Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back - A Real Estate Podcast

S2E6 – Leading With Heart: The Barbara Mullaney Team on Real Estate, Long Beach, and Giving Back

• Coldwell Banker American Homes • Season 2 • Episode 6

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In this episode of Work Hard, Play Hard, and Give Back – A Real Estate Podcast, host Mike Litzner sits down with Barbara Mullaney and team members Katy Myers and Peggy Elliott of The Barbara Mullaney Team — one of the top-producing teams on Long Island.

From building a business on referrals to mastering the unique dynamics of the Long Beach and Barrier Islands market, the conversation dives deep into:

  • The evolution from solo agent to successful team
  • Honest, data-backed pricing strategies
  • Flood insurance realities and home elevation after Sandy
  • The power of Long Beach’s tight-knit community
  • Summer rentals, housing styles, and market trends
  • Running a team rooted in trust, collaboration, and purpose
  • How they give back through causes like the Long Beach Soup Kitchen and Michael Diamond Foundation

Whether you’re an agent thinking about joining or starting a team, or just love real estate stories with purpose, this episode delivers insight and heart in equal measure.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Work Hard, play Hard and Give Back a real estate podcast. I'm Mike Litzner, broker owner of Coldwell Banker American Homes, and I'm here today with Barbara Mullaney of the Barbara Mullaney team, along with Katie Myers I got the married name and Peggy Elliott, barbara's daughters and team members as well. So welcome to the show, guys.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having us. We're happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

All right, are you really? Come on. You don't know what questions I'm asking. We're going to find out real quickly. So before we jump in, I just want to remind our audience. Please, if you like what you're seeing here, like subscribe, join our future episodes coming up, and join our future episodes coming up and remember to stay for the end for the drop the mic question. We always have a drop the mic question at the end, which is meant to catch a little off guard, so hopefully I'll have a little fun with that. All right, so let's start with the first question here with barbara. Let me start with you as the team lead, you know. So first let me say how happy we are to have you back as part of the family after you know, certainly after having a short stint of studying abroad at a different company. So tell us a little bit more about your real estate journey.

Speaker 4:

Well, my real estate journey started in, I believe, 2002. I was a single mom with these two girls, and I was waitressing and bartending, but I felt like I really needed to do a little more for myself, to educate myself, do a little something different. So I felt that real estate was perfect for me because, you know, I could be home with the kids, it gave me a flexible schedule, all that good stuff. So I basically decided that I was going to take the real estate class at Long Beach High School and my instructor was a gentleman named Dan Ryan and Don Wallace.

Speaker 1:

You recognize that name. Yes, I do so.

Speaker 4:

They were terrific. I made a lot of good friends, put myself out there, passed the test, passed the course, all that good stuff and I ended up working for Ryan and Wallace because I just had a lot of respect for him. I learned so much, and it was in Long Beach At the time. Ryan and Wallace was the number one broker. I was a mom and pop and I thought that was a great place for me to be. So I worked there for about a year and I decided that you know what I can't do this.

Speaker 1:

I went to my manager.

Speaker 4:

I was going to quit real estate and I went to Dan's wife, Kate, who is our manager, and I said, Kate, it's brutal out there. I'm not that kind of person, I can't do this. And she said, Barbara, I promise you she goes. You can be a good, honest professional and succeed in this business. And she was right.

Speaker 4:

So Katie is the reason that I'm sitting here today. So anyway, it took me a couple of years to make some money, yeah. So, slowly but surely, I gave up some shifts waitressing and bartending and started doing real estate full time.

Speaker 1:

That transition time is like a little tricky in the beginning, isn't it? So you're trying to juggle the regular job until you can get your pipeline up and going and I think a lot of people who aren't in real estate don't understand that. Being a commissioned job, it's exciting because you control your own destination, but if you have those swales in between, you know it can. No, it's exciting because you control your own destination, but if you have those swales in between, you know it can no, it's tough.

Speaker 4:

I mean, I was a single mom, you know, yeah, supporting my uh, you know my family, but I was lucky because I was bartending and waitressing, which allowed me to do real estate during the day yeah and then make my money at night. But it was such a great feeling. Probably three or four years in I was able to drop a shift here, drop a shift there and I remember my first paycheck, my first real end of the year. I went to Dan I said is this right?

Speaker 4:

I made, I think, $45,000. I was like woo. So that was really the beginning and throughout my career. You know I've worked for a couple of different agencies in Long Beach but Century 21 American.

Speaker 1:

Homes was my first.

Speaker 4:

it really was my first real home because I remember Dan Ryan came and recruited me again and you know I was with you guys for, you know, 12 years. Yeah yeah, and I went to study abroad for a little bit and I found that it just wasn't for me, that I needed to be home.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And now I'm back at Carwell Banker American Homes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And I could not be happier.

Speaker 1:

Well, we share your happiness and I'd like to say company culture is not overrated. Really, it's important that you love the place you work and when you have the right people there, that culture is actually easy. Everyone loves you guys. You guys have such a great reputation, so when agents in the Long Beach office found that you were coming back, I can't tell you how happy everyone was, like like that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

We were a little nervous, we were like how we would be received again, but we were everybody welcomed us with open arms.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it was really yeah, which is good. You know I tell everybody it sounds corny, but it really felt like a warm hug coming back yeah, and I mean that yeah, um, and it's funny because you know Tom, you know yourself and Tom have such a wonderful culture. And it's funny because you know Tom, you know yourself, and Tom have such a wonderful culture. And it's really the culture that I've created within my team.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 4:

You know, especially going back to Katie Ryan when I was going to quit I need a place, a safe place. My workplace has to be safe, it has to be comfortable, because we deal in a very stressful environment. We need to have an environment where we feel comfortable, everybody works together because, you know, real estate can be a little cutthroat, yeah, but our company is not like that no, no, we wouldn't, wouldn't tolerate it, so no good.

Speaker 1:

So tell me about the advent of Barbara Mulaney, the agent to the Barbara Mulaney team. What year did that happen, and what made the pivot in your brain to start to switch to the team model in real estate?

Speaker 4:

It actually happened in 2016. I started doing really well, which was so exciting. But I'm the kind of person, especially when you start to get listings, you get tons of leads and you become very busy and it was getting to a point where I physically couldn't get back to everybody and it drives me crazy. So I was giving out leads to people and things like that, but I realized that I need help. So one night I was having some wine, wine with you drink one mary o'donnell.

Speaker 4:

I was very, very dear friend of mine forever and you know we were. She's always was uplifting and coaching me, you know, to do well in real estate and whatnot, and I asked her if she wanted a wonderful spirit, if I may add.

Speaker 1:

I asked her if she wanted to be my assistant.

Speaker 4:

I asked her if she wanted to be my assistant and she said yes. So we had our wine and we laughed, we cried. We had a great time that night, and the next morning I called her. I'm like so, are you ready?

Speaker 1:

And she's like ready for what I said I was serious.

Speaker 4:

So, uh, so that's so. That's really where it began. She was my assistant, and then I brought Tracy Johnson, who is a Long Beach native yes, and she's one of my dear friends as well, so she came aboard. And then, I think, peggy came on yeah, early 2017., early 2017. Then I brought my daughter on, which was so exciting and then Mary decided she wanted to do a little more. Uh, real estate yeah, instead. Of just being my assistant. So we kind of kicked her to the curb, which she always says and um.

Speaker 1:

Katie got no meat, I swear so then, katie became my assistant.

Speaker 4:

And what else? Who else we got? Who else do we have?

Speaker 3:

um, so we've grown. We've like fluctuated, um, but yeah, the team kind of kept growing and I evolved. I originally was part-time as her assistant and then, um, you know, we just needed more help, I think, just handling the team in general. So I was also the team. So, yeah, I've been doing that since 2018. But, yeah, now we're a team of eight women.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And just for our audience to give them contrast. A lot of people are like I'm number one, I'm the best, but in all essence, I mean the Barbara Mullaney team is one of the top producing teams in real estate in the entire Long Island board. I'm going to say so kudos for you for not only sticking with it because, again, not everyone has an easy path and we're listening to yours but it's having the drive and determination to push through the challenges to get to a better place.

Speaker 4:

And also, too, you're having the right people, the same work ethic, the same ethics.

Speaker 1:

All right good. So for our audience, let's talk a little bit about the dynamic. Katie kind of manages the team right now, but obviously you're a licensed, so from day to day, what does managing the Barb and Marlene team look like for you?

Speaker 3:

As her team manager? Yes, so I'm. You know I'm always checking in with the girls. You know, at one point, you know, I offered, you know, kind of coaching with them. You know, checking in with their business, helping them see their pipeline, yeah, and just really. However, you know, barb or myself, we could just be of more support, just like the company is for any agent. So well, so you take care of all the advertising, yeah, the advertising and the branding, the marketing. You know we try every year to meet. You know what's our vision for the year. So it's a lot of different things and I think that's what I love about the job. It's it's so many different aspects. Sometimes I'm in the office all day, or other days, you know, we're out and out and about doing things. So it's a fun business to be a part of.

Speaker 1:

I think the key word you just said there is business. You know people think it's like oh, I got a job, I'm a real estate agent. It's not you're. You have an opportunity to build a business. Yes, you. So you're in business for yourself, not necessarily by yourself. Obviously, the broker brings the office and equipment and licensing and right, obviously, company culture, some other things to the table.

Speaker 3:

But it's really your business and yeah, at the end of the day, it's your own company, yeah yeah, exactly, and I think that's what's so nice about the team is we really help each other to like. You know, everyone has their different approach to their own business, and we try to help each other, to like get new business and everyone's gonna have a different approach.

Speaker 3:

But um own business and we try to help each other to get new business and everyone's going to have a different approach. But yeah, we just try to really support everyone and set them up for success.

Speaker 1:

So, would you say, your transition into more of the sales being part of the sales team is more complete now that you have the assistant trained.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely. It definitely frees up a lot of time. You know, working for her it's a lot of work, yeah and put her in production.

Speaker 1:

Which means, yes, you've become from a liability side to an asset that's a good size to be on.

Speaker 3:

You like to be on the asset side but I feel like working, you know, side by side with her day in and day out, like I, I've learned just so much and I clearly see and I know what it takes to be very successful in industry.

Speaker 1:

So just putting all that to work and in my own, way Front row seat to the best in the business, absolutely, and also too, and having my daughters.

Speaker 4:

Obviously, like each person on the team, has their strengths and weaknesses, and that's why it's great, because we all help each other. Like Peggy is someone who I know. When she's taking care of something, I don't have to think about it, she's on the ball. She's actually helped me a lot and given me a lot of confidence, where sometimes I'll hem and whore about something Sorry, my girls always make fun of my sayings.

Speaker 3:

It's been like a thing as she's gotten older. We're like what does that mean?

Speaker 4:

And like new ones come about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, right, but she's we're very young and relevant come on.

Speaker 4:

But she's always she's like my go-to as well and she's given me a lot of confidence. So a lot of times I'll go to her for advice. So you know, it's just different personalities how you handle things. Sometimes I'll let, I'll hold on to things and she's like ma, so a lot of times I want to try to be more like Peg.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's cool. Well, peggy, since we're here, let's hear from Peggy, so tell our audience a little bit about the role that you play on the team.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so yeah. So I've just been an agent since early 2017. You know, I grew up in the restaurant business so I was always running around and I honestly had no idea really what I wanted to do. And you know, watching mom do like kill her business, I was like you know what. I think I could make this work so, and obviously I love the flexibility, so I was very happy that mom even wanted me on the team to begin with, it was a tough interview.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but yeah, it's been a really great experience. I really do love working with them. We get along so well.

Speaker 1:

Do you find?

Speaker 4:

it's a bigger sense of obligation, because it's your mom's team, you know, or or is it giving more?

Speaker 2:

flexibility um, come on, we want to know. She kind of weird like come on, no, she does people want to know you want the dirt yeah, no, I mean truthfully, like I worked with my dad in the restaurant business for like five years, like I worked with her for many years at cabana it's like we've always, we've always worked together. Yeah, so it was just kind of like it just fit no, it's interesting.

Speaker 1:

They say um, restaurant bartending, it's service businesses. They say people who are successful in the service industry translate. It translates over very effectively into real estate because ultimately, people think we're salespeople. We're not, we're service people. We've paid a lot of money to help people. So when that light goes on, that approach comes in, the success of that agent seems to jump up correspondingly, Because it's relationships.

Speaker 4:

Yes, you know, when you're working in the restaurant business same place you know you build relationships with your customers. Some of you have your regular customers. So you do, you build friendships, you build relationships and it's the same thing. Like you know, you can be transactional or you could have, you know, go of, go the relationship route. Yeah, and that's how we all deal with our business, like you're not just a transaction to us. Yes, you're a person.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're a relationship, yeah, so I think I would be um surprised if you answer this any different than would you consider yourself, uh, um, the referrals, the biggest source of your business oh my gosh, yeah, absolutely yeah, wow, that's the philosophy I can see from the philosophy of sharing that, yeah.

Speaker 4:

So it's funny like I'm not your traditional realtor. You know you're supposed to knock on doors, you're supposed to cold call, that's just not who. Who I am Right, um, which I? I probably could have become very good at it, right, um, but it was kind of like a fear thing, okay, um. So I have obviously become, you know, successful in my career, but it took me a lot longer than somebody would that.

Speaker 4:

It would have taken somebody else because, you know, literally I built my entire business on referrals. Yeah, so you know, the first couple of years all you do is rentals, but then those renters turn into buyers yes and then those buyers turn to sellers, you know, and then it just continues on. So you know, you know, that's why I always I feel badly when I like well, how did you do it? I'm like you know all referrals, but a newer agent, I would say, listen, you should cold call.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

You should knock on doors, but you'll get a lot, you know. You'll catapult your business a little faster or you'll be more successful.

Speaker 1:

More fast, yeah, but I think one of the secret things, though, that you kind of gloss over is I can guarantee you when you speak to somebody you're excellent communicator. Your follow-up is probably spot on right. So you know, you say, well, I wasn't really traditional, but you know what the fundamentals are important and, um, it's interesting from my vantage point, you know there's a lot of agents that watch our shows and you hear different sayings.

Speaker 1:

So here's one of your sayings, but it's a real estate one. But buyers are liars, right, and you know, there's no loyalty in this business right. And yet you just stated for our audience about how, as one of the most successful team makes builds its success on loyalty and referrals. So I always say referrals happen by design, not by accident. You just have to earn it. So that comes from an internal focus on the consumer and the consumer experience. So there is the light bulb that goes off. I know that's there.

Speaker 1:

And I always hear great things about you, so I have a little insight for our audience, or our vantage point, so to speak. So let me pivot a little bit to Long Beach, because you guys are in a really interesting marketplace. So, yes, we're a New York State license, yes, we can sell anywhere, but a tremendous part of your business is foundationally in the Long Beach community. And so Long Beach, for our audience who people don't know is it's a city, right? So it's not just a town. Long Beach, for our audience, who people don't know, it's a city, right? So it's not just a town, it's a city by itself, where a lot of the towns out here maybe have 12,000, 13,000 houses, if I understand correctly and you can correct me on this, but I think there's 40,000 units in Long Beach itself. Of course you've got Lido and Point Lookout.

Speaker 2:

We're a big little city.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, atlantic Beach, right. So it's a barrier island, right, and it's a beach. We have the boardwalk. Why don't you share a little bit about you know? So let me step back one second. Katie Pegg, you, you guys both grew up in Long Beach. You've always been down there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we moved down here. I was six, katie was three and, yeah, we haven't left 97, okay all right and we're settled here.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, both of their husbands. Yeah, we're not we're not.

Speaker 4:

We're all 15 minutes apart. Yeah, we can walk to each other's houses.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, so tell our audience a little bit more about the Long Beach marketplace. What, what could that? So if someone was looking, what would they find there?

Speaker 4:

well, long Beach is really unique. I remember I lived up in Bybeer Mountain for about 10 years.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I didn't realize you were all the way up there.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so I grew up in the Bronx but every summer since I'm born we went down to Long Beach for the entire summer. So really it was like my second home. So I was up in Peekskill for about 10 years. I moved back down and I was like I will never, ever be more than a block away from the beach again. So Long Beach really is a special place because you have the beach, you have the bay, you are only 50 minutes to Manhattan, you have the Long Island Railroad, but mostly you Long Beach is a feeling yeah, it really is Like it sounds again, it sounds a little corny, but you know you can't help but feel positive Like you go for a walk on the boardwalk.

Speaker 3:

It's just, it's gorgeous, it's a great vibe, like we were so lucky during COVID just to have so much outdoor space to enjoy, yeah, to have the beach too, and it's just a positive vibe.

Speaker 4:

Everyone's running, biking, you know, obviously going to the beach, but also Long Beach has such a great community of people yeah, Ridiculous, you know we're a very close-knit community and you know God forbid anything happens. You know, a tragedy in a family or whatever the case may be, Long Beach comes together like I've never seen in my whole life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So everyone's always supporting each other and, in general, it's a great place. It's a great place to bring your family up. We have the rec center. We have Great shops great restaurants. The restaurants are unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

now it seems like when you have the people down in Long Beach they say they don't like to leave the Barry Isles.

Speaker 3:

Never, no, I can't believe you got us here to. Franklin Square.

Speaker 4:

That's right, but it's funny people are like they don't want to leave. They'll go over the bridge.

Speaker 2:

You don't really need to, though we're so self-sufficient.

Speaker 4:

So that's what's great we have different areas of Long Beach we have the west end of Long Beach and then we have the West home section, the center what's the major difference between, say, the West End and you know? So, basically, you, know the West End is the most narrow part of our island. Okay, so they're all 30 by pretty much, 30 by 60 lots of small, lots so it's all like that's where all the bungalows were.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, but you know everything is walking distance in the West End. Yeah, and you're more close is walking distance in the West End, yeah, and you're more close to the beach and the bay at that point, right. But there's a ton of restaurants. You have your own key food, you have your coffee shops, your restaurants, so it's a whole cute little area. And then, once you head out, you go into the West Home area, so the island starts to widen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, as you come back to the center.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, as you're going East.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And then you have the boardwalk, starts on New York, which is the first block of the West end, and then it continues to Neptune. So you know you're going to go through the West home area which pretty much has it has delis here and there, right, some shops. That's where our offices in Long Beach. That's the West Home area.

Speaker 1:

Okay, see, I'm learning stuff there.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we have our diner, the Laurel Diner, we have our cleaners, all that good stuff, some cute shops, and then you come to the center of town that's where the train station is, and again you have a whole other slew of restaurants and shops. And then you cross over Long Beach Road and you enter the East End.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

And what's nice, though, even in the East End, like the island's getting wider and wider.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 4:

But the East End has their own key food, their own restaurants.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

Their cleaners, their distributor. So it's very unique.

Speaker 1:

Are lot sizes bigger on the East End because it's wider than, say, the West End, because the West End has some small lots.

Speaker 4:

I would east end because it's wider, or then say the west end because the west end has some small lots, but I would say the west home and the east home is definitely they have a little more land, yeah, so the average I would say you know you can get anywhere from. You know, uh, 30 by 100. Right to you know, there's some houses, some of the old mansions, they're on a 100 by 100 lot. That's bad, I would say average. It's like 40 by 100 lots 50 by 100 lots.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now you can get a mixture of housing styles in Long Beach, a little bit different than a lot of the suburban sprawl that we have across Long Island.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 1:

You want to share a little bit because sometimes you have multifamily condo co-ops.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that's true too. We have so many different types, well the housing, the single family homes and the. There's a ton of multi-family homes as well. You know, we have the old style with the terracotta roofs the spanish style homes.

Speaker 4:

You know, we still have some bungalows, but you know, with sandy happening, we have a ton of raised homes, um, and some of them are, so they're ultra-modern, but then you could have a 1920s home right next to it. So you really have a mixture. But what's unique about Long Beach? You have a lot to choose from. I mean, we have I don't even know how many buildings we have we have co-ops, condos, we have a plethora of townhomes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So, really, whatever you're looking for, you'll probably find.

Speaker 1:

Really it does.

Speaker 4:

And our rental market is huge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's the thing, one of the things I've noticed.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, peggy's my rental. One of my rental specialists.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so how much is rentals overall of your business, would you say?

Speaker 2:

A very good amount, probably at least half for me yeah yeah, probably even a little more.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I guess for each individual agent. It all depends on you know what, you know what you the main part of your business, what you're known for, kind of thing. But rentals can be. You couldn't make a great living just on doing rentals. Yeah, very, very lucrative, I mean, I guess I would say you're, all in all with the team, maybe a quarter. Yeah, I think that probably sounds.

Speaker 1:

The one thing I've noticed in most of our markets you have agents that do sales, who don't touch rentals, a couple of them that do a little bit of a hybrid, but there's a couple of rental agents out there. Long Beach is that unique marketplace, I think, because of the sheer volume of available rentals and also maybe you can touch on the summer rental. That's something you don't see in other parts of the markets except for maybe when you get out to the Hamptons or something like that. So what does a summer rental look like?

Speaker 4:

So summer rentals, they've actually gone down a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

During COVID. It was insane.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Summer rentals as long as we also have winter rentals. Okay, which is a funny thing. People are like, well, who the heck wants to come to Long Beach in the winter? But we do quite a good amount of winter rentals because people sell their home, they need something temporary or they want to try out long beach.

Speaker 4:

You know they'll rent it from like september to to may yeah and it's nice for landlords because they can get the best of both worlds. But summer rentals this year is looking pretty, pretty positive. You figure a lot of the rentals in the west end. A lot of people would like to rent in the West End because you can walk everywhere. The buildings on the ocean obviously are super desirable, but people rent all over Long Beach because you're never that far, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So people sometimes have it stuck in their head. They're like we need to be on the beach side, like south of Park Avenue. I'm like, truthfully, it's not that much of a longer distance to the beach if you're on the bay side, and there's a lot of benefits to being on the bay side of Long Beach too Less trouble parking if you don't have parking.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, a little more quiet. Where do you see the shift now? What do you see currently going on in the marketplace? Currently going on in the marketplace?

Speaker 4:

So what I'm seeing is number one. The biggest thing that I, when I talk to my sellers, is you know, when they want to price something, I tell them you can't overprice your home. You know, like, oh, but it's a seller's market. You know, my neighbor tells me we can get a gazillion dollars. But you know, I really try to stress to my sellers whether it's a buyer's market or it's a seller's market. An overpriced home is an overpriced home and it's not going to sell. What's happening is you're going to get your best and most qualified buyers in the first week, in the first couple of days, the first open house, and the trick is to to you know you, you know how you priced it right away, right, and the trick is to, like, really educate your seller on this is. This is the buyer that you want right.

Speaker 1:

Well, the right pricing strategy right, that takes advantage of it the new market and hopefully creates the bidding war as well. So it's interesting a lot. How many times have you heard someone say you know, I just want to try it higher. And if they had tried it at a more competitive price, the bidding war would have driven the price up and they would have got more by asking less.

Speaker 4:

A thousand percent. What do we do before we go to a listing presentation?

Speaker 3:

So we do a comprehensive market analysis, so basically exactly what an appraiser does. So we totally do our homework. Uh, finding the comps and I think a big thing too is like not being afraid to kind of have that conversation with the seller and just kind of really be real about it. Um, we always talk about it's either. It, you know, people say it's price first, promotion, but yeah, it's never promotion's never an issue, you know. Know, we always have it out there. So, yeah, I think we just really try to have like an honest conversation with our sellers. Um, and we, you know, we say you put it out there and you test the market and the market will tell you what it's worth and buyers are so smart these days, like even all my friends, everyone's on zillow, so you know they are ready is that a dirty word?

Speaker 3:

but I know we don't like zillow, so you know they are ready. Is that a dirty word? But I know we don't like Zillow. We try to, you know, steer them away. So, yeah, it's about educating them to. Yeah, what things are actually worth.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and also, too, when I sit down with a seller, you know, I don't typically just hand them a CMA, no, I have an individual. This is just my way I do it. I have individual listings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

And I go through them and I tell them, like listen, I don't have a crystal ball, right. So my job as your realtor is to give you all the information and to educate you on what exactly is happening in the market. And I tell them at the end of me going through all these you know on the market closed, you know, under contract, both of us are going to talk about it and you're going to be like oh yes, this is where we should land, so that you both agree yeah, well, certainly learning something, yes, but so one of the things I think until again.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious your opinion on this. But if you go to a standard town and they say you should pull comps within a mile radius same school district slash zip code if possible. If you're looking at a cape in East Meadow you can find 50 capes that sold in the last year. All right, but first of all you're in the West End. A mile radius is going to put you in the ocean or the bay, right, so you don't have that same depth, that's a great question.

Speaker 1:

So how much does a price change from one block from the ocean or bay? On the bay or ocean, I have a view of the bay or ocean as opposed to just off the main street. How do you factor that stuff in and what's the nuance with that for a Long Beach agent?

Speaker 4:

So everyone wants the beach side. It definitely goes up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

But that's why you have to really know your area. Like I said, like the West End is the narrowest part, so literally you have the beach side, which some people only want the beach side, but it's literally two blocks. So you know, when you meet an appraiser you say, listen, obviously it's valued higher because it's on the beach side, but in the West End it really doesn't make that much of a difference. Hey, if you're ocean front or you're two blocks from the ocean, it's going to be a tremendous difference.

Speaker 1:

So how do you factor in again, if it's oceanfront or I guess Bayside would be bulk-headed? Is that Reynolds Channel?

Speaker 4:

Well, it's basically how you do it. In Long Beach, as I said, the Island Wide End it's Beach Street in the West End. So one's Bayside and one's Beachside. It's only two blocks Right. And then when you go where the Island Wide, the island widens. In the west home area it's either north or south of park avenue right so, but you know that definitely the beach side gets more value. But it all depends on the home yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

So let's throw something a little more serious in more serious yeah well, you have to ask peggy anything flood insurance. Is that like a bad word in long beach for realtor?

Speaker 2:

so uh, I mean everyone's kind of everybody knows yeah, it's like in the beginning it was definitely a shock, uh, but now everyone is always considering, like that's everyone's first question what's the flood insurance?

Speaker 1:

yeah so you know, everybody's aware, is that pretty much standard across the island, or is there certain areas that are higher elevation or yeah, it's not not everywhere need it.

Speaker 2:

Needs flood insurance okay, but in long beach.

Speaker 4:

Yes, you know, it's a really funny thing yeah that you know, I guess I have to educate my you know myself on like the actual zones. But there's one house that we just sold on West Beach Street that did not need flood insurance and all of my 21 years of doing this I've never had that it was. It was shocking. You were like what? No, it really was. I was like, wow, they got flood insurance anyway. But that particular house was a higher elevation yeah, it is unique, a very higher elevation yeah but that was something I learned, that's, you always learn something, um.

Speaker 4:

But what's tough with flood insurance and again that's where a realtor has to have a lot of knowledge on it yes, we know it is that before sandy your house, the elevation or actually right after sandy I should say, um, the certain elevation of each individual house determined what your flood insurance would be. Right, right? So if you raised your house, your flood insurance was gonna be like 400 to maybe 800 a year yeah, ridiculous, it was awesome yeah but fema changed their guidelines.

Speaker 4:

Forget when, but now it's your proximity to the water. It's basically fema wants to get their money back, right? So even if you build an elevated home, your flood insurance is probably going to be three thousand dollars okay so it's very tricky. So that's why it's important, like when you're selling like, for instance, I'm selling a raised home right now it was raised right after sandy right her flood insurance is 690 okay and they can take it over.

Speaker 4:

And also, too, a big thing for buyers to know is that you don't shop flood insurance. Right, it's the same.

Speaker 1:

Except by the federal government, isn't it? Yeah, the rates.

Speaker 4:

But people do have an option of getting private flood insurance which is a lot cheaper.

Speaker 1:

But if they get a mortgage, so does the bank require a certain policy?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, a certain amount of coverage, yes, but you can go with the private flood insurance, which is typically like half. It's so cheap. So let's say, for instance, if you have a private flood insurance with Lloyd's of London, it's not backed by the federal government, it's backed by Lloyd's of London, so God forbid they go under. Then you have no coverage, but you can have private flood insurance, I believe, and get a mortgage you have no coverage, but you can have private flood insurance, I believe, and get a mortgage.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. So all right. I want to pivot a little bit back to the team concept a little bit. So, um, what one piece of good advice would you give an agent to who was thinking about, you know, transitioning from a individual business you agent business to a team?

Speaker 3:

So they're already like an established agent on the go.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and they were considering that, maybe the team concept. So I'm successful as an agent, you know, as a team for me.

Speaker 3:

So what's a good piece of advice you could share?

Speaker 3:

I think one of the biggest pros of being on a team is even more like individualized support and having that mentorship from your team leader, who's usually very experienced yeah, it's been the industry for a long time, like barb is so I think that's the biggest pro is, you know, just being able to absorb so much knowledge and experience from them. Um, I think you know one thing when you are on a team, you are held more accountable. You know there are more expectations on you. So obviously you're very entrepreneurial, you know, as an agent, but you know you can't really only just do what you want to do too. So I think, if you want to be on a team, just know that there's going to be most likely more accountability Okay, accountability, okay, um, but I think, all, all in all, though it's, it's such a positive. You know um move to make if, especially if you want to, you know progress through your career a lot quicker. I think you know being on a team, you can leverage that so much more all right.

Speaker 1:

so, barb, this one's, I guess, more towards you. So obviously, here a podcast where you know video is an interesting piece of uh, marketing in our industry, especially with social media and stuff. So this is not the first time you've been on video slash TV, should we say I am. So yeah, so you're a star, right there we go From what?

Speaker 4:

I understand.

Speaker 3:

Take it easy, I'm not a star.

Speaker 2:

It's very scary so.

Speaker 1:

I've heard you've been on TV before, could you share with our audience?

Speaker 4:

sure, so I guess it was about five years ago at least, yeah, at least like 2019, maybe 2019. Yeah, I was approached um by actually a peg of a friend of peggy's uh who worked for um hgtv, and he asked me if I'd be interested in doing a program called Island Life.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

You know, I thought about it and I was like you know what. I was super uncomfortable, but I felt like I had to try.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Why not? So yeah. So I did an episode that year. It was actually a friend of mine who was looking. She was moving from Manhattan to Long Beach and she agreed to do it with me and it was a lot of fun, very nerve wracking, very hot.

Speaker 1:

Summertime.

Speaker 4:

It was the middle of the summer, but it was a really cool experience. So I did that and then, I believe, the next year I did another, and then I believe the next year I did another one with a couple of my friends as well, that bought a beautiful house in Long Beach and it was great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that was the same HGTV program yes, it's called HGTV. Island Life. Island Life. So, it was funny. I think you were telling me a little bit about how they still rerun, right. They do this is Island Life.

Speaker 4:

We're cruising along on Reynolds Channel. So what do you think of this? This is absolutely great. I thought you were bringing me out here to talk to me about buying a new home, not a new boat. Well, we'll take you boat shopping another time, all right.

Speaker 1:

I got to remember to get your autograph before we leave here today.

Speaker 3:

Okay, officially All right.

Speaker 1:

So is there any TV in Katie or Peggy's future? Come on.

Speaker 3:

Oh gosh, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Doing this podcast is my first day of really being on video, so maybe Gosh, I don't know.

Speaker 3:

Doing this podcast is my first day of really being on video, so maybe We'll see.

Speaker 4:

Trust me, I asked.

Speaker 3:

Peggy, I know you did, were you in like a clip of it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I had a little cameo. I was doing yoga on the beach.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. Well, I want to start the pivot. Before I do, I just want to remind our audience if you like what you're hearing here today, we'd love to have you like and subscribe to our show. We like to play hard, especially with a playground like Long Beach. What does the Barbara Mulaney team do besides drink wine, by the way, which we picked up, on which I'm?

Speaker 3:

not a hater. I'm not a hater on that, by the way. I like that.

Speaker 1:

What does the Barbara Mulaney team do for fun?

Speaker 2:

We love to go on vacation together as a family and we're really lucky that we are able to do that. There's six of us, and seventh with Katie's little boy, liam, and eighth on the way.

Speaker 1:

There you go, a growing family.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we try to take advantage of the downtime that we all have together.

Speaker 3:

No, absolutely, and I think it's funny because we obviously work together, but we still like love hanging out with each other after work. We're just always in contact we're always together which is so nice, because I think you know, when you first start out, you don't really know how it's gonna go right necessarily, yeah, it's nerve-wracking.

Speaker 4:

In the beginning I was like, oh my gosh, hope it doesn't ruin our relationship.

Speaker 1:

We'll be okay, too much togetherness.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but so far so good. But so far so good, it's been great.

Speaker 1:

Giving back is a big part of our culture and we love to share that. So you guys well, first of all, the Barbara Mullaney team was honored in 2018 as the humanitarian of the year, so when you win that out of 1200 agents, you know it's a real honor and testament to the devotion and commitment to give back. So, uh, first of all, congratulations for that and setting that tone. But I love what you're doing for the food pantry. Now could you share with our audience some of the um other passion, you know charities and organizations you guys are passionate about.

Speaker 3:

So yeah. So every year we like to plan out our events for the year. So this really all stems from Barb and also our love for our community and, you know, just having that culture of giving back as well. So, yeah, we like to do the fundraiser for the Long Beach High School, help the schools and the families, and then we also like to do a bike-a-thon in the summer where we, just for fun, we just bike the boardwalk and we raise 26 miles. So we do that for the Long Beach Soup Kitchen, which they do great work for our community. So we do that. And then just individually, barbara and the team, we'll participate in ads and different fundraising opportunities where we'll give back to other local foundations we have.

Speaker 4:

The Long Beach Christmas Angel gives back to local families and individuals that are in need. Also the Michael Diamond Foundation, which is a near and dear charity for us, and there's just numerous ones that we?

Speaker 1:

What's the Michael Diamond contribute to? What is it for? Just for our audience.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so Michael Diamond was a dear friend of ours and a big part of the um community of long beach, um, but after he passed away they wanted to do something, uh, to keep his memory alive, obviously, and, to you know, to do good. So they have a yearly golf outing, okay, and we usually sponsor the uh, I think it's the, is it Million Dollar Hole, the Hole in Water, something like that, which is a lot of fun. But again, they give back to you know, they give scholarships out and they also donate to tons of charities.

Speaker 2:

As Suicide Awareness as well.

Speaker 4:

for Long Island, they've turned into a huge charitable organization and we love being a part of it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

No surprise, no surprise, no surprise. So, um, if someone's listening wants to get involved with any uh charities you support, how can they help? They can follow our page so to get any updates if we're having any events, give them the page where they can find oh, um, on instagram mainly, it's just at the barbara melanie team.

Speaker 3:

And yeah, you can, and yeah you can DM us. You can reach out to us individually and we can relay some of the information. Perfect.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Perfect. I want to remind our audience again. Please, if you like the episode, please like and subscribe. We'd love to have you as a member of our podcast. So, it's time for the drop the mic question. Your husband, Patrick, is a Nassau County legislator. If you were in public office, what would your first executive order be?

Speaker 4:

Well, actually I was just away in Paris and part of the charm is that certain blocks were banned. It was only for pedestrians they were blocked off. So I think it would be a really cool idea, possibly in the West End, to close down Beach Street, maybe on the weekends.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

So this way people could walk and go to restaurants and shop, mardi Gras type of thing going on there, yeah, and not have to worry about traffic.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it would be a really cool vibe.

Speaker 3:

I would definitely allow dogs on the beach.

Speaker 1:

Dogs on the beach? Yes, year round. So they're not allowed on the beach Only in the winter or not at all.

Speaker 3:

No, not at all. You know, I live in the West End so the beach is my backyard, so I know my dog would love it.

Speaker 1:

So, peggy, come on, bring it home here. What's the executive?

Speaker 4:

order. Pat's going to kill us, by the way. Yeah, I hope so.

Speaker 1:

That means he watched it, because if he doesn't watch this, then he's in a different type of trouble.

Speaker 2:

I would love to see more restaurants, like on our boardwalk. The beaches, yeah, Because people honestly assume like when you go down to Long Beach, you're going to get a lot of that.

Speaker 4:

You're going to be able to see the beach the ocean, yeah, and we really don't have any of that, and also, too, we have so much bayfront.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that it's industrial, that you can make a gorgeous pier.

Speaker 1:

You know a boardwalk along there All right, I'm going to have to hook you up with Tony. I think we have a project in the works here, so I like that idea too. So, no, those are all three great answers and I want to tell each of you thank you so much for being here today. I think our audience will find out why you guys are one of the top teams out here in the industry. So, again, from my own testimony, these guys do a great job. So if someone wants to do business or reach out to the Barbara Mullaney team, how do they get you?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, follow us on Instagram at the Barbara Mullaney team. You can DM us or call us and we'd be happy to chat.

Speaker 1:

Any phone numbers 516-582-6096. Okay, what's your website?

Speaker 3:

Thebarbarmillaneteamcom.

Speaker 1:

There you go. Simple there you go, there we go.

Speaker 3:

Easy, all right.

Speaker 1:

Well again, thank you so much for being here, right.

Speaker 4:

It was a pleasure. Thanks so much, Mike.