Andrew Doud 0:08

All right, it's Thursday everyone. I'm Manager Dallas. 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 NewYortitle.com. We are joined today as always by Steve Glick. Dave Retiner is back from his cruise. And today, Mr. John Healy back on the podcast. How are you? Good. Good morning. Good morning. It is a good morning. It's beautiful weather, right? We're looking at the we got the TVs pulled up, the Hamptons.com live cameras. The beaches look amazing. Uh this is kind of like a nice time of year because you can get out there, enjoy the beach, take a walk, do some surfing. It's not crowded yet.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

It's not crowded yet.

Andrew Doud 0:48

Yet.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

But we're getting there.

Andrew Doud 0:51

Memorial Day is right around the corner. And that's to kick off the summer. So what do you what do you got planned this summer season? You got like big plans for Memorial Day? Are you are you ready? Are you busy?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I don't plan anything. All right, good. It's always better, I think, in my family. That's me. Are you going to this? Are you going to that? You're like, sure. And if we want to go, we go. The only thing I'd rather plan is to just be home or well, you got a beautiful house.

Andrew Doud 1:15

You know? It's like you got a great spot set up there, and um, yeah, not a bad place to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

No, it's good.

Andrew Doud 1:22

So uh so today we were talking about what we wanted to talk about, and you said the essential importance of branding.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Correct.

Andrew Doud 1:29

What does that mean? What's so important about branding, which is kind of like an obvious question, but I look at it this way.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

If you you're in retail, and we are in retail, right? We we're selling homes and property. No different than selling clothing, shoes, things like that. Everyone really wants to be Q-tip because everyone knows that as the brand, right? It's really a cotton swab, that's what it is. But Q tip from Johnson Johnson made it a household name. In my opinion, branding and anything retail, if you can get to the level of being a household name, you've you've you've come to the peak of branding.

Andrew Doud 2:10

Somebody's like, hand me a Kleenex instead of a tissue.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Hand me a Kleenex instead of a tissue, it's automatic that okay, you don't think twice about it right now, right? Kleenex is is what it is, right? But it's not. There's a bunch of other makers of facial tissue. So branding, in my opinion, in this business is really, really important. And I'm I'm about to uh to embark on a massive branding push in uh June and July of this uh season. And um we've been working on it a bit, and I think that uh I think everyone who's listening is is give it a couple of weeks, give it a month, and I think you're gonna remember that term branding that I'm bringing up today.

Andrew Doud 2:55

So, real quick, this is it's actually funny we're talking about this because last night I watched this show, I think it was on Netflix called Unfrosted. Jerry Seinfeld was the producer, maybe the director too.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

I thought it was so funny.

Andrew Doud 3:06

It's hilarious, right? They got a ton of stars in this in this movie, and it's basically the story of like how Pop Tarts came to be. Right.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Is it a true story though? No, not at all. Okay, unfrosted based on the true. Definitely not at all.

Andrew Doud 3:20

Loosely based on the true creation of Pop Tarts breakfast food. That's what the internet is like. But it's like it's like a little satirical in that, like, you know, the way they put it together, but it's basically posting catalogics and the and the fight between them. And at one point they're like, it's like it's the same product. It's like, but but ours is better. And it's like, you know, and they got these kids that are like, well, what's the name of the product? And it's like, oh, Pop Tarts. Like, we need that. Yeah, like that's good, you know? And the other one's like country square, and like nobody wants to be a square, it's the same toaster pastry, whatever. Right. But if your brand is the more recognizable, more desirable brand, right? People are gonna go with it, even if you're selling the same product.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Well, in this business, because we're independent contractors, the brand is your name. So your name is your name has to become the the household term in in in for for lack of a better word for real estate.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

So if people are at a party or people are whatever they're doing, and they're talking about real estate at all, you want it, you want your name to be we be dropped into those sentences because that's really what's gonna drive your business and but and become very successful at it. And as much as time does help, so brand uh name recognition, I've been doing it almost 30 years. So there's a lot of people, if you say your name John Healy, whatever they they they're whether they remember exactly what I do, at least it's not an unfamiliar name in this business. It's more familiar than not.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Now the next step is to make it a household name, to make it to make it synonymous with anything real estate.

Steve Glick 5:00

Well, it's smart to do that, but you know, there's over 2,500 agents out here, and everyone's competing for the same with the same against the same people, the same pool of business that exists. And it's we're in a small pocket of the Hamptons. So to make your name stand out, to make your brand stand out, you have to do something that people memorable, that they can remember you and they could see it, and they could just see your face, put the face to the name, and know that it's John Healy, that's what he looks like, and this is to do with real estate. So I know you have a big brand campaign launching this summer. We're not gonna talk about it right now. No, it's we're well, you're gonna see it, you're gonna know what we're talking about in a matter of weeks, but it's people are gonna see it, everyone's gonna see it when they're coming out here, and it's gonna be a remembrance.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Please drive carefully.

Steve Glick 5:46

It's gonna be a rememberable thing, and people are just gonna see John Healy, um, you know, who's been selling out here for over 27 years of selling real estate here in the Hamptons, but you have to do something nowadays to stand out, right? Because if you're not, what are you doing? And if you're not always consistently working on your brand and promoting yourself, what are you doing? And you're in real estate, your brand you are your own business. The individual of John Healy is his own business. If you know he needs to market himself and you know attract new clients to sell real estate. So it's it goes hand in hand if you're in real estate. You have to start promoting yourself and creating your own brand. And a lot of it is not just marketing and advertising, it's you know, networking and having a good reputation and doing good business. And that's part of the brand, too, is your knowledge as like your work ethic, you know, that you're honest and trustworthy. These are all things to, you know, build up your brand. And then you use marketing to help enhance that and get that messaging out there and make it a household name.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

And you and you have to you have to evolve too, the longer you're in any kind of business. You obviously have to evolve. It's not like Johnson ⁇ Johnson doesn't still do advertising of Q-tips. They have to. Even though we all know it, you would almost think like, hey, yeah, they never have to spend any money on marketing again. But they keep it going. But they keep going and and you you you sort of bob and weave in between changes in market, changes in um demograph, all sorts of things that you've got to work through. And and even for us here, where we have down market, upmarket, I mean, obviously this place is is the Hamptons is is that amazing of a place that it's still people are still willing to deal with crowds, traffic, waiting lines, everything to be able to be here and utilize what we have out here. Uh whether it's the atmosphere, whether it's restaurants, food, beaches, boating, fishing, whatever. But all of it, that whole vibe, it it's amazing how people are willing to really suffer almost through through traffic and waiting and eat and and long lines to say, yeah, but I'm in the Hamptons. I'm experiencing the Hamptons. So it's interesting how you would think that it's you know, people say, Oh, it's getting it's getting so much more busy, so much more crowded. Well, it's really difficult. Where are you gonna go otherwise? Right.

Andrew Doud 8:06

There's no place like it. Well, a couple weeks ago, my current. Yeah. Well, that's it. So we went to the Cayman Islands a couple weeks ago, right? And like I had all this anxiety getting ready for the plane, because I'm flying with two kids, right? It's like, is it gonna be an easy flight or is it gonna be a long flight? Like, how's this gonna go? And you gotta go to JFK, and then you gotta go through this, and then you gotta go through customs and you go through all those problems just to get to this beautiful place. But the second you step out on that beach and into the water, you're like, oh man, it was worth it. And it's kind of the same thing out here, you know what I mean? Especially you're just trying to get away for the weekend. Yeah, you sit through the traffic, you you wait in the lines, whatever, but then as soon as you get to your house, you know, wherever that is, or the beach, you're like, okay, I can relax now, at least for a little while.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

You know, in 19 in 1990, I had a share house at Ditch Plains in Montauk. There were eight of us in one house right on the beach. Nice. And it would take us you know two hours from the city to get to Montauk because the there were no stoplights through all the hamlets. Right. It was 45 mile hour minimum or 55 on a lot of the parts. So you really were able to just cruise all the way through because there was such less density. And what I'm baffled at is that now it probably takes four hours at least on a Friday to get to Montauk.

Steve Glick 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

But they still do it. So there's your answer of, and that's just Montauk. You know, there's your answer because Montauk's obviously very different to me than any other hamlet out here. It's its own little, you know, peaceful place that's very, you know, still has t-shirt shops and stuff. It's really cool, very throwback, in my opinion. But there are people that are willing to take that drive and just deal with it. You know, now maybe today with technology it's a little easier. You got internet in your car, things like that. You know, you can watch a movie if you're not the driver. You can watch a movie if you are the driver if you have a Tesla. So, I mean, it's it's it's just amazing that people are willing to take that much time of their life to be in a car. I guess if you live in LA, you're used to it. But out here in the in the northeast, we really haven't had to be a good thing. Well, if you're in the city and you want to get a QRI, fresh air, it's so beautiful. It's worth it. Yeah. And like you said with the Caymans, it's all that anxiety goes away. The second and you have two full days, and then you're like, yep, going back in on Sunday night or Monday morning or whatever you get to do, back to work, no problem. I can't, and you're planning next weekend. You're like, I can't wait for next Friday when we're gonna drive out again. And you know, the train used to be the way to go when they had the bar car on the train.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

And I think they've taken that away. So now, you know, you you you don't really have that option to just really relax and let someone else handle everything for you.

Andrew Doud 10:41

I will say one of the things that I enjoy about being a year-round resident out here is that and this the winters are hard, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Like January, February, but they haven't been hard because we haven't even had any cold weather.

Andrew Doud 10:51

Well, well, yeah. Um but like on Sunday evening, you know, everybody's like heading back and you can go down to the beach and kind of watch the sunset, and you're like, Ah, well, September and October we all know.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah, yeah. That should be the peak season. And and it can't be because of schooling and and so on and so forth. Yes, but otherwise, you know, if you if it could be weather wise, I mean, yeah, we're very fortunate when we're here year-round and you get to just say, see you next weekend, maybe, and you know that all week long that beach is going to be pretty much empty and it's still gonna be 75, 80 degrees, water temperatures perfect. But that being said, sounds great. The Hamptons has done a great job branding itself without having to really do much branding. Yeah. Although all of the real estate firms have branded the Hamptons for them. Right. Right? So, so we're we're we're entrenched. Saunders is entrenched in the Hamptons, you know, through everything that they do that they give back and benefits and so on. That's part of the branding that Saunders does, which is so phenomenal, unlike any other company, and I've been to a couple, and and they just don't do the same uh exposure.

Steve Glick 11:50

You got to be strategic of where you want to align your brand with, you know, what sponsorships, what's events, what makes sense for the brand to help promote the business, help get the agents out in front into the community. And you're always adapting and changing over time. You know, when I first started real estate, you know, social uh marketing in real estate, social media didn't exist. Digital marketing wasn't even a thing. Right. You know, brochures weren't really, they just had a little flyer. Yeah. And and I I've been in it for so long, but I know people tell stories even before me where they didn't even have a website. But I'm talking just I'm talking just in the past, you know, dozen or you know, 15 plus years, that how much has changed and how much uh we bring the digital world and social media into marketing and how now essential it really is. And it gives the agents a platform to really have a personality and a uniqueness behind them. It's not just you know, you look at a print ed, you see the name, you see the name, and that's it. Now you're gonna see on social media, you're gonna see that name come to life. You're gonna see that agent talk and walk and interact and have a personality, and they have a free-form platform to be able to do that using social media and the digital marketing tools that exist. So it's really been able the agents have really been able to evolve their business even more so by putting an action behind their name. And it's been great for branding. I know, and then you're embarking on a whole nother level of marketing endeavors, and it's it's gonna be great to see like where it's gonna go in the next 10 or 12 years, what what other avenues and tools are gonna be available? Uh, it's just an exciting thing to see, but it's really important that you're always adapting, learning new ways to market yourself and exploring new platforms. And and John, you hit it right on the head with your this summer, what you're gonna be doing and continuously marketing yourself because you're having established business for 27 years, but you're not letting your foot off the gas, you're continuously pushing the envelope and looking for new ways and um being creative, and that attributes to your success.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

John, do you think that like a personal brand is important for everybody, not just a real estate agent or a business? Like I was just kind of thinking about that just now. Like Andrew Dowd is a personal brand, you know, you're like a dad, and you know, you're into cars and you're and you're a personal brand, you know. Do you do you think that that matters for like uh for an individual?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Well, the brand is an extension of your personality, right? So everyone has a personality, so then there's a brand there, and and and how you choose to, you know, Andrew Dowd doesn't need to to brand himself per se because the work that he does and so on doesn't need that. He's not again, it's not retail, he's not selling something. And I think that when when when you were talking earlier about, I remember in the in the 90s, you know, we local newspaper was what you what you put a house ad in. Right. And when you came from the city, you picked up a local newspaper and you looked through it and said, okay, let's call this agent and look at these homes. That was the limit of it. And the flip phone had just come out, so the cell phone wasn't even really anything. They walked in, they called the the the office number. Um, but that being said, because it's a uh I call it retail all the time, we're we're salesmen. And and back then a little bit, we had to know the product, obviously, because they couldn't look it up on the internet, they couldn't do any research, the buyer. Um and then you became a driver.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

You basically drove them from house to house to house, and when they fell in love with the house, they bought it. That was really uh uh the process. Now you're dealing with someone that might even be much more educated than in the market than you are, hopefully not, but there's just so much information because of the technology that when you talk about the next 10 years and AI, I mean, it's gonna be interesting, I think that no matter what, your brand has to keep up with the time.

Steve Glick 15:45

You always gotta embrace you gotta embrace technology and use the tools that exist to enhance your business. So people are always afraid of AI is gonna take over this industry and that industry. I look at it like use AI as a tool. It is a tool. It's it's exciting that we have now these tools available to us. So use that tool to your advantage somehow. You gotta wrap your head around it, dissect it, understand it, know how to use it, and it will help you. Just like when social media came around, people were against it. But no, use this as a tool to put your brand out there. Like no one knows about Andrew Dowd being a dad or whatever if he didn't have social media. Now he's able to put his own personality out to the world in public so people get an understanding and inside of who this person is. So AI is um certainly gonna change real estate in all industries, but um it's also gonna help all of us, you know. And it's not, I don't think it's gonna replace, you know, it may replace some certain jobs, but there's always gonna be a place for a person-to-person contact, you know, when purchasing the largest um purchase of their life, you know, of a home in the Hampton. So you're gonna want to at some point talk to a person.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

But but but no matter what, it comes back to the human, even if you have AI, that's just gonna enhance your possibility of maybe reaching people. But really, whether whether you're selling a rare Aston Martin or you're selling a $150 million ocean front home, it still has to be a human, a person interacting with another person. Whether it's the buyer or the buyer's representative, you are going to have to have to use your personality to interact. And and all the electronics and sophistication isn't gonna change that. You're always gonna have that. So you have to have a brand for your personality.

Steve Glick 17:30

Don't be afraid of technology, you know, don't hide behind it either. Use it as a tool. And um, and what John you're doing, like I keep going back to what you're doing this summer, is you know, you're using what's available, like the new advertising venues that exist, you're capitalizing on it. You're gonna you're gonna, you know, try new things and always push the envelope. And that's what you have to do in branding. Try something that may not be obvious, but it will turn into a be a success. So I will, you know, it's gonna be a great summer. We're looking forward to the busy season, and I'm sure your business will start exploding off for all your branding that you're doing out there. On that note, let's go to the market. Data. So uh this week, 25 listings went into contract. Last year, 24. That's a small increase of Dave, 4% right there, you know. Um, in 2022, there were 31 listings that went into contract. That's a decrease of 19%. But the breakdown of the 25 transactions this week, there was three over 20, 3 between 5 and 10, 4 between 3 and 5, 5 between 2 and 3, 8 between 1 and 2 and 2 under a million. Dollar volume this past week was up. It was 101 million. Last year it was 85, increase of 19%. 2022 it was 100 million. That's a small increase of 1%. New listings coming out of the market continues to be the story. It's always increasing week over week. There are 43 new listings that came on the market. I think that's exciting. Yeah, so 18 um increase the inventory by 18. The breakdown of those 43 new listings, there was two over 20 million, eight between 10 and 20, 10 between five and 10, 5 between 3 and 5, 5 between 2 and 3, 6 between 1 and 2, 7 under a million. So that's good. 7 under a million dollars. Inventory stands at 1931 total listings, 1,466 active and 465 in contract. The more listings we see come on to the market, we'll then start to see more listings going into contract. That gives more options for someone to purchase a home. So if you're looking to sell your home and there's only, you know, three homes in your price point, you're you may just wait. But now with the inventory creeping up, if then now there's 10 homes in your price point to look at, you're gonna be more inclined to sell your property because you know that, hey, there is gonna be something that I'm going to like and purchase. So let's put our home on the market for sale. But when new listings aren't coming on, people aren't transacting. Yeah, you feel like, oh my gosh, what am I what am I gonna buy if I sell my home?

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Now the same with rentals.

Steve Glick 19:54

The inventory is coming on the market. People are saying, okay, now I'm gonna sell my home because look at all these great homes I could look at. So I'm excited as we this is you know, this rounds out, you know, a couple last days in April, the first week of May. So um good push into the summer.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

You know what I don't hear a lot about is interest rates anymore. I used to hear about interest rates like every day.

Steve Glick 20:16

You know, what's gonna happen when they're not going down, they're staying the way they are, people just need to move on.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Yeah. There it is. You don't think you don't think they're gonna come down?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Oh, they will come down because today's jobs report today's jobs report showed uh an increase in unemployed. So that starts to make you see that this economy that's weakened is is gonna start to have a hiccup because people are pulling back. And if companies are pulling back, they're not hiring, and so or they're possibly laying off, and therefore the unemployment rate going up. Uh it's it's kind of what they've been waiting for. Get the inflation to start to get in check and come down, and you to do that, you need to have the unemployment rate to go up, and then therefore, what's gonna happen is eventually the rates are definitely gonna come down. I don't think they're gonna be going up before they come down, but it it's just gonna take longer because people used up their credit card debt in the last six months.

Andrew Doud 21:12

That's just how it how it goes. Uh Dave Ben, what do you got going on this week? We didn't know what to do last week because you weren't here. You're out cruising.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

The podcast is fun to listen to.

Andrew Doud 21:24

Right? Yeah, I think so. We got a we got a good thing going here. Episode 162.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Something it connects you to the home to the to the homeland, you know. There you go. So um, but yeah, it's good to be back. Mother's Day is this weekend. Oh, right. So I figured I'd pick uh a couple of really great Mother's Day events. Nick and Tony's is offering a brunch price fix and dinner specials for Mother's Day. Nick and Tony's in East Hampton. Uh they have a three-course brunch menu that'll cost eighty dollars a person plus tax and gratuity. Um and brunch will be served. From 11 to 3 and reservations are definitely recommended. But Nick and Tony's You Can't Beat It, amazing Italian food, super high-end, super beautiful place in East Hampton. And then the Baker House is doing a Mother's Day afternoon tea. They are bringing back an English tradition. So the general admission is 85 bucks. Royal tea with caviar is 135 bucks. And any tea for those 12 and under is 56 bucks. It's not like you go in for 85 bucks and all you get is tea. Gotta love the Hamptons. No, no, no, no. First of all, it's very fancy tea. All right. But you also get a glass of champagne, savory bites, sweet treats, uh confections, and you know, pastries, and you know the baker house is awesome. So I recommend that. And then, you know, in terms of like restaurants that I wanted to highlight this week, uh, we went to Pellegrino's, which is right around the corner from where I live in Southampton. It's amazing Italian food there. It's right up the road from I think where you live, too.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Pellegrino's great place.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

So want to highlight that one. Go there for dinner this weekend, and uh that's it. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Andrew Doud 23:13

That's it. What uh what else you got going on before we uh before we wrap this up? Any any properties you want to highlight or Dave like restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Well, the one I like to highlight now is all there is is restaurants. That's all that's finally done. Is uh restaurants and gyms 27 Winding Way is finally finished. 27 Winding Way. So we are doing we are going to do the photography next week because the cabinets was cabinets were put in and uh new construction, beautiful, beautiful house, great layout. Um, so it is done in time for someone to move in. You know, you probably won't have your furniture and stuff, but all of it, but move in. You could be in there for more version. Oh, yeah, but I don't know about Memorial Day, but you're you're I think they're getting their CO this month. So gotcha. Uh I think really it's uh you know, sometime in June you'll move in. And you know, listen, the weather really doesn't peak up until the end of June anyway. So plenty of time to to get your stuff in there.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Is that an infinity edge pooler? It's a double-sided infinity edge edge. Awesome. This backyard's killer.

Andrew Doud 24:11

And it overlooks is that uh reserve behind.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Yeah, that's um that's uh I can't remember the name of the farm, but um That's killer. It is plus faces west, yeah. It just gets great light. It's and the layout is really, really neat.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

They've done a beautiful job there. I love the backyard. Yeah, this is a good one. 27 Winding Way, water mill.

Andrew Doud 24:29

All right, in time, hopefully, for uh moving.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Well, yeah, you'd definitely be in by July uh by July 1st for sure. So sometime in June. Yeah, great. Um, school's not out till then, anyway. So what are you doing?

Andrew Doud 24:40

So whatever. Um all right, good to go. John, thanks for joining us. We'll have you on the game. Enjoyed it. Um that'll be we'll call that a podcast today. Everybody have a great day. I'm Andrew Down, and that's what's happening in Hamptons.