Episode 19 - Drew Green

Discussing The Evolution of Hamptons Real Estate 

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Transcript

Andrew Doud 0:07

Alright, good Thursday afternoon, everyone. I'm Manager Dow of Stoneers and Associates, and this is another episode of the Happening in the Hamptons Podcast, our weekly breakdown of the Hamptons market, new listings, and events on the East End. The Happening in the Hamptons podcast is sponsored by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit New YorkTitle.com or titleinsurance.com. So we are joined, as always, by Steve Glick, Dave Retiner, and today Drew Green, who is based out of our Bridge Hampton office. Guys, thanks so much for being with us. Drew, I want to start with you. You've been you've been in the real estate game since what, 1997? Yes, sir. So you've kind of seen the market fluctuate, the ebbs and flows of of the Hamptons over the last 20 plus years. So talk to us a little bit about what you've seen as far as you know what the Hamptons market looked like when you got into it, how it's changed, and what you're seeing now and how you think that'll kind of apply to the future.

Drew Green 0:58

Well, certainly over 25 years, the Hamptons market has really changed quite a bit. When I first got into the business, we were doing business on the Rolodexes with the listings and the computers were were in play, but you you had very limited information. You had a bedroom and bathroom count, you had the street address, uh, you might have square footage, and that was pretty much it. And today the information that uh brokers and for that matter the customers have at their fingertips is is tremendous versus when I first got into the business. It's changed a lot.

Andrew Doud 1:30

And how about pricing?

Drew Green 1:32

I mean, I'm sure pricing is has certainly changed a lot. Uh we were talking earlier about when I first got into the business, the first listing I ever took was uh uh $210,000 little cottage uh on a half acre parcel. And uh today that I I drove by that house actually not too long ago. It's still in the same condition. And uh obviously being having had to do some research in that neighborhood recently, the homes that are similar around it are going for around a million dollars today. So you know that's a five-fold increase over the years. Good investment if you bought back then.

Dave Rattiner 2:07

Yes, absolutely. When you were looking at properties back then, did it feel like they were really expensive back then? Like when you saw a property back then where you're like, wow, that's astronomically expensive. You know, I can't believe people pay that. Like as I feel that way now, and then I'm thinking, you know, maybe back then that's how everyone always feels, you know?

Drew Green 2:27

Well, absolutely. When I first got into the business in in 1997, interestingly enough, uh I thought I was getting in late into the game. I said, Oh my goodness, the market has been on an upper trend for the last four years, five years, and I was concerned that we were in due for a uh downturn. Uh lo and behold, that little did I know we were just getting in at the beginning. Uh turned out the the first house I ever sold was an oceanfront house. And back then that was kind of a legendary story. The first house I ever sold was a guy that walked in on a Sunday, hot Sunday afternoon in July, and and uh you know, a couple months, six months later he ended up buying a house from me on the ocean for four million dollars uh on the ocean on Flying Point Road. And that was uh uh a story that uh a lot of brokers still remind me of today, and that house today is give or take worth about twenty million dollars.

Steve Glick 3:20

So people would just walk in. They wouldn't even there's no online hits, there's no social media, they just walk into the office and one house, please.

Drew Green 3:30

Exactly. There was uh what we called uptime, and brokers used to fight for what we call uptime. It still exists today, but there it's not the certainly the significance that it used to be.

Steve Glick 3:40

Um go ahead. And what were they looking for? Like I know we have a new construction boom right now. Everyone, you know, a lot of people want turnkey new construction. What was the trend back then in 97 or you know in the early 2000s?

Drew Green 3:52

When I first got into the business, interestingly enough, the what the term shabby chic, a lot of people seem to like the shabby chic.

Steve Glick 3:59

Shabby chic, okay.

Drew Green 4:00

They like the cottage, they like the old world. Oh they they like the old world Hamptons. Today, uh, you know, I think people like the aesthetics of what's the old world looked like, but they weren't shiny and new.

Andrew Doud 4:14

Yeah, that's they that's torn down now. And shiny and new with that maybe classical feel is you know, it's new, it's crazy. Um so alright, so we we've talked a little bit about what it was like. So if people are looking now, they're in the market now, and they're saying, well, look, Drew, it we're we're in the upswing. It's the market's hot. I'm gonna wait for it to go down. But I mean, do you still buy now? Like, what do you tell people that are in the market now that are saying the prices are all the way up here and I'm gonna wait till they come down a little bit?

Drew Green 4:42

Well, uh I take a long-term approach to my real estate business, and I advise a lot of my customers to look at it from a long long-term approach. And if if you are doing that, you can't lose, in my opinion. Uh, once again, if you follow the stock market, uh, interestingly enough, last night I looked to see what the stock market had done since I got in the business versus uh what it is today, it's up, give or take, about three and a half fold since I got in the business. And interestingly enough, real estate has also done the same. So, yes, real estate long-term is gonna go up, it's gonna go down, but if you're a long-term player, it's always gonna go up in the answer.

Andrew Doud 5:24

Well, even buying now, even though we're kind of at like a you know, we're in a seller's market, even buying now over the next 10, 20 years, is still, in your opinion, a seller.

Drew Green 5:32

Absolutely. If you if you see yourself using the home over the next 10 years, I can't see that there's any way you can.

Steve Glick 5:37

And you've seen a lot of trends happening. I mean, you you said you were when you started there was the internet um bubble first. Right. And then 9-11 happened. And now we're in the COVID-19 era. So you're you're seeing you've been around all these trends. What do you what what's the overall outcome from these trends?

Drew Green 5:55

Well, the uh to your point, the uh when I first got into the business, the dot com bubble had just happened. Uh the real estate boom of the Hamptons in the 80s, which really was pretty much the first boom that uh that happened, uh, had happened and things had turned down. And then starting in the mid-90s, they started to slowly climb. And it, of course, the next boom was after 9-11. 9-11 really saw a big boom out here, in that people were concerned that you know terrorist attack were imminent in the city. Uh, so there was a big rush to come out here, and that really uh drove our market for a good five years out here. Um and then, of course, uh 2008 happened and we had a downturn. And, you know, frankly speaking, for about two and a half years, three years, it was soft. And then, you know, 2012, 2013 it really started to build again. And uh 2015 the numbers were out outstanding. Yeah.

Andrew Doud 6:58

But to your point, even if you bought in 2003, 2005, and the you know, the bubble burst in 2008, even if in theory your investment had taken a downturn, it's still up from where it would have been when you initially bought. And that's what you're talking long term.

Drew Green 7:14

Absolutely, it's like steps. It goes it goes up and then it you know may might go down a bit, but then all long term, once again, it's always up long term.

Dave Rattiner 7:23

Well, you also pay it off. Like so eventually, you know, I you know, I know pe uh a lot of people either, you know, they went to high school with their parents or whatever, you know, they're sitting on mil a few a few million dollars worth of real estate, but it's just it's it's not like they're heavily invested in real estate. They just it's paid off 30 years has gone by. Right. And now you have this wonderful asset that they can rent or they could sell it, or and it's you know, you hear all these, you know, I I just heard a story the other day about um uh an agent who has a uh a friend in the city who's been renting in the city uh for like 40 years, something like that. And you know, they just they had to leave recently, and you know, they got they they've been paying into this system for 40 years, this rental system, and then at the end, nothing. And if you can really wrap your mind around, you know, 30 years going by and then it's paid off, you you're you're to your point, you just can't lose. I mean, especially in the Hamptons.

Drew Green 8:17

Agreed, and to your point as well, the the interesting thing about real estate in my eyes is that unlike other commodities, you get to use it, you get to enjoy it. You if you got gold, if you have silver, if you have a stock, you know, yes, it's an investment, and yes, you might have some appreciation in it, but in the meantime, you don't get to swim in it, you don't get to you don't get to go to the beach in it, you you know, with it. You these are things that you can actually you can enjoy it, and for that matter, it gives you the flexibility, as you said, you can also rent it and generate additional income off of it. I mean, so so you can bring gold to the beach. Real estate is really, frankly, very flexible in that sense.

Andrew Doud 8:57

Um so listen, we've I mean week in and week out, we keep talking about how the the market did the numbers are just crazy. And you know, we always give a breakdown with Steve of what the numbers are doing, but this week, Steve, we're we're up even more over where we were last week and the week before. It's just it's kind of like where's the seal?

Steve Glick 9:12

Yeah, it's incredible what's happening in 2021. Um over the past couple weeks, we were seeing 55 deals, 55, 54, all in the 50s. Um this past week uh we eclipsed that and we uh ex saw uh 71 listings going to contract from West Hampton to Montauk. 71. That's an incredible number. And when you compare that to the same week last year, there are only 24, which is normal for a January.

Dave Rattiner 9:40

Almost three times.

Steve Glick 9:41

So, yeah, we're looking at the year-of-year increase is 195% versus last year. Um this is wild. 71, it's a it's a big number. Um, we're excited about it. It's it's great to see the breakdown of these transactions. There was two between 10 and 20. So big properties are trading two between eight and ten, uh, four between six and eight million, eight between four and six million, twenty-one between two and four million, and thirty-four under two million dollars. And then again, we always pay close attention to the listings coming onto the market. This past week there were thirty-two listings coming onto the market. So we have seventy-one going into contract, it leaves a deficit of thirty-nine listings. So inventory is definitely on the decline compared to the number of properties uh going into contract. The breakdown of those 32 new listings that are coming onto the market, there's one between over 20 million, five between ten and twenty million, two between six and eight million, three between four and six million, eight between two and four million, six between one and two, and seven under uh under one million dollars. Out of all those listings, we we Saunders launched uh quite a few of those listings, but one in particular I wanted to highlight today is listed with Drew Green. It's three Halsey Path in Southampton Village. This property is over 10,000 square feet, has house, pool, and tennis, right?

Andrew Doud 11:06

That's everything you want.

Steve Glick 11:07

Got it all. Movie theater, all the amenities, the gym. This is priced at 10.95 million. I know, Drew, you're getting tons of activity on this. Just tell us more about this property. What makes it so special?

Drew Green 11:19

Well, it's it's it is a terrific property. I think aesthetically it's very pleasing. Uh it's got that classic traditional Hamptons old world feel, yet it once again also has all the modern amenities that one might want. It's got all the bells and whistles, it's got the movie theater, it's got the gym, it's got the sauna, it's you know, got uh a living room with two fireplaces, it's got the high ceilings, it's got all the light pouring into it, it looks over farm fields and all this a mere three-quarters of a mile to the ocean beach.

Dave Rattiner 11:54

This is a great spot. Yeah, it's so gorgeous. We uh me and Steve um toured this thing and it's just so beautiful there. I mean, it's just overwhelming how uh well constructed the house is. And then what you were just saying, it's like so classy looking on the outside, but then uh everything is so modernized on the inside, so it checks off that box for people looking for the new construction.

Andrew Doud 12:17

Plus, you talk about that that investment that you can use. I mean, it says everything you would want in an investment in a in a house.

Drew Green 12:24

I mean, it does, inclusive of uh the home office that one might want to work from home. The master suite has a very generous and uh gracious uh sitting room/slash office that uh one can conduct all their business from.

Andrew Doud 12:39

Got a little gym down there, a billiard room down the lower level.

Steve Glick 12:43

Not at all. And the amenities. We talk about the amenities. That's what people are looking for now, just to have ever everything, all the boxes checked off. And this one certainly has that. So it's a great property, 1.3 acres. Uh 1.43 acres. 1.43, sorry about that.

Andrew Doud 12:59

1.43 and three-quarters of a mile to the beach. Right. But true, in this one's better.

Dave Rattiner 13:03

In a normal market, in a normal market, a property that's over 10 million. I mean, showings aren't very frequent. Uh is that safe to say in a normal market? Would you say in this market you're getting a lot more calls than you know?

Drew Green 13:16

Excellent point, Dave. Dave, the what had been driven our market pre-COVID was really the modestly priced homes of uh, you know, a million to two million dollar homes were really driving our market. And since COVID, the uh higher end of the market, the five million plus, the ten million plus homes are really starting to move. And uh this is this is of course in that category. And yeah, the the demand to see this home has been tremendous.

Andrew Doud 13:46

I want to I want to Drew, I'm just curious. We we talked about the past, the future, what the market is right now. Uh you know, typically the the winter season isn't when we start seeing numbers in the in the 50s and the 70s. Um, you know, we've we certainly relax anymore. Yeah. So what do you see as far as the summer selling season? What do you think that that looks like? Do you think things intensify? Do you think people have bought their homes now and they're gonna be out here enjoying the the market?

Drew Green 14:10

Well, I a lot of agents I speak to um agree that this pandemic has kind of turned our market on its head in that sense that b people are going to continue to work from home and work from their residence because they realize they can. You know, z zoom Zoom meetings are the norm now, and I suspect that that's going to continue. It's gonna free people up to continue to stay out here. They won't have to go back to the city as frequently, and they can conduct their business from home. And the the the consensus among my associates is that this is going to be a trend that's going to continue. And I thus think it's going to drive our market for the next couple of years.

Dave Rattiner 14:57

And is it not just because people want to be able to do that, but also the companies, these large companies that rent that used to rent out these uh offices, they they now realize they don't have to do that.

Drew Green 15:08

Exactly. Exactly. They realize they don't need the space that you're speaking of. So uh, you know, unfortunately, I think uh Hampton's commercial real estate or excuse me, uh New York City commercial real estate has suffered accordingly, and uh you know it's that money has come out here in residential real estate in the Hamptons.

Dave Rattiner 15:26

Interesting.

Andrew Doud 15:27

Um Three Halsey Path, Southampton, uh great listing. So if you're interested in checking that out, certainly go to Saunders.com and give Drew a call. Uh but I want to send it over to Dave now with your favorite part of the podcast, the weekly breakdown of what is happening in the Hamptons Dave.

Dave Rattiner 15:41

That's right, it's happening in the Hamptons time. It's a good weekend. I have some virtual events and one in-person event that you can also do virtually. Uh I've attended a few virtual events now, and I gotta say, you really feel a sense of community when you do it. So uh, you know, if you're bored at home and you want to do something virtually, uh, I recommend doing it. Uh my favorite one right now is the uh Bay Street Virtual Sip and Sing, where you and a group of crazy people all get together on Zoom and sing show tunes from Broadway uh together while you sip whatever beverage you want from the comfort of your own home. That's happening February 19th.

Andrew Doud 16:24

So you know the singing gets better the longer that goes on.

Dave Rattiner 16:26

Yes, that's that happens February 19th at 5 p.m. I will not be attending that because I cannot sing. Uh and then the second uh event is a is a guided meditation at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. That's happening February 20th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. with Mary Salmon. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Um and then the third event is the Art Center at Duck Creek in Springs, which is really cool. Um it's such an authentic spot in Springs. It's like it's kind of like a barn area that's uh in like a field, and they promote local artists and they promote uh you know local musicians and things like that. Um but this weekend they're gonna start featuring uh a bunch of local artists uh that you can and and they also are gonna have a camera that you can zoom in and see the art if you want. But I would really recommend going in person to this one because a lot of it's outdoors and you you'll be totally fine uh with that. And those are my three picks. You guys stay classy out there in the Hamptons.

Andrew Doud 17:36

Perfect, thank you. Uh Drew, thanks so much for joining us in the insight and your time. We appreciate it. Um, once again, the Happening in the Hamptons podcast is sponsored by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit newertitle.com or titleinsurance.com. That's it for this week. Thank you all so much for listening. I'm Andrew Dowd, and that is what's happening in the Hamptons.