Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 108 The Real Estate Renaissance: Navigating Today's Shifting Market
The real estate landscape has transformed dramatically in recent years, and few professionals understand these shifts better than Chris Sapienza of Keller Williams' SEG Group. With experience dating back to 1991 and over 250 transactions closed in just five years, Chris brings a wealth of knowledge about Bergen County's distinctive market conditions.
What makes today's real estate market so different? While national headlines suggest cooling prices and growing inventory, Bergen County defies these trends with listings down 6.7% compared to last year. Chris reveals two fascinating factors behind this shortage: the disruption of traditional retirement migration patterns and the lack of developable land in northern New Jersey.
Climate change emerges as a surprising market driver as Chris explains how insurance limitations are reshaping homeowner decisions. With Florida homeowners insurance capped at just $250,000 through FEMA—regardless of a property's actual value—many potential retirees are reconsidering their southward migration, keeping their Bergen County homes off the market. This insight illuminates how environmental and economic factors intertwine to create our current inventory crisis.
For homebuyers and sellers navigating these challenges, Chris shares a psychological framework that transforms frustration into success: "Sellers who win think like buyers, buyers who win think like sellers." This perspective shift, combined with realistic market alignment, forms the foundation for successful transactions even in tight inventory conditions.
Real estate professionals will find particular value in Chris's advice about expanding geographic expertise beyond traditional neighborhood boundaries. In today's market, understanding regional economic trends and development patterns across multiple counties proves essential for connecting clients with opportunities. This approach has helped Chris thrive while 74% of licensed agents sold zero homes last year—a sobering statistic that highlights the gap between getting licensed and building a sustainable business.
Ready to navigate today's complex real estate landscape? Connect with Chris directly at 973-664-7678 or through Instagram @Christopher_Sapienza to leverage his regional expertise for your next property transaction.
Keller Williams' SEG Group
Chris Sapienza
700 Kinderkamack Rd #101, Oradell, NJ 07649
(973) 664-7678
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, doug Drohan, from Bergen Neighbors Media Group, and today we are joined by Chris Sapienza from Keller Williams and, more specifically, the SEG Group out of Tenafly in Orodo, new Jersey. Welcome to the show, chris.
Speaker 3:Thank you, doug. Good morning, nice to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good morning. So I was recently on your Instagram account and things are pretty active. That is for sure you got a listing in Tenafly for a mere 3.2. I should be 3.275, to be exact. Seven bedrooms, which is good for a small family with one or two kids.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the East Hill section, which is the more affluent section of Northern Valley when you go to Tenafly, englewood Cliffs, demarest, closter, all those areas. So how long have you been a realtor and how long have you been with the SCG group?
Speaker 3:So my real estate journey actually began a long time ago. This is my second career in real estate, so I was licensed for the first time in 1991. So we're talking about a different market at a different time. Yeah, I came into real estate at, I think, a much more traditional time back then and at that point was living in southern New Jersey, so working in like the Atlantic County area.
Speaker 3:Spent a few years there very, very early in my career and then left and I'm sure, as my family would have told you at the time, got a real job and spent about 25 years in corporate retail management and during a period of time there also had my own interior design business for about seven years. Was one of the many folks that was impacted certainly by our world change at COVID and used that opportunity to sort of think about what I wanted to be when I grew up and you know, had always really loved real estate and at this point you know, was able to come back with quite a bit of additional sort of sales and professional management experience which I think certainly has played better in my favor this time than it did fresh out of college.
Speaker 3:I've been back in business now five years in the Bergen County market and it's been a very strong five years. I think we just closed our 250th transaction, so definitely an active market here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. If you're a realtor, been around for a while, you've seen all things come and go, all different types of markets. I've mentioned with other realtors who were here, 2007, 2008,. There was a dot-com bust in 99. We've had some recessions, we've had some down markets, but I think, from the outside looking in, I think what is different this time is how interest rates really affected the lowest interest rates in my lifetime and I think how people got used to thinking that's the way it should be. And now that they're back to more normal, even below what used to be normal, if you got 6% back in the 90s, you were like, wow, that's amazing 6% in the 90s was virtually unheard of at that point we were happily trading at 8, 8.25.
Speaker 3:Right, right To come full circle. Now you know, in the market today it's different for consumers and realtors or agents, because so much has changed, whether it is in the way that we do business whether it is in the availability of inventory to your point, whether it is the sobriety of the reality of rates.
Speaker 3:Coming back from that, what I'm going to call lifetime two to three percent lows, there has been a lot of change. You know, when you look at the industry top down, you know we have all on some level been tuned into NAR and the various happenings kind of out there with different settlements and changing the way that we do business. So to be a consumer or to be an agent. Now I find myself saying a lot that this is the period where a new generation of home buyers, sellers and agents are going to learn. I think at 10 years from now we're going to look back at this whole post-COVID era as a very transformative part of this industry period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it's almost like when interest rates were that low initially it was great for the real estate market were artificially, artificially inseminated with the, with the expectation that this is how it's always going to be. And I used to work in the music industry and when CDs were first invented, you know I'm going back 91. All right, listen.
Speaker 3:I remember eight tracks, so we're good.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we had eight tracks when I was a kid. But digitizing music was a boon to the music industry, right, we were able to take all of our old vinyl and all the old catalog tapes and reissue them and make tons of money doing remasters, right. But that digitization of music then gave birth to Napster and people stealing, right, well, and you know, for many years they they stole, you know, let's say what it was. People took music and illegally traded it and it decimated the music industry. So at the time digitizing music was the best thing for the music industry but then ended up being almost it's death. Now I almost look at, you know, the way interest rates dropped so well, it was amazing for the real estate industry at the time, but now it's almost like. You know, we people have this you know no one, no one who's paying two and a half percent, like I am, wants to sell their home and move to a 7% mortgage. That for a house it's a million dollars, that eight years ago 700, right, or so.
Speaker 3:So here's the catch with that, I think for I'm going to say up until the end of 23, I would have agreed with you Sellers that had two and 3% loans it was more painful to give that up than not. But when you look at where we are today with equity and appreciation, even if you're sitting on a 2%, 2.5%, 3% loan, the value of your property has increased so significantly the past two years, especially that that is a very comforting salve, even if you're giving up that 3% to go to a 6%.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:There's no other commodity that I can think of that in a year's time is going to return, in some cases more than $100,000 in equity and appreciation. So there's always a give and a take and it's just understanding when the timing is right for your particular situation to get the most without having to give up the least. But yeah, home values and price appreciation have left almost every homeowner in a very, very strong equity position.
Speaker 2:And I guess you know buying a home is very emotional and a lot of times it's out of need. So to your point. If you own a house and you've got a half a million or more in equity and you you're looking to move for a reason either you've outgrown your house or something else has happened then yeah, I mean the fact that interest rates are a little bit higher you're probably going to to your point. It's not going to stop you and, yeah, you have the benefit of having more cash to put down on the new home to lessen the money.
Speaker 3:The pain at that higher rate, exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, you know, to your benefit or to your credit, exactly, yeah off the ledge and say, hey, listen, man, let's look at it a different way, just like you did with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that the advice I find myself giving to clients the most is that this is a business not really that dissimilar than others, that there are certain strategies that work and there are certain strategies that just don't. And I think when a consumer is hitting a frustration point in real estate or in the transaction of either buying or selling real estate, it always comes back to that Sellers who win think like buyers, buyers who win think like sellers. And if you are open enough to accept that there is a bit of a psychological rhythm behind any large financial transaction, you can be very successful in this market. And I think we hear a lot about the frustrations and more of the horror stories. It's that old adage. You know what I mean If it's a bad experience, you're going to tell 10 people.
Speaker 1:If it's a good experience, you're going to tell one.
Speaker 3:But the best thing that I have found with with a client, whether they're selling or buying, is to figure that strategy out before you start. And there's a dose of what I call market alignment what you want, what you're capable of and where that can happen. Those are the pieces that have to be in alignment and if they're not, it just begins this cycle of perpetual frustration. It's never going to click If you're trying to sell at the wrong price on the wrong location, with the wrong, wrong terms, or buying and you're not in alignment with with the reality out there. Those are the things that are the roadblocks. But for home sellers and home buyers that I think understand that, that are willing to take a moment to take a breath, work with a great agent, put together the plan and the strategy and then execute, they are always successful, even in a tight inventory market.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So where do you see now that we're coming into the spring? You know, traditionally spring market is a time people start listing their homes. Having more open houses Is it. Are you seeing any more an uptick in activity?
Speaker 3:So New Jersey is its own bubble within the national market. Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Hudson County is in a bubble within the bubble outside of the national market. So I think nationally speaking people are hearing that inventory is growing, the prices are decreasing and there's a bit of a cooling. As you pull that into New Jersey, we do not. We are under listings this year versus same time last year. We're under. I think it's about 6% to 7%. 6.7%, I think, is the exact number.
Speaker 2:In Bergen.
Speaker 3:County that really contracts even more and the same in Passaic County. And why do you think that is that really contracts even more in the same in Passaic County.
Speaker 2:So what I and why do you think that is?
Speaker 3:So why?
Speaker 2:aren't people selling their homes?
Speaker 3:So top of the list is that our retirement migration has shifted with the changes in weather and, very specifically, homeowners insurance. In states like Florida it is no longer feasible In many cases. The best that you can do with a homeowners insurance policy in Florida is the FEMA limit of $250,000. So if I was a retiree living here in North Jersey, I don't know that I'm going to move to Florida, spend $700,000 on my dream retirement home knowing that I can only insure it for $250,000. So that migration south has stopped. That's one big component. And the second big component is there is no new dirt. We do not live in a part of the state with a lot of vacant land. So it's why you see the boom and the redevelopment in the Newark's, the Patterson's. Places that may have otherwise not necessarily been desirable from a real estate perspective are becoming desirable because they are kind of the last frontiers where you can knock down and build.
Speaker 2:Got it. Got it, but with no dirt no retirement migration.
Speaker 3:we've got that disruption to our flow of inventory and it is, I think, in my opinion, two of the biggest contributors to this imbalance in terms of supply and demand.
Speaker 2:I mean it's interesting about the migration because you're retired but you still have the taxes in New Jersey to pay and most cost of living is much higher here, even if you put taxes aside.
Speaker 3:But despite that it is less difficult to get hit with a hurricane here. And it is an easier place to maintain homeowner's insurance that is really actually going to cover your property, but that is a very sobering reality for a lot of people that either were thinking about going to a Florida or even in states like California. That is definitely changing that what we would say was a traditional life migration pattern.
Speaker 2:And you know not to get political, but I always say to people who want to deny that there's a climate change, I say, well, just look at insurance companies and how they're pricing risk and they're not political. It's all about the numbers, it's all about the modeling and trends.
Speaker 3:Nobody wants to be in a losing business, but even with the last round of wildfires in California, I mean, there were many stories of insurance companies literally dying, dropping people during the course of those wildfires. So whether you are a believer or a non-believer on the climate change front, I think what we can agree on is that there are things happening that are causing things like we're seeing in the homeowners insurance industry to now become a much bigger consideration.
Speaker 2:So what are you personally doing then? I mean, what I'm seeing is there's been an attrition in you know realtors, who you know. A lot of people got in during COVID that thought they could make a you know a great living, and now it was kind of like in the 2000, early 2000s, up until 2007, 2008,. Everybody was getting their license and moving to Florida because there was money everywhere. So what are you doing to stay top of mind and to bring value to your customers? And when I look again on your Instagram account which let's give it a shout out, it's Christopher underscore Sapienza on Instagram, it's your house in Tenafly, the house in North Bergen. You're in Mahwah. You know, you're not just in Tenafly, right? You're in a lot of different places. So what are you in Rockland County? So what are you doing to you know, to stay busy and to have listings?
Speaker 3:I mean, I think very simply, what I define as being a market expert looks very different today than I think what a traditional agent would have told you before. I think we this industry went through a phase where you know if you were the Westwood agent.
Speaker 3:You were the Westwood expert and you knew everything there was to know about Westwood, but as inventory, I'm going to go back to the supply and demand. The supply has remained low. You, as an agent, in order to be successful, have to learn a greater geography, because in order to be able to work with a greater number of homes, you have to know a lot more about a lot more places. So I think to one part, or to your question, it is really being a regional market expert. Knowing what's happening in Westchester County is as important for me as knowing what's happening in Warren County and, even though I may not service it full time, same thing Monmouth Ocean, and it's understanding what's happening in our County and even though I may not service it full-time, same thing Monmouth Ocean, and it's understanding what's happening in our state. So you know, when you think about Netflix and Paramount and some of the other film studios that are coming into this area between Monmouth, newark, bayonne, you know those are the types of things that, again, my real estate business is a business, so it's my job to know and to be in front of so that I can always be engaging with a potential client. But those are just some of the types of things I need to have is just greater today because I'm going to be engaging with a broader pool of clients, whether that's through social media or referral or all the different ways that people cross our paths.
Speaker 3:Being able to have an informed conversation with a client across a much larger geography is critical and, I think, staying front of mind you know, real estate is a little bit of a contact sport. If you want to be the person that is at the front of the line you know what I mean having conversation you have to be at the front of the line having conversation. You know and I think it's also partly understanding that every relationship takes time. It's very rare that someone will call me. I answer the phone and immediately we're going to buy.
Speaker 3:And you have to you, you have to genuinely be invested in that because it is, I think, for everyone. I've worked with the largest financial transaction they're making, so trust and confidence and you know, all of those sort of basic human emotions we want to feel in that situation, are critical.
Speaker 2:So, whether it's yeah, go ahead yeah.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I was going to say the, and that's the key, like what you said, is that you know it takes time to build trust. This is saying that people buy from people that they know, like and trust. Well, they may not like you, know you or trust you right away. You know they saw you, they heard you, they saw your feed or they saw your sign on somebody's lawn. And it takes time, and I think there's a rule in sales, um, that you know what you do in the next 90 days is going to. You know prospecting is going to affect you the next six months or longer, like to your point, the first time you pick up the phone or somebody calls you. You know it may it may have taken a year my, the realtor that we use to find our house in Harrington park I had met a year earlier who was taking me around to different places in Bergen County, so you know it isn't.
Speaker 2:If you need to make money today and I think that's the mistake a lot of realtors, and I wanted to give some advice to anybody who wants to start off in this industry, because I find realtors are similar to what I do, you know. You could say it in a purest, uh, or simplest form that ad sales right, and advertising sales I've heard some people describe in sales is like the hardest sales you could ever do. Right, it's not like I give people instant gratification. It's not like I'm cutting your hair and you're done, or I'm redoing or selling you a house and you can. The minute you get the keys you're you've got your satisfaction. But it takes time and it takes effort and it takes a grind and I think a lot of realtors don't really understand that and they don't grind it out. And I've met since I started in my business, I've met hundreds and I didn't realize how many there were number one, but how many of them really don't make any money.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think last year and this just came out, I think in February 74% of licensed agents sold no homes last year. Wow, so that's a big number. But yeah, to your point. I think, much like most higher education, you learn a fraction of what you need to know to be successful in the job when you're, when you're getting licensed to perform the job. So there's a lot of grinding that still has to happen. You know, once you get your license and you know what happens in a transaction from start to finish. Transaction from start to finish. There are no two that are ever the same and you are going to hand to God. You will learn something different every single time. But if you don't sort of have that natural thirst to want to learn and to want to you know, really understand each step in the process, then it is even more daunting because it's highly possible you could get a sale and it just won't stick. There's a lot that happens after the two parties say yes.
Speaker 2:Wow, so let's go back a little bit with KW. So why KW? Why the SEG group?
Speaker 3:So the KW SEG it's actually a pretty easy question to answer. You know, Stacey, if you have met her, if a listener has met her, if you haven't is probably one of the smartest, hardest working realtors that I know and has really built a phenomenal business and she is just a wealth of information and a great coach. So for me in finding a business partner, that was a very very easy.
Speaker 3:That was a very easy decision. She's a very impressive individual, and the same goes for Keller Williams. You know, every brokerage, I think, offers certain things that are different, but Keller Williams, from an education and a resources perspective, in my opinion, is still, you know, head and shoulders above anyone else out there. And to your earlier question about you know what would you tell a new agent? Who you work with matters and what you are going to get in regards to support and direction and education, it all matters. So do your diligence, pay attention to those details and really understand what it is. You as a professional need to make the best match, but for me, KW and SEG, that was a very easy decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. That's great. Again, the office is located in Tenafly, but you obviously have knowledge that stems beyond the Northern Valley area, bergen County, as you mentioned, bergen County, passaic, hudson and elsewhere.
Speaker 3:So what's the best way for people to reach you, to contact you? So I don't know if I can share my direct number.
Speaker 3:That's always the easiest text and phone call. If I can share my direct number, that's always the easiest text and a phone call, so 973-664-7678. Text or just give me a quick call. Otherwise, as you mentioned, I wholeheartedly appreciate that you can find me on Instagram Christopher underscore Sapienza, Facebook, Christopher Sapienza, or website topnjrealtor. com backslash Chris Sapienza, or website topnjrealtor. com backslash Chris Sapienza. But whichever method you are most comfortable communicating in, I am connected to all of those.
Speaker 2:So you can get me.
Speaker 2:And before you go, one other piece of advice. So obviously you're on Instagram. You do some reels. You're not like some realtors that do nothing but reels or they show themselves dancing somewhere. I never understood that with doctor's offices. You're not like some realtors that do nothing but reels or they show themselves dancing somewhere. I never understood that with doctor's offices, why I care about the staff dancing to some hip hop song, but what marketing advice would you give to any realtor, whether they're new or they've been around a while? And you mentioned you have to have your hands everywhere. So what, like? What's working for you now, or what do you? Or do you think it just has to be an integration of many different things?
Speaker 3:I want to applaud what you you started saying a minute ago. Just because you see somebody else doing it doesn't mean it's the right thing for you. So for anyone thinking about getting started in social media, no matter what you do, what you do needs to be really reflective of who you are. It's sort of like blind dating. You don't want to show up to meet a client and they expect you to be some dancing fool, and you're not.
Speaker 3:So just make content that, first, is reflective of you, and I think in real estate there is so much every week to talk about. There's always a new headline, there's a new story, a property. Just start sharing with people your experiences and what you know. At the end of the day, if a client asks me a question and I don't know the answer, I generally will do a social media post about it because in my brain, if they're thinking it, I probably have 10 other clients that are thinking it and they just haven't asked it yet.
Speaker 3:So you know knowledge is power, and I think people love to learn something in a fun way that's helpful. Do we all like to watch a sleeping cat fall off a couch? Sure, does that really reflect who you are as an agent? Probably not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe not Right. Chris, this was great.
Speaker 3:I appreciate you sharing all this wisdom with us and your background, and it's been great having you on the show. Thank you, it was a pleasure being here. Anytime, I appreciate you having me Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.