Andrew Doud 0:08

All right everyone, it's Thursday. I'm Andrew Doud. Time for a 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. We have Steve Glick, Dave Rattiner, and today Patty Oakley and Brian Leicht of the Oakley Leicht team. Thanks for joining us, guys. How are you? Good morning, everybody. Good to have you on. Um, you know, we were just having a conversation about kind of the f the starts of the new year, uh, what the market's been like, what the inventory's been like, and you're telling us, I mean, you're you're slammed, you're busy, which is great. So what is your perception of the market? What are you guys seeing, and how's the new year been to get things started for you?

Patty Oakley 0:51

Hey, yeah, great. Thanks for having us today. So, you know, we started out this year um off with a bang, and uh we're actually surprised. You know, we have a lot of people calling us interested in listing their houses. Uh we recently have uh and had uh four new listings coming to market, one of which went into an immediate sealed bid within two to three days being on the market. Uh we have a lot of buyers out there looking, um, committing to properties if if it's what they're looking for and they feel it's priced correctly, they are making a move, making offers, and we're negotiating deals. On the flip side, we're still lacking some inventory, and that's where people are struggling. You know, agents are struggling, buyers are struggling. You know, many agents do have buyers. We ourselves have a lot of buyers and are limited with inventory, but it's also about having the experience, knowing what your buyers are looking for, knowing the inventory, and being able to bring people to these properties and you know, creating, you know, the vision for them to grab this property and enjoy it with their families. So, you know, we're we're off to a great start. Rentals are very busy and um, you know, just taking people out, doing leases, you know, they're they're looking forward, especially with the cold weather now, looking forward to enjoying some nice warm weather out in the summer for their Hamptons.

Andrew Doud 2:12

That's that's the truth. Well, you find it. I'm just gonna say, do you find the people are being just you know, you you have the buyers and and we know that the inventory is not maybe where agents would like it to be, but do you find the buyers are just being more patient or you know, because you you say you had one that went into a sealed bid, so I'm assuming that was a very competitive price. Um the buyers are there, but I'm not hearing a lot of sealed bids coming on, so that that's like a big deal.

Brian Leicht 2:37

Yeah, that was uh that was a unique situation. It was a great little waterfront cottage in a beautiful setting, and we kind of strategically priced it to um you know get a lot of activity on it. And it did, it and it did. You know, our our uh game plan on that one worked out well, worked out well for the seller, and we have some really excited buyers as well. So pricing is really about pricing. Yeah, that's the thing.

Steve Glick 3:02

Like I keep talking about that. We have listings, some sell, some don't sell, but it all comes down to strategic pricing. And and it sounds like you guys priced it right, maybe knowing that hey, they might be multiple bidders where we will go into a sealed bid, and the execution worked out perfectly. But again, it's all about pricing the property right. We'll see properties get launched and in the first week or two weeks already getting showings and offers, and then you go on the other side, you see a property gets launched, and you get nothing. It's crickets.

Dave Rattiner 3:30

So it's one of the most important reasons why you would hire agents like you is getting the right price out of the gate versus overpricing it, and it just sits there and the listing gets stale, or you underprice it and you feel like, oh, I could have gotten more. You know, but when you you know list with you guys or you know, ex people who really know what they're doing, they you can feel confident that you're getting the highest price.

Brian Leicht 3:54

You know, we do our homework when we when we take a property on it. You know, you we really look into what the property offers, you know, what your comps are, what's sold, what's on the market, and you know, we we provide that information in depth to the seller to really educate them about what proper pricing, how important proper price pricing really is.

Dave Rattiner 4:14

What's the sorry, what's the mentality of the buyer right now? Because a lot of agents today say, you know, I have buyers, I have buyers, but you know, there's you know there's nothing for them to buy. Do they uh how frustrated are they?

Patty Oakley 4:27

Well there is stuff out there. I I think you know, um there might be some frustration on both sides. You know, sellers, just to go back to sales a little bit, sellers have been misguided by many agents, and they go into listing houses with this false hope of getting the price that they're listing at. So that's the first thing. So I think you know, the more it goes back to location and efficiency of pricing, and it's always been that way. So whether it's an up market or down market, it's basic economic. So that's the first thing. So with the buyers, I think ultimately um yes, there's no there's no rush to get a house. You know, it's a lot of money no matter what you're spending. So buyers are being patient. There's no sense of urgency. They can wait it out. We're in February. They have this perception, and and possibly they're right, that more listings gonna be coming on the market. And we see that. We see weekly more properties are being listed. So that gives them a greater pool of houses to look at, of land to look at, of rentals to look at, whatever it may be. But if we're focusing on sales, then you know they are being patient. And when something makes sense to them, then they're jumping on it.

Steve Glick 5:33

In the past, they used to look at, you know, 10 homes, right, in their price range. Now they're like, all right, here's the three or four homes.

Brian Leicht 5:39

It's really a small handful.

Steve Glick 5:40

You know, so now they have to reinvent like, wait a minute, you know, three or four years ago, you used to show me like a huge list. Yeah. So now I guess they are being patient. Like you said, there's no immediate sense of urgency. And right, so they know that they could write wait for the right ones. And then when that right one comes on, you feel it. You know, you have to be able to send that listing to your buyer first and before you know anyone else can and and be the first to look at it. And sometimes that's what you experience. You launch a property and right off the bat you're getting offers because that fits the criteria that someone's looking for, if it's new construction or waterfront or a specific location. Um, but again, it all comes back to pricing in any type of market, a bad market or a good market, the pricing is still the key.

Patty Oakley 6:24

Also, just one other thing, you know, we recently had two buyers put in extremely very promising offers to sellers, and both sellers chose not to negotiate. Three weeks later, we're getting calls from their agents. You know, is your bias still around? Yeah. So sellers really need to listen to their listening agent. Okay. When they get offers on the table, if they're true sellers, they really need to think hard, look at their numbers. You know, sometimes the numbers seem so far off, but when you really calculate where you're ending up and your capital gains or whatever else it may be, you're really, you know, you're doing okay. And you know, the worst thing a seller could possibly do is reject a great offer and then a month later look to grant that person back.

Steve Glick 7:09

Don't they always say like the first offer is the best offer? Sometimes sometimes I'm not gonna say it's all the time, but I hear that a lot, you know, and you like you can't you can't go back in time and say, oh, wait, you know, let me try to get that. Like it's not gonna happen.

Patty Oakley 7:21

Somebody's making an offer to real buyers.

Brian Leicht 7:23

Yeah, it's and it's hard to to to um you know explain that to a seller. You know, you have a multi-million dollar house and we can't put the deal together because they're twenty thousand dollars apart, and now the seller's now the seller's still sitting with their house. Well, it comes down to experience. You know, yeah, you can't.

Steve Glick 7:38

You have the experience of knowing any type of situation, the years that you guys have been working in here. So you now you're able to go to the buyer or seller and say, Because of my experience, we've experienced this, you know, a dozen times already, and this is our advice. Where another agent coming in has no idea how to handle certain situations or have never experienced it. And those are the ones that are gonna uh probably could fumble the deal a little bit. So you guys are able to you know take it home uh because of your experience. Now, one thing is um this week we have um it's a holiday week, it's Presidents Day weekend, it's uh a lot of the schools are closed. It's gonna be busy out here in the Hamptons, right? Are you guys um already seeing an uptick for this week coming up with showings and open houses, I'm sure? What do you have going on?

Brian Leicht 8:19

Yeah, we're actually going to be launching uh our new waterfront exclusive at 34 Old Fort Pond. It's a newer house, four bedrooms, four and a half baths, uh floating dock, beautiful, gorgeous water views on Old Fort Pond. This is the kind of house where if you're having a bad day or things aren't working out, you walk through the front door of this house and bam, all those things go away. The views are absolutely incredible. So really excited to launch that. Uh, we're doing an open house this Sunday, I think it's the 18th, from 11 to 1, and that's 34 Old Fort Pond. Uh the price is uh 4,495. Spectacular house.

Steve Glick 9:01

Waterfront with a dock. Can't go wrong there. Can't go wrong. It's really idyllic. It's magical.

Brian Leicht 9:06

Yeah.

Andrew Doud 9:06

I'm just looking at the pictures online. This is a great great property.

Patty Oakley 9:10

So nicely designed, great location. You're so close to the village.

Steve Glick 9:14

Yeah.

Brian Leicht 9:15

Convenient to the village, convenient to you know, jump on the highway and head back west if that's where your destination is. It's just really special.

Steve Glick 9:23

I feel like this is like the kickoff of the season. You know, I love this week off in February. I know we get a day off here and there in January, but this President's Day weekend is always just like people now are focused on the Hamptons. You know, they're through with the holidays and the new year, and this is it. This is the time they're starting to look at rentals, yeah, thinking about what their plans are for the summer, thinking about buying, purchasing real estate. This is the beginning of you know, of the season. You know, there's just no more football on Sunday, and they say that this is the time that you're gonna see a lot of new listings come on the market, and people start switching gears, and it's all about the Hamptons now. So I call it.

Brian Leicht 9:58

The other interesting thing that we're experiencing is an uptick in our summer rental inquiries. Sure. And we're starting to do a bunch of summer rentals. We've done a bunch of uh you know, big ones. Last week or so six-figure rentals. Wow. Um, we have somebody out uh over the week coming out this weekend, so definitely an uptick um more than we have experienced last year. So that's kind of a change. Maybe people are looking, hey, we're gonna stay a little closer now and uh, you know, not go over to Europe this year. I'm not really sure. Maybe it's some of those people that can't find the house that they're looking for say, hey, you know, we want to be in the Hamptons anyway, so let's at least get a rental, let's secure something and look while we're here. So it's gonna be very interesting.

Steve Glick 10:38

You're not alone. We're seeing a lot of rentals come in, and you're right, like the lot of those renters turn into buyers. You know, they just want to be in the Hamptons and continue their search, you know. Um, but staying local is seems to be the trend.

Dave Rattiner 10:49

Do you think that demand just has to do with the state of the world right now and the you know the wars?

Brian Leicht 10:54

It may. It could be. I think it I think it's a very hard market to put you know exact pulse on what's happening right now. There's so many dynamics that are affecting people and and uh economics, so it's hard to tell.

Dave Rattiner 11:09

It really seemed like post COVID, everyone was like, I I can't believe how many people I knew were going to Greece or Italy, Greece or Italy. It was like Greece, Italy, Greece, Italy, Greece, Italy.

Patty Oakley 11:19

You know, but now I think you know the Europe fix is over, and uh you know, there is this perception by buyers that the prices are still a little inflated, even though we're seeing our numbers show differently. You know, prices are on the increase. So that $2 million house is now, you know, $2250 or $24. Uh so I think you know, some people might be coming out to rent to kind of wait and see if prices drop, but we don't see prices dropping in the future. You know, we really don't. I mean, our prices gonna drop from some listings? That's different. You know, some of these listings are overpriced, but that medium price, our numbers are gonna be coming out for from last year. I think that's an important distinction. You know, sure it depends upon what you're saying. And people I think are getting confused by our increase in numbers, and maybe Steve will touch on that today, versus you know, reducing prices from listings. And that's because that listing was overpriced to begin with. So there's that big difference that buyers need to understand.

Steve Glick 12:15

It's a balance, you know. You gotta really balance it out and you gotta look at the data and figure out what's what's your objective, what are you trying to get at, and you're trying to you have to price it for the market. Let's jump in, let's jump into the data. So I got the market report. Let's go through let's go through the year end. We just on Saunders.com, we just posted the year-end numbers for 2023 and also the fourth quarter of 2023. I'm gonna start with the fourth quarter, all Hamptons, home sales. Home sales we saw in just the fourth quarter alone, a decrease of sales transactions of 32%, and a decrease in dollar volume of 7%. There was $1.1 billion of transactions that occurred in just the fourth quarter alone. However, the standout is the median price up 25% in just the fourth quarter. In one quarter alone, the median sale prices was at $2.1 million. This was due to some um significant trades that transferred at the end of the fourth quarter as people try to close out their properties before the end of the year. But we're seeing that in the fourth quarter. We'll see what happens as we continue into the first quarter. But as we jump to the year end in 2023, the Hamptons real estate market in home sales saw $4.2 billion in sales. And the overall market with all transactions, including homes, land, condos, and commercials, saw 4.4.8 billion dollars of transactions. This is down uh 32% in home sales and dollar volume, down 35% in sales transactions, but the median price continues to rise and it went up 10% with a median price of $1.85 million in 2023. So we're paying close attention to these numbers. Um, this number, now you say, well, how does that compare to years and years past? The $4.2 billion in home sales is up from 2019, right? Obviously, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were down. Those were the quote unquote COVID years, but 2019 was the last year that we saw a normal type of market, and this number is up from 2019. So now we'll see as we come into the first quarter of 2024. You know, we're seeing an increase in dollar volume year over year, but some weeks we are seeing a decrease in listings going into contract. So I'm just gonna dive into it now while I have the microphone and the floor. So um the weekly data for this past week, there were 14 listings that went into contract from West Hampton and Montauk. Last year there were 19, so it's a decrease of 26 percent. In 2022, there were 37 listings that went into contract. That's a decrease of 62 percent. The breakdown of the 14 transactions, there is three between five and ten million, five between three and five million, three between two and three million, two between one and two million, and one under a million. However, the dollar volume was fifty-five million compared to last year of 49 million. So even though the listings going into contract decreased, the dollar volume increased by 12%. If you go back to 2022, that dollar volume in one week was 122 million. So that's a decrease of 55%. But the key takeaway this week was new listings that are coming onto the market. There are 40 for zero new listings that came onto the market. Yeah, 14 going into contract. Um that's an increase to the inventory by 26 listings, and those 40 new listings are in all price categories. There is one over 20 million, two between 10 and 20 million, seven between five and ten million, six between three and five million, ten between two and three million, thirteen between one and two million, one under a million, and the inventory stands at seventeen hundred and twenty-six total listings, thirteen hundred and fifty-three active and three hundred and seventy-three in contract. It's a lot of data. Man, it's a lot of numbers. Um, all this can be found. Uh, the weekly data can be found on Hamptons.com. If you go to Hamptons.com and click on the real estate section, you'll see the full report every single week. And then the market report, which is going to break down each hamlet individually, you'll see that on saunders.com. If you go right to the homepage, you'll see the 2022 versus 2023 market report. You can flip through it, uh, you could download the PDF, you could look at it, and you'll see the breakdown of each town, all the price categories, land, condos, commercials, the top five sales in each town, and you can see how um your area um panned out in 2023.

Dave Rattiner 16:43

Patty, you just said something earlier that made a lot of sense to me, which is that you're noticing, or at least I I'm noticing, that there's been price reductions recently, and it it's like it doesn't make any sense at the same time because the median price, the median selling price is up. But what you just said was was that these price reductions are coming in because they have been originally overpriced for so long anyway. True. So that they were always overpriced, even at the height of the market, they were overpriced. And so, how how much of an effect are these price reductions having on like the perception of the overall market right now? Do you have to do you find yourself having to educate people like, look, no, you know, the median sell price is up, you know.

Patty Oakley 17:28

Well, yeah, we're always talking to buyers and sellers about where the market stands. And I think that's important from an agent perspective. You need to know where the market is. And you know, for those agents that struggle a little bit, they really need to just educate themselves on, you know, dollar volume and and inventory and and know what has traded so that when we talk to people that are going to list, we know that five houses away just sold for such and such a price, but they were listed at such and such a price. You know, it's just automatic. But you know, there's these numbers that Steve just went through are showing the direction. And it's always good to just try to be a few steps ahead and and uh and and somewhat you know direct your people to what's good, what's gonna work for them, what you know, where's the pocket where we're missing inventory. You know, for us in the Southampton area, there's uh, you know, a need for anywhere from two and a half million to four and a half million. You know, new construction now is way over five million. So, you know, I think sometimes people look around when they're about to list their house and they say, okay, well, I fall on this price point because I'm new construction or I'm not new construction. And our jobs are to, again, show the numbers, show them where they're going to be. You know, are they sellers that are testing the market? That's a whole different category. But, you know, most of the people today are listening because they're moving on or they're moving to smaller houses or whatever it may be. They are real sellers. So real sellers just need to kind of look back at where they are, call their agent, call us if they're interested in selling, we'll give them an honest opinion. And um, you know, people just need direction, and and a lot of that just stems from trusting who you're working with as well.

Andrew Doud 19:18

It's good advice.

Patty Oakley 19:19

You know, you have to have confidence in who you're hiring, whether it's a work representing a buyer or a seller.

Steve Glick 19:24

Okay.

Brian Leicht 19:24

Yeah, experience does matter.

Steve Glick 19:26

Yeah.

Patty Oakley 19:28

That's somebody's tagline, isn't it?

Andrew Doud 19:29

Um that's the new one, right? I like that. Um experience matters. Dave, our experienced man of what's happening in the Hamptons. What are you doing this weekend?

Dave Rattiner 19:40

A lot of good things happening this weekend in the busy weekend here in the open houses. It's kind of it's also kind of Valentine's Day weekend, if you think about it. You know? Little convention. You didn't go out on Valentine's Day like me. I didn't go out, and you just showed up with a box of CVS chocolates and you gotta make up for it. You know, there's gonna be options. So, first one is uh candlelight Valentine's Day special night of Romeo and Juliet and more at the Canoe Place Inn and Cottages in Hampton Bay, is your part of town. That's uh February 16th, 6:30 p.m. to 7 30 p.m. And it's a candlelight concert where you bring the magic of a live multi-sensory musical experience at an awe-inspiring location. Um, so I'm not really quite clear what Romeo and Juliet and more means. But you know, sounds nice. Okay. You just sit around and you listen to a concert to candlelight at the Canoe Place Inn in that in that open area where you know they have weddings. There you go.

Brian Leicht 20:49

Canoe Place In is a beautiful, beautiful spot there. They did a really nice job.

Patty Oakley 20:53

And I hear those concerts are phenomenal.

Brian Leicht 20:55

Yeah.

Dave Rattiner 20:56

Okay, so go. Check it out. Go check it out. Now we're gonna go to Montauk. Uh Gurney's Inn is having uh sparkling a sparkling point wine pairing affair at Gurney's Inn and Montauk. So they've partnered with uh Sparkling Point Winery to bring to life point perfection, and they're gonna have a highly curated wine pairing dinner on February 17th at 6 30 p.m. So you get rid of reservations to this special dinner at Gurney's Inn on the ocean. And you every every course is paired with wine, but a special wine. A special wine, a specific wine. Yes, a specific wine that matches the the dish. Of course. So you know that's fancy. That's nice. And then after you do that, you can have fun at the Steven Talk House, and the Mean Machine Band is performing there from 9 p.m. to eleven PM. In Amiganset. So they're like a awesome rock band.

Andrew Doud 22:04

Does the talk house close for the season at all? Or they're just always They're open February 6th. Obviously they're open this weekend, so there you go.

Dave Rattiner 22:10

Yeah.

Andrew Doud 22:10

All right. I mean you're talking about this being the kickoff.

Dave Rattiner 22:12

No, I no, I don't think they're not. No, they don't close. They don't close. They're always open. Great.

Andrew Doud 22:17

I still have never been.

Dave Rattiner 22:18

You've never been to the case.

Andrew Doud 22:19

I've never been to the talkhouse.

Steve Glick 22:20

Yeah.

Dave Rattiner 22:20

Maybe the weird.

Steve Glick 22:22

You go to go on uh Saturday night.

Andrew Doud 22:24

There you go. Yeah.

Steve Glick 22:25

You mean machine.

Andrew Doud 22:25

Well now I got something to do. Thank you, Dave. You're welcome. You got anything else?

Dave Rattiner 22:30

Not really. Okay. Good time. You want to highlight a restaurant? What's your favorite restaurant out here?

Patty Oakley 22:35

Um, what's my favorite restaurant? I love the Bell and Anchor.

Dave Rattiner 22:39

Really?

Patty Oakley 22:40

That is our favorite go-to. The food's always consistent and uh.

Steve Glick 22:45

Why do you act so surprised? It's a great spot.

Dave Rattiner 22:48

No, I'm not saying it's not a great spot. It's I don't feel like people say that that's their go-to.

Patty Oakley 22:53

In fact, it's great. Yeah, it is great. You're right.

Dave Rattiner 22:55

If you're looking for a new place to go, there's like a bar scene as well. It could be romantic.

Patty Oakley 23:01

Do your Valentine's post-Valentine's dinner at the Bell and Anchor this weekend. But make a reservation.

Dave Rattiner 23:06

That's a great, great suggestion. And I have to say, I'm glad I thought of it.

Brian Leicht 23:09

We had dinner at uh Cowfish last weekend. Hadn't been there in quite a while, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Dave Rattiner 23:16

You always got good food there. Well, a great strategy if you don't know where to go, right? Where's that? If um your significant other says, you know, where do you want to go tonight? You know, or whatever, and you don't really know where to go, you all you have to do is respond with this. You just say, You're not gonna believe where I'm gonna take you.

Brian Leicht 23:40

I saw that.

Dave Rattiner 23:41

It totally works. Because they're like, where? And then you're like, yes. And they say restaurant, and you're like, Yes, that's the restaurant we're going to. It 100% works.

Andrew Doud 23:53

Okay, all right. That's I like that. Let's end on that. That's good. Uh, Patty and Brian, thanks for joining us again.

Patty Oakley 23:59

Thanks for having us.

Andrew Doud 24:00

Um, thanks. Good luck this weekend. Obviously, you guys got a lot going on. Good luck with the new listing, and uh, everybody else, enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the sun's out today, so it's a good day. A little cold, but that's all right. Um, that's it, everybody. Have a great day. I'm Andrew Down. That's what's happening in the Hampton