Andrew Doud 0:07

Hey everyone and happy Thanksgiving. I'm Andrew Doud with Saunders and Associates and welcome to another episode of the Happening in the Hamptons Podcast, our weekly breakdown of the Hamptons market, new listings, and events on the East End. And of course, today we'll also be talking about Thanksgiving. Today's podcast is sponsored by New York Title Abstract, the Hampton's leading title insurance firm. Visit NewYorktitle.com or titleinsurance.com. Joined as always by Steve, Dave, and today Darius Narizzano out of our East Hampton office. Darius is a super active member of the East Hampton community, gives back quite a bit. He's a longtime volunteer, board member, and co-treasurer of the East Hampton Food Pantry. He's also a member of the Chamber, the Lions Club. But let's talk about Thanksgiving. What does this holiday mean to you?

Darius Narizzano 0:51

Well, thank you for inviting me to be here today, guys. With Thanksgiving upon us, I feel it's appropriate to express gratitude for the blessings that we have here where the land meets the sea. And to give thanks to be in a position to be able to give back to our community, to give back by helping those who need help. And one of the many things that drew me to Saunders and keeps me here are the founder owners, Colleen and Andrew Saunders, and their continuous generosity to our community at large. They lead by example, and my colleagues and you in turn emulate their generosity, and I believe as a whole, we make a real difference from West Hampton to Montauk, Andrew.

Andrew Doud 1:35

That's perfect. And you know, I want to talk a little bit about um obviously this holiday is all about giving back, giving thanks, and one of the things we do every year, and we've mentioned this on previous podcasts, is the uh the can-do food drive, which um this year we haven't had the food drive at the offices as we traditionally do. Instead, we've um been asking people to donate uh whatever they can monetarily to give these food pantries that goes, of course, directly to the community to helping out. And Steve, you can talk a little bit more about this, but we set a goal of ten thousand dollars, and that was I mean, that was surpassed and met within what was it, the first week?

Steve Glick 2:11

Yeah, we set a goal, we set up a goal fund me page for this donation drive, and when we originally set out, we set a goal of ten thousand dollars, and in the first week, we we immediately surpassed that goal of ten thousand dollars, and we changed the goal to twenty-five thousand dollars. We wanted to raise twenty-five thousand dollars to donate all the monies to the local food pantries, and just yesterday we hit our goal of twenty-five thousand dollars, which was incredible. We had over 112 donations through our GoFundMe page, which was highly promoted all over social media and all the local papers. And with the monies, Colleen and Andrew Saunders, they're going to match that and donate over $50,000 collectively to all the local food pantries throughout the Hamptons, from West Hampton to Montauk to Shelter Island. It's incredible. It's we got an overwhelming response. And it's a huge number.

Andrew Doud 3:06

That's a huge number for a short period of time, too. Actually, I want to, Darius, since you are so active with the East Hampton Food Pantry, can you talk to us a little bit about the need for these donations in the community?

Darius Narizzano 3:15

Yeah, well, it's terrific, actually. Each year we actually ask for uh it's wonderful to get the cans and and all of the food that comes into Saunders and the food that everyone else drops off at the food pantry. But what really helps us is the money. Yeah, exactly, Dave, because we also have incredible uh buying power and we have specific needs that we can buy towards. So this is gonna be so helpful. Every year, uh, what has been brought in by Saunders has been very helpful. This is gonna be the most helpful. That's great.

Steve Glick 3:47

And there's still time to donate. We're gonna keep this donation drive open till the end of the month. So if anyone still wants to make a uh monetary donation, you can simply go to Saunders.com, you'll see a link on our homepage for the donation drive. And you can click on there, it'll take you to the GoFundMe page, which is easy to navigate and you can make um any size donation. That's perfect.

Andrew Doud 4:05

Um, so let's talk about real estate a little bit, the numbers. Um we've seen the last couple weeks have been have been crazy busy. So is that trend continuing, Steve? Where are we at?

Steve Glick 4:14

Yeah, of course. Uh like I said, I sound like a broken record every week, but it definitely um remains very active. So over the past week there were 58 listings that went into contract from West Hampton to Montauk. Compared to the same week last year, there were 28 listings that went into contract, so which is a year-over-year increase of 107%. The quick breakdown of these 58 transactions are two between eight and ten million, three between six and eight million, five between four and six million, thirteen between two and four million, and thirty-five under two million. This past week there were only twenty-seven new listings coming onto the market. So with fifty-eight listings going into contract, this leaves a deficit of thirty-one listings. The top two listings launched this week throughout the Hamptons are actually both listed with Saunders. The first is 41 Wild Goose Lane located in Watermill. This is a modern new construction with 10 bedrooms and just about 15,000 square feet on 1.88 acres. Okay. Here there's also going to be a rooftop tennis court installed, which is pretty incredible. So we're looking forward to seeing this project complete by the summer. Yeah, this this property is going to be listed at 19.5 million. Also, the second listing um is 14C Ponic Drive, located in the waterfront community of North Haven. This is also a modern new construction with eight bedrooms and 10,000 square feet and 1.85 acres. The price tag on that is 14.199 million. And speaking about new construction homes, Darius, you have listed 142 middle line highway located in Southampton. This property is just about complete, and the fishing touches are going in now. The house really has it all from the high quality build to all the amenities. Darius, what makes this house so special?

Darius Narizzano 6:00

Well, first of all, it's designed by McDonough and Conroy, and it's a complete custom uh build built by Robert Pasovilla of Coastal Real Estate and Development. It is uh it's right where Southampton meets Watermill. It's an extraordinary transitional home, almost 9,000 square feet, smart home on over three acres with seven bedrooms, seven and a half baths that all have radiant heat. Um custom mill work throughout is really off the hook, Steve. 20-inch baseboards, crown molding and decorative ceilings no one else has at any price point. The whole lower level is a walkout to a 45-foot um covered loja beside the pool in Jacuzzi, which has over a thousand square feet of white crepe marble, you know, so it never gets hot surround. Um the it's got a very large pool house, oversized three-car garage with double height ceilings. I mean, you could fit three lifts in this garage, uh so six cars. It's really a one-of-a-kind.

Steve Glick 7:07

It sounds like it has all the bells and whistles you're looking for in a new construction home that's really custom, like like you said, custom built.

Dave Rattiner 7:13

But the exterior is so is is is gabled. It's like so classy looking, the exterior.

Darius Narizzano 7:18

It's it's modern, but it's also kind of it looks pretty traditional on the outside. It's so cool. It's also all you know, the decks on the outside are all epay. You know, there were no expense was was spared on doing this. Uh Robert did it like he was doing it for himself. Uh and uh all glass railings inside and outside. Uh but on the inside, as you said, it's modern and really, really beautiful. So it's only 7.4 million, which for what you get here is incredible. Come and see it.

Andrew Doud 7:49

Darius, I want to talk a little bit about um investments, investing in real estate and investing in the community as you do. Um what are some strategies or or tips that you might have for people as far as investment opportunities?

Darius Narizzano 8:03

Well, now is an interesting time to invest because as everyone knows, it's you really gotta find it's you gotta really pick through to find a a proper investment. But I believe real estate is the very best investment. You know. Mark Twain said, by land, they're not making it anymore. And it certainly has been my best investment. I not only preach this to my customers and clients, but I practice it on my own. You know, last year I bought that 130-year-old Jessup house in Sag Harbor. Right. You know, the the house up on the hill, surrounded on three sides by the bird century.

Steve Glick 8:40

First century, yeah, of course, yeah. Love that spot.

Darius Narizzano 8:43

So that's the old Jessup house uh that John Casablanca owned of elite modeling for a while. And um it was being torn down. Um it was gonna be scraped, they were gonna put a modern house there.

Dave Rattiner 8:54

So you saved it? You renovated it, you saved it?

Darius Narizzano 8:57

It was like a a really great project for that reason. I felt like I was doing something great for the for the uh community, but at the same time, we reimagined, completely short it up, opened it up, luxed out the bathrooms, modern, put all the modern bells and whistles in it, but at the same time kept all the original hardware, uh, really paid homage to the uh to the age and the original uh house. And we closed on it last week. Wow. Uh you know, did very well, and there's a family already making happy new memories there. That's a great place.

Andrew Doud 9:30

Got a great front porch and that pool in the back, backyard, back onto their reserves.

Darius Narizzano 9:35

And they can just walk back there and enjoy the bird sanctuary whenever there's cool you can go there with bird seed and the bird just comes down and you don't even need to go into the bird sanctuary because I mean since you're surrounded on three sides, you just step out the back door with bird seed.

Dave Rattiner 9:50

It is. And you do this for your clients too. Like you can advise your clients on these types of opportunities. I mean, I've even reached out to you personally on you know ideas about uh you know investments even for my own home my own home in East Hampton. And um, you know, you're you're I I value it so much, but because you have such a track record of identifying a property, you know, make seeing the value that other people aren't seeing, making it better, and then you you uh you do so well with it. It's I've seen it over and over again. That's what I do. Thank you.

Andrew Doud 10:22

That's perfect. Um, well, I want to toss back to uh Dave, our our Happening in the Hamptons expert. So look, it's it's kind of a special week, right? I mean, we're we're now into the holiday season. So uh you're out here, you're enjoying the Hamptons, it's Thanksgiving week, weekend. So what's going on?

Dave Rattiner 10:39

Yes, thank you, Andrew Dowd. It is time for Happy in the Hamptons, where you can plan out your fabulous Thanksgiving weekend in the Hamptons, and as usual, I'm going to give you my top three picks for the weekend, which you can pretty much guarantee you're going to love. I'm talking life-changing.

Darius Narizzano 10:54

Okay.

Andrew Doud 10:55

Have you gotten any feedback from people that don't love your suggestions?

Dave Rattiner 10:58

Well, all right, so it's not life-changing, but it's definitely a good time for your weekend, assuming that everyone listening enjoys things that are fun. Okay, so here we go. Here are my top three picks. Uh, my first pick has to do with you get you guessed it, uh, Thanksgiving. So the Old Stove Pub, which is a wonderful restaurant in Sagaponic, is having a Thanksgiving feast at 1 p.m. This is a really cool restaurant with a lot of history in the Hamptons. I haven't been there in a while, but I've seen it on the side of the road where they've set up this large plastic tent for outdoor dining and social distancing, and uh they've been in good compliance with uh all of the rules. And this Thanksgiving uh they're having a menu where it's just uh $40 a person and offers you choices of butternut squash soups, roasted turkey or salmon, sides for the table, you know, the whole Thanksgiving shebang. Uh and it's gonna be great, and it's at 1 p.m., not in the evening, so you can kind of knock it all out and then uh sleep it off for the rest of the day. Uh my second pick has to do with shopping and window displays. So that's fun, right? Shopping. I love shopping, and I love window displays. I mean, they're just window displays, it's one of my hobbies, it's one of my favorite things. So, anyway, this Friday, the Southampton Chamber of Commerce is having their annual holiday market where you can celebrate the season by buying stuff locally beginning at 10 a.m. And as you are out shopping, you want to be sure that you look at all of the windows up and down Main Street where there will be a contest amongst local business owners who have who on who has the most beautiful window display for the holidays. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it is very cool. And at Saunders, we have an office on Main Street in Southampton, and we are going all out. Our window is going to be decorated with flowers by the Bridgehampton florist, and we are going to have two custom-designed ice sculptures in front of our windows. And these ice sculptures are going to be so friggin' cool. The guy that is making our ice sculpture is a 10-time gold medalist, U.S. national ice carving champion, and is in the Guinness Book of World World Records for making the world's fastest ice sculpture. So I strongly recommend you take a look and take a picture and throw it up on your Instagram. Throw it up on your social media.

Andrew Doud 13:19

Pretty fast. There you go.

Dave Rattiner 13:21

Is he gonna be wearing his medals? He's gonna have all no, he's not gonna. I think he's gonna have a chainsaw. It's gonna be, you know, it's fun. You ever see the guys with the ice sculptures and they got the chainsaw out? It's a whole, it's really dramatic, you know. I think it's gonna be a little warm, so I'm not sure how long these ice sculptures will last, but I think they'll last a while. Um so you can definitely check it out. Uh, and you know, I encourage you to uh vote for the Saunders window display. Um but I have I have no I have uh no reason for saying that whatsoever. Um my third and final pick brings you out to Hampton Bay's to a great restaurant called Cowfish for a post-Thanksgiving brunch. So, what better way, guys, to start your weekend than with brunch at Cowfish after having an enormous Thanksgiving dinner? Uh it's gonna be available on Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for here or to go this weekend. And you can pile on top and you can uh pile on top plenty of food, uh, and it's all very, very interesting. They have a really interesting menu that you can look at at their website. Um, but one of the things that stood out for me was something called the Benedict Rockefeller, which is sage fried oysters, reggiano cream, spinach, and artichokes with two sunny side eggs, hollandaise, apple wood bacon, scallions, and sriracha. So it sounds so fancy. Whatever it sounds good, right? I'll try that. I've been there lots of times, and it's terrific. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. It's a good spot on the water. That's just one menu item, and the rest of the menu items just very interesting and very, very fancy, and it's a beautiful spot right on the water. So strongly recommend you check it out. Uh all right. So that's all I got. That's what's happening in the Hamptons.

Andrew Doud 15:03

So that's that's what those are Dave's suggestions. Hope you like them. And if you don't, don't tell them. Um, that's perfect, guys. Thank you so much. Darius, thank you so much for joining us. Um, to see more of Darius' listing and all our listings, be sure to check out stoners.com. Uh, once again, the Happening in the Hamptons podcast is sponsored by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Again, visit New YorkTitle.com or titleinsurance.com. Thank you all so much for listening. Happy Thanksgiving. I'm Andrew Dowd, and that's what's happening today.