Andrew Doud 0:07

It's Thursday, everyone. I'm Andrew Doud. Time for our Happening in the Hamptons podcast, our weekly breakdown of the Hamptons market, new listings, and events on the East End. We are sponsored by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit NewYorkTitle.com. We have Mr. Steve Glick, Dave Rattiner, and today the Miller Fox team, Lisa Fox and Tahlia Miller. How are you guys?

Tahlia Miller 0:27

Good morning. Wow, how are you?

Andrew Doud 0:29

Uh good. It's been a been a minute since you guys have been on, but welcome back. And what are we talking about today? Pricing strategies, huh? Among other things.

Tahlia Miller 0:36

I think that's the best way to sell your house is to price it correctly.

Andrew Doud 0:39

It sounds like a very basic thing, but it's not. Because I'm sure you go into these meetings and you're like, I can sell your house, and they go, okay, I want to list it at X, and you're like, it's worth like a half million dollars under that. Yeah, that's the way you have that conversation.

Lisa Fox 0:56

Well, the best way to have the conversation is to basically give them the data and the facts.

Andrew Doud 1:01

Right.

Lisa Fox 1:01

Because it's there.

Andrew Doud 1:02

Yep.

Lisa Fox 1:03

Uh, and then it's really up to us to try and convince them if they're hesitant to agree, um, to try and talk them into it. Or sometimes you just have to go with what they want and then the market tells us.

Tahlia Miller 1:17

I think there needs to be an honest accounting of the things that your house has. Everybody has pros and cons. You either have a great backyard and your bathrooms need to be updated, or you have a great location, but the house needs a ton of work. So a comp doesn't necessarily mean because the four-bedroom house down the street sold for X means that your four-bedroom house on the same street will also sell for X.

Andrew Doud 1:39

Right, because each house is different.

Tahlia Miller 1:40

Exactly. So that's part of the data. Bringing having that honest conversation and saying these are the things that your house offers, and there's always positives, so we should always be talking about the positives, but acknowledge what is going to come on the con side of that list.

Andrew Doud 1:55

It's just like comps are comps are kind of a funny thing because it's like in in the Hamptons, we're not dealing with subdivisions that you might see in other parts of the country where the house, the three-bedroom house next door is exactly the same.

Tahlia Miller 2:08

There's no tracks here. There's no track housing, no basic building. Everybody's individual.

Andrew Doud 2:12

So you have like square footage, rooms, bathrooms, pools, whatever the case may be, but really it's a little bit, you know, apples to oranges with each house.

Tahlia Miller 2:20

Every house is is its own, is its own entity.

Steve Glick 2:25

You guys must be doing it really great because I'm looking at your properties, all of them are in contract. So you know, so that shows a good problem to have. Yeah, so that shows that you guys obviously you priced them right for the market, they sold, and you have happy clients, you know.

Tahlia Miller 2:38

Yeah, two of the two of the last three that we just put in contract were in contract, both with multiples in less than a week with an offer and acceptance. Yeah. And then our the other house that we have in contract right now, as soon as we had were able to break through and have that real honest conversation with our sellers, we then went into offer and acceptance maybe less than two weeks after that.

Dave Rattiner 3:04

Pricing is so important, but I just feel like when you when you bring that up to a client, they their first instinct is that it's oh well, this is self-serving. Like obviously, if I keep the price low, it's gonna be easier for you to sell.

Tahlia Miller 3:18

And then I'm not saying that you have to be keep the price low. I'm saying that you need to price correctly, right? Yeah, no, I know. So just because every there's a different emotional component for the seller. So there's always gonna be that that push and pull, like, I think my house is worth more potentially. But we might think your house is worth more than you think it's worth because of what's going on in the market. And we've gotta bring it to you with all the information.

Dave Rattiner 3:44

But pricing it correctly ultimately brings you the highest price that you're gonna get for your house. Which is counterintuitive if you're yeah. So how do you how do you convince how do you how do you how do you get over that hump with the client that's like, oh well, well, I what if we price it high and then people will make lower offers? Like there's so many examples where things are priced too high and then they sit. Well, they sit and that's that's really devalues the property over the time.

Lisa Fox 4:10

That's right, but that's one of the talking points. If you price too high and you get no action, it's counterproductive. Yeah. You know? So it's that's definitely.

Tahlia Miller 4:20

And presenting both strategies. Yeah, there are two. We work at the behest of our clients. So if you want to price at a certain area in a certain price range and we let you know we are not sure we're gonna quite get there, but if you want to start there and then we work our best, we will do our best, then great. We will absolutely do that and work as hard as we can. But if we're taking into account what the house has, all the amenities that the house has, and we're saying the price really should be here, and then we do what we do and get an offer much faster, what's the value of the time worth? Or what's the time worth to you? Is that extra two months while it sits? Is that worth anything to you? If it's not, then let's do that.

Lisa Fox 5:07

Right.

Tahlia Miller 5:08

But if time is is of the essence and time is money, let's do it, maybe do it.

Dave Rattiner 5:13

There's also a danger where you could overprice it and it sits there for way longer than two months.

Lisa Fox 5:18

That's what that's ha and that's happen, you know. That's happened mostly because sellers were not wanting to take our advice.

Dave Rattiner 5:29

Yeah.

Lisa Fox 5:29

Right.

Dave Rattiner 5:30

It's a weird thing when something's overpriced, and then like to what Dad said, it becomes stale. It's like weird because like you see it, and when it first launched, you're like, oh, it's a beautiful fast just overpriced. But then after a year, you're like it's it's a weird feeling. Like you're like, well, yeah, I think it's a percent like up. Right.

Lisa Fox 5:46

Well, the perception is like a buyer's like, well, why's this been on for 285 days?

Tahlia Miller 5:51

There's got to be something wrong. And no. Also, we're only talking about one side of the coin here. We're only talking about sellers and where things are priced, but buyers are very savvy. And buyers are super savvy before they interview and hire a good agent. And so when you combine the two things, you're not agents aren't gonna let you overpay for a house when they can show you ten other houses at this point that are this that are equipped the same way as that house in the similar location and price price correctly.

Andrew Doud 6:24

Yeah, price correctly.

Steve Glick 6:25

I like it. But and and it just feels like the whole thing, it's an it's an art. It's an art, yeah. We had a couple ATM.

Lisa Fox 6:30

It's an art, and and there's nuances within the market, because as you as you well know, the market changes on a dime, you know, you know, and pricing changes. You know, we have inventory. We have more inventory now than we've had in a very long time, you know. And we're seeing we've seen adjustments across the board of things that have been sitting that might have sold much quicker a few years ago.

Andrew Doud 6:52

And to your point, you're not you're dealing with educated buyers. Absolutely. I mean it's so. It's like I think some people, if you're a seller, it feels like they'll say, Well, let's price it a little high and we'll take some offers as they come in. But educated buyers don't seem to want to even put in a lower offer. They don't want to, they don't want to lowball you, they want a fair price. And even if even if let's just say a house is listed should be for one five, and they're like, let's list it for one eight and see what we get. It's it feels like, and you can talk to this, like, do you even get the offers if it's that high? No, no, not like that. That's you know what I mean. They're like, well, let's see if we can, it should go for one five. If we price it at one eight, maybe we come in one six. But instead of somebody coming in at one six, they're gonna come in at one three, right? Because we're lower.

Lisa Fox 7:38

Well, right, and then but they're not like to your point, because it's in you know, they're not gonna offer one three on a one house. On a one eight house, it's not gonna happen.

Andrew Doud 7:47

Yeah. Um, so that's you know, it's it's all it's all part of it. But to that point, uh, that's you know, you guys have all your listings that are in in contract, which is amazing. You have uh, I think you mentioned one is is like over over-asking. Quite significantly over-asking. Proceeding forward, at least at this point, um, which is amazing and and a testament to what the proper price will do. Um, but Steve, big picture, what are we looking at? Because you mentioned the inventory, which has been kind of the ongoing story for the last several weeks. So what are where are we at?

Steve Glick 8:19

Yeah, I mean, we're seeing inventory increase every every week. We're seeing plus 30 listings, you know, coming onto the market. But this past week with in contracts, there are only 15 listings that went into contract, which is the low of the year. Last week was 18. So we're seeing two weeks in a row below 20. So we're hitting a little slow point here as we're in, you know, coming to the end of July. Hopefully that will pick up, and it should pick up as we round out the end of the summer season. Last year, this time there were 24 listings that went into contract, so that's a decrease of 38%. Two years ago, there were 30 listings that went into contract, so it's a decrease of 50%. The breakdown of the 15 transactions this week, one between 15 and 20 million, one between five and ten million, two between three and five million, one between two and three million, eight between one and ten million, and two hundred million. Dollar volume was forty-eight million, last year was eighty-four million, so that's a decrease of forty-three percent. Dollar volume in two years ago was eighty-nine million dollars, decrease of forty-six percent. Thirty-two new listings came onto the market, so that increases the inventory by seventeen listings. We're seeing that consistently, plus thirty listings coming on every week, which is good to see. Uh the breakdown is two over twenty million, five between ten and fifteen million, six between three and five million, five between two and three million, twelve between one and two million, and two hundred million inventory, nineteen hundred and seventy-one total listings, with fifteen hundred and sixty-four active and four hundred and seventy contract. And just a quick math, just looking at some of the properties. I looked at the number of listings that had price reductions in the past 30 days, and there's about 12% of our inventory was reduced in the past month. So we're starting to see that. Um people are just trying to adjust their pricing as they come to the end of the summer.

Andrew Doud 10:05

Speaking of the end of the summer, what do you guys see as far as activity now that we're, you know, basically in August?

Tahlia Miller 10:10

Well, if you count the traffic, it's insane. Yeah, there's a lot of cars on the road, so I feel like the villages are always bustling. There's always people around, you know, beaches are busy.

Dave Rattiner 10:24

Do you think it's more than ever? I I think it's more than ever.

Tahlia Miller 10:26

It's interesting. I don't know if it's because I'm more aware of it now.

Dave Rattiner 10:30

Or if I'm getting older and it annoys me more.

Lisa Fox 10:32

I think the villages are busier than I've ever seen them.

Dave Rattiner 10:35

Yeah, I think it's more than ever.

Lisa Fox 10:37

Sag harbor where I live is like it, it's impossible. Yeah, or just walk in.

Dave Rattiner 10:42

Yeah, just driving through Sag Harbor can take you 25 minutes, you know, just from to get one end to the other.

Lisa Fox 10:47

Yeah, and it's not a big place. Right.

Andrew Doud 10:50

Um, to that point, um, what are you guys doing this summer? Because now we're in August. Like, we'll get to you.

Tahlia Miller 10:56

I know it feels like we're halfway. I mean, we're officially halfway through.

Dave Rattiner 11:00

You're like the you're the mom.

Tahlia Miller 11:01

Yeah, so we're officially halfway through. So July was definitely busy. We had a lot. We went to the concerts in the park in East Quag, in Southampton. We went to the Children's Museum of the East End's Fair with Saunders, which was fantastic. Yeah, it was cool. Um, Lisa and I are sponsoring two concerts coming up, one on August 5th in East Quag, which is sold out, S-O-U-L-E-D, sold out. Um, is the name of the book. If it's not sold out, please come.

Dave Rattiner 11:30

And we are also That name makes me want to like start a band just because like that's that's a good one. That's a good one.

Tahlia Miller 11:37

And uh, we are also doing the Southampton concert on the 13th, which is the Rum Punch Mafia.

Andrew Doud 11:44

Cool.

Tahlia Miller 11:44

And so we're doing those evening things, but a lot of daytime things. I love a good farmer's market. I love going to all the stands, and then when you can push all the stands together and go to a farmer's market, that's my favorite thing to walk around and do and see the flowers.

Steve Glick 11:59

And what's your go-to at the farmer's market? Is it the bread, the pickles?

Tahlia Miller 12:02

No, so I make my own bread, so it's definitely not bread.

Dave Rattiner 12:05

But you should bring that in.

Tahlia Miller 12:07

I was you should be in the farmer's bread. Um I definitely like one of the pickles on a stick, you know, the pickle guy in the yellow tent. He's everywhere. The horseradish pickles are the best. Um, and I love cut flowers. Love cut flowers. That's my favorite snake.

Andrew Doud 12:25

Did your bread making start in COVID? I feel like that was.

Tahlia Miller 12:28

I am the OG millennial who got chickens and has a sourdough starter. Yes, chickens. I love the chickens. That is part of my life now. Chickens are great.

Steve Glick 12:38

Sourdough breads on your own.

Andrew Doud 12:40

That's it, man. I can feel it. You can feel it, yeah. I have so much free time. I need to take up a bread hobby. Um it's been it's been a lot of good stuff going on this summer. So um, what do you got going on this weekend?

Dave Rattiner 12:51

This weekend? I can't get sorry, I have to ask. So why it's what's the starter? What does that mean?

Tahlia Miller 12:57

So starter is a combination of yeah, so it's it's But can I just buy yeast?

Dave Rattiner 13:03

Yeah, why is it? You can buy commercialized yeast. I've never understood that. I've heard people say that.

Tahlia Miller 13:07

You can buy commercialized yeast that comes in like the little squares in the little packets. Yeah, they but what a starter, sourdough starter is, is a naturally fermented water and flour mixture that has its a natural yeast, which is lactobacillus, and that's the fancy term. And you add that with water and flour and salt. But it's a leavener.

Lisa Fox 13:32

And you you keep that starter, it's called the mother. Okay. And the the the key is that that starter is got like the foundation for any bread that any sourdough. It's just the leavener. It's the leavener. It's what makes it rise. But you keep it, you can keep it on your counter, you can keep it in your fridge if you don't want it, if you want it to kind of quiet down, and you feed it. You feed it almost every day. With more but it's alive. It's not like you cook it in a few.

Dave Rattiner 13:58

Why not just buy the yeast in the packet? Um I'm joking, I know.

Tahlia Miller 14:03

Yeah, you know why. All the things. All the things.

Steve Glick 14:08

Just buy the bread. Yeah.

Lisa Fox 14:11

I'll leave my bread. I don't know.

Andrew Doud 14:14

I can I could buy eggs at the supermarket and yet I still have nine chickens running around my bronze. Yeah. Um that's funny. All right.

Dave Rattiner 14:21

I'm a funny guy.

Andrew Doud 14:22

You're hilarious.

Dave Rattiner 14:24

Alright, so we got so this I I actually picked this because I thought it was a good band name. So we have Hot Date at the Steven Talkhouse.

Andrew Doud 14:31

I feel like these are good boat names, too.

Dave Rattiner 14:33

Yeah. This is that's a great boat name. Yeah. Yeah, so Hot Date's gonna be at the Stephen Talkhouse and Abby Gansett. They are a high-energy party rock dance cover band. So that is going to be at 10.30 p.m. So you'll see Andrew Dowd there for sure. You know, partying it up. Then we have Fridays at five, which is of course at the Bridgehampton Library. It is a lot of fun. This week it is sponsored by Tony Campo and Jeremy Johnson of Saunders. So get down there and enjoy it. Bring a blanket and a lawn chair and enjoy an insightful talk from a celebrated author. Fridays at five. You gotta go. There's wine and cheese. Should be good. Then there's no wine and cheese. I don't think there's a wine and cheese. I think there's wine and cheese. Then you have, and I I I picked this guy because he kind of reminds me of you. I feel like this he's from our generation. Is Winston Iri.

Lisa Fox 15:38

Oh, okay.

Dave Rattiner 15:40

So he's gonna be at the clubhouse on Sunday from 6 to 9. There will be no cover. Um, and you can enjoy his reggae music. He's like, Man, he goes way back. He's like, he's like an OG. Yeah you know, he's good. Um and then if you want to do a gala or something like that, you have the Southampton Hospital Foundation's 67th Annual Summer Gala. That's August 7th from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. And this is gonna have a Moroccan theme to it, which sounds cool. It's gonna be a night of Moroccan magic under a tenth. Um that's like a classic Hamptons thing that you could do this weekend. And if you want to buy tickets or a table, you can do that by visiting Hamptons.com. And if you want to look up other events that you want to do this weekend, you can go to the Hamptons number one events and lifestyle website. Hamptons.com. Alright. That's what's going on this weekend. You are too.

Tahlia Miller 16:42

No. No? Today was great. I had a great time. Yeah. There you go. As always.

Andrew Doud 16:47

Um, thanks for joining us and the insight in the pricing, which really, I mean, that's that's the the starter for everything. I mean, it's it's what starts the conversation. The sourdough starter. I was gonna say, no pun intended. All come full circle. Well say done, Dave.

Dave Rattiner 17:00

Got them good.

Andrew Doud 17:02

Um, all right, so I guess next week. Hang on. Yeah, next week we're in the August. Oh, yeah. Crazy. Cool. Until then. Everybody have a great week. Have a good weekend. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having us. That's what's happening in the ambulance.