Andrew Doud 0:07

All right, everyone, it's Thursday. I'm Andrew Dow. Time for 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 New York Title.com. Joining us today, Mr. Steve Glick. Dave Retiner is out at home with his new baby. Congratulations, Dave. And our guest today, return guest, John Healy, whose birthday it is. Happy birthday.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Uh, thank you very much.

Andrew Doud 0:37

Glad to have you back on the show. What's going on? Glad to be here. Um, yeah, so uh first of all, yeah, happy birthday and uh and happy fall, like good time of year. Things are picking up here. We're you know, everybody that we've talked to says business has been pretty busy. How's it been for you?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

It's been good, it's been very active. Um you know, we've got a lot of people, we've had good weather. The weekends have been tough with the rain, but it seems like during the week, we still have people coming out here and and and looking at houses. So um that's kind of interesting. I think if we had the the good weather on weekends, we'd probably be very busy. But uh all things considered, uh, you know, worldwide and and and financially, we're we're doing okay. I mean, it's it's when the weather is good, people realize this is a great place to be. Yeah, and obviously, you know, today it's sunny, there's barely any wind. It's gonna be in the 60s. I mean, you know, for mid to late October, that's beautiful.

Steve Glick 1:31

Yeah, it's the best time of year.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Yeah, it really is.

Andrew Doud 1:34

I I love it out here. So you have a uh you have a great listing. I just want to bring this up real quick before we get into some other stuff. But 397 SAG Main. Green Ridge Cottage. Um, this is an unbelievable property.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

It's a beautiful four and a half acre piece of property in the heart of Sagaponic. It's uh we just reduced it down to 16.9. It is, you know, it's it's a it's a legacy property, if I could steal that term from Eddie Brule. Um it is uh it's it's fabulous.

Steve Glick 2:04

It's iconic. It's right there in Sagaponic. You can't miss it. Everyone you drive past it every yeah. You can't miss it. It's you drive past it every day.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

And it's it's it's uh 1897 construction, but beautifully done, historic, but there's a lot you can do to it that they've already got permits to do a beautiful, beautiful renovation. And really a big bonus is it has two other living structures on the property. One of them is is a two-bedroom cottage uh with a bathroom and and and two-car garage and full basement. So it's like another house. Yeah. And you can't do that today. You can't apply for that today, you'll never get it. So it's super special. And um, the right person's uh gonna charge through there and then everyone's gonna look back and say, gee, I I might have seen that, but why didn't I pick up on that?

Andrew Doud 2:48

What would you do with it if it was your you know if you had the opportunity?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

I would I would probably um do a renovation and uh what I see is a renovation that's probably gonna go for maybe you know three or four mil, and that would would cover all the structures, but it would cover really the uh increasing the size of the kitchen and and modifying some of the walls and stuff internally to make it flow uh for today's market. Um you don't have to touch the property because it's obviously you know it's all cleared. Yeah, it's precisely plenty of plenty of uh specimen trees and and hedges and and and lawn, obviously. It's about three, three and a half acres of lawn. That's okay. Um But I I think it's more about just making the the main house um a little bit different for today's lifestyle and sort of just you know sprucing up the other structures.

Andrew Doud 3:40

Because it has that like quintessential Hamptons look, you know. I mean, yeah, you don't want to get rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

You don't want to change that. You want to keep that and just you know freshen it up and brighten it up and bring it up to speed, that's all. So I don't I don't, you know, I'm surprised someone hasn't picked on it yet, but um, you know, we've been very close and and I think it'll happen. It's it's it's not, you know, like yeah, everything does sell, as you know, and it always has in the past. And I just think this one is there there there aren't other properties like this. So someone will someone will realize that and pick that up.

Andrew Doud 4:10

I feel like that's one of those things that if you don't jump on it now, when somebody does, you'll look back and you'll see the changes they made and you go, Yeah, I could have had that.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, but I don't disagree because everyone that drives by and all the neighbors have been there and a lot of people in the neighborhood have been by to look to upgrade and so on, and and and they just haven't pulled the trigger. But of course, they'll be jealous when someone does and they'll say, Wow, look what they did. Right, yeah, right.

Andrew Doud 4:31

Yeah. Um, so as we mentioned, top of the show, this is your birthday. Uh you can tell us or not tell us what you know how old you are. But safe to say you've been in the real estate game for a little while. We were talking before we we hit the record button here about how much things have changed. Um, how many years have you been doing real estate? Uh 27.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

27 years.

Andrew Doud 4:51

Okay. So what did it look like when you started, and what does it look like, you know, comparatively? What's the biggest change maybe you've seen?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Uh the biggest, I guess. Well, I think it's all work towards good because moving through internet, websites, the ease at which you can um I can list something and get it out there for everyone to see on the internet, uh, and the ease that buyers can can you know hit a couple of buttons and they can see a vi a wide variety of real estate out here. I think what's interesting is that when I started, it was it was it seemed looking back, very rudimentary. Uh we had a computer that had data, it was very raw data, no pictures, um, basically, you know, not even taxes. It just would say how many bedrooms, bathrooms, maybe square footage if the agent went out and measured.

Steve Glick 5:46

Um it was it was really And this computer was it just one computer that everybody had access to?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, I think everyone had the same system. I wish I could remember what it was called, but it was it was kind of like a you know AX3000 or something.

Andrew Doud 5:59

Very not names, it was just like letters and numbers.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

It was all black and white, there was no color. And so uh what was interesting as we were talking earlier, uh, and this has nothing to do with really the sort of COVID hangover, but back then, um, you didn't have a way of advertising other than in local papers. Uh the media was very minimal. We didn't have the the luxury magazines we have today, we didn't have the luxury real estate magazines we have today. And so it was local papers. And if you lived in New York or New Jersey or Connecticut and said, Look, you know, let's go look for some real estate in the Hamptons by the beach, you drove out and you probably didn't have any clue what was what until you got here and picked up a couple of the rags when you got a coffee or whatever. Right. And really what you did was you walked into a real estate office and basically said, Look, we were looking for a house. You know, this is our budget. Where can we be? Can we be close to the beach? This and so, if as an agent, if you were not in the office, you didn't pick up the business. Um, and so one of the biggest changes I've seen, and and of course COVID pushed it even further, is that you can do so much work at your home office or not in the office. Um as a negative to me, I missed the the the camaraderie and the chit-chat that went every day all the time when everyone was in the office. Yeah, everyone was talking about real estate, they were talking about the next thing and and what sold, and and then everyone would get in a car together and go and look at a piece of property that someone suddenly said, Hey, I think I'm I'm gonna list this. Um so there was a lot of of uh hands-on RD and discussion. And I think now it's hands-off because it's all in the computer. And so we all just go right to that computer. We can go on our phone and our car, we can on our laptop, our iPad, whatever it is, and get a great deal of work done. So I think the success and efficiency obviously has been increased due to due to the uh technology. Um I'm one of the few people probably out there that m misses the days of no cell phone. I really miss the days of not having a cell phone and and just having to, you know, even as a child or whatever, and and I tell this to my kids that are grown kids. Um, you know, you you don't understand that if if you know everyone says, oh, you know, what happens if you got into a car accident or or or something happened to you, you know, in the evening or during the day? You know, the answer was you walk to the nearest house and said, Can I borrow your phone? I need to call my mom or my dad or call home. And I think that it just gave us all a little bit more, it felt like it was more freedom, even though people say cell phones give you freedom. It gives you freedom from business, but it doesn't give you freedom from from growing up, in my opinion. I just think that it was better to be able to hop on your bike and ride your bike, and that was your freedom. And and you learned so much in a different way. I miss it. But uh, you know, you you move on, and for business, I don't miss it because that computer program was would never work today. And and I think, you know, we we're we're soldiers, we we we need to be out on the trenches too. And I like to drive around and look at houses and and go and see the open houses and so on. Whereas if you're in the office all the time waiting for someone to walk in, which doesn't really happen too often anymore, anyway, um you you're missing out on a lot of other stuff.

Steve Glick 9:21

Now, John, would you say you're more successful now than with with technology, right? You're able to now, if you get a listing, you're able to now push it out there all over the world, right, to buyers because of technology. So it would be a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Oh no, without a doubt. Without a doubt, right? The technology. Every agent is successful because of that. Yeah. And I think that's why you get, you know, um, you know, back then the agents were, to be honest, I mean, it seemed like everyone was out of college or something that I was with, the first company I was with, which was Cook Pony Farm, and I look around at all the agents that were there, and they were, you know, college graduates or whatever, and so on. And I think that um there was sort of you it was it was more of your personality that helped sell as well as knowledge, obviously. Okay. But we had to dig up our own knowledge in a in a much more rudimentary way because it wasn't on the computer. So if someone taxes, we you know, when you went to take a listing, you really wanted everything you could get from that seller because you said, you know, you have your taxes.

Steve Glick 10:19

So I mean I would imagine some of the information that's out there was inaccurate, right? Like now you can measure, you can get someone, you can measure floor plans through your phone, you can measure room dimensions using your your phone, and you could look at surveys and and you can get a lot of information, um, you know, more accurate information now than in the past. It was like made up.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Well, you relied on information from the seller. Right. So if you sat down with them, unless they had the survey with them or someone, you know, you'd say, How big is your property? They would, you know, look around and basically go, I don't know, an acre. And you would be like, wait a minute, I, you know, we need to have real fact. So I do think that a lot of our information was probably inaccurate just because of the technology. Um there was a lot more footwork to do to, you know, we went to town all the time and you go to the tax road tax department, you know, the assessor's office, and say, I'm looking up this property on one to 125 Main Street. What are the taxes? Do you have any information on it? Do they have a CO? I mean, like you physically did all that. Obviously, now you just go into GIS or you go into the computer and it's all there. So it's it's the efficiencies, and I think that's across the board in the world with it with business. Yeah. Is that the efficiencies of the internet, of of computers, technology, cell phones, you know, everything, everything is at our fingertips, and that wasn't that way back then.

Steve Glick 11:36

So, John, you've been doing it for 20-something years. Where do you see the next 20 years going? What's the future now?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Like, yeah, like what's gonna happen 20 years from now?

Steve Glick 11:44

Like, how's it gonna change?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I obviously AI is is the next you know big thing that's going from black and white computer to or TV to color TV. I mean, that's a big, big change. Um, and and and you know, right now it's unregulated. Uh, there's there's so many companies trying to do so many things with it. Um, I really thought we were gonna see more of a change with the 3D models where you had 3D printers that were able to print up, you know, there's I guess there's a guy that printed a house. Yeah, I saw that. And he he lived in his he lives he lives in his own house that he printed from a 3D printer. I mean, I thought that would have sort of been a little bit more widespread the way it took off, and maybe I'm not paying attention, but it for real estate it isn't. Right. Whereas I think AI, it seems like it's gonna fit well in a lot of ways. Um tricky though, because you can really make something look and sound great. Right. I've played with the uh the Chat GBT AI, and I'll tell you, I my speeches are unbelievable. Oh, yeah.

Steve Glick 12:46

It's like my though I'm not a good speechwriter. I sound so smart in my emails.

Andrew Doud 12:50

Where was that when I was writing papers in college?

Steve Glick 12:52

Where was that when I was doing my application for college?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, yeah. I would have been accepted to all the IVs.

Steve Glick 12:57

It's exciting to see like you got to embrace technology. And here at the firm, like we're always looking at the AI and figuring out how we can incorporate that into our business to just make our agents and our staff more effective in delivering messages and getting, you know, either data or analytics or like you said, just copywriting. Just those are just like that's just a surface of what it's going to do. So I'm curious to see where it is going to be the next 20 years. But just seeing it from you know, my career and from marketing, how much you know the marketing side has has grown from the photography, right? We just had a basic uh point and shoot cameras now to these really you know 4K cameras, shooting high-dev photography where you can get your coloring and everything exact. Then we go into the videos, right, that that you're doing, Andrew, where we're actually shooting a video for the property. But even before that, I'm gonna talk about aerial photography. I remember if you wanted an aerial of a property, someone would physically go up in the plane, stick their head out of the window with their camera, and and click the button to try to get that photo. Now you you're sitting in the office, you you have a little remote control and you're flying a drone around to get that same type of shot.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

You forgot something.

Steve Glick 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

They had to then go process their film after they film picture. Okay, there you go.

Andrew Doud 14:13

Yeah, not to a dark room, which is gonna be like that's like uh ancient technology.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

No, that's it. No, the dark room that everyone has is now their office. Right.

Steve Glick 14:21

Yeah. Well, just like photoshopping too. It's like when I see the staff when they photoshop a sky or a green grass. I remember even, you know, call it 15, uh, 20 years ago, we were doing it. It was just you click blue, that's a sky grass, and you just put green. Now it's really like you can't even tell that they're they're photoshopping.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

When we would put water in a pool back then, how bad did that pool look like? You're like, what is that? It was just a freaking tangle and you just artist rendering.

Steve Glick 14:50

You fill it with blue. You know, there is no shadowing now. There's a reflection there. You could see through the water and see the steps and the little lights and and the granite, marble, whatever is in there. It's like they these these the staff here really does an amazing job making it look so real, you can't even tell the difference. So we have to put disclaimers on it because it's like you're not going to be able to know what's real and what's not.

Andrew Doud 15:13

Well, to to Andrew Saunders' credit, and uh, you know, he he's always looking to stay current with with whatever the latest trends are in technology and everything. And I remember when I moved up here, I guess it was about six years ago, and before I was working here full time, I was going around to any business. And I was like, hey, like, can I do a video for you? Do some drone work? And people would look at me like, well, why do I need that? And I was like, well, it's good for your website, for social media, like and I was pitching them on all like why they should have this. And it was like such a foreign concept. Now it's like everybody's trying to do it. When I walked in here, Andrew was like, that would be really beneficial. Let's see what you got. And he gave me like a couple projects to do, and before long, it was a full-time job. And now it's a necessity.

Steve Glick 15:52

Like now you're you say you're doing it for hey, I'm gonna do it for properties over $10 million. The high-end properties get a video. Now it's every property. If it's a $500,000 home, we need a video. We need a video. We need the drone. We need photoshopping, we need all the all the assets, and that goes for every single property that we represent because that's what's required and needed. The agents need those tools to put it on social media, to put it online, and just send it to their customers. It's amazing to see where the marketing and the technology has gone and then where it's going to go. Like what I can't even imagine.

Andrew Doud 16:27

Like five years from now, where AI is and where that all how that all ties in.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

It goes quickly. I do miss the flip phone because it was so convenient to fit in your pocket, but I know it's not practical because the screen was tiny. But um, I I do think that uh you know technology it feeds on itself, so it's gonna be even quicker. It's just it's like it's like a ball rolling down the hill. Yeah, it just keeps on accelerating, and then that's why if you don't, you know, AI came about and people were like, Oh, I don't know. But by the time they said I don't know, it was awesome. A whole bunch of people were using it saying, This is awesome. So you you've got to be quick to jump on the bus because the bus is going faster.

Steve Glick 17:11

Yeah, you've got to embrace it and figure out uh a way that it could be useful to you. I mean, I'm sure AI and all these tools have a lot, there's a lot it can do, but you just gotta strip it out and figure out how I can use this to my advantage and help me save time. Because if if AI is is helping you save time with just a simple thing of write and copy, that's gonna free up more of your time to focus on something else. So these tools are all there to just help you. It's all a tool. It's all a tool.

Andrew Doud 17:37

Uh so before we get too far into the future, let's look at the week. What do you got as far as the the market?

Steve Glick 17:42

All right, good good segue there, right? Uh so over the past week there were 20 listings that went into contract from West Hampton to Montauk. Last year there were 27, so that's a decrease of 26%, so it's kind of a slow week. In 2021, there were 46 listings that went into contract, so that's a decrease of 57 percent. The breakdown of the 20 transactions this week, there was two between 10 and 20 million, eight between two and three million, five between one and two million, and five under one million. The dollar volume was fifty-six million compared to last year of sixty-six million, so that's a decrease of fifteen percent. In 2021, the dollar volume was 168 million with a decrease of 67 percent. New listings coming on to the market. This is has been the uh constant theme every week. There's more listings that are coming on than that are going into contract. So this past week there were 38 new listings, so that increases the listing inventory by 18. And the breakdown of the 38, there was three bet three over 20, 6 between 10 and 20, 5 between 5 and 10, 10 between 3 and 5, 7 between 2 and 3, 6 between 1 and 2, and 1 under a million. Only one new listing under a million dollars this week. The inventory is at um 1,900 total listings with 1,459 active, 440, 440 in contract. So again, more listings are continuously coming onto the market.

Andrew Doud 19:09

Talk about things changing quick. I remember like when I first started, under a million was attainable out east, east of the canal, you know, and and now I mean I don't know where that went. Look at it.

Steve Glick 19:22

I mean, look, all right, so look at look at the breakdown of the things that went into contract this week. There was eight, uh, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen between one and three, right? And then coming on to the market, there was thirteen between one and three. Under a million, there was only five under a million that went into contract, and only one new listing under a million. So under a million is is a hard thing to find. I'm curious. For sure, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

For sure.

Steve Glick 19:48

Um, and that's the that's how it's gonna creep up. I'm so these numbers under a million are gonna, I mean, you can't go lower than one.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

So you talk about media, so you're talking about median price, right? Right? Do you remember when the Pecanic Land Tax was first formed?

Andrew Doud 20:03

Not really.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Or brought to the discount.

Andrew Doud 20:05

I I don't. I'd never heard of it when I bought my first SID.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

It's gotta be probably 17 years ago. Andrew would know maybe it was a it's a long time ago. I I'm just throwing it out there. They then picked, of course, for the base, a median price, and it was $250,000. Oh what I find interesting, and maybe this is subject matter for your next podcast, okay, is that they've now had two, they've had an extension and they've had two votes to increase, try to increase the percentage. And we did they did successfully do that in the last vote. In all of those votes, they've never carried the 250 minimum up to the today's median price. Oh yeah. And but but no voter has actually brought that to the table with the case. So there's no there's no break. It astounds me that that you know if you're gonna raise like you know, salaries based on inflation or your hourly rate based on inflation, yeah. To to for that to get away, and I know it listen, it's more tax, more, more, more money there for the for the file. But the fact is, is that how come locals or whoever's voting doesn't bring that up and say, wait a minute, it should probably be at you know $550 or $650 by now, because the whole purpose of it was not to hurt the local in taxing them when they have to buy a house.

Andrew Doud 21:27

But $250,000 ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

I bought my first house for $235,000 in Wainscot. And it was in 1993, and it was on Sayers Path. Okay, and it was a salt box livable house on half an acre. So hence it was affordable. Yeah, and and and and that means other places it was even cheaper, probably. Right. But the fact is that when you don't raise the tax base, but you raise the taxes, yeah, it's not helping the locals at all. Yeah, and and it's Great to keep the open space. I love it. I just think that's an interesting discussion for maybe a future podcast.

Steve Glick 22:05

Certainly something something to look into.

Andrew Doud 22:08

Um, all right. Let me uh let me try to do my best Dave impression with what's going on this weekend, and then John can give me his uh his two cents. Dave usually gets really close to the microphone. Uh okay, the first thing we have is Hamptons Hour and Bon Talk. This is a bonfire benefiting fighting chance Hamptons. This is Friday, October 20th from 5 to 8 p.m. in East Hamptons. Tickets include access to Beach Bonfire, games, fall cocktails, food, raffles, and more. The description reads: Join us for a fall bonfire event. Tickets include access to what I just said. A portion of the ticket proceeds will be donated to Fighting Chance Hamptons, a free cancer counseling center that supports patients locally. So good charity there. We also have in Quag the Enchanted Forest Trail, which I have actually promised. This is a good one, too. I've been there. This is very cool. Good fall activity, good Halloween type of time at the Quag Wildlife Refuge. This is follow your guide on the Enchanted Forest Trail to meet whimsical, fun, and educational characters. Wear your Halloween costume while learning about animals and nature. Activities, concessions, crafts, and games all available. This is a great little uh thing to do in the fall if you have kids. Uh great little fall event. And if you are looking for something more active, Shelter Island has its 24th annual fall 5K run or walk. This is at Crescent Beach 35 Shore Road on Shelter Island. It is Saturday, October 21st. Entry fees $40 for adults, $20 for kids, 12 and under. Uh looks like you can sign up or get more information at Shelter Island 5 Shelter Islandfall5K.com. And the uh 5K will honor uh the annual Shelter Island 5K run walk in honor of breast cancer awellness month will take place on Saturday the 21st. So there you go. Uh that's what we have happening this weekend. John, what are you doing? Or what would you do late fall, late October in the Hamptons? There's a lot to do, but it's not like beach days. It's not like go to the beach.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

But there's a lot of fishing to do. It's striped bass season. Right? So to be honest, whether it's from the beach, I know they've done really well on the oceanside lately, but I don't think the cut's still open. They opened it a while ago, but over by Shinnecock Inlet, they've done very well on the beach there, and even uh all the spots in the bay, um, they're starting to produce. Uh I was out yesterday and the day before, and we're having striped bass tonight.

Andrew Doud 24:53

Time to there you go. All right, so go fishing if you're uh if you're into that. So uh a lot of good events. John, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. And uh we'll have you back on fishing.

Steve Glick 25:02

And happy birthday, John! And happy birthday.

Andrew Doud 25:04

Thank you very much. Yes, and congrats again to Mr. Dave Retiner on the birth of his second child. Absolutely. We'll see you back, uh see you back soon, Dave. All right, that's it. Uh, that's everybody. That's the podcast for this week. Everybody have a great weekend. I'm Andrew Dowd, and that is what's happening in the Hamptons.