Haute Residence hosted its eleventh and latest edition of “Coast to Coast”, the industry-leading real estate webinar series, featuring three of the top agents in their respective markets: John-Mark Mitchell of Mitchell Prime Properties (Winston-Salem, NC), Ernie Carswell of Ernie Carswell & Associates (West Hollywood, CA), and Darlene Streit of Santa Fe Real Estate (Santa Fe, NM).
They were hosted by Haute Living's Erik Haase. Watch the full webinar below.
Highlight quotes from the webinar:
John-Mark Mitchell: "Here, the prices just keep going up and up and up and it's been amazing. We are breaking a lot of records, seeing an influx coming from California, Chicago, Florida, New York, and a lot of them are buying second or third homes. They want to have a place to go that they really enjoy, that has a little bit of everything and four seasons, so we have been very blessed... You can get from Winston-Salem within hours to really beautiful beaches beautiful mountains. It is extraordinary... Part of my job is that we want to know what tomorrow is and the day after that, and the month after that, and the year after that. Everything that I can predict, based on every search, it is going to be amazing for this year and continue to be that in the real estate world. Because we've had some listings where we've had literally 35 offers on on a particular house, I encourage my buyers not to be in so much of a win game that they lose sight of where they could be two years or three years. I do think that we are setting, in some aspects, a cautious tale of where we enjoyed it so well, and we encourage people to buy at such a point, not because we were saying it but [rather] the market, that it actually hit us in reverse and that people are much higher in debt of what they can sell it for. I don't know that can happen, and that is a slight caution that I feel that we have to address."
Ernie Carswell: "When we last talked, we were all quite frightened and thought we were just going to shut down, and that was it. Exactly the opposite happened and we've had the best increase in prices that we've seen in years. January and February that we just completed have been the busiest, highest-grossing January and February in decades, so that's how it's going here... LA was hit pretty hard. We know Manhattan and San Francisco, the vertical cities, were crushed. We're preparing to open up much more fully. We've been surprised how real estate has just kept going, and as Darlene and John-Mark have said, our markets, whether they're Carolina, Santa Fe, or LA sprawl, people are buying. We have had some long-time Angelenos try to move further out to Santa Barbara, to the mountains. Palm Springs has had a huge boom... It's really hard to find a good house in LA. A lot of the best of the best has been sold off. We're hoping for new inventory that's good and beautiful. There is still the tail end of a development boom, so some new construction homes will be coming on... It's the perfect time to be a condo buyer because you will get the perfect deal opportunities... Now is a good time to be a seller, and it's still a good time to be a buyer. It's not going to remain that forever. One of those categories is going to start slipping.This is the time to take action, whether you're a buyer or a seller."
Darlene Streit: "Inventory is at an all-time low, as it is probably everywhere in most places, and I don't see it changing. We used to have a lot of older, retired people that came here to retire.Our primary market used to be Texas. Now, we're seeing a lot more tech people from Google, Apple, all over people who are working at home, coming in droves from San Francisco buying sight-unseen. I'm digging around, trying to find out whatever's unlisted and selling it before it's listed. I sold two last week before they hit the market. In one, [the seller] wouldn't even take the asking price because they were anticipating the bidding war. It's unprecedented in Santa Fe. It's really moving and people are coming here. I think it's still really affordable compared to most of the country. They can come here, spend a few million dollars, and get a really great house where they would have a small apartment somewhere else... I've been here for 31 years, and it's really great to see such a variety of people coming to Santa Fe... You've got to find the inventory. I have a list of people who want houses and what they want. It's very competitive. I'm always determined and digging around to find out what's going on. It takes a lot of determination... It's one of the greatest seller's markets in the history of real estate. If someone wants to sell, now is the time, but get a good broker and price it right. You can push it, but you can only push it for the right amount."
To watch more real estate webinars curated by Haute Residence, visit www.hauteresidence.com.
John-Mark Mitchell, Ernie Carswell, Darlene Streit
