Episode 173 - John Healey, Lee Minetree and Ed Gaetjens

Discussing Over 70 Years of Combined Real Estate Experience In The Hamptons

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Transcript

Andrew Doud 0:08

All right, it's Thursday everyone. 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 entitled the leading sponsored today by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit NewYorkTitle.com. We are joined today, as always, by Steve Glick, David Rattiner. And today we actually have a very full house. Lee Minetree, Ed Gaetjens, and John Healy. I'm not good at math, but I think over 70 years combined experience among these three gentlemen. So a lot, a lot of experience in Hampton's real estate, which is awesome. Lee, you do a lot of commercial stuff. John, Ed, you guys are all on a lot of residential new construction. You guys are kind of all over the place. What do you want to talk about? What should we talk about today? Where do you want to start?

Ed Gaetjens 0:57

But you guys are talking about 70 years of experience. I've been doing this for four years. I don't even know.

Andrew Doud 1:01

I don't even know how I'm in this room with you guys. I really don't, but hey. 66 years and Ed.

Ed Gaetjens 1:07

Fine.

Andrew Doud 1:08

How do I even deserve to get the leak in?

Ed Gaetjens 1:10

What happened? Vince, Vince, and Mark Greenwald couldn't make it.

Andrew Doud 1:13

I'm in here now. Hey, you're you're the man.

Steve Glick 1:15

And you learned, you know, you you came in hot. You know, you learned a lot in the past four years working in real estate, and now you're amongst a table of Lee, who's been doing it for 40 years. John has been closing in on 30 years, you know. So you learned a lot from your peers. Uh let's start with you, Ed, because you you you took the mic away. Um, what have you learned and what have the past four years been? You know, how how's it been for you?

Ed Gaetjens 1:42

Well, I mean, I I guess I started in August of 20, right in the in the middle of COVID, and it was insane here. I mean, everybody was selling their listings that they had.

Steve Glick 1:51

Did you think that was normal? So when you were working in the COVID market and everything was selling, you're like, wow, this is just crazy.

Ed Gaetjens 1:57

I'm I'm the huge contrarian, and I was like, this is not gonna last.

Andrew Doud 2:00

That's why you're still here. Think of how many people got into the game during COVID and are out. Yeah.

Lee Minetree 2:05

You guys are like, oh, it's super easy. It's not easy. No, I thought COVID was gonna be terrible for business. I I thought it was a good one.

Steve Glick 2:10

Well, we did too in the beginning, yeah. Because we never seen anything like it. I mean, Lee, you've been doing it for 40 years. Have you ever experienced anything like the COVID market? No, never. John?

John Healey 2:20

No, nothing like the COVID market, but think about it. If you're gonna close down schools in and around a place like the Hamptons, it's gonna be busy. That's the bottom line. It was the closing down of the schools that forced everyone to say, what are we gonna do with our children in Manhattan?

Steve Glick 2:35

Right.

John Healey 2:36

We got to get them out. And that's why people, you know, listen, sales obviously in Greenwich, Westchester, you know, all over. It wasn't just the Hamptons, were very, very successful. And I think here was a place to be outside. You had a beach, you could you could do stuff with or without a mask on, yeah. And and have some room, and your kids could be kids.

Steve Glick 2:55

And be safe.

John Healey 2:55

And and you you just had to do work, you know, work in school remotely.

Lee Minetree 2:59

And when you decided to do it year-round, you know, you had restaurants in January. You never needed to get a reservation.

Steve Glick 3:07

So, how did how did that affect the commercial market? You're in commercial now, you're just talking about things being open year round. Well, liquor stores were more successful.

John Healey 3:17

Jim's not so much.

Lee Minetree 3:19

So we haven't seen the type of turnaround we used to see. I mean, it seems to be people are staying longer more year-round.

Steve Glick 3:28

And businesses are staying open now year-round. We're all seeing that, right? In all towns.

Lee Minetree 3:31

There seems to be more of that, and there seems to be more people, but it's I mean, there's always it seems there's always more people here.

Steve Glick 3:38

Now you you look back and you say, all right, COVID was in 2020, 2021. When was the was it this similar in 2008? Like the rush coming out here to the head.

John Healey 3:49

No, the rush didn't come out until 2010. Okay. Like 2008 was the was basically your your crash, losing, losing jobs, so on and so forth. And then nine was stagnant. I always tell people that go try and find a home that was actually built in 2009. There aren't too many because the builders were were done. There was no component. They were trying to unload their houses and the banks were on them, wanted their money. So no one started doing anything until they started snapping up stuff cheap at 2010. Land or teardowns or whatever, for at least for new construction. So a lot of 2010 homes, but try and you know, go in your in your system and look at 2009 construction.

Steve Glick 4:30

That's interesting.

John Healey 4:31

I never thought of that, but that makes sense.

Lee Minetree 4:34

Well, part of the sales pitch, at least my sales pitch before the crash, was prices never go down in the Hamptons. They may flatten out, but they'll never go down. In 2008, they went down. They they you know, you had 25-30 percent down. That was an anomaly, though. And there were, you know, no commercial trades, you know, for a year or two. You know, luckily I hit a big one before that that I lived off for a couple of years. Oh, good fear. There was just no activity with the colour.

John Healey 5:02

Good time to go travel. It was 2009.

Steve Glick 5:05

So in commercial now, are you seeing more businesses trying to be wanting to be out here in the Hamptons more so than ever? They always come and go.

Lee Minetree 5:13

I mean, there's always people looking for pop-ups, you know. They want to come in and make the money and the but the last couple of years there've been very, very few pop-ups. You know, the there's the retail market is very strong, you know. Great. All the villages are leased up pretty much, you know, and and ahead of time.

Ed Gaetjens 5:32

That's a good sight to see, right, Eddie? Absolutely. Like to go out and see good restaurants going, and it's always something nice going on in the Hamptons, right?

John Healey 5:38

Well, there's a lot of options for you to go for clothes shopping as well, Eddie. Well, I don't really I shop I shop at TJ Maxx.

Ed Gaetjens 5:45

Is that the most unique laugh known to mankind? This laugh can wake the dead.

John Healey 5:50

Hey, Steve, Steve, Steve, you Steve, you brought up Ed earlier. Yeah, and and granted, he's only been doing it for five years or whatever, but the fact is that where he came from, sales on the street, right? So sales, so that's you know, a big part of real estate, obviously, is it's it's selling. Absolutely.

Dave Rattiner 6:07

And so, you know, whether you have the difference between selling like pots and pans on the street and real estate.

John Healey 6:12

Well, he was on a different street, but he was selling pots and pans. Also, you had connections when you came in by you know Mr. Farrell and I worked as a project manager, so you're so you were around the Hampton around the yeah. I've been done development out here since you basically had your license for maybe four or five years, but you've had you've been in the business of real estate and sale and selling for a long time. And that's the difference because as Andrew was saying, you know, people jumped in during COVID, but people jumped in during COVID because they, you know, because their friends sold something and they made a lot of money and they said, Wow, I could do that. But they maybe they're no good at selling anything, even if it's a pet rock. Right. So the f the bottom line is you either can do it, you can either learn to do it, which is one way. That's why so many companies make money trying to sell a lot of this stuff online for for how to sell real estate. But um, or you just have it and you either have a knack for it and you don't. And the people that have a knack for it stick with it and they make a career out of it.

Andrew Doud 7:09

The pet rock, by the way, was was a great example of marketing and how how good marketing can sell it.

Steve Glick 7:16

Oh, yeah, you gotta have you gotta you wanted that pet rock.

Andrew Doud 7:18

But you know, it's a Jitsu knife.

Steve Glick 7:20

It's pretty it's telling to see. You know, people come into real estate and they think they could do what they see on TV, it's a hot market. Are they gonna withstand 40 years, 20 years, 30 years? Like that is a true testament to you guys to be able to go through so many cycles and still come out the end and know that in a down market or a bad market, you know that it's you're gonna just have to work a little bit harder, a little bit smarter, and the cycle will then come out and trend upwards, and you just gotta be able to weather the storms.

Ed Gaetjens 7:49

People thinking that you can do this part-time is is a fallacy. Okay. I work harder doing this than I worked on Wall Street. No question. This is a 24-7 job, and if it's not, you're not gonna you're not gonna be well, you're not gonna do well at it. Just you just won't.

Dave Rattiner 8:04

I hear you say that, but then I look at the three of you guys, and you guys seem to have found mecca when it comes to life. Like all three of you seem to really enjoy your life. You know, you don't seem like a burnt-out Wall Street guy. You seem like three really happy guys, you know.

John Healey 8:19

But we're lucky to enjoy what we do. Well, that's what I'm saying. That's that's important too.

Dave Rattiner 8:23

Isn't that a component of reality?

John Healey 8:26

So you're selling, you're you're selling, you're dealing with clients and customers on the golf course. As you hear that all the time, especially coming from Wall Street, all the big firms, they they have these golf outings and they do a lot of business with these golf outings. Absolutely. So it's part of salesmanship, but you've you've got to you've knack for it.

Dave Rattiner 8:42

If you're loving people, you're gonna do it well.

John Healey 8:46

If you've got to work hard at it and you don't like what you do, you probably won't do it well. So it's gonna show.

Ed Gaetjens 8:51

It's gonna your attitude is gonna show you you're gonna be pulling back, you're not gonna be smiling, you're not gonna care. That shows you cannot hide that.

Dave Rattiner 9:00

I think I think just seeing the three, you you guys are all into the Hamptons, you're into being here, you you're into your lives out here, and that also attracts people to you guys for sure. You know, absolutely.

Steve Glick 9:13

What what's the secret to your success? Uh I'll go around the table. I want to hear from John first.

John Healey 9:20

Oh, I I think I go back to the same thing. It I really, really enjoy I enjoy negotiations the most of all the of all the part of the deal. Not not so much. I mean, I listen, I enjoy showing houses and so on. And in all the years of showing it, you get more experienced at, and I hate to say it, I get a little bit more judgy about some construction, things like that. There's a deal. If you go with a deal to a house and I don't say much, it might not be the house to buy. Got it. Because I gotta bite my tongue sometimes. Because we really shouldn't be sitting there, you know, bashing anything. But but sometimes it's really hard. And you know, now every everybody's got a camera, they got something in the house. Yeah. So I mean, I've had customers that like they turn and they're like, John, you know construction. What do you think of this over here? And I'm like, let's talk in the car. There it is. Yeah, it's tough, but I I do think that obviously, like Ed says, it's 24-7. I remember when I started in in the late 90s, I remember someone from Europe calling, and we were negotiating, and it was like, you know, 11:30 at night or something because of the time change. Yeah. And it was the first time I was like, you know, Chris was like, you know, you're doing work at 11:30 at night. I'm like, look, I they're in another part of the world. You can't get no choice. You got a big offer, you gotta negotiate it. You know, I'll never forget it was a $750,000 trade. Oh, man. But back in the late 90s, it was a big deal. Hey, we got it done. And then it closed, you know, whatever, a month, two months later. And all back then it was all financing always, it was no cash. Um, but I think if you love what you do, that's the key. And obviously the three of us love what we do. Um but I you know I gotta hand it to Eddie. Eddie, Eddie's Eddie's Eddie goes to to get his pedicure, and he he didn't go with the matte finish this time. Eddie went with the shine. It's a man, it's a manicure. That's the secret.

Ed Gaetjens 11:12

So from what you from what you know about Grub. You really do.

Steve Glick 11:15

You really have to know. Is that the secret? Is that the secret to the thing?

Ed Gaetjens 11:20

I think you present yourself well to the world. So if so if you have gnarly fingers or whatever else you have, it doesn't make a good foot to do.

Steve Glick 11:28

Where did you get those done?

Ed Gaetjens 11:29

Uh in Hampton Bay's really management.

Steve Glick 11:32

Wow, look at you. All right, Lee.

Andrew Doud 11:34

The secret to Ed Sticks is seafoam green pants.

Steve Glick 11:37

Yeah, colorful pants for Ed. Lee, what is the secret to your success? And what's what do you enjoy most? Both. Two questions, two part questions.

Lee Minetree 11:46

I enjoy the being an independent contractor. Oh, grenade. You know, being able to, you know, work on my own and my own time, you know. Um, that's helpful. Um, I mean, I did start out doing it part-time because I had a family and you know, needed health insurance. So, I mean, I started out selling advertising for the East Hampton Star. I got my license, I think, in '84, and I was managing the advertising for Alan Schneider at the time. So I had four jobs. I worked in the star, I managed the advertising for Schneider, I sold real estate for Schneider, and then I was bartending for loaves and fishes for crazy and I was trying to buy a piece of land. So I love that. I love that.

Ed Gaetjens 12:36

You gotta do what you gotta do.

Lee Minetree 12:37

Yeah, that's somebody that was like you had to you worked at it, you know what I mean? And then after 10 years at the star, I I started the independent. So that was 1993, but the whole time I'm selling real estate on the side, you know, it was mostly residential doing, you know, running people around on weekends and things like that. You know, the sales, selling advertising. I mean, gave me my base for for sales, you know. It's it's all sales, so it all comes down to the same thing. Um so parted with the independent, and this was at my wife's advice. I was not getting along with my other partners at the time. And she said, go sell real estate full time, you'll do fine. Work for yourself, yeah. You'll do fine. That was the best move I ever made. Good fit. Best move I ever made. And you know, I sold a bunch of big houses and stuff, but it knowing all the business community through selling advertising, then it was just a natural, you know, to go to just doing commercial because everybody was selling residential.

Steve Glick 13:43

Yeah, you found the niche in the commercial, you know, you found the niche in it. Like you said, everyone out here is mostly sells residential.

Dave Rattiner 13:50

Became a commercial guy because you're selling the ads to the business owners and then. Yeah, so I knew I knew that.

Lee Minetree 13:55

That makes sense. When I was like, you know, I was on the chamber of commerce.

Steve Glick 14:00

Now you grew up here, Lee in the Hamptons?

Lee Minetree 14:01

You were I grew up here from sixth grade. I went to sixth grade in Sag Harbor, seventh and eighth grade Amigans at East Hampton High School, Washington Lee University. Uh huh. Did a couple documentary films with my dad, then fell in love with a local Sag Harbor girl, needed a regular job. So that's I got the job at the star then. Wow.

Andrew Doud 14:24

Wow. That's wow. This is what goes back. Everybody had had had a thing before real estate. Even if real estate was part of it, it was like nobody's ever like, yeah, I you know, I graduated high school, I graduated college, and I started selling real estate. Yeah, but imagine a few.

John Healey 14:38

But imagine if you did.

Lee Minetree 14:39

If I started selling real estate when I graduated high school, my first big real listing was Eothan out in Montauk, which the old Andy Warhol estate, which he listed for like 50 million, which was way overpriced at the time. I told him it was worth like 25. I think it eventually sold for 23 years later. But interesting. I mean, incredible properties I've seen over the years, you know, but that particularly was one over the so what do you guys think about the market today?

Steve Glick 15:12

As you guys seen so many cycles throughout the years, you know, it's low inventory, right? Um the contracts every week are around 2025 or per week. Is this a normal market? Is this something you guys see trending up or changing, or how do you see it going over the as we round out the year, as we come into an election year, and as we come into 2025?

Ed Gaetjens 15:34

Let the pros take it.

John Healey 15:37

I I think personally the you you look, the inventory is increasing. We talk about exclusives are coming on. Ed mentioned earlier, we're getting a lot more exclusives, so on and so forth. And yet, in this last week, but probably par for core on the on the type of year or the time of year, um, is that we were down seven to 17 trades last week. Yeah, and I've been you know sending out a newsletter to all my clients and customers and stuff because we've been sort of hovering on up and down between around 30. Yep. So that's a big transition. But I do think if we start to keep increasing that inventory, um, we're getting further away from the COVID money. We're getting further away from people that a lot of people didn't rent their house this year that that for the summer that that that bought one for COVID, thinking, oh, I can always rent it as an investment. Didn't necessarily happen. We may see price reductions because of we're getting to that point of inventory where if it's not gonna move, you have to reduce it. There's no choice. Right. And we may finally get to that. It's been a long time coming that we've had we just prices just keep going up and up and up and up. Um I think the only thing that could change that is if you suddenly get a drop in interest rates, then the prices will go back up. That's what they do.

Steve Glick 16:50

So, John, you've been around a couple I mean, every four years it's an it's an election year, and you've been doing it for close to 30 years. So you've seen a lot of you know election seasons. You know, does it does that affect the real estate market?

John Healey 17:01

I think spending in general, you if you want to buy a car, a third car, second car, a sports car, a boat, I think spending in general, and and this is a luxury item you know location for us, our these houses are not just a usually they're not a primary residence, it's a secondary home or beyond. And I think that spending in general before an election actually takes place gets curtailed. If you talk to people, and Ed can attest to this on the street, bankers, a lot of money, a lot of cash sitting on the sideline. 100%. Oh, a hundred percent. And that they're not buying stocks, they're not buying equities, nothing. They are sitting there because they want to see what direction we're gonna go in.

Steve Glick 17:41

And then when does that boom happen after we find out who the next president is?

John Healey 17:45

Usually that happens like either one of the presidents was already there once. So you'll either you're gonna know which way it's gonna go. Right. Whether the whether the government's gonna be softer on on businesses or more control. Got it. So there's only two options right now that are on the table, it seems like. And yeah, you'll know because you'll look at past history. If Trump wins, you'll look in the past and say, well, this is what happened during that four-year term. And I think you'll see money start to move one way or the other. Got it. Good insight.

Ed Gaetjens 18:12

Yeah.

Steve Glick 18:12

What's your take on it, Ed? Where do you see the future going of Hamptons Real Estate?

Ed Gaetjens 18:16

I mean, I think more listings are coming on. That's that's the that's the one thing that's very telling. I mean, I remember back in COVID time, you know, you'd have 50 sales in a week and you'd have 10 new listings. Yeah, right. And there was a point maybe a year or two ago where that that flipped. We had new listings way above the new one contracts. That's a telling point. I don't think we're getting back to the 3,500 like we had in 2019. But the trend is moving above. We'll get there.

Steve Glick 18:42

I feel like we'll get there in a couple years.

Ed Gaetjens 18:44

And I think the people that that COVID bunker mentality is gone. People are buying vacation houses here out here again. And like John said, you know, we told people, hey, you'll always have a rental market. It's not really true. I mean, this has been a tough year for rentals. I mean, it's been a very tough year for rentals.

Steve Glick 19:01

Well, because there's so many available.

Andrew Doud 19:02

I think it's a pricing thing. You know what I mean? It's like you can like any house will rent for a certain price. It just may not be the price you want it to rent. You want it to rent for, right?

John Healey 19:11

You know, and the COVID prices, you know, the landlords are still sort of sitting on that. Hey, I got I got $250,000 last summer, two summers ago, I got $300. Right. What do you mean I got to come down to $75,000? It's well, that's what it would have been 10 years ago. Right.

Andrew Doud 19:25

So it's a normal price. A normal market.

John Healey 19:28

And and that's you know, as we all know, it's very hard to get people to come down in price, whether it's whatever they're selling. And it's no different than it's a lot easier to raise the interest rates quicker than bring them back down. It takes longer. So, you know.

Steve Glick 19:41

Lee, for commercial, what affects a commercial market? Like, what are we looking forward to in the future?

Lee Minetree 19:47

Interest rates with investment properties, I mean, and cap rates, you know, before where you, you know, had you could borrow money at three or four percent, you know, you could buy a property returning five or six percent. So now with interest rates, you know, for commercial properties, probably, you know, at least over seven percent, maybe even over eight percent, you know, you're gonna have to get a higher cap rate, which reduces to a lower selling price. So I think people are gonna probably try and wait it out. But there's always 1031 exchanges that people need to do, but interest rates have really, you know, changed the game.

Steve Glick 20:26

I love it. Uh, we've been seeing so many new businesses and restaurants coming out here in the Hamptons in the past couple years. It's been great to see. Like commercial boom. Is that leases?

Lee Minetree 20:35

Um leases are leases are great. I mean, I'm talking sales. Right no, I get it. Leases, the the prices are up in East Hampton, Sag Harbor is per square foot is almost catching up to East Hampton. East Hampton has always been the most expensive rental town. Um then Southampton and then was Bridge Hampton and Sag Harbor, but I think Sag Harbor is kind of moving into it now.

Ed Gaetjens 21:00

I mean, it's crazy. When you go out on a Saturday night in Sag Harbor, good luck trying to find parking downtown. Like if you if you're going to one of the restaurants there, forget it. I mean, there everything is packed. Just take an Uber.

Lee Minetree 21:12

Yeah, take an Uber. It's the hottest village out there right now. Can you find me a restaurant? Can you find me a retail space in Sag Harbor? And if it comes on, it should go pretty quickly. Crazy.

Dave Rattiner 21:23

It's interesting though in Sag Harbor there's none of the big brands. You walk down East Hampton, it's Gucci, Louis Guy.

Steve Glick 21:30

Because I think there's small well, there's not that much square footage. I mean, a lot of those shops are small.

Lee Minetree 21:38

The local brands they particularly block them. It's a different vibe. Yeah.

Steve Glick 21:42

I mean it's a different vibe, Dave.

Dave Rattiner 21:45

I mean, Ralph Loretta's in there years. It's clearly the most you know, I live in the 7 Eleven.

John Healey 21:51

Come on, Dave. What's wrong with what's wrong with Sag Harbor, Dave?

Dave Rattiner 21:54

No, I'm just saying, I live in between Sag Harbor and Southampton. It's obvious Sag Harbor is like way more popular. You know, like any day of the week.

Ed Gaetjens 22:02

I I I gotta disagree. East Hampton, if you up and down East Hampton, it's it's really big. Southampton's happening, though. You go down Southampton, that's happening too.

Lee Minetree 22:12

I push for East Hampton merchants complain to me why can't we be like Sag Harvard?

John Healey 22:17

Well, you know why you can't? Because you don't have a yacht parked a block away. I mean, having being on the water like Nantucket, having a harbor town, every harbor town you know of the city.

Lee Minetree 22:27

So because you can either buy a $10 million house or a $100 t-shirt. That's about it.

John Healey 22:34

But I do think, listen, the yachting, I mean, I've I've been I've been I when I first came out here, I think it was a share house in Montauk in in 89, and then I moved and lived on a sailboat, as David knows, for six years and I was in Sag Harbor. And so my summers were on a sailboat in Sag Harbor, and there was never a yacht there. It was all sailboats, a couple center consoles. Like if someone was yachting time. If someone came out, what when did the big boats the wealth came in probably mid 2010, you know, 12, 13, 14.

Dave Rattiner 23:07

And the yachts came in big time then. Well, he renovated that pier. Correct. And it turned it into like a spot that was very comfortable for a yacht to hang out at the moment.

John Healey 23:18

But remember something for the longest time, you know, before he renovated that, then as as you saw the writing on the wall, yachts were anchoring outside the breakwater. And they were staying there for not just a weekend, they were staying there for a month or whatever. And that was kind of like, hey, we want to be near Sag Harbor, we're willing to take the tender in, but when they get the piers ready and the docks available, we'll move in. And you look at it now, and it's it's it's maxed out in terms of size of yachts and things like that. So I think I think that really, really put Sag Harbor on the market big time in terms of being busy for for restaurants and stuff and parking. You just have no room. So think about the yachts. They all have a probably a car rental car or something for the crew. They have the cook, they have to go, the chef, they have to go and get their food. So that's clogging up parking, just having whoever's got a yacht has cars. Right. Um, so they're not even just your homeowners or or people renting, or even people just coming for the night or the day. There's never gonna be a solution to parking at Sag Harbor, that's for sure. The best way to go there is by the way.

Ed Gaetjens 24:23

They have a parking deck. They have a parking deck planned, right? They had something for the Bay Street Theater. Yeah, there was a Bay Street Theater redevelopment, had a parking deck planned over where 7-Eleven is now. That's supposed to be a whole different thing. That's what they said, but I don't know if that's going through. No, not gonna happen. Too bad.

Andrew Doud 24:42

Uh well, yachts aside, back to the real estate thing. Let's get a look at the numbers since we've gotten the individual breakdowns. Yeah, what's the big picture?

Steve Glick 24:50

I mean, John alluded to it earlier. There's 17 listings this past week, which is a low for for the year, it looks like 17 listings in one week. Last year, this time was 19, so it's a decrease of 11%. In the year 2022, there were 26 listings that went into contract, so it's a decrease of 35%. Now the breakdown of those 17 transactions there is one between 10 and 15 million, three between 5 and 10 million, two between 3 and 5 million, 5 between 2 and 3 million, 3 between 1 and 2 million, and 3 under a million. So all different categories there. Um, the dollar volume was 58 million, last year was 39 million, so it's an increase in dollar volume of 49%. In 2022, the dollar volume was 53 million, so it's an increase of nine percent in dollar volume there. Uh new listings coming onto the market. There were 36 new listings coming onto the market with 17 going into contract. Inventory increased by 19 listings, and the breakdown of those 36 new listings, one over 20 million, four between 10 and 20, 8 between 5 and 10, 6 between 3 and 5, 8 between 2 and 3, 6 between 1 and 2, and 3 under a million. All different price categories of new inventory there. And the inventory stands at 1,979 total listings, 1,538 active, 441 in contract. So as you can see, inventory increases again by 19 listings.

Dave Rattiner 26:12

Yeah, but I want to ask Ed Ed, inventory is still low. You're just you're thinking that it's just creeping up and low low compared to what?

Ed Gaetjens 26:20

To 2019 when nothing moved, or low compared to it.

Dave Rattiner 26:23

Compared to the rest of the history of the Hamptons, you know, like we've typically always had like five, five thousand listings for sale, four to five, right?

Ed Gaetjens 26:31

You guys got me on that one, gentlemen. Did you have five thousand listings?

John Healey 26:36

No, listen, think about it. There were less homes back then, too. You know, the new construction that's gone on in the last five to ten years has really, really blown up. So so back when when when well when Lee started, there were only two homes available for sale. But when I started, there was probably there was probably 20. But the fact is is that that we, you know, we we we had farm fields then. You know, when I started, you you drove from Southampton to Bridgehampton and you actually got to see some farm fields on the way. Right. Now it's all subdivisions at home. So clearly inventory should go up because you're gonna have trades in and out of those properties that now exist versus when they didn't exist.

Ed Gaetjens 27:14

But to where? To what's the number? Is it 5,000? Is it 3,500? Is it 2,000?

Dave Rattiner 27:19

Because you know, you we're talking about this low invent low inventory forever.

John Healey 27:23

And the more people that work out here, remember, listen, even after COVID, the the work at home thing is never gonna go away. So there are people that figured it out because wouldn't they rather be here at least, you know, five days, four days or out of seven, and then if they have to go into the city, I hear it all the time. I go to for a meeting three times a week, and that's it. Otherwise, I'm out here. And they're making this their permanent residence rather than being in the city. So the inventory won't increase on that because they're gonna use their house. There's not gonna be a transaction on their home because they're using it as a primary residence. So I think I think your inventory is never gonna be at that capacity we saw at its peak, except and also more people are buying property, new construction, especially as you see that there's a ton of new construction. You drive around now, there's like new construction everywhere. Whether it's for sale or it's someone's rental or someone's building their own home, there's just a ton of new construction. At some point that'll increase the inventory because you know you don't hold on to your house forever. I mean, some people do, but the Hampton seems like not the place to hold on to it forever. Unless it's an estate property.

Dave Rattiner 28:28

It doesn't seem to me like there's like a catalyst that you could say, oh, you know, if interest rates do this, then that will drive prices dramatically up. And if this happens, then that will drive in inventory dramatically up. It does seem like we're in this sort of even steady thing. That that's my perspective on that.

John Healey 28:49

Well, the prices will go up when the when the interest rates do come down next year or you know, even two years from now. And when the prices go up, people put their houses on the market because they can make more money. Right. And then there's people that are not going to be able to do that.

Ed Gaetjens 29:01

Then you get more inventory. So then what is does that even it out? What is it? So is it are prices prices gonna spike when when when they come down or is it gonna be?

John Healey 29:12

Now is the time to buy a house, to be honest, is why the while the while the rate is elevated, but not as high as it's been in historically. And granted, you can amortize it so well now that you know in a couple of years you'll refi and you're gonna do great. But this is the time to buy, not so much wait and take the gamble. If you can find the right house. If you can find the right house. At the right price. Or you can make the right well, the price will be better now than if the rates go down.

Ed Gaetjens 29:37

Lee, let me ask you a question. Excuse me, I shouldn't be asking the question. I'm gonna ask Lee a question. Lee, what are you seeing as far as like people, businesses relocating out here like tech, hedge funds, like something that's not just medical, something outside of that?

Lee Minetree 29:51

Well, yeah, medical happened during COVID. They wanted to be called, you know, office stuff, you know, tons of dermatologists, guys like that, doctors wanted to come out here. You know, there's always people looking to come out here. You know, guys say I have a restaurant somewhere else and I'm looking for a restaurant out here. Of course, they they have sticker shocked once once they come out.

Ed Gaetjens 30:14

Right.

Lee Minetree 30:14

But a lot of what you're seeing now in restaurants are like vanity type guys, you know, where a restaurant tour will have a local backer, you know, and we'll be because the restaurant business is expensive. You know, restaurants aren't cheap. You know, people come out here and think I'm just gonna start a restaurant, I can turn that building into a restaurant. There are just a limited number of restaurant spaces. So you have to you have to you know either pay key money or buy somebody out of a lease.

Ed Gaetjens 30:43

What about like New York-based like hedge funds, tech companies? Not so much, right?

Lee Minetree 30:48

You know, some of the big hospitals out here, you know, but you know, I've I've done one hedge fund office. I mean, there's always guys looking for offices in the summer just to get it.

John Healey 30:59

Yeah, there's a lot of independent guys out there.

Ed Gaetjens 31:02

But none of none of the big none of the big players, none of the SAC capitals, none of the people.

Lee Minetree 31:07

I mean, no, I sold him an office space uh you know before a while ago.

John Healey 31:11

Well before, right?

Lee Minetree 31:12

Yeah.

John Healey 31:12

Um for tax reasons, this isn't really the place to come. No, it's not if you want to be a good idea.

Lee Minetree 31:17

Not so much but the office market is is, you know, as you can guess, with people you know working remotely now has you know gone down a bit, but you know, retail is very strong. Um you always have people have shops in New York that want to come out here and test the market, particularly when one of their customers is out here or something. But no, no huge.

Ed Gaetjens 31:40

No huge and what do you think about my buddy buying a dime building and renovating it? What do you think about that?

Lee Minetree 31:46

Um pretty cool. Yeah. Um yeah, we'll see what he does with it. You know, it'll be interesting.

Ed Gaetjens 31:55

I saw some of the plans. The lower level is gonna be an amazing spot for just recreation and gym and everything like that. Okay. Yeah, so he's doing a full renovation. Invite only. Friends and family.

Andrew Doud 32:09

Uh things that aren't invite only. Dave. What can every what can everybody go to?

Dave Rattiner 32:15

So Dan Bailey is playing at Wolf Restate on Friday night. Uh you just want to get there at 5 p.m. Who's Dan Bailey? You don't know who Dan Bailey is?

Andrew Doud 32:25

Dude, do I look like I'm like a well-connected in-the-no kind of guy? That's what you're here for. He's a riot.

Dave Rattiner 32:31

He's like So it's comedy. No, no, no. He's an he's a musician. He's a okay but he goes on stage like hilariously bad or really good. No, really good. Like he goes on stage and you're just he's a pure artist. He's local to the area, but he's just such an artist. And he goes on stage with like drums and you know, tambourines, and he's guitar and he's got an amazing voice, and he he creates an energy in the crowd that's exciting. So like he'll play a song on guitar and sing, and it'll be a really great song. And then like he'll they'll go into this like jam on the drums, and it's really cool. He's really good. Okay, he's been around it. He's been around for a while. Um, but he started really young.

Steve Glick 33:13

So he's I went to high school with Kenny. He's still a pretty young guy. Good guy. Um dad's a great guy, too.

Dave Rattiner 33:18

Yeah, so then but then if you want something more relaxed, Kenny G is gonna be at the West Hampton Beach Performing Arts Center. Yes, the actual The Kenny G. Yeah, the Kenny G. G. Yeah, Kenny G.

Ed Gaetjens 33:29

Still alive.

Dave Rattiner 33:30

I'm looking at this picture right now.

Ed Gaetjens 33:32

Not not again. Eddie G, but I would know. Forget about it.

Dave Rattiner 33:39

And then I don't know, other stuff. We got the Amiganset Fine Arts Festival that's June 29th and June 30th, and just head on into Amigansett to see some amazing art. It's all outdoors that starts at 10 a.m., but that runs pretty much all morning and like into the mid-afternoon. Um, and then you got the Nancy Atlas project at the Stephen Talk House. I was looking at her on social media. She's gonna be playing Friday at 8 p.m. Uh, she's you know, Nancy Atlas, the legend the music legend. So it's looking like a pretty, pretty cool weekend. I always like to ask, what's your favorite? Ed and I want to give a shout out to Arthur and Sons. We had dinner at Arthur and Sons in Bridgehampton, and it was fantastic.

Ed Gaetjens 34:22

I never saw a man eat like Dave ate that night. Is that the Italian place to do it? It is, it's pretty good, but Dave just cleared it. He cleared that table like a hurdle. It was unbelievable. God bless him.

John Healey 34:32

Hey, don't forget, Dave. Uh, next week.

Dave Rattiner 34:35

Yeah.

John Healey 34:35

North Sea Carnival and Fireworks. Yeah, I almost forgot. You won't see that. It'll be started by the time you do the next podcast.

Dave Rattiner 34:42

Right, right. Okay, fine.

John Healey 34:43

The second to the sixth.

Dave Rattiner 34:45

Perfect. Uh we go there. That's good for kids.

John Healey 34:48

You'll be there, John.

Steve Glick 34:49

You'll be working there? I will be there. Look for Big John at the fireworks. Dunking booth.

John Healey 34:56

I am right next to the donkey booth. I'm not working the donkey booth.

Andrew Doud 35:00

It's so good.

Ed Gaetjens 35:02

All right.

Andrew Doud 35:02

Yeah, that's the weekend in the Hamptons. All right, good deal. All right. This was fun. Uh, a lot of good insight. Um any style tips, I guess. You know, Ed's Ed's the man to talk to for that. Um, guys, thanks for joining us, everybody. That's it. We'll call that a podcast. Have a great day. Have a great weekend. I'm Manager Dow. That's what's happening in the Hamptons.