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I was flattered when Jenn Henn, from the Southampton Press asked me to do a “Lunch With…” interview. I had lunch with writer, Brian Bossetta, last week.md
Publication: The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press
Lunch With … Michael Daly
Jun 10, 08 11:28 AM
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For the last decade, Michael Daly has been one of the top real estate brokers on the East End.
In 1998, he started True North Realty Associates to offer what he calls straightforward, no-nonsense service. Now, Mr. Daly does business as Beach Properties of the Hamptons, having opened the first of three offices in Southampton in 2006. Though focused on Hamptons real estate, the North Haven resident has contacts with other Realtors in Manhattan, across the tri-state area, and in coastal Florida, the Caribbean, Costa Rica and 65 countries around the globe.
He also operates the Hamptons Real Estate Blog, which is dedicated to the Hamptons real estate market.
Mr. Daly recently talked about the real estate market, his blog, and a few other things, over lunch at Silver’s restaurant on Main Street in Southampton Village.
Q:
How did you come to know the Hamptons? Did you grow up here?
A:
I’m from the city, but I’ve been a summer kid out here since 1960. My family had a summer cottage in Westhampton where all the kids and moms would come out. I’d leave school as soon as it let out and stay the entire summer. I was one of the luckiest kids in my school.
Q:
Since coming out here as a kid, have you noticed over the years that the Hamptons have become more of a year-round community and not just a seasonal community?
A:
Oh, absolutely. I still remember “Tumbleweed Tuesday,” which is what we used to call the Tuesday after Labor Day, because it was said you could see the tumbleweeds blowing down the main streets in the Hamptons because everyone was gone. So much is changing. I think one factor is that with telecommunications as they are today, people have more flexibility with work, which allows more people to stay out here year round.
Q:
So, tell me a little about your real estate blog.
A:
Well, I started it in November 2006, and I’ve had more than 62,000 hits. For me, it just became a way of communicating. I looked and saw a lot of blogs coming up, and I didn’t see anything about Hamptons real estate. I’ve had visitors from all over the world. But mostly it’s a way to express myself and to pass on to colleagues and clients what I think is important about Hamptons real estate. And also to be a resource for where to stay or where to go and eat.
Q:
Do you enjoy it?
A:
I have fun sometimes, but other times it’s a labor of love. Often, it depends on my time. I’ve tried very hard not to make it a gossip blog, because I think we already have enough of those. And I think gossip can be destructive. So I’ve tried to keep it informative and about real estate.
Q:
Well, speaking of, there’s been a lot of talk about the slowing down of the housing market. What, if anything, have you noticed?
A:
Well, I definitely see a change in the market just from the stats alone. The market was down some 40 percent for single-family homes in the first quarter, and a recent report for single-family homes after April indicate they are down 30 percent. That’s for the townships of East Hampton and Southampton, which in my view comprise the Hamptons. But this is definitely the biggest downturn that I’ve seen.
Q:
Is there any particular dropoff ?point where you’ve noticed homes going down the most, or staying the same?
A:
I don’t have the exact numbers, except the 30-percent drop in the number of sales. But I think the biggest hit has been on sales between $3 million and $5 million. However, the average sale price is up over $2 million. But that’s due, in part, because we’re still having quite a number of big sales—$10 million, $15 million, $20 million, $25 million sales—and a lesser number of $5 million-and-under sales. So when those smaller sales drop, these bigger ones bring up the average.
Q:
When you get up into those high figures—$20 million, $25 million sales—are those people pretty much immune to what’s going on in the market?
A:
I think so. I think that echelon is immune to everything—gas prices, food prices, as well as real estate prices.
Q:
Do you see the market picking up again anytime soon?
A:
Well, I’m bullish on the real estate market. I think there are some really terrific values out there right now. I think it’s coming to the point where people are not going to be able to resist getting back in because of the quality of the deals that are available.
Q:
So there’s an upside to the slowing market?
A:
Yes. Traditionally, values in the Hamptons don’t drop. They’ll stay flat for a period of time.
Q:
Speaking of affordability, I wanted to ask you about affordable housing. As you know, this is a huge issue in town, how to keep much needed middle-income workers in town when the cost of real estate out here is so high. As a Realtor, how do you see affordable housing playing into the real estate market?
A:
I like what’s happening with the whole topic of affordable housing. It’s evolving into workforce housing. I think affordable housing has gotten a bad rap. Especially by “NIMBYism.”
Q:
“
Not in my backyard”?
A:
Yes. Because it often gets attached with the idea of bad neighborhoods, or people who really can’t afford to live there being given handouts, and that sort of thing. But that’s not what the issue is here. It’s about creating an environment for the people who work here to be able to live here, which creates a healthier balance.
I think the community is coming closer to finding answers. I think one of the most practical solutions is to allow for accessory apartments, both commercial and residential mixed use, allowing for some of the office spaces in the villages to be turned into apartments. Sag Harbor, for instance, has a pretty nice balance of commercial spaces downstairs and apartments upstairs.
I think there are a lot of available spaces that could be converted into rental units. And that also helps other people to afford to stay in their homes because that can supplement their mortgage or serve as additional income. Because it’s a real bummer for people who work here to have to commute from far away and sit in traffic. The trade parade as they call it. And if we don’t solve affordable housing, you end up with a community of “haves and have-nots.”
Q:
What do you think more affordable housing units would do to the real estate market in general? From a real estate perspective, do you think it would lessen the values of homes in the area?
A:
No, I don’t think it would. I think that’s a knee-jerk reaction—that if you put something up that’s “affordable housing” next to me then my property is going to lose value. If done properly, I think it would actually enhance values. I mean, if you can’t find needed workers, or live in a community where teachers, cops, nurses, assistants can’t afford to live, then, in the end, you’re only hurting your own property values. We need to find a balance.
Q:
Have you noticed anything in particular with vacant land sales?
A: It’s interesting. It used to be that land was just land. You’d buy a lot and build a house. But, over the last 10 years, land has become a huge commodity. And there’s less of it. For example, the Community Preservation Fund has greatly reduced the amount of land available to purchase.
Q:
Are you a fan of the Community Preservation Fund?
A:
Absolutely.
Q:
If there’s less land available, does that at all cut into potential sales that Realtors can represent?
A:
No, because preserving land increases the value of the land that is available. It drives values. And, the thing is, we live here too. I live on a 50-acre reserve. I don’t want to see this place paved over.
You know, I resented for a long ?time the notion held by some that ?Realtors are all just money hungry and want to just sell everything. I fought hard to build a relationship between Corcoran and the Peconic Land Trust. We all want to maintain the beauty and the value of where we live. We have more commonalities than we have differences.
I’ve always liked the idea of “doing well by doing good.” Doing good things brings good karma and brings success. I sit on the board of HANFRA, which is the Hamptons North Fork Realtors Association, and we recently gave a Leadership in Conservation Award to Timothy Caufield, the vice president of the Peconic Land Trust, for his efforts to maintain the face of the East End through preservation. They’re a wonderful organization.
Q:
What do you enjoy most about real estate?
A:
Well, besides truly enjoying the “art of the deal,” my passion is in working with new and experienced agents in developing their businesses. I teach agents about the four “C’s”: Confidence, Commitment, Contacts, and Closing Skills. I’ve worked with agents who have all the four C’s, but it’s taken them a year or more to make money. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then, boom! It all kicks in and they do fine. That’s a beautiful thing to see and very rewarding.
According to our fav real estate gossip guy, Braden Keil of the NYPost, North Haven recently experienced a bidding war on a waterfront property. Check it out:
Warner Music Group chairman Lyor Cohen is spending $6.8 million for a teardown in the Hamptons. Sources say Cohen has just closed on the property in North Haven after a bidding war erupted for the bayfront home, which was listed at $5.5 million.
“Lyor was actually the second-highest bidder,” says a source, “but the guy with the highest offer couldn’t come up with the $7.2 million - and he also lost his $720,000 deposit.”
While the four-bedroom Contemporary is nothing to crow about, the stunning 2.5-acre property has 170 feet of waterfront. Meanwhile, Cohen has taken his Bridgehampton estate with a $9.5 million price tag off the market in anticipation of his lengthy construction project.
see the article here
It’s very exciting news that the Sag Harbor Village Boards are, one by one, approving the plans that have been put forth by Cape Advisors for the Bulova Residential Plan. It’s been said that the project will take 5 years, and the economic rewards to the village will last for at least 100 years.
Peter Neely and Hamptons.com did a video of local merchants here
For more info, also goto: www.savesagharbor.com/
We are so pleased to announce that Jeanine Edington has joined Re/Max Beach Properties of The Hamptons as Vice-President.
Jeanine is a professional career Realtor who has listed and sold hundreds of properties amounting to multi-millions of dollars from Southern Indiana and Kentucky to New York and The Hamptons.
I had the priviledge of working with Jeanine a few years back at Prudential Douglas Elliman and watched her become a force in Hamptons real estate while she was with the Corcoran group.
We’re genuinely excited to start 2008 with the addition of an Associate of Jeanine’s caliber as we begin our second full year of operations, here in the Hamptons. md
for more info on Jeanine, goto: http://www.jeanineedington.com/
There’s all sorts of nifty new fact and figures coming out about sub-prime. Here’s a map from Newsday showing the percentage of mortgages for 2006 that were sub-prime loans.
Presumably, that will give an indication as to how many foreclosures might be in these community’s future? Looks like the East End has a much lower overall percentage than our sister markets to the west. see map here
Ok everybody, here we go again with the MEDIAN price figure.
Raise your hands: How many of you REALLY know what MEDIAN price means and CAN EXPLAIN IT!?!? Median is like a Metric figure to me. Like: “What, you want me to walk two kilometers?” or, “WOW! that was a matter of centimeters!!!” Sorry, it’s pretty meaningless to me…for a definition of “median”,try this
Would it make it any better or worse to know that the AVERAGE price of Hamptons Real Estate is now over $1.6 Million? Impressed? Depressed?
for more info: http://www.suffolkresearch.com/quarterlycharts.htm
I moved to Sag Harbor nearly 10 years ago from Remsenberg, a tiny halmet just west of Westhampton. That was after living in New York, Santa Barbara, San Jose, Del Mar and Hingham, Mass.
Sag was - and still is- a number of things that I like in a community; family oriented, casual, shops mostly locally owned and operated, boating all around and quite unassuming. Sag has been known as the “Un-Hampton” for many years…until recently when housing prices have shot up dramatically and those seeking a more relaxed, integrated village lifestyle have been selling their “south of the highway” homes and moving to the Sag Harbor/North Haven area in droves.
The size of the boats that are in the harbor have quadroupled in the last five years. They are not called “boats” - they are called yachts, megayachts and gigayachts.
Then in the last year, a number of condominimum projects have been proposed for “the harbor”, all of which I am in favor of, for they will not only provide a balanced choice of lifestyles in our community, but each of them will replace blight in our village. The Watchcase Factory, The Diner Building and Roccos nightclub.
But THIS CVS THING HAS GONE TOO FAR. I am not in favor of CVS coming to our community at all, never mind opening a 17000 square foot store that belongs next to the Home Depot Expo in Smithtown. Granted , they are probably shooting for the moon, asking for way more size than they know they will be allowed, but geez…THIS IS RIDICULOUS!
Sag Harbor is the only village on the East End that still has a 5&10cent store. Let’s keep this last one open!!!
Check out the NYTimes article below and if you want to participate, go to the links after to sign the petition. md
A Harbor Village Resists Outsiders
[tags]Beach properties, Hamptons, sag harbor, watchcase factory, CVS, cape advisors, save sag harbor, diner building, water street condos[/tags]
Just as you come over the Sag Harbor bridge in North Haven is Christie Brinkley’s newest house, sitting beautifully on the harbor. see MODEL HOME by Braden Keil, New York Post.
I don’t care what time of year or how many people are here or how many homes have been built…this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Some people just like to bitch and complain. Listen to this one:
“There’s too many cars on the road, too many people who don’t know how to drive, and the feeling here is, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to keep some of them away?’” the editor of the East Hampton Star, David Rattray, said in an interview yesterday.
And this:“The traffic is beyond disgusting,” the co-owner of Vered Gallery in East Hampton, Janet Lehr, said. “We see our clients from Southampton to Westhampton and Quogue in the winter, but they just don’t come during the summer months, and I don’t blame them.”
This is the Hamptons, ladies and gentlemen. - love it or leave it!
Hampton Mulls Its Own Taxes On Congestion
The New York Sun
By ANNIE KARNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 24, 2007
What does this post have to do with Hamptons Real Estate? Yes, I know, we are so very extraordinary and no other market in the world is like ours. True, we are very special and unique. That being said, so are Manhattan, Santa Barbara, Key West and Nantucket. And they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like we do. All politics and real estate are local, but the 80/20 rule applies and 80% of real estate is done the same way everywhere, whether it is done with dollars or pounds, in English or in French. Property, sellers, agents, buyers. We need to be smart enough to enjoy our uniqueness, but see the leverage of using tools and practices that work the world over. md
Where Trulia Went Right…Trulia has built relationships with many of the most highly-respected figures in the real estate industry. Pete Flint, Trulia.com’s founder and CEO, is a true diplomat and politician. Also, he is clearly able to articulate his vision in a way that excites people and engages them.
TOP INDEPENDENT AND FRANCHISE BROKER EXECUTIVES TO JOIN TRULIA.COM REAL ESTATE ADVISORY BOARD RISMEDIA, April 11, 2007-Trulia.com, the national residential real estate search engine, announces the addition of four highly respected real estate industry executives to its Real Estate Advisory Board… Hanna, Phillips, Saunders and Therrien join fellow broker and industry leaders from across the country including: Anthony Azar, CEO, Realty Executives Southern Arizona; Sherry Chris, COO, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation; Bill Plattos, COO and general manager, First Team Real Estate; Van Davis, consultant and Former CEO, Foxtons; Michael Koval, SVP and CIO, Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc.; Jonathan Miller, president/CEO, Miller Samuel Inc.; Robert Moles, chairman, Intero Real Estate Services; Steve Ozonian, chairman, Realty Information Systems Inc./Help-U-Sell Real Estate; Michael Pappas, president, The Keyes Company; Bob Peltier, president, Edina Realty, Inc; and Kaira Rouda, COO, Real Living, Inc. more here
…and where Zillow went wrong…Zillow has not followed Trulia’s example of relationship-building. They have tried to step over the largest group of independent business people in the US (Realtors) and form direct relationships with the consumer that supercede the Realtor. They wore on their chests as a medal the fact that they put tens of thousands of travel agents out of business with Expedia.com.
The idea behind Zillow is very clever indeed; however, the execution of the idea was not very clever at all. Arrogance has its price. See Chicken and Real Estate. md
