weren't as many subdivisions, there was a big difference in in you're never gonna have that kind of inventory back then because there just there wasn't that much transition going on. Um I think um my generation, you know, kind of really came out and and uh somewhat put the Hamptons on the map in a different way because back then it was quiet. You know, you you you had fishermen, you had farmers, and and it was a pretty low-key, you know, weekends. Um everyone shut their house down at the you know, September. You were closing up and and turning, you know, draining the pipes and turning the heat off, and you didn't come back out here until the following summer. And um, you know, we had two things that spurred a little bit more permanent uh residency. Obviously, 9-11 was the first thing, and then COVID was the second one. Um, and it changes the dynamic out here. It's it's you know, business thrives from it. You've got restaurants that are open all the time now. I remember when we first bought in uh in mid-90s, um, you know, restaurants that were open, you know, some were open on the weekends, but most were closed on the weekdays. So if we came out on a Thursday, it was like, you know, you better you better prepare, bring something, or you were going to uh you know, Sag Harbor for pizza. Right, right. So i it's it's obviously become a full-time residence for a lot of people because COVID, they could work here. I think 9-11, not so many people were working out of the office, but um COVID really is. Yeah, city made him nervous, and and people and I think there it wasn't so much rushing out to buy a house, it was people that already owned a house out here opened them up year-round. Yeah. Now suddenly it was, you know what, let's just turn the heat up and let's use this on weekends to get away from the city. I didn't see too many people that just said, you know, I gotta have a house. COVID was different where you know people were pretty much, you know, there were it's like fisticuffs. It was like a hockey game out here sometimes where people fighting for for a house and jacking the price up so high on on bids, you know, it wasn't unheard of to have eight or twelve people fight vying in one home.

Dave Rattiner 31:15

Yeah, it is interesting your comment about the year-round. I was just thinking, you know, like when I I even experienced that as a kid. If I went somewhere outside of the Hamptons and if I was like at 16 years old, being the city or something for some reason, and someone would be like, Oh, where are you from? And I would say, Oh, I live in East Hampton. They would be like, You live nowhere around? They'd be like, You live there year around? Really? They couldn't believe it. And now when I tell people I live in uh Southampton, they don't they don't blink an eye. Oh, that's awesome. Wow, wow, you know, that is interesting. I just noticed that just now, really.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

It got put on the map, and I think it was our generation, my generation, that kind of did it. But yeah, and and I think that the ups and downs um where we are now, I I don't think we have the same unless we have some sort of uh financial issue, it doesn't seem that we're gonna have the same uh obviously not an 08 scenario right right away that you know based based on the banking and and some things that have happened in the last month. But I do think that um obviously our buyer is much more educated. You know, in the 90s you didn't have a you didn't have Google to go to and say walk into a real estate office. You had to call the real knowledgeable walk in and and you you you had to make an appointment, probably. I mean, unless you were really good and on your toes, you couldn't just say, you know, let's go. You you had to say, hey, why don't you guys go get lunch or get a coffee and I'll pull up some listing. And now you were frantically working on this archaic system back then for data, and you really didn't call people to see if you could get in the house. There was a key that you had in your own back room for this house, and more than likely no one was home because if it was a weekend or weekend off season, it was closed up.

Dave Rattiner 32:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

So you could quickly try and go show five houses or whatever, six houses.

Dave Rattiner 33:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

But nowadays people are living in them. Well they already know what the house looks like, they've been through it virtually, they've been everything, and they might know more about the interior than you do if you didn't have time to get to all the open houses. So it's you've got to be on your toes in a little different way.

SPEAKER_05 33:15

Yeah. That's wild. Um interesting. Steve or Dave. Yeah. Let's talk about this weekend.

Dave Rattiner 33:22

It's a big weekend. It's big weekend. Happy Passover uh and happy Easter. Um this weekend there is a lot of Easter egg hunts. So uh you have Easter fun on the farm in Sagaponic on Saturday from 10 to 12 p.m., and that's at the Green School in Sagaponic. So you have an Easter egg hunt there. Then you have an annual egg hunt in Bridgehampton from 10 to 12 at the Hampton Library. Nice. Big fans of the Hampton Library, we like that. And then my other Easter egg hunt pick. I'm not going to ramble off every Easter egg hunt in the Hamptons, but I'll ramble off this one. So my other one is the Easter egg hunt and breakfast in Hampton Bays on Saturday. That's uh where you live out from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Hampton Bayes Volunteer Ambulance Corp. So will you will you be there? Because you're an ambulance. I mean, you're a fireman, right? In Hampton Bayes?

Andrew Doud 34:14

Yeah. Uh fire department and ambulance are separate, but we are going to be at the Easter egg hunt. Because I've got a four and a five-year-old.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

So but if you didn't, you wouldn't be going.

Dave Rattiner 34:27

All right. And then um, so more you know, adult-friendly thing, there is an Easter wood-fired lamb feast at Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor, which is an it's a fabulous restaurant in Sag Harbor. I recommend it. Sounds good. That sounds really good. That's on Sunday. You know, that that might be how I celebrate Easter because I don't really have a plan. And now I think I just made this plan because this sounds great. So that's gonna be pretty much all day uh at uh Lulu. Nice but you get the uh wood-fired lamb. What's better than that? That sounds great. So I don't know if you're familiar with uh that restaurant's right there on Main Street in Sag Harbor, and then you also uh at night, speaking of the 80s, there's a 70s meets 80s dance party Saturday, April 8th from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the clubhouse in East Hampton, and you can relive the music, the fun times uh of the 70s and 80s. And you know, I don't know. You can dress up like you're in the 80s, boogie down. Yeah, if you wear a headband or something. Nice. Enjoy the holiday weekend, and that's what's going on in the Hamptons.

Andrew Doud 35:36

That's solid. Um, John, any any last thoughts before we wrap it up? We appreciate you coming on.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Uh, you know, it was it was really great to meet all of you guys. Um uh welcomed like no other place, um and uh really really smooth transition. Very happy to be here and um and I'm looking forward to the future. I think it's gonna be phenomenal.

Andrew Doud 35:57

Right on. Welcome. Well, thanks for joining us. All right, that's Thursday, uh our podcast for Thursday, everyone. I'm Andrew Down, and that is what's happening in the Hamptons.