Why Investors Are Flocking to Long Island Real Estate

Jeanine Entenmann (00:00)
on Long Island, we are on an island. There’s only so much land. So it’s definitely appreciating.

I bought my house for $192,000. And I really thought we overpaid.

2001, the price had gone to $450,000.

Dylan Silver (01:48)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a real estate agent with Signature Premier Properties in New York who finds true purpose in helping clients through some of the most exciting, challenging, and meaningful transitions of their lives. Please welcome Jeanine Entenmann. Jeanine, welcome to the show.

Jeanine Entenmann (02:07)
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.

Dylan Silver (02:10)
It’s always great to have New Yorkers and East Coast people here on the show because I’m from Northern New Jersey and I’m here in Dallas now. I don’t know how it happened. Well, I say that, but it’s a long story and it’s amazing how things work out. But how did you get into the real estate space?

Jeanine Entenmann (02:28)
It’s wild. I was always in some kind of sales and I did mortgage processing and then I was talking to my brother who’s an accountant and he had said, why don’t you sell real estate? Like, how did we not think of this for you? And then I just got into it and it, I hit the ground running like right away. I just found a lot of success with it. So it’s been great. And I, I truly love working with people. So I love my job. Like I know so few people can say that, but I really do.

absolutely love my job and people make fun of me when I door knock and stuff where they’re like, of course you like door knocking. You love talking to people.

Dylan Silver (03:02)
That’s great to see. I think we need way more people who are that enthusiastic and passionate about the business. Actually, that’s why I love real estate, probably similar to you, because you like being around people. I like being around people. And you get energized from that, and you get to help people through something that everybody needs. Like everybody needs a roof over their head, and it’s getting harder and harder to make it happen, right? mean…

We were talking about the average price of the homes out there, close to $800,000 or more. And your career before, or your work before becoming a realtor, where you were in the mortgage space,

Jeanine Entenmann (03:42)
Yes, I was a mortgage processor before 2008. So then the crash happened and then.

Dylan Silver (03:46)
and see you in the night.

All side.

You know, one of the interesting things about being able to see all sides is you can really help point people in the right direction. Even though right now you’re not on the lending side, you’ve seen all sides. What are some of the typical or the commonplace ⁓ misnomers or misconceptions that people think about when they start maybe looking at some of their first properties, specifically out there in the New York area?

Jeanine Entenmann (04:17)
I mean, you know, everybody’s heard, um, you know, date the rate, you know, by the house, date the rate, you know, and that is so true. When I first bought my first house in 1997, my, was so excited that the rate wasn’t 8%. It was 7.89 or something. And I was super excited about it. And less than two years later, it went down to five and then not long after that, even lower.

uh… so obviously every finance so it’s really important that by real estate along game right like this is not a short sale it’s not going to be a one year to your process so as long as you can cover you know the monthly payment whatever that looks like it will get better that monthly payment if it’s a fixed rate will get better because the rates go up and down when they lower you can you

you know use your equity and and refinance so you gotta kinda keep that in mind

Dylan Silver (05:56)
I was talking to an investor on this show, actually in Yosemite National Park, right? Amazing area to be an agent, right? And he was talking about how folks are looking at investments and oftentimes it’s not gonna necessarily cash flow every month, although in some months it may. And I think to your point about dating the rate, right? If you can find a way where you love the neighborhood that you’re living in, you love the home that you’re living in, and you know.

Especially in New York right that it’s gonna appreciate with time basically. It’s a lock as Long as you can swing that rate. You’re okay, right?

Jeanine Entenmann (06:32)
Right.

Yes. And

on Long Island, we are on an island. There’s only so much land. So it’s definitely appreciating. You know, you’re you’re it’s so valuable because we’re out of land. We’re on an island. This is as much land as we got. So.

Dylan Silver (06:47)
I tell people this, Jeanine, and it’s funny because now that I’m out here in Texas, it doesn’t feel like this at all. growing up, I grew up 27 miles from Manhattan in a town called Caldwell, West Caldwell. It was basically a whole other world because for lack, you know, we really never made it into the city, maybe once or twice a year. Well, currently I live 40 miles from Dallas and we still consider ourselves DFW Metro. And so I tell people this, there’s like a competition between

Jeanine Entenmann (07:13)
So what?

Dylan Silver (07:17)
New Jersey and Pennsylvania and New York when you’re out there, right? Like you don’t want to you never call the New Jersey and a New Yorker and a New Yorker would take offense if you call. But then I come out here to DFW, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro. And any time I see anyone on the podcast from that area of the the country, I think, it’s nice to see someone else out there. But I’m curious to get your perspective on that, you know, with real estate prices being where they’re at in that tri-state area.

Are you seeing more people looking at specific areas and saying, okay, well, this is where I work and this is where real estate is and I don’t know if I can afford to live here. Maybe I’ll go to a different area or on the flip side, you know what it is, you’re over here, but it’s gonna appreciate faster. Are these factors that are regularly coming into play when people are making a buying decision?

Jeanine Entenmann (08:07)
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like more people are willing to go further out east, which is Suffolk County, where we are on Long Island. And then they were a couple years ago, even five, six years ago, we were seeing people more wanted to stay closer to the city, right? People are willing to do that extra.

longer commute to get a bigger property, to get more value, to get more land and stuff. So we’re definitely seeing that trend. And obviously new home buyers are looking further out east to start their journeys on this real estate, real estate journeys, because it’s so expensive in Nassau County. The closer you get to the city, the more expensive it’s going to get.

Dylan Silver (08:47)
Do you have, mean, I guess no one has a crystal ball, right? But if you look back at the last couple of years where real estate prices were and where they are now, is it like a 50 % increase in how many years? When were the homes in that area like 600 or $400,000? And how long did it take to get to 800,000?

Jeanine Entenmann (09:08)
No, so I really remember this because I was kind of in it. I remember, again, I bought my first house in 1997. I was 25.

I bought my house for $192,000. And I really thought we overpaid. I 100 % thought, I don’t know, we’re not getting this back. This is a bad investment. by 2001, the price had gone to $450,000.

Dylan Silver (09:38)
Yeah.

Jeanine Entenmann (09:38)
And then I

sold in 2013 for $500,000. So it’s just going up and up and up.

Dylan Silver (09:45)
home today is possibly

over a million or close to.

Jeanine Entenmann (09:49)
Yes. Yeah. it’s like my current house, because I sold that and I bought another house. My current house is like a million dollar house that I bought for 600,000 in 2014.

So yeah, it’s just going up and up. And of course, interest rate, are very in this area, we’re very feeling the interest rate, right? So as interest rates rise, it kind of softens the market, but it hasn’t softened it a lot. So I think if we get another big drop, we’re going to get a big jump.

in the price of houses again.

Dylan Silver (10:54)
want to pivot a bit here, Jeanine, and ask you about that concept of, can I swing the payment? Am I going to get my money back, so to speak? I I see it, and I’m in Texas. It’s basically a sure thing that if you can afford the property for five years and you’re in any of the major metros, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, you’re going to at least have equity and sell for a little bit more than, potentially a lot more than what you.

Jeanine Entenmann (11:13)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (11:23)
you bought it for. And so for folks who are out there who are looking at, I don’t know, you know, I got to be able to have if I need to move or what if something happens. I have this sentiment that like you’re in the biggest, if not

the biggest metro in the country. And if you can get a home and then as long as you can make that payment for, know, three to five years, the home is going to increase in value. What’s your sentiment on that? What’s thoughts on that?

Jeanine Entenmann (11:46)
Yes. feel

exactly the same way. To me, real estate is the surest investment you’ll ever make, truly, especially on the island. We are in a beautiful island. We have beautiful beaches. We’re 40 to 50 minutes away from the city and all that entails. And so close to New Jersey, we got three airports, four airports, something like that.

It’s the place to be and it’s always going to be the place to be. So people are always going to want to live here and that’s all you need. You just need the buyers, right? You just need people to want to buy your house one day. So I think, yeah, I think it’s a lock. Real estate will always be a great investment here in New York for sure.

Dylan Silver (12:25)
wanna pivot a bit here and ask you about the investment side. As a former wholesaler before I became a realtor and now as a realtor, I love talking with investors. I know not all realtors do. I learned this when I was going through real estate school a couple months ago. Sometimes people talk about working with distressed properties and investors and it’s a headache, but I love that side of the business. I speak with a lot of people on the East Coast, anywhere from Massachusetts down to ⁓ the Carolinas and people.

Jeanine Entenmann (12:42)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (12:55)
really talk about how things can be a little bit trickier because of the price point. And so maybe people are looking at investing Midwest or South, you know, Texas and so on and so forth. But on the flip side, you do have properties that appreciate so heavily

and you also have rents that are so high and so strong that I do think there is an opportunity for ⁓ investment there as long as people are potentially ⁓ able to.

Jeanine Entenmann (13:22)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (13:23)
weather the storm if there needs to be an eviction or something along these lines. Do you have any experience working with investors and or do you know of anybody who works a lot with investors and are there great investment opportunities out there in Long Island for folks who are maybe looking for rentals?

Jeanine Entenmann (13:39)
Yes, I love working with investors. It’s just a different mindset, right? So when you’re dealing with the first time homebuyer, it’s all about the passion. It’s all about how much they love what they’re doing. Investors, it’s all about the business. It’s all about the numbers, whether this is going to make sense for them. Going into this higher and straight market that we’re in, and I don’t know when that’s going to change, it is great idea in New York to buy a rental property because, like we said before, there are certain

amount of people that cannot afford this industry cannot afford a house at this price with this industry they’re going to need a place to live too so rentals i think are going to be very in need on long island so if you’re an investor i think if you buy a good rental property now’s the time to do that it’s a very good time to pivot into that and then maybe later on think about flipping it down the road

Dylan Silver (14:32)
Yeah,

that’s that’s such an you know, I would say a key point to make here because a lot of times people will look at and say, well, how how much is it cash flowing versus other areas? And you know, if it’s going to be splitting hairs, or maybe I’m even taking a slight loss in the cash flow, it’s not worth it for me. But these properties again, appreciate so heavily. And it’s really like, not the same markets as other areas of the country, because you’re looking at a price point of $800,000

up.

And you talked about that home that you bought for, you know, five, $600,000 and it could be over a million dollars today. And that wasn’t even, you know, more than 15 years ago. Right. And so when you’re looking at the homes that are priced $800,000 and it’s 2025 now by 2030, you know, who even knows where they’ll be. So if you factor in, you know, however much you’re paying in maintenance or, however much you may have to pay for vacancies or issues with tenants and so on and so forth.

Jeanine Entenmann (15:52)
Right.

Dylan Silver (16:11)
It still seems like it’s a whole lot of money to be made for investors in the table.

Jeanine Entenmann (16:16)
⁓ absolutely. You know, like I said, you got to be smart about it and and and you got to know what you’re doing as far as being a good landlord and really vetting your tenants, obviously, because it is a little more challenging to evict people in our state. So you got to be very smart about who you put in there. Yeah, for sure.

Dylan Silver (16:32)
It is a-

One of the interesting things on that note is that I’ve spoke with actually an attorney in Seattle who helped ⁓ me understand this process a little bit better. And of course it’s different on the coast, right? But to break it down, he was saying, well, the price for the rentals is so high because landlords are aware that if they have to do an eviction, it could take a very long period of time. And so that’s kind of factored into the higher rent. So

when people are looking at investing in those areas, a lot of times the price for the rents are so high because of taking that into play. But I do want to pivot here and ask you about the short term rental space. So you mentioned you’re on Long Island, right? A place where so many people like to go to and there’s beaches and so many opportunities for people to ⁓ really have a leisurely time. Are short term rentals a thing out there? Do the people have Airbnb’s?

Jeanine Entenmann (17:24)
.

⁓

all day long, especially in the Hamptons, in Montauk, in those beach areas. Yeah, we have a lot of Airbnbs and wonderful short-term rentals. Matatuck, mean, Long Island has some of the most beautiful beaches. Just stunning. And quaint little towns and everything. So yeah, I can’t say enough about how much a great place it is for summer vacation.

Dylan Silver (17:57)
think a lot of people are going to listen to this and say, wow, I never thought about Long Island. I’ve been going to wherever place I’ve been going to, know, Virginia or Florida. really got it. And plus too, you can hit two birds with one stone, right? You can be in Long Island and then you can go into New York City and so you can kind of have ⁓ the best of both worlds. I think you’re in the biggest city. I mean, I think a lot of folks when they, when they hear this may be surprised at that. Hopefully we can start to see more people.

Jeanine Entenmann (18:04)
Yes.

Right, you can see a show, go to a concert, all that good stuff, yeah.

Dylan Silver (18:27)
⁓ look at maybe investing in Long Island from out of the area and get some more people in there. That would drive the prices up, right? it’s happen. It’s gonna happen inevitably. Jeanine, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if maybe they’re looking at homes in the area or if they’d like to reach out to you?

Jeanine Entenmann (18:36)
Yes, it’ll be good. I’m not mad about it.

So I’m at Signature Premier Properties. ⁓ I have a YouTube channel and ⁓ an Instagram, Jeanine underscore Wheelty. ⁓ Yeah, definitely give me a call or email me at Jeanine at homes li.org.

Dylan Silver (19:05)
Jeanine, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Jeanine Entenmann (19:08)
Thank you for having me. really appreciate it. It was so great. I appreciate it so much.