Andrew Doud 0:08

All right everyone, it's Thursday. I'm Manager Dow. 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 today, as always, Steve Glick Dave Retiner, Ms. Jen Wilson, a return guest and a first-time guest joining us, Teresa Roden with iTry. Welcome.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Good morning.

Andrew Doud 0:35

Let's start with Teresa and then we'll get into some real estate stuff. You are the founder of iTry. So let's just start a little bit with what is iTry and what do you guys do?

SPEAKER_04 0:46

Great. Thank you so much. So such a pleasure to be here with you guys today. So iTry is basically an empowerment program for middle school girls. We are based on the East End. We work in partnership with the local public schools, 13 schools now from Montauk to Mastic.

Andrew Doud 1:03

Okay. And how many, how many? This is a uh a girls-only triathlon centered thing. Exactly. Right. Okay.

Dave Rattiner 1:11

Yeah. So the try doesn't mean like you're trying.

Andrew Doud 1:14

No, try meaning like pre sports. Yeah. You are trying at monetary sports. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

That's right. That's right. We always say this is not this isn't for life. You're just going to give it a try and see what happens. So yeah, we um it's goal-based. So it starts in um January. We do our recruitment through the public schools, and then it goes past the school year, and the race takes place at Long Beach in Sag Harbor um in July.

Andrew Doud 1:42

So this is a one one race a season, we'll call it, but but these girls are are training for this all year.

Steve Glick 1:50

Right. And how do they sign up? Do they you say you recruit them? Do they could just sign up or how does that work?

SPEAKER_04 1:55

So we um we work in partnership with the schools. What we really wanted wanna make sure is that the program's there for girls who can benefit most. It is in many of our districts open to all girls in sixth and seventh and eighth grade. We recruit mostly in sixth grade. Um, we rely on the staff at the school. At each school, we we have kind of a team that that helps to um encourage girls who could really benefit from it, girls who are struggling with social issues and things like that. So, yeah.

Dave Rattiner 2:29

What girl doesn't struggle with social media? What boy doesn't struggle with social issues in the sixth school?

SPEAKER_04 2:33

Well, that's that's why we do middle school, right? It's like everybody's the hardest hardest time of life. So yeah, that's why it works.

Andrew Doud 2:39

Is it one of those things where like the teacher or a counselor or somebody will see that a young girl is like having some issues with maybe she's struggling in school, maybe she's struggling with some anxieties, some social things, and they're like, hey, I think you might benefit from this.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

Yeah. And they kind of get in contact with you and well, we we go into each school and our staff uh will do a presentation. So we we learned early on that um the kids have to want to do it. So we do we do a presentation, we'll have alumni of the program talk about it, and at the end of that meeting, they opt in.

Andrew Doud 3:13

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_04 3:14

Um beyond that, even the ones who kind of don't know or say no, we then do outreach, and that's where the school personnel come in. So if there's a kid that they know would so benefit from this, they'll reach out to that family, they'll um talk to that girl.

Dave Rattiner 3:31

So what's like the basis of the benefit though? Is it because physical exertion is like one of the most important things for mental health? But what I'm noticing with your program is also you have this like achievable goal that is for the whole year. So do you focus more on like making sure the girls are like getting physical and running and doing the thing, or do are you focusing more on like or are you more excited about having that ultimate goal that keeps it gives you a purpose to and you know something? Challenge the year, you know.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

Both it's and it's not the full year, it's about six months. So it doesn't start really till February and runs through July. But in addition to the physical component, there is a major social emotional component. So in addition to the training they do specific to triathlon on Saturdays, we go into each one of the school groups after school one day a week. And that's where we do our empowerment curriculum. And so that's all that mental health and social emotional, they they learn about the power of their words and the power of their thoughts and the power of visualization. Where when I started this 10 now almost 16 years ago, that was kind of airy fairy stuff, you know, like visualized, but now there's so much science to back it up that that you know, they're learning this at 11, 12, 13 years old. They can, yes, it's gonna help them reach the finish line of a triathlon, but it really comes into play when they're applying for jobs and when they are, you know, getting life lessons, so they're gonna carry them forever.

Steve Glick 5:06

And it's a great age to give it uh to teach them and help them. Yeah. Now, what training is involved? So if they sign up in February, you're saying one day a week, they you come into their their school and you have a a session. Is there also like a physical component to that during the week as well?

SPEAKER_04 5:20

Absolutely. So they're there two hours after school. The first hour is the empowerment piece, great, the second is a fitness piece, okay, not related to triathlon. So, so um, you know, they'll they'll have an opportunity to do things like kickboxing or basketball or um, you know, all different modalities, yoga and this is a great program.

Steve Glick 5:42

So obviously you rely on on fundraising, right? I'm sure. I know Saunders and Associates have been a donor for you guys for many years. Uh, we totally support the iTry and we're a proud sponsor of it. How long have you guys, how long have you been running this program? It seems like it's been a while.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

Yeah, so it started in 2010. We're coming up on our Sweet 16 season right now. And really, really quickly, I'll just thank Saunders because the the donation that um Jen Wilson and and Colleen brought about for us um enabled us to provide really nice helmets for all of our kids. And there are these bright pink helmets with Saunder stickers on it that we still use today. And you know, it's it's important.

Andrew Doud 6:22

Sure. For those who don't know, a triathlon is three sports, right? Right? Swimming, biking, and running.

Dave Rattiner 6:27

Uh do these young ladies have to be This is a real it's the full tri it's the full distance?

SPEAKER_04 6:32

It's not an Iron Man, it's a it's a super sprint. So they swim 300 yards in open water, they ride six miles.

Dave Rattiner 6:40

That is brutal. Absolutely. That sounds all a joke. Yeah, it's not sprinting 300 yards, it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

And and the reality is there is a huge number of kids who come to us who do not know how to ride a bike or swim. That's it. Most of them hate to run. So they're not doing this because they're Uber athletes. It's the opposite. And most of them don't believe that that's an achievable goal. And we have to say, you don't have to believe it yet because we believe in you.

Steve Glick 7:06

I can't imagine that feeling. I can't imagine that feeling when they actually complete the race at the end that they finally done it. I mean, that's just like powerful moment. I've seen it.

Dave Rattiner 7:16

They do it at Long Beach and they they're all smiling. And I remember I drove by it once and I was like, what is I didn't know what was going on, you know. It's so important. It was like powerful.

Andrew Doud 7:25

I was like, Imagine that going into high school and you just did something you thought you could never do.

Dave Rattiner 7:29

Right.

Andrew Doud 7:30

I mean, your your confidence must be sky high. It's like that's that's just so that's great.

Dave Rattiner 7:34

Let me ask something now. Like, do you think now like I made the joke, like what sixth grader doesn't have this, you know, anxiety? But do you think now it's worse than ever because of social media?

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Absolutely. Yeah, social media and and the effects of COVID on this generation huge. What what what we're facing now is is a mental health epidemic in adolescents, especially adolescent girls. And so we've had to train our staff to be ready for this. So we've we've all everybody in our organization is now trained in something called um trauma-informed care and coaching with a resiliency base, and it's really changed how we how we do what we do.

Dave Rattiner 8:15

And the kid and the and what have you seen like girls go from just like can't even talk to just like really open and feeling you know, when they it's crazy you ask all of the high school principals, they you you look at the um National Honor Society, the clubs, the class presidents, so many of them are iTri alums because they just have go, as you said, go into high school with such confidence.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

They did something in that they never thought they could do. Most important what they did was they faced fear. Yeah, that's anybody who's done a triathlon, right? You get in that water, you are terrified. I don't care. You get on a bike and trucks are whizzing by you, you're terrified. They had to face fear and do it anyway. Raising your hand in math class is no big deal now. Going out for the soccer team, no big deal now.

Andrew Doud 9:07

Yeah, and swimming in open water, like Long Beach is it's nice water, but like it's totally different than swimming in a pool. So it's like there's there's a a certain level of um anxiety that just comes with like putting your head down in the water and then swimming 300 meters and then Well, and surrounded by a hundred elements of the floor. Plus, there's like I think that there's uh there's an element of uh like we'll call it shared suffering, right? Now they've like they've gone through this with this group of girls that I'm sure that they develop friendships with sports, yes.

Steve Glick 9:37

Yeah, they have that bond.

Andrew Doud 9:38

And so they've all kind of like done that, and it's like, okay, so now you have new friends, new confidence, and it's like, and then you're going into high school.

Dave Rattiner 9:43

It's like well, it's weird, like you know, we're all girl dads. Like I have two girls, you have two girls, Steve has one girl and a son, and it's like you know, I never thought of sports as like this critical thing, but it really is critical, it's like such an important thing, and I you know, it's so important that people learn that early on. Because a lot of when I was a kid, sports was like really optional, and it was like, oh, if you're not interested in it, it's fine. And I did sports, but I had I was completely unaware at the time of how valuable it was. I just thought it was just like, oh, I like sports, so let's just do that.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

And not every kid is going to be a team sport kid. That that I knew that my daughter never would, right? She she tried everything that wasn't gonna happen. And yet this gives them the opportunity to feel that they are on a team, that they, you know, to understand. And it gives them lifelong skills, right? You can, you know, you may not play soccer in your 30s, but you can always jump on your bike, you can always go for a run. We live in the most beautiful place you can walk down to the edge of any bay and get in and swim.

Dave Rattiner 10:50

It's like exercise is as important to a kid as fruits and vegetables, you know.

Steve Glick 10:54

It's just how many kids how many kids do you have participating this year into it?

SPEAKER_04 10:59

We haven't started yet. So we'll last year or whatever. Last year we we had a record number. We had um 240 register, so it was a lot more than we had anticipated. We're gonna try to stay it for safety reasons, just what we can manage, uh cap it at 200 this this season.

Steve Glick 11:17

Now you you mentioned you rely on fundraising. Do you have an event coming up, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:22

Yeah. So on Thursday, October 24th, we are doing what we call our I try giving day. It's gonna be a celebration of our 16 years, a sweet 16, a look back. And all day we'll be live streaming through our Facebook page, but at LTV Studios. They've generously hosted us, and it's like a uh TV set, and we have guests come in throughout the day.

Dave Rattiner 11:44

It's so legit there. It's so funny. I know, right? I love it. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

So tune in if you if you're not already um a fan of ours on Facebook and Instagram, uh, just search iTry or i try girls and and like us and follow us at the end.

Steve Glick 11:58

So someone could donate today, right? They don't have to wait for the uh the uh telephone. But what's the website? It's so it's iTryGirls.org. Correct.

Dave Rattiner 12:07

Okay, iTryGirls button right here. I'm looking at it right now in the upper right hand corner.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

There's an orange button that's what is your goal, your fundraising goal this year.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

So we are uh attempting to raise $350,000 uh towards towards this.

Dave Rattiner 12:20

It's like a real organization here you got here.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Well, it's 16 years, it spans multiple school districts all over the East End.

Dave Rattiner 12:27

No, I know, it's great, it's good, it's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 12:30

And we provide everything that these kids need at no cost to their families, and it's a huge investment.

Andrew Doud 12:36

Fantastic. Well, I think this is great. Yeah. Um I the uh the last thing I want to ask you is how did you get this started? Like what inspired you to get this going?

SPEAKER_04 12:47

That's a probably a longer story than we have time, but the abridged version is I was never an athlete ever. I never knew those benefits. And in my 30s, I was over in Block Island and I saw some lunatics running down the beach with numbers written on their army sharpie and jumping over sandcastles. And I turned to a friend, I said, What is this? And they said, Oh, it's the Brock Block Island triathlon. And I started learning about it, and I just knew I'm gonna come back next year and do this, which was crazy. I had never even done a 5K, nothing. So I trained with some friends out here, and then next August I went over and and did that race, and it was incredible. But what I learned was it wasn't the finish line, it was the journey to get there that transformed everything in my life. I went from somebody who always said, nope, I can't do that, to I'll try, you know, let me try. And my my internal dialogue completely had to change, or else I knew I couldn't do it. So all of those things we now teach the girls, affirmation, I can do it, you can do it, just keep swimming. I am I am worthy, all of those things. The visualization, seeing myself do every little bit, feeling the water on my skin and my imagination, seeing myself cross the finish line, all of that, the camaraderie of working with other women to do it and being, you know, being coached, all of that. So then years later, I got really hooked, did every race you could ever imagine, got all these people in the Hamptons to do triathlon. I was the Pied Piper. And then as my daughter was going into middle school, that's when I was like, huh, if I had learned all of this at her age instead of waiting until I was in my 30s. And so that was the thought, what if, what if we took a group of girls just on that cusp going into the hardest time of life and gave them all the tools, all the training, all the support, all the love necessary to do something really big like a triathlon, what would happen? And so spring school spring school let us do it. We had 10 girls the first year, and we've grown so much that we've now had over 1,400 girls on the east end of Long Island do this program.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

It's so important. It's something for me over all of these years, it's my favorite charity to give to because of how much impact you have across so many young girls' lives. And so it's a local charity, and it's one of my favorite for years.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

Thank you so much for all your support all this time.

Andrew Doud 15:14

That's uh that's excellent, and good luck with uh with everything you got coming up this year. I do want to, it's a little bit of a hard transition, but do want to cover some real estate, which uh which is Jen's expertise. And um, you know, just to kind of bring these two worlds together, is that you talk about you, Jen, you've been a local your whole life, right? East Hampton. And so I know how important being a member of the community, supporting local charities is to what you are as a person and and as a real estate agent. Um so talk to us a little bit about uh I guess what's going on in real estate in East Hampton. Is that still the hot spot? Um, you know, you've had a couple great listings coming on. Watermill crossing is close. Close, you know what I mean? Which is just that was an amazing, uh uh amazing thing that you guys um really sold pretty much well all those units very quickly. Um so what's going on in your world?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

So I was actually at Watermill Crossing yesterday, and it is beautiful, and we basically like there it's a new village, so I feel like we have like helped to create this new little village in the heart of Watermill. It's so beautiful, the tree-lined streets, it's just it's such a beautiful um development. So we'll start closing.

Andrew Doud 16:25

It has a pool for your triathlon training.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

Yes, it has a pool. And a gym.

Andrew Doud 16:30

And a gym.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Yep. So they filled the pool with water. Uh, I was there yesterday and just took a little video of that because that's a it makes it more real.

Steve Glick 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

And um I think that you know, we're gonna start closing on those um pretty soon.

Steve Glick 16:44

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

And then back to East Hampton, I have a beautiful listing um by the bay um uh at 100 Flaggy Hole Road.

Andrew Doud 16:54

I love this house.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

It is truly like probably one of my favorite listings that I've ever had. It's beautiful. It it's like a I can't say a little cottage because it it's bigger than it looks, and it has beautiful um gardens that uh martyrs, you know, the martyrs plant and then designed. Yeah, beautiful. And um you walk two seconds down to one of the most beautiful bay beaches on Flaggy Hole Road.

Andrew Doud 17:22

It's a really great spot. It's an easy spot to go out to, enjoy, you know, if it's your summer retreat.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

You can um walk down, watch a sunset, you know, paddle boarding, open water swim, everything. It's it's truly one of my favorite listings. Walk your dog, walk your dog like I do. Yes.

Andrew Doud 17:38

Um that's great. So, Steve, let's get a rundown of the numbers for this week.

Steve Glick 17:41

All right, so this week there were 31 listings. I went into contract from West Hampton to Montauk. Last year there were 17. So we're looking at an increase year over year of 82%, which is great to see. The year prior, there were 30 listings, so it's a small increase of 3%. The breakdown of the 31 transactions this week, there was five between five and 10 million, six between three and five million, six between two and three million, ten between one and two million, and four under a million. The dollar volume this past week was ninety-one million. Last year it was fifty-five million. That's an increase of sixty-five percent. And two years ago it was ninety million, so it's a small increase of one percent. New listings coming onto the market. There were 37 new listings, so it increases the inventory by six listings, so increasing um in all categories from in-contracts, the dollar volume, and new listings. The new listings, the breakdown of the 37 new listings, there was two between 10 and 15 million, eight between five and ten, seven between three and five, five between two and three, thirteen between one and two and two hundred million. Inventory stands at 2100 total listings with 1,595 active and 505 in contract. So uh a great week here in the Hamptons. This was the first week of October. So um, we're coming into the first week of the fourth quarter, and it's already looking great.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Definitely more inventory. I I um this week alone went on four listing pitches in East Hampton.

Steve Glick 19:06

There you go. So fingers crossed for me. But yeah, we're we're starting to see it. We're seeing a lot of new listings come on the market and a lot more movement. When there's more listings coming on, that means there's more opportunities for buyers, and you'll see more listings going into contracts. So it's it's certainly a healthy, balanced market when you see it.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

It'll bring more buyers out because the inventory's been so low that it's just like they've seen everything.

Steve Glick 19:29

There's more opportunity. So now instead of looking at seven houses, take a look at 14 houses. Right. It's it's a lot easier. So it's great to see that.

Andrew Doud 19:35

And when you're out here looking at houses, what else are you doing, Dave?

Dave Rattiner 19:39

Oh, that was pretty good. Right? Yeah, that was pretty good. Um, well, I got well, obviously, uh, you know, we'll reiterate the uh Thursday, October 24th for the iTry Sweet 16 season, and you can make a donation on their website, iTryGirls.org. But for this weekend, um in uh West Hampton Beach, there is the fall festival on Main Street that's on October 13th, which is a Sunday, and they'll have family activities, a petting zoo, clowns, food trucks, local restaurants, specialty food and craft vendor vendors, and more than that. I'm not into clowns. Clowns.

Andrew Doud 20:22

Not a clown guy, huh?

Dave Rattiner 20:23

I'm not a clown guy.

Andrew Doud 20:24

I got a buddy from high school that hates clowns. Like hates so we send them pictures of clowns.

Dave Rattiner 20:31

Man, I don't know. So there's a movie from like the 80s or 90s where it's like it's like clowns.

Andrew Doud 20:35

Wait, the Mars thing? No, no, no.

Dave Rattiner 20:37

It's called it's literally called Killer Clowns from Outer Space, and it's horrifying. I saw it when I was like when I was like eight years old, and I was at my friend's house who has a son who's like three and a half, and they're watching it together. And I was like, I couldn't even watch it. I was like, oh man, I'm not watching this clown movie. He thought it was great. I was like, oh god. Not a clown guy, not a clown guy, definitely not.

Andrew Doud 20:58

I'm gonna I remember that.

Dave Rattiner 21:01

All right, and then in Sag Harbor, you have Sag uh this is cool. So Kid Squid is presenting Sag Toberfest. So Kid Squid, the local brewing company. I like Kid Squid, it's like a family. They got a great little spot there. Yeah, it's like a it's kind of like family-oriented. Um anyway, they're gonna have Bratwurst and hot stout pretzels and oysters and pumpkin stew. So that sounds good, and live music. So it's pumpkin stew.

Andrew Doud 21:28

Okay.

Dave Rattiner 21:29

All right. So that's um they're doing it two days, October 12th and October 13th, starting at noon all the way till nine. So I don't know. It's it's kind of just like kids squid is open and they're gonna have to do that. Yeah, sure. Yeah, but whatever. We like kids' squid, so that's fine. And then um this is kind of weird. But I I didn't even know that uh John Steinbeck and Elaine Steinbeck had lived inside harbor. I can't believe I didn't know that. I anyway, you can tour John and Elaine Steinbeck's Home in Sag Harbor this weekend if you want. Transportation is going to be provided by Barron's Cove at 31 Westwater Street in Sag Harbor. And that is uh running all weekend as well, but you must make a reservation.

Andrew Doud 22:16

Okay.

Dave Rattiner 22:16

So you must do that. So you can get you can register for that on Hamptons.com. Just search for it on the events calendar on Hantons.com. It's right there.

Andrew Doud 22:24

Very good.

Dave Rattiner 22:25

That's all I got.

Andrew Doud 22:26

You're the man. Anything else before we let you guys go?

SPEAKER_03 22:29

I have an open house at 100 Flaggy Hole Road Saturday, 2 to 4 30, and then you can walk down to the bay after and enjoy the nice sunny day that it's going to be.

Andrew Doud 22:39

There's an excellent video on Saunders.com if I do say myself.

Steve Glick 22:43

It's a it's a busy open house.

Andrew Doud 22:44

But you need to see this house.

Steve Glick 22:45

It's a busy open house weekend. I know if you go to Saunders.com, we're featuring uh close to 100 open houses this weekend alone. It's a lot going on from uh the film festival uh that's happening in all the local towns. You know, it's a holiday weekend. Um and they are uh there are a lot of open houses. So check it out, saunders.com. You'll see the complete list of open houses, and Fulaggy Hall is on there.

Andrew Doud 23:07

It's a good one. It's a house you really got to see to appreciate that area. So it's you're you're buying more than just the the house. You're buying the whole thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

It's just the beach. It's beautiful.

Andrew Doud 23:16

Um okay. Teresa, thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything else? Uh a website or a donation thing that you want to just plug real quick before we let you go?

SPEAKER_04 23:25

Yeah, just just visit us on our website, iTryGirls, i T R I Girls.org.

Andrew Doud 23:30

And Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 23:32

Yep. Um i try, I believe it is on Instagram.

Andrew Doud 23:36

Okay. Perfect. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us, Jen. Thank you. Steve, we'll call that a podcast. I'm Andrew Dow. That's what's happening in the Hamptons.