Field Notes
Field Notes
Many things are different this year — including life and commerce in the relatively small world of Hamptons real estate.
Talk to any real estate agent and you will hear about long lines outside of new listings, multiple offers, bidding wars and even complaints about too much business, long days and months without so much as an afternoon off. A local attorney reported his office received 16 new deals in August 2019 and 56 this August. While those stats sound like exaggerations, they’re more likely to be understatements.
In a very short time, we went from a slow-but-steady recovery in the sale market to a blow-out rental market and then the quickest-moving buyer’s market I ever witnessed. There is no hard data yet, but anecdotally, a colleague estimated we moved 18 months of inventory in four months alone.
Putting aside nearly non-existing mobile phone service and standstill traffic (which are only different in degree in 2020), the real estate practice has been very different this year.
How are we selling houses during quarantine?
For many months, agents could not go into homes with customers. Now we can, but we still cannot ride in the same car. Two cars in tandem traveling from house to house has not done much for the already overcrowded roads.
There have been no broker open houses; we show homes we have never seen, often to customers we have not met. We’ve sold and rented homes customers viewed only virtually. In the past, arranging showings was always challenging in the summer. This year, with most houses not only occupied but further burdened by quarantining, work and school schedules, coordination has been a Herculean undertaking. For eager customers, being able to be first or among the first to view is way more desirable than convenience.
In general, motivated buyers look online, drive by on their own, accommodate showing schedules, present strong offers and perform post haste. The reported indecision in the spring morphed into decisive action. As in all markets, those who want to transact do so at market values; those on the fence, both buyers and sellers as well as owners and renters, remain actively or passively on the sidelines — for now.
What has been selling?
Brand-new and immediately available, move-in condition homes in all locations and price points have been the most sought-after properties for sale and rent. The vast majority of sales in the Hamptons in most times are under $2 million and even more are under $1M. That was so this year as well, but probably to an ever-greater degree.
Most customers for sale and rent asked for more bedrooms than they would have if not for Covid. Nearly everyone said they needed extra rooms, offices or finished basements for work or studying and nearly everyone inquired about good internet access.
Many renters, home buyers and long-time second homeowners relocated not just for the season or to wait out the virus plaguing New York City, but they came to stay (or so they thought). Local school enrollment is way up and many adults have found they can and will continue to work from home.
What hasn’t been selling?
By June, when many folks were here looking for homes to buy, it became hard to sell homes that could not be shown. In the early days of Covid when the stock market took a tumble, many homes for sale were also put on the market for rent. They got snapped up for record-high prices. Owners were so happy to get an income that they didn’t fuss about show clauses in the leases and thus many homes for sale could not be shown.
What’s ahead?
We don’t yet know if the so-called Covid surge in both sales and rentals is a one-off event or a reset. And, we probably won’t for another year or so. A lot can happen — didn’t we learn that early in 2020?
From the last week of August until now, the pace of inquiries and showing seems to have slowed down. At the same time, homes that were rented and could not be shown are back in the existing inventory. There has been an increase in both price reductions and new listings coming on the market.
To underscore how differently buyers and sellers think: Some home shoppers have decided to pause in hope that prices will settle, and that more options will be available. And, on the other hand, some owners decided to accelerate future plans to sell to take advantage of the current sellers’ market. While there is sound logic to both positions, only time will tell.