In episode 82 of “Boroughs and Burbs,” we had a lively discussion about the Santa Barbara lifestyle, a city that offers a unique lifestyle, breathtaking attractions, and a thriving real estate market. As we delved into the reasons why people choose to live in Santa Barbara, we explored the workforce, the celebrity culture, and the overall vibe of the city.
One of the top quotes from the show was when Adam McKaig said, “Santa Barbara is a place where you can have it all – the beach, the mountains, and the city life.” We also talked about the limited inventory of homes in Santa Barbara, which is a major topic in the real estate market. As Mary Perry Hudson pointed out, “There’s a lot of competition for homes in Santa Barbara, so you have to act fast if you want to secure a property.”
Another important topic we covered was the impact of natural disasters on the city. As Stacey Melman mentioned, “Santa Barbara has experienced its fair share of wildfires and mudslides, but the community always comes together to support each other.” Despite these challenges, Santa Barbara remains a desirable location for those seeking a relaxed, luxurious lifestyle with access to outdoor activities and stunning scenery.
We ended the episode with Mary Perry Hudson inviting the host to participate in various events, highlighting the friendly and welcoming nature of the community. As Speaker 4 put it, “Santa Barbara is a place where you can truly feel at home, no matter where you come from.” Overall, we hope this episode gave you a better understanding of what makes Santa Barbara such a special place to live.
Here is the full transcript:
Boroughs & Burbs 82 || The American Riviera: Santa Barbara and Montecito, California with Adam McKaig and Mary Perry Hudson
John Engel (00:00:02) – All right, everybody. Welcome to Boroughs and Burbs, episode 82. And I’m your host, John Engel, hailing from Connecticut, and I’m getting some help this week from Stacy Melman. Wave. Stacy, she’s from Beverly Hills. I thought, you know what? I am such a Connecticut Yankee, and I really don’t know my California geography. I’m gonna need some help from Victor Curri in Pasadena, Stacy, and Beverly Hills. I’m gonna need some help from some California natives to keep you too honest when I grill you on the really hard questions about Montecito and Santa Barbara. I’m very excited about Santa Barbara. The only things we know in New Canaan, Connecticut is that, um, a, a rich heis, uh, who inherit, who, who with a fabulous Fifth Avenue, uh, fifth Avenue apartment, and who had a fabulous mansion in New Canaan, also had a fabulous mansion on the Santa Barbara coast with like 30 acre estate. And given the choice between New Canaan, Connecticut and Santa Barbara, she chose to spend all her time in Santa Barbara. Can you imagine that? Um, and never spent one night in her new Canaan mansion, and it was more recently sold and restored by the head of Tiffany’s in New York. Uh, so I guess that makes everybody here in New Caan, mighty curious as to what’s so special about Santa Barbara that you would not even spend a night in New Caan all those years. So, with that, Adam, say hello. Well,
Adam McKaig (00:01:50) – Hello, Adam. McKaig here, Douglas Elliman, Montecito. And I’ve got my friend and vice president of Adams Angels, Mary Hudson.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:02:02) – Right? Well, you know what it is, John, as we always call this Hawaii on the mainland, because it’s so laid back when I was growing up here, we used to call it for the newly we and the nearly dead
Adam McKaig (00:02:13) – <laugh> <laugh>,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:02:15) – But it’s changed. A lot of celebrities have moved up in spite of the 92 miles. They don’t even think about it when there’s flying cars. They’ll be here even faster.
John Engel (00:02:26) – So is it the jewel of California or is Stacy sitting there in Beverly Hills? The more famous zip code? Is that the jewel of California? Help me out here, Stacy.
Stacy Melman (00:02:38) – You know, I feel like Santa Barbara is special in the sense that it’s smaller and everyone who lives here sort of aspires to be there at some point or visit there, or, you know, have an, an extra home there. So it’s sort of, I think that’s a, not above Beverly Hills personally, that’s my opinion. What do you guys think?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:02:59) – I think it’s great because of the traffic. Cuz you wanna take the kids to the zoo, it’s only gonna take you seven minutes. Whereas if you do it the LA Zoo or you know, you try to go to the beach, it’s a 45 minute drive and that’s getting more and more prevalent,
Stacy Melman (00:03:12) – Right? I mean, working out of Beverly Hills is fantastic being here for work. But I think vacation mode, going to the beaches, going to upscale restaurants, um, you know, I actually started college at U C S B cuz I always dreamed about being California. And you guys
Mary Perry Hudson (00:03:28) – Have, oh, there you go.
Stacy Melman (00:03:30) – Yeah. Top 25th public colleges in the United States is U C S B. So I’m sure you guys
Mary Perry Hudson (00:03:36) – See right on the beach.
Adam McKaig (00:03:38) – Yeah. Mary is an alumni,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:03:40) – Right? I, well, I’m not, I went to be graduated from Berkeley, but I started at U C S B.
Stacy Melman (00:03:45) – Oh, wow. Okay. So you got a view of the Channel Islands too, from your Oh
Mary Perry Hudson (00:03:49) – Yeah. Oh yeah. Well I was born and raised here in Montecito, so I’ve always been looking at the Channel Islands. It’s almost like you take it for granted.
Stacy Melman (00:03:57) – Oh, lucky you.
Adam McKaig (00:03:58) – In fact, uh, we’re at the Montecito Club right now. We’re hoping to be outside. Uh, so you could have a view of the Clark estate, which you were mentioning, uh, uh, and, and, uh, which she did So, uh, graciously donated to the city. So it’s a, a Santa Barbara jewel. I actually had tried to make offers since she was not coming here. Um, I offered the estate in, uh, uh, Chicago, uh, $75 million. They rejected it. And then we went to a hundred, uh, and it’s not for sale. And apparently rumor has it, uh, uh, their offers up to 200 million for this property and still they chose to, uh, donate it to, uh, the city of Santa Barbara.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:04:44) – Well, it’s the coastline cuz it’s right on the beach. Oh
Adam McKaig (00:04:47) – My goodness. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:04:49) – I mean, that’s very unusual. But she actually didn’t live here, did she? For a
Adam McKaig (00:04:52) – Long time? No, no. And they, she was
Mary Perry Hudson (00:04:54) – In a hospital in New York City so everybody could take care of her.
Adam McKaig (00:04:57) – Yeah. And they set the table as if, uh, she was going to come every night. Uh, so the rumor has it, and, but she hadn’t seen it for, uh, over half a century.
John Engel (00:05:08) – So I think, uh, um, I’m gonna try and orient everybody. Uh, sorry for the folks in Podcast Land, but can you see the screen? This is the, can you see the map or do you see the who get Clark Estate?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:05:22) – Yeah, uh, yeah, we see it right there.
Stacy Melman (00:05:24) – Yep, we see it.
John Engel (00:05:25) – So that’s the who get Clark Estate, which is right up against the ocean, has a few cliffs, and the Pacific Coast Highway actually wraps around the estate, uh, inland of the estate, which is pretty extraordinary. But let’s get oriented. Can you all see the map here?
Stacy Melman (00:05:43) – See, yes.
John Engel (00:05:44) – So I see Los Angeles down there, and then I get through, I go through Thousand Oaks in Ventura, and then I finally get to Santa Barbara, what, 90 miles outside of Los Angeles. So it’s not, it’s not really a commuting, a commutable distance to la. And so any of the, uh, famous people who are work, who are required to be in LA at the studios every day, they’re not, they’re not commuting from Santa Barbara, are they?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:14) – Well true, but they probably don’t go every day. I know my daughter has a driver, so she just goes to sleep in the backseat. But <laugh>,
Adam McKaig (00:06:21) – Oh, for those of you who don’t know, her daughter is Katie Perry.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:24) – Yeah. So the most, I’m sorry. So
John Engel (00:06:28) – How long does it take, uh, Katie to or Tom Cruise to get to work in the morning?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:35) – 90 minutes.
Adam McKaig (00:06:36) – Well, Tom Cruise can ride a motorcycle or jet, or a, a rocket ship. Uh,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:40) – But he’s in Malibu, isn’t he? Yeah, he’s in Malibu.
John Engel (00:06:44) – Okay.
Adam McKaig (00:06:45) – But, uh, yeah, 90 minutes. Uh, you could be anywhere in la
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:49) – But it’s the most beautiful drive in between Ventura and Santa Barbara, right along the coastline, right next to the water. It’s probably one of the prettiest drives.
Adam McKaig (00:06:58) – Oh, it is. It is,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:06:59) – Uh, on the coast, except if you’re go highway one up to Big Sur between the Hearst Castle of Monterey, but that’s very desolate.
John Engel (00:07:07) – So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s 90 minutes without traffic when Katie Perry goes to work in the morning. But for the rest of us, what’s the, what’s the commute?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:07:18) – Well, we can be safe going to lax. They always make me do two hours. Got it. But that’s lax, which is sort of south of the city of Los Angeles. So it depends upon where you’re going. But you know, if you, if you time it right, if you go early in the morning or you go late at night, it’s a easy 90 minutes.
John Engel (00:07:37) – So talk to me about why would somebody, uh, go out there instead of Malibu, Beverly Hills or any of the other, um, premium spots. I mean, help me understand the difference. Traffic,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:07:51) – Traffic traffic. Traffic traffic. Traffic traffic. And besides that, the slow pace, the easy pace, and you’re, nobody’s hassling you. I mean, the thing is that, um, Santa Barbara, unfortunately has always been Montecito, particularly a snobby kind of place. I remember when Susie Parker and, uh, Brad Diman first moved up here in the sixties, and they would not allow them to join the Valley Club because they were actors. But that’s all changed now. The actors are all in there.
Stacy Melman (00:08:26) – I feel like, sorry, John.
John Engel (00:08:28) – No, go ahead.
Stacy Melman (00:08:30) – Do you feel like Santa Barbara is heavily touristed or it’s more locals?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:08:35) – It can be. It can be. It depends upon the time. Like, we have the Solstice, the Summer Solstice Parade coming on June 24th, and usually they have a hundred thousand people come up here. So, or the Fiesta Parade. We all try to go out of town during those times. <laugh>,
Stacy Melman (00:08:51) – I do know you have, you have the International Film Festival there as well, correct?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:08:57) – Oh, yes. Not to mention that. Yes.
Adam McKaig (00:08:59) – Uh, and cruise ships come, well, this, but Santa Barbara’s been a destination for hundreds of years. It’s been a, uh, a place to, uh, uh, come out in winter, uh, and get healthy. Uh, uh, it has been retrieves hot spring. The hot Springman. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
John Engel (00:09:16) – All right. I’m gonna pull up a map again cuz I love, I love mean meandering around the map. So, when I did a quick look at property values in the Santa Barbara area, and I guess Santa Barbara is short for the whole area, but it’s also, uh, the town in the center. The most expensive real estate is Montecito and I guess Monte. And, and that was at the $5 million level according to the Zillow Index. And it was half of that in greater Santa Barbara and Summerland. Um, and let’s see if I could pull up the, um, but so can you tell me what, what is so special about Montecito in particular?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:10:03) – Well, John, you’re just going to have to come out here and see it <laugh> because it’s, uh, gorgeous with all the old estates and the, the properties that have built been built up around here. What do you think? Oh
Adam McKaig (00:10:13) – My gosh. Well, you know, the weather is so nice. Santa Barbara’s only 42 square miles. It’s small. It’s protected by, uh, the sans mountain range behind us. We have the, uh, uh, beach in front of us, uh, at, you know, no matter where you live, you could be at either of them within 10 minutes, the mountains or the beach. Our, our, our beaches, we have world class surfing, we have fishing, um, you know, hiking is, is, uh, the best. Uh, we have our, our channel islands out in our harbor that, uh, protect our coastline from, um, you know, tidal wave. Although in 1901 there was a tidal wave that from an earthquake between our coast and the islands, but it was only like a foot tall. But, uh, it is a, a very, very, uh, wonderful place, uh, protected
Mary Perry Hudson (00:11:02) – Area. Yeah, yeah,
John Engel (00:11:03) – Yeah. So is Montecito bigger estates? Cuz it looks like, uh, that I’m gonna get more land maybe an acre in Montecito, whereas downtown bar Santa Barbara and some of the Oak Park, Alta Mesa, they look like much smaller lots. Is that accurate? Oh, yeah,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:11:20) – Yeah, for sure.
Adam McKaig (00:11:21) – Yeah, those are tract neighborhoods. Um, now, you know, Santa Barbara has older track neighborhoods and, and, you know, smaller, uh, parcels of land. Montecito has always generally been larger estates. Um, I
Mary Perry Hudson (00:11:36) – Think originally it was settled. You know, one of the great places to go, Montecito is a Saint CTO ranch where I think Father Unip, Sarah started, I mean, he started up there. Yeah. Yeah. And then they started farming around there. And then people came from the East coast. I know my, uh, mother and her family came from Pittsburgh and they went to Pasina. Then my grand great-aunt, uh, bought property. There’s just a lot of property available at that time. But now it’s gonna be, you know, I mean, your inventory, is there any inventory?
Adam McKaig (00:12:08) – Oh, no. The inventory is so low. Um, and some of the high-end properties are being, uh, sold between, uh, uh, celebrities. Like, uh, Ellen DeGeneres, uh, will buy a beautiful property. Uh, she’ll fix up an already beautiful property and sell for double to, uh, one of her friends. Um, she’s a
Mary Perry Hudson (00:12:28) – Chief flipper right
Adam McKaig (00:12:28) – Here. Oh. Oh my goodness. Um, you know, Rob Lowe has been doing well in real estate. Uh, he sold one of his properties to Adam Levine, who, um, from 52 million, who by the way, Mary, uh, is going to be singing for our event, uh, September 22nd at Kevin Costner’s place, uh, is a fundraiser for 1 8 0 5 and Adam’s Angels. So that’s pretty exciting. But, uh, anyway, the, the real estate in Montecito, uh, is, is realizing some large, large numbers,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:13:01) – But we don’t have the zoom, Adam, is it, probably a year and a half ago was like, there were 30 people lined up at every property, but it’s not like that right now, or
Adam McKaig (00:13:11) – Is it No, no. It’s, it’s slowed down. The prices haven’t necessarily, uh, gone down at all. Um, but, uh, you know, I know this is one of your questions, uh, regarding the floods and the fires. Right. Um, and, and one of the deterrents, um, in Montecito are, um, uh, insurance costs. Oh, right. I had a property last year, uh, insurance, uh, premiums were over 200,000 a year. Oh my gosh. Um, and you know, that, that deterred even some of the big celebr rich celebrities.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:13:45) – Ah, well, I know that this time we’ve had all this atmospheric river rain and it’s like <laugh> we’re, when wondering when it’s gonna stop. But they have put Swiss avalanche nets up in the mountains, so the big boulders, the size of Volkswagens cannot any longer come down. So we didn’t have any of that problem with all this range since December, which is quite remarkable. Right. Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:14:07) – Yeah. It, it worked out well.
John Engel (00:14:10) – I, I love that when you can say the best thing about this season was nobody got hit by a Volkswagen <laugh>. <laugh>. I mean, you know, in Connecticut, that’s not even part of our marketing strategy. Nobody got hit by a rock <laugh>.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:14:26) – Yeah, right. Well, was it five years ago or seven years ago? Five. Five. We had the floods here and the 23 people died. Yeah. The, the Volkswagen Rocks came down, but they were not prepared for this. But now they are.
Stacy Melman (00:14:39) – I I did do some research before, even though I know Santa Barbara not as well as you guys do. Um, and it said that there’s 283 sunny days per year
Mary Perry Hudson (00:14:51) – In Santa Barbara. Yes. Yeah, that would be correct.
Adam McKaig (00:14:54) – Yeah. Well, that was last year. This year, <laugh>. And, and normally we get 15 inches of rain. Uh, this year we’ve had over 60. That’s a lot of water.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:15:04) – That’s amazing. Yeah. That’s awesome. But the hills are green. I mean, it looks, looks gorgeous. So ver and the palm trees are just flourishing. It just looks like between Tropical and Yosemite. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
John Engel (00:15:17) – All right. So I’ve got a builder in the house, Scott Hobbs, he builds big fancy houses for celebrities. And so, uh, I gotta ask, and maybe Scott will help me out with this, but when they come and they say, I want something new. I want privacy, I want a pool, I want a tennis court, and I want new construction. Is there any left? Is there any room for a guy like Scott Hobbs in Santa Barbara?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:15:41) – Well, I think it’s who, you know. I mean, you just have to get it in here and Hobb knob and talk to people because I think there is land. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s gonna be a a the permitting process is not short.
Adam McKaig (00:15:52) – No, no zoning. Uh, is, is, is is very difficult here. You know, depending on where it is. We have several layers of, uh, government entities from the, the county, uh, you know, Montecito property, if it’s in Montecito, the Coastal Commission. So those are, uh, uh, difficult. There are, uh, well restrictions. There’s water moratoriums there, there is regulations on everything. Um, what people are doing though, um, they’re buying houses and then raising them. They’re leveling them and then building new.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:16:29) – So Cause Right. That seems to be the, if, if, if Scott wants to do that, then hey, come on in, get your, uh, bulldozer <laugh>.
Speaker 4 (00:16:36) – Well, how does, how does that work with the taxes though? Because you guys still have sort of like the homesteader that, or, or I forget which proposition it is that the taxes don’t go up till you change hands. Does that radically change your tax situation?
Adam McKaig (00:16:48) – Well, well, yeah. And then they’ll, after you build, they’ll reassess it. They go, oh, wow, that looks like a a billion dollar place. Uh, <laugh>, you know, in one point, uh, whatever percent, uh, uh, will be your new tax assessment. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:17:04) – And what, and what, um, always curious as to like how the actual ecosystem works. So you have all these wonderful, lovely, great places, which we talk about week to week in many different areas. And then comes a question as like, okay, so where do the workers come from? So how’s, yeah,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:17:19) – We’ve got lots of workers. We do have a lot of workers, a lot of, uh, people around, right? Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:17:25) – Yeah. But, but, uh, again, uh, uh, generally, uh, for that, for larger projects, I’ve had, uh, contractors, you know, get people out of Texas and then put them up for a job. But we’ve got, uh, the workers that, uh, live in, in surrounding communities like Lo Oak, Santa Maria, uh, Ventura, Andi,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:17:46) – Everybody. Ventura. Yeah. Or
Adam McKaig (00:17:52) – <inaudible>. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, uh, you know, rental, uh, is much more affordable in those cities as opposed to Santa Barbara.
John Engel (00:18:00) – Can we talk more about that? I wanna dig down a little deeper on that. Scott Hobbs builds houses, big houses in the Hamptons. They have the same problem. And when I said to him, why don’t you just put workers up on the properties in the temporary homes? He said, zoning doesn’t allow it. Absolutely not in the Hamptons. So are you saying that they can come from Ohio? Ohio is no slouch. I mean, Ojai, the average house is 2 million.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:18:28) – Ojai
Adam McKaig (00:18:28) – Yeah. Well, they, they, they’re little, little, uh, suburbs of Ojai, like Oakview and, and, uh, um, uhdi Springs, where we sold Johnny Cass’s house. Um, which the rentals are much more affordable. But, uh, you know, I’m saying, yeah, they, they drive in for work cuz it’s only half hour, 45, 5 minutes.
John Engel (00:18:51) – I forgot you sold Johnny Cash’s house. I’m gonna try and find a picture of that. Tell us about, tell us about Johnny Cash’s house. Is that the regular person’s house? And, uh, what is the regular person’s house cost these days in Ojai?
Adam McKaig (00:19:08) – Well, it wasn’t very expensive to sell, was it? No, it, it wasn’t very expensive in the scheme of things, but it, it was in an area, well, casita Springs, which had little tiny houses in mobile homes. And Johnny liked that cuz it was real America. And there was a bar that he used to like to go to and a church that he’d sing. Uh, but he bought a piece of land above that little town, and he, uh, laid down on the ground in visiting what it’s going to, uh, be like. He, uh, laid it all out, um, and built a much larger house than the, uh, the surrounding, uh, neighborhood. And, and what did we get? About 2 million.
John Engel (00:19:50) – Is this the house here that I see, uh, with the Red Roof? Yes. Yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:19:56) – Okay. And what was the song that he said he built, he wrote there?
Adam McKaig (00:19:58) – Oh, ring of Fire. Well, uh, June Carter got the, uh, the credit for that, but rumor has it from the Cash Family that, uh, he actually wrote it and gave it to her. And he did that, uh, while fishing on Casitas Lake. But while he was living there, um, this was in the height of his drug and alcohol addiction. So it wasn’t, uh, a happy time in his life. But, uh, he, uh, he met June Carter during that time, or, or had the relationship and, and, well, the rest was history. But, but the, uh, the people that, uh, looked at it, uh, were, were amazing. Um, you know, a lot of, uh, celebrities, uh, actors who wanted to either make it a, a, a recording studio, uh, or, uh, bed and breakfast, bringing it back to the original glory and, and, uh, renting it out as, uh, Johnny Cash experience. But we, we ended up selling it to a, a Johnny Cash fan who, uh, actually his son was named Cash. So it was almost inevitable that, uh, he would end up with Johnny Cass’s home. And,
John Engel (00:21:10) – And how much did that house, which looks like a ranch, uh, a regular 1950s, three bedroom ranch, uh, how much did that sell for?
Adam McKaig (00:21:20) – Uh, $2 million. And it wa and again, it was fraught with, uh, l lots of, uh, problems. But, uh, uh, again, it was the Johnny Cas aspect that, uh, Douglas Elliman, uh, promoted and that went viral, as you might remember, uh, bringing the price up, uh, actually close to a million dollars more than, uh, uh, the sellers, uh, were, were expecting. So,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:21:46) – And I think a lot, uh, celebrities and people are coming up here to be creative because it’s so much slower. I know Katie just bought a, um, one of the five remaining Adobes in Santa Barbara. Yeah, right. Yeah. And she’s not gonna use that for a house at all. It’s gonna be a studio, so, you know, she’ll probably rent it out and all that, but I’m sure other people are looking that direction. Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:22:07) – Yeah.
John Engel (00:22:09) – Is it just the celebrities buying up there, or is it the tech crowd? And is that also helping to drive up prices?
Adam McKaig (00:22:16) – Oh, yeah. Eric,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:22:17) – What’s his name? Eric. What’s his name about the
Adam McKaig (00:22:20) – State? Oh, yeah. And, uh, uh, linda.com. Uh, yeah, Linda, they’re
Mary Perry Hudson (00:22:26) – Building about
Adam McKaig (00:22:26) – Another one building. They’re, they’re building one that, uh, they’re gonna have, I don’t know, maybe 150, 200 million into it. They’re, and it’s gonna house their art, basically.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:22:39) – Oh,
Adam McKaig (00:22:39) – Yeah. It’s just, uh, literally half a mile behind us. Right.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:22:45) – I was, I go up my road and I see the security out there in the street, but, uh, it, who is it? Eric from Google that
Adam McKaig (00:22:52) – Oh, right, right, right, right. For Wife
Mary Perry Hudson (00:22:54) – Smith. Yes, yes, yes. Right.
Adam McKaig (00:22:57) – And then the, the, the dating site. And you know, we’ve got Amazon, uh, LinkedIn, uh,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:23:03) – Jeff Bezos.
Adam McKaig (00:23:05) – Oh, well, Bezos bought in Noha.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:23:07) – Oh, he did. Um, next
Adam McKaig (00:23:08) – To it,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:23:08) – He was trying to buy what’s her name’s estate? Which
Adam McKaig (00:23:11) – One?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:23:12) – Uh, the John was talking about Clark.
Adam McKaig (00:23:16) – Oh, oh, yeah, Clark. Okay. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:23:20) – But he didn’t, um, get by the city. The city’s a tough Oh yeah. Nut to crack. Yeah.
John Engel (00:23:24) – So what’s, what’s in Ojai? Why wouldn’t he go to Ojai? If you’ve got all the money in the world, why wouldn’t you hang out in Montecito with a view of the, of the ocean?
Adam McKaig (00:23:32) – Well, to say he, there’s, there’s, there was this beautiful ranch that was, uh, so remote, no high again is what, half an hour from the ocean. Um, but you feel miles and worlds away. And he bought a, a big ranch for, uh, I believe 88 million. It was not for sale. It 88 million made it for sale.
John Engel (00:23:56) – So I’m, I’m showing the map that shows just how far Ojai is Ojai Oak View. Miramont. So one thing we’ve learned is Ojai is for regular people, and a lot of the labor comes from the Ojai area. And, and, and, well, well,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:24:12) – There’s a lot of creatives in Ojai that a lot of people come up from LA and, um, actors,
Stacy Melman (00:24:18) – The Ojai Valley, innin Spa is one of my favorites, actually. But I was really, it’s right. A lot of people go there, I feel like.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:24:26) – Yeah, it’s beautiful.
Adam McKaig (00:24:27) – It’s a nice critical getaway.
Stacy Melman (00:24:29) – I was curious like, what the situation is with paparazzi, because there’s so many celebrities, obviously, in la, but a lot of them go to, um, Santa Barbara to escape by estates if they can, you know, everyone that, you know, that has houses and homes there. Um, what’s it like with paparazzi? Are there a lot more there now that the world Oh,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:24:48) – Yeah. It’s not as bad as you might think. I mean, it used to be when Katie was first, um, acquiring property here and, um, you know, we’d see the Daily Mail at our door <laugh>, but, uh, not so much anymore. And I’m not sure, what do you think, Adam? Well,
Adam McKaig (00:25:05) – You, you know, the celebrities that I know, uh, feel a lot more comfortable and at ease here. They can be themselves. Yeah. Nobody,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:25:12) – Nobody pays any attention to
Adam McKaig (00:25:13) – It. No, no, no. We don’t care. No, no. It’s nice. It’s nice.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:25:18) – Yeah. So that’s probably another reason they come up here. They can be themselves, go to the farmer’s market and whatever.
Stacy Melman (00:25:25) – So how, how big is Santa Barbara? Actually, I know it’s not, um, that big. So in terms of homes that you’re selling or, you know, available places to even rent. How, how, like, how, what’s the size? What, what is the size of Santa Barbara? There’s a bunch of different areas within
Adam McKaig (00:25:43) – Oh, oh, oh, you mean, uh, uh, population geological is 42 square miles. Uh, but, uh, as far as inventory, there is so little, um, on the market right now.
John Engel (00:25:56) – How many single family homes now, would you say
Adam McKaig (00:26:01) – Available? Yeah. Oh, uh, 80.
John Engel (00:26:06) – And what’s normal pre covid?
Adam McKaig (00:26:09) – Um, you know, 300. Yeah. People
Mary Perry Hudson (00:26:13) – Came from the north, south, east, and west Seattle. Los Angeles, San Francisco, right. During Covid was crazy.
Adam McKaig (00:26:18) – Well, COVID actually kicked it up a notch, COVID when it hit. Uh, our jobs were deemed non-essential, and we were, uh, shut down completely. Real estate stopped, escrows fell out. Loan lenders were not loaning. And, uh, uh, hence we started Adam’s Angels. And we thought that we’d be doing this for a couple of weeks, but, uh, uh, it, it, it lasted a lot longer. But real estate kicked in high gear because people rethought and reassessed their, their lives and what was important to them. And they got quality of life, cities, quality of life, cities, and, and people came from New York, uh, uh, you know, big cities to, uh, uh, Santa Barbara.
Stacy Melman (00:27:02) – So, I just have one more question. I would love to hear more about Adam’s Angels.
Adam McKaig (00:27:08) – Oh, well, um, it started, uh, again, when we redeemed non-essential, uh, you know, Peter Hernandez, uh, said, oh, we’re not allowed to show properties. We’re not allowed to, to work. Just halt, halt for a little while in the fear of, uh, uh, getting, uh, uh, contracting or giving, uh, uh, covid, what would the legality be? So I posted on Facebook, cuz you know, as realtors, we are serving our clients and I like to serve. So I didn’t wanna be without, uh, a job of serving. I posted on Facebook, uh, if I could be of help, uh, getting groceries, which were really hard to get for those, uh, at risk, those elderly and medication, I’d be happy to. And the outpouring was huge. It was, it drew people from all walks of life, both to, um, help and to be served. And, and, uh, we were born from that. Yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:28:07) – But after that, now you serve seven or eight sites all over Santa Barbara. Yeah. All the homeless, right?
Adam McKaig (00:28:12) – Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s amazing. We have, uh, yeah, we have, uh, um, we put together non-perishable bags of food on Monday nights. And, uh, we distribute it to eight locations from, uh, Isla Vista to, uh, uh, carpenter R. And to date, we’ve done over 40,000 of those. We give out, uh, clothes. We give out, uh, hygiene
Mary Perry Hudson (00:28:38) – And rain ponchos,
Adam McKaig (00:28:39) – Oh boy. You know, thousands of sleeping bags. Uh, we’ve given away, uh, two cars. Well, um, vans that were equipped for, uh, living in, along with the insurance and a safe parking program. Uh, we have another car coming in that we’re going to be giving out next month, uh, for that same, uh, uh, reason. But, uh, it has been a real honor, uh, uh, serving our, our less fortunate.
John Engel (00:29:09) – So we’re in one of the most wealthy communities in the country, Montecito, with an average price of 5 million. So a lot of people are probably wondering, well, who, who’s needy? How could you possibly have a needy population?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:29:25) – Well, you do in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and, uh, Carpenteria for sure. And the thing is that Santa Barbara’s always been known, uh, for nonprofits. I know my mother was involved in that, but, um, they have 3,500 nonprofits, uh, wow. In Santa Barbara. I think it’s one of the largest per capita for sure. Of nonprofits.
Adam McKaig (00:29:47) – Yeah. And we, we didn’t become a nonprofit until just a little over a year ago. Um, it was self-funded. I, I funded it personally myself, uh, originally. And then, uh, some kindhearted, uh, uh, uh, Santa Barbara community, clients and friends, uh, also, uh, pitched in. And, uh, we formed this, uh, uh, nonprofit. And it’s just going Game busters. We, we, we do this in conjunction with Showers of Blessings, uh, which give it hot showers, uh, doctors Without Walls, which, uh, um, go out to the parks with us, uh, two areas with their team of doctors trying to do preventative medicine because the homeless had been using the emergency rooms as a primary, uh, care. And with c clogging up the, the system for those, uh, of us that, uh, need it also. So, uh, they’re going out to them. We also have, uh, care for Paws, which takes care of our little four-legged, uh, nice, uh, friends and, uh, takes care of them both, uh, with food and, uh, uh, medical.
John Engel (00:30:57) – So I have to dig in on what seems to be, you know, I’m, I’m trying to draw some conclusions here. If I was being transferred out to California and I was looking for a place to bring my family, and I was trying to evaluate what communities might I look in, partly I’m hearing that this is a place full of celebrities, right. And they have fabulous water views, and they have their need for privacy. And there’s great estates. I’m also hearing about from a third generation and a sixth generation Santa Barbara, about an incredible volunteer community, uh, and a, a great place to raise a family. Yes. So, I, I’m trying to understand which way it, it is, and maybe it can be both, maybe it can be both full of celebrities, and yet a community that comes together, volunteers, uh, where everybody is pretty relaxed, um, and, and knows each other. Is that Yes, that’s true. All true.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:32:05) – That’s true. And especially, I think a lot of teamwork came after the mudslide five years ago, because they formed something called The Bucket Brigade. And these people went and cleaned out the creeks, and, uh, they looked for, you know, people’s lost wedding rings that they found and things like that. They’re still together, and they’re still very unified.
John Engel (00:32:26) – So the apparent contradiction is, is Ellen de generous, uh, uh, cleaning up the creek? Uh, or do, are you a close-knit community, uh, that regards the, all of this invasion of celebrities as a bit of a distraction? I mean, I’d like to, I’d like to sit in on one of your p and z meetings and see if there’s a little bit <laugh>, a little bit of a us and them attitude, or are they they as us?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:32:56) – Well, it’s more they as us, kind of, they have to, because we don’t receive them. I mean, they’re just people that have jobs like you and I.
Adam McKaig (00:33:02) – Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, just regular people, uh, you wouldn’t actually, I, I, I don’t recognize them. Um, mostly someone has to tell me who they are. Right. In fact, uh, had a client who was the funniest client ever. And oh my gosh, every time I, I, uh, um, was with her, she was just cracking jokes. And I told her, you know what? You’re so funny. You ought to be a comedian. <laugh>. Well, Amy Huber says, well, I am <laugh>. I didn’t know <laugh>. Oh boy. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s, it’s funny. But we have, um, Billy Baldwin and, uh, China Phillips, uh, um, you know, serving at the park, putting together bags of non-perishable food right alongside us. And it is just, we’re just regular people. But, um, we’re making Montecito out to be this hub of, uh, uh, celebrities, which a lot of it is. But we’ve got Goleta, which is just family that’s more techy. And that’s five minutes, 10 minutes away. We’ve got Santa Barbara Profit,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:07) – Uh, centers come down from San Jose there, right? Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:34:10) – Yeah. That’s big.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:11) – Some of those tech businesses. Do you remember?
Adam McKaig (00:34:13) – Oh, oh, we’ve got, uh, oh, I think I’ve got a list. Oh, we’ve got Zoom, which we’re on. We got Apple, Microsoft, uh, Procore, we have, um, um, oh, I forget. Uh, they make night vision, uh, goggles. Goggles and laser.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:32) – But that’s right out there next to the university
Adam McKaig (00:34:33) – And military, uh,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:35) – Right near U C S B.
John Engel (00:34:36) – See that Stacy, now he’s just, now he’s just showing off. He’s like, yeah, we’ve got celebrities, but we also have laser
Adam McKaig (00:34:43) – <laugh>,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:45) – End of town. John, don’t
Stacy Melman (00:34:49) – Forget about, one of the biggest parts I feel like of Santa Barbara is you guys have a huge group of college students, right?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:34:56) – Yes.
Stacy Melman (00:34:57) – So you have, I remember Ila Vista was like this, like huge, like, place for everyone to hang out in Halloween, right? And then Goleta is right there. So, and State Street, all these places you have, there’s a lot of students there, right?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:35:11) – Yeah. St. Barbara Sydney College. There’s Westmont College, uh, then U C S B. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative> and some smaller
Adam McKaig (00:35:19) – Local places. But, but your, your, uh, Halloween parties that were so famous, uh, it is supposed to be the most popular Halloween party of any college, uh, uh, school. It’s no longer. Wow. So you go out to Del Pia, uh, in Ila Vista on Halloween and not see, uh, uh, many kids at all. Oh, no. What happened? Well, they blocked it off. You know, kids would get drunk and fall off the cliff and get hurt and <laugh> Yeah. And fights and Yeah. You just got too big.
John Engel (00:35:52) – Got it. So let’s talk more about, uh, real estate. Um, so let’s review 40 square miles. Uh, and there used to be 300 houses on the market, and now there’s 80. I live in a town half that size, physically 20 square miles, 20,000 H houses, uh, sorry, 20,000 people in 20 square miles and 7,000 houses. And we also used to have 300 houses on the market, and now have between 60 and 80 on the market. Oh,
Adam McKaig (00:36:29) – Interesting.
John Engel (00:36:30) – So it’s, we’re twice in Connecticut as twice as dense, um, but has the same size market as you do, and the same decrease in inventory that you do. That’s, that’s interesting. Um, we’re not experiencing the same lift in prop in, in prices. The average house in New Caan or Darien is 2 million, and in neighboring Greenwich’s, maybe 3 million. You are talking about 5 million only in Montecito, and two and a half million, I think, throughout the entire greater Santa Barbara area. Is that right?
Adam McKaig (00:37:06) – Yeah, it sounds about right. But again, there are little, uh, uh, pockets that, uh, uh, you can get a, a, uh, more value, um, entry level in Goleta, um, is about a million.
John Engel (00:37:19) – Oh, see, this is where we all lean in and you whisper Where are the deals?
Adam McKaig (00:37:24) – A million dollars now. Now the, the, the houses in Goleta, um, and
John Engel (00:37:29) – You said that was a tech hub, so if I can fix my own computer, I might start in Goleta, right?
Adam McKaig (00:37:34) – Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But again, um, Goleta, Montecito carpenter, the mountains, the ocean, they’re all five, 10 minutes away. So, you know, you could live and work, uh, wherever, but, uh, more affordable is Goleta and it offers a lot as well. Um,
John Engel (00:37:53) – Why, why is it more affordable? Is it up in the mountains? Do I have to actually, no,
Adam McKaig (00:37:58) – No. It’s, it was all farmland. It was, they’re all little, uh, ranch homes built in the fifties and sixties. Uh, they used to be avocado and lemon orchard. And, uh, you know, the builders, uh, uh, were like locust. They, they went out and built, uh, thousands and thousands and thousands of these homes, and they sold for, uh, you know, starting price around $20,000. Anybody could afford it then you, you didn’t have to have a full-time job. No,
John Engel (00:38:26) – No. Talk to me about, now Scott Hobbs is leaning in, he is that locus. So how much for Scott to buy one of those 1950s ranches now? And is p and z gonna let him build something big?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:38:39) – It’s a lot easier notated than Oh yeah. Santa Barbara. Yeah. It’s a whole different city council,
Adam McKaig (00:38:44) – But, uh, you’re somewhat more, well, you’re more affected in, in, uh, future value by your neighbors. Whereas Santa Barbara, you’re not, I mean, you could have a $2 million house sitting next to a $6 million house, um, in Goleta. Uh, it’s, it’s a little more cookie cutter, but, uh, uh,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:39:03) – Well, Adam though, what about north of Goleta on the way to Gaviota, I mean, those ranches Oh yeah. Those places up there, like the Reen Ranch and all the winding, I mean, if Scott wanted to develop someplace, he should go up there and investigate some of those huge ranch lands. Sure. Because it’s gonna be the whole, uh, city will move in that direction. It’s right along the coast with the mountains and the back’s gorgeous. Oh, it is, but it’s undeveloped.
Adam McKaig (00:39:27) – It, I’ve got a 1400 acre, uh, coming up next to Reagan’s ranch, uh, uh, seven lots, although it is in a Williamson ax, so it’s limited as to what you could do. And it is so remote that, uh, uh, the clients I bought and sold this property with my client, uh, four times. Every, uh, owner has had a helicopter, cuz they use it as their little Sanger law and getaway. But, um,
John Engel (00:39:53) – Stacey, have you learned anything about Adam beside, uh, uh, like I, I’m putting it together, all of this, he sells a house four times,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:40:02) – <laugh>,
John Engel (00:40:03) – And, and every time they ride by helicopter, yeah, I wanna be Adam when I grow up still.
Adam McKaig (00:40:10) – It was, it’s just one property. This is that, that one anomaly is the, the, the, the gift that keeps giving. Um, you know, we sell it, it’s an emotional buy. Someone buys it and then they go, wow, you know, I don’t need this. I’m not using it. This is so far away. I do have to get to it by helicopter. It was, it was fun. So then my client buys it back, and then we, uh, sell it again and <laugh>.
Stacy Melman (00:40:36) – That’s wild. And where all these wineries, I know there was a bunch of famous wineries from the movie, um, sideways, right? So people probably try to like, be there for the wineries, maybe. I don’t know if it’s ideal to live near them or what cities are kind of close to them, or do, do, or do people have their,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:40:54) – Do they go wine tasting over the mountain? It’s 45 minutes over to San Yez, Solvang and Los Livo. So Michael Jackson had his ranch and all the wineries are there, right?
Adam McKaig (00:41:04) – Yeah. And all the celebrities are getting winery, uh, pink, uh, uh, opened up her winery, uh, fests. Parker’s Winery is very, very, uh, um, um, well known, well known. We have Fergie, um, I don’t know who else. Probably, there’s probably a bunch of others, but, uh, I don’t drink, but, uh, I heard the wine’s good.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:41:24) – I just wanted
Stacy Melman (00:41:25) – Avocado tree. That’s all I want. Just one <laugh>.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:41:28) – Oh, well there’s lots of avocado trees in Montecito, Summerland, Carre.
Adam McKaig (00:41:33) – Yeah. I’ve got 18 at my house in Montecito, so if you ever eat, want avocados, uh, you know, I’ll, I’ll bring him to the, uh, Beverly Hills meeting.
Stacy Melman (00:41:43) – Oh, I love it. And you know what, you guys have one of the best restaurants. My son, who’s 12 makes me drive to Santa Barbara just for this restaurant. And I’m forgetting the name. It’s Italian restaurant. Um,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:41:55) – God Dario?
Stacy Melman (00:41:56) – No,
Adam McKaig (00:41:57) – Tre Loo
Stacy Melman (00:41:58) – Tre Loom. Yes.
Adam McKaig (00:42:03) – S of Lucky Brand Jeans. That’s his restaurant. Oh,
Stacy Melman (00:42:06) – Wait. Oh, it is. I didn’t know that. Yeah. Wow.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:09) – Yeah.
Stacy Melman (00:42:09) – Even more celebrities. They own the restaurants there too.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:12) – Yeah. Yeah. Maybe’s got another restaurant up the street. Uh, Lucky’s.
Adam McKaig (00:42:17) – Yeah. Yeah. Lucky’s, uh, restaurant. That’s good.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:20) – And they, Trey has, all the celebrities are on the walls that have been there. And what’s her name comes to eat there all the time. Katie just did her birthday party, uh, her nineties birthday, the comedian.
Adam McKaig (00:42:33) – Oh, oh, Carol Burnett. Yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:34) – Oh yeah. She has lunch there one more time. Oh, wow.
Stacy Melman (00:42:38) – You know, Luckys, we opened up a restaurant in Malibu at the Malibu Country Mart, but I remember it’s been in Santa Barbara forever.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:46) – Right. And they just did the one at the Malibu Country Mart. Yeah, yeah,
Stacy Melman (00:42:49) – Yeah. It’s a great, I love it there.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:42:52) – Yeah.
John Engel (00:42:53) – All right. So my daughter is 26 and she just got into the union. She’s a assistant editor down there in Hollywood. So is she gonna go, uh, is Santa Barbara is not a choice for her, right? It’s too far away for a 20 something year old. And would a 20 something year old feel comfortable there anyway? It seems like a place for, uh, for a big boy, you know, after you’ve made your money and you don’t have to commute in every day, then maybe you have the luxury.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:43:26) – Oh, that’s true. But the 26 year olds needed to get up there and be, help the estate managers and the, uh, assistance to all these celebrities. They need young, strong, flexible brains.
Adam McKaig (00:43:39) – Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if she wants to get in the business, she probably should be in, uh, la But, uh, there are other ways to get into the business than, uh, you know, being here, uh, and meeting the right people is Right. That’s what it’s all about.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:43:54) – A lot easier. Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:43:56) – Yeah. Yeah.
John Engel (00:43:57) – So that’s what 20 year olds do they work locally? They don’t go into, in, into la
Adam McKaig (00:44:04) – No.
Stacy Melman (00:44:05) – Okay. It would be like, I feel like maybe comparison to a 21 year old or a 20 year old going into the Hamptons. Right. Wouldn’t really be that, um, age, unless you’re going to college. Um, or you work there on the daily. I feel like she’d be better off going to Beverly Hills or, you know, just hang out in Hollywood in Los Angeles where all the entertainment is based here. And, and that’s like, you know, like Katie or daughter, she, once you make it, and then you can go and buy, you know, an estate in Santa Barbara,
John Engel (00:44:37) – Or it can be driven in. So really you gotta do it at that point where you can be driven back and forth.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:44:42) – Right. Thank you, John. Exactly. Yeah. I,
John Engel (00:44:45) – I, I, I say that in all sincerity. I have a client, he’s 90 and, uh, he’s got a Fifth Avenue apartment. He’s got a couple houses here in New Canaan. And he told me he is got a couple of lots in East Hampton. And I said, where? And one of ’em is on the water, and one of them’s like, across the street. And I said, what happened? And he said, well, I bought ’em in the seventies, and then I discovered it’s 90 miles, just like Santa Barbara. It’s 90 miles from Manhattan, and it’s too hard to get to. Wow. And so it’s been sitting there undeveloped since 1970. Um, you know, because it was just too hard to get to. And it sounds like it’s not too hard to get to Santa Barbara that you don’t have some of the traffic problems that maybe they have in the Hamptons.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:45:27) – Right. But there’s an opportunity for Scott.
Adam McKaig (00:45:30) – Yeah. Come on, Scott. But, and you know, a lot of the, uh, uh, beach houses like you’re, you’re talking about, there’s very little bit of land, uh, on the beach available, but, uh, the beach houses are, um, not primary residents. They are, uh, you know, second, third, and fourth home. So if you’re, uh, on a boat in the ocean, uh, going along the coast at night, you’re only going to be seeing, uh, um, a few lights on. You know, they’re, they’re basically empty.
John Engel (00:46:05) – How much for how much? For a little bungalow on the beach.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:46:08) – 3 million.
Adam McKaig (00:46:09) – Oh, oh, yeah. Easy.
John Engel (00:46:11) – How much?
Adam McKaig (00:46:15) – Yeah, some are 40, 50, 60. Uh, you know, there’s another one, uh, quietly being marketed at 110.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:46:22) – I think Jared Kushner’s brother bought one.
Adam McKaig (00:46:24) – Yeah. Yeah. They’re all buying quietly and it’s a very desirable place to, uh, own
Mary Perry Hudson (00:46:30) – For now vo Yeah,
Adam McKaig (00:46:32) – Yeah, yeah.
John Engel (00:46:33) – Wait, you, you cut out.
Adam McKaig (00:46:34) – It wasn’t always that way
John Engel (00:46:35) – For a, a, a shack on the beach is now a $50 million kind of thing.
Adam McKaig (00:46:40) – You know, you, you can get ’em for 15. A little small.
John Engel (00:46:44) – Okay, now we’re talking Scott, you wanna go in on one <laugh>? <laugh>?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:46:51) – It just depends. I mean, there’s little pockets where you, you know, you can get ’em one, and there’s ones that are not so expensive, but Yeah. So funny because down on Padera Lane, where, um, star Wars, who is his name?
Adam McKaig (00:47:04) – Lucas
Mary Perry Hudson (00:47:05) – Lucas. George Lucas has one. Is that Kevin Costner’s down there? Kevin
Adam McKaig (00:47:08) – Costner, and who else? He actually lives in a modest little one, but Kevin has a 10 acre property with a house on it, and again, where we’re doing our fundraiser. Yeah. Um, and that’s just land. Someone could buy that and, uh, develop it, develop that into a spectacular site.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:47:24) – Another opportunity.
Adam McKaig (00:47:25) – Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
John Engel (00:47:27) – Let’s say I have, so, go ahead. If I show up with 5 million bucks and buy a house, what, what, what’s the total cost? Uh, what kind of taxes am I gonna pay?
Adam McKaig (00:47:36) – Uh, 1% of the purchase price, roughly. Yeah.
John Engel (00:47:42) – Is that what the average, is that what you are paying? Multi-generational? Yeah. People have owned it for many, many, many years.
Adam McKaig (00:47:49) – No, no. They could move their tax base. I mean, some of these people are paying on, uh, $15,000 a purchase price. That’s crazy. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh,
Stacy Melman (00:48:00) – What do you guys think of, sorry, what do you guys think of curious of Santa Barbara versus Malibu on the waterfront? What’s the, I mean, I actually live in Malibu, but I’m, my, I’m based in Beverly Hills of the office. I’m here actually right now, but what is, what is, you would know what the comparison is for oceanfront? Probably. Well,
Adam McKaig (00:48:21) – I mean, uh, Malibu has more oceanfront property than Santa Barbara. And, and you’re, you guys are realizing some really big numbers, really, really big numbers. Um, and it, Santa Barbara is a place that people go to get away. Um, Malibu is a place people go to be because, you know, they work in the, in city and such, but, uh, so it’s much busier. Um, and again, going back to, um, the vacant, uh, beach houses, um, yeah, people just use this as a, a little weekend or, uh, once a month, uh, getaway.
Stacy Melman (00:49:02) – But they do own them. They’re not, they’re not renting them for, yeah. Okay.
Adam McKaig (00:49:06) – No. Well, some people, uh, do the, the rentals and, and it’s, uh, you know, 150,000 or a hundred thousand a month, um, for some of these properties. Yeah. So
John Engel (00:49:21) – What do you do for fun? Uh, I know that Peter Hernandez is a surfer. Are you, is everybody a surfer? I know you’ve got a beach boy, Brian Wilson, who lives in Santa Barbara, so
Adam McKaig (00:49:31) – Hi. Yeah. And Mike loved.
John Engel (00:49:33) – Yeah. So, uh,
Adam McKaig (00:49:34) – Mike, I think Mike left and he had the, he had the love estate little comp hippie compound back in the, in the day on the mesa. But I, I personally, uh, would surfed a lot. But although with Adam’s angels in real estate, I haven’t been able to get in the water. In fact, the next Peter and I are supposed to be, uh, getting together to surf. So we’ll see if that happens. But you hike, you hike all the time now at I can’t hike like I used to. Cause I’d go off in the daytime. And so now after bagging on Mondays, um, we, uh, go off and do a hike. We walk off, watch the sunset, and we come back, uh, with headlamps on, and it’s a whole new, uh, uh, whole new hike.
John Engel (00:50:19) – And you hike the mountains? Mountains, yeah. Oh,
Adam McKaig (00:50:21) – Yeah. Mountains or the beach, or Mary’s coming. You’re coming soon. Yeah, but I do pickleball.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:50:27) – Pickle ball’s a big thing here. Oh,
Adam McKaig (00:50:28) – That’s scary. Yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:50:29) – Oh, we love pickleball. We got Adam doing pickleball my birthday, but that was the last time we saw
Adam McKaig (00:50:34) – Him. Yeah. It was her and Katie and yeah, I, I was sore after pickleball and fierce competitor on the court. Do you have to any
Speaker 4 (00:50:46) – Protection when you go on your night hikes from, uh, some of the wild animals or
Adam McKaig (00:50:51) – No, no, no. Nope. Nope. Um,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:50:54) – We don’t see many mountain lion around here. No. They are a few mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but people are on it.
Adam McKaig (00:51:00) – Yeah. You know, I, I have a tenant that lives above my garage in Montecito, and we have a avocado orchard, and, uh, he has a game camp, and I thought, oh, this is nice. I’d like to see what he has. And, uh, uh, you know, we got bobcats coming up, some deer. We had a bear on there, but we also had a, uh, big mountain line, hundreds of pounds. I don’t know if it’s huge. Um, and they don’t seem to hurt any, uh, uh, animals. They, they do after, they do go after the large game like deer. So,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:51:39) – Yeah. We don’t seem any deer around here, though.
Adam McKaig (00:51:41) – No. They’re all in mountain lions bellies, <laugh>
Stacy Melman (00:51:46) – Here in la We definitely do not have any hikers at night because there’s tons of mountain lions I’ve seen now too. Wow. So it’s definitely more of a
Adam McKaig (00:51:57) – Wow. Yeah.
Stacy Melman (00:51:58) – Yeah. I’m up the canyon. So literally state of Monica Mountains. And they’re, they’re everywhere. They’re, they’ve been like, I don’t know what happened. The pandemic, all of a sudden they’re out and about all over the place. Hungry.
John Engel (00:52:09) – Okay. Stacy. Stacy, this show is gonna live on the internet forever. And we’re, we’re, we’re gonna go out talking about mountain lions. Mudslides. Wildfires.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:52:25) – Oh,
John Engel (00:52:25) – No. As biggest Volkswagens coming down off the mountain, needing to wear a headlamp.
Stacy Melman (00:52:32) – He can’t have your daughter edit this for us. This show can’t be edited.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:52:36) – Oh, yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:52:38) – Can
John Engel (00:52:38) – You remind us why people were moving to California? Uh, you know, so we could not end on the mountain lions?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:52:46) – Well, because of the beauty and the peace and the quiet. So, you know, we don’t have any mountain lion. We’re good.
Stacy Melman (00:52:52) – We still have the best weather. And I think, yeah,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:52:55) – The country, that’s true. No bugs, no mosquitoes, nothing flying around when you’re having your barbecues?
Stacy Melman (00:53:01) – No, we don’t really have a lot of humidity. Okay. Yes, we have a couple of natural disasters, but no hurricanes. We did have a tornado recently. Let me edit that out. <laugh>. But that was very rare, one of them. Um, and
Adam McKaig (00:53:12) – No more earthquakes, knock on wood.
Stacy Melman (00:53:14) – Yeah, knock on wood. Knock on wood. So, yeah, California, you know, it’s very desirable. I think, you know, Santa Barbara, especially in Beverly Hills, LA is, is still, you know, a really amazing place to live. I do love Connecticut too, on the east coast. I’m from the east coast, but I could never live in the East coast again after living in California. I think we’re, we’re in the best place, and probably the world, one of the best places in the world. Very. Oh yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:53:40) – They call it the American Riviera. Here was a, um, on the Riviera where people live in Santa Barbara, it’s actually cheaper than Montecito. Not much, but it is little. But the views of the three islands and the ocean are stunning.
Stacy Melman (00:53:55) – Surfing, hiking, right. All of it. We got wineries.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:53:59) – Yeah.
John Engel (00:54:01) – So it sounds, it sounds like the newspaper reports that people are leaving California over the high cost of living may be overblown based on the fact that there’s very little inventory. Prices have been going up very much and are now not decreasing, but leveling off, would you say, in Santa Barbara?
Adam McKaig (00:54:24) – Well, y yeah. Yeah. You know, you, you’re right about that. But you know, there still are people that, uh, with businesses, uh, for tax reasons that, uh, uh, well, they keep their residents here, but they make, uh, uh, Nevada, Vegas, uh, Texas primary, uh, resident in order to avoid, uh, um, these high taxes. Right. But, you know,
John Engel (00:54:48) – And, and to do that and live in Santa Barbara, you need to fly. So is there a Santa Barbara airport and is it very Oh, yes,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:54:56) – Yes. Yeah.
Adam McKaig (00:54:57) – And we
Mary Perry Hudson (00:54:58) – Fly to Dallas. We fly to Denver. We fly all over the
Adam McKaig (00:55:01) – Place, but they fly their private jets. Yeah. Yeah. I take a bus. <laugh>,
Stacy Melman (00:55:06) – You also can drive to LAX or drive to Long Beach Airport too. I mean, it’s not, oh, you can
Mary Perry Hudson (00:55:10) – That far.
Stacy Melman (00:55:12) – If you don’t have a plane or helicopter, there’s plenty of ways to get in and outta Santa Barbara, um, that are a little bit more affordable for Yeah,
Adam McKaig (00:55:21) – Yeah. You know, the train, the train is great to LA and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know
Stacy Melman (00:55:25) – Who love that train. I haven’t been in that train for a while. That’s a great train.
Adam McKaig (00:55:29) – <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. Little slow, little slow, but give you time to relax, reflect, look at the coast and enjoy. You can
Mary Perry Hudson (00:55:36) – Plug, plug the computer in. Enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Stacy Melman (00:55:38) – That’s not a train you like take to actually be somewhere like the metro in New York, or No, you’re just kinda like, you know, cruising along. Yeah. That’s kind of laid back, Cali, but yes, Florida. I know people that will live there six months in one day out of the year, and then have homes here, so,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:55:56) – Oh, yeah. Our neighbors are coming down around the corner. Oh, yeah.
John Engel (00:55:59) – Final thoughts, I gotta tell you, my conclusion is it sounds pretty great. It sounds like paradise, but it also sounds a little outta reach for most of us. It looks like something I might aspire to, like the best of the best of California, but with only 80 houses on the market and competing with the Hollywood crowd and the tech crowd, it seems maybe out of reach. And I wonder maybe in your parting thoughts, you could tell me where the future of this, is it going to become an even more precious, uh, enclave for the rich and famous? Or, uh, is it, uh, going to remain a balanced family-oriented community that both of you moved to originally?
Adam McKaig (00:56:49) – What are your thoughts, Mary?
Mary Perry Hudson (00:56:51) – I don’t know. I have a strong feeling about all that ranch land right along the coast above, um, Polita.
Adam McKaig (00:56:58) – It goes,
Mary Perry Hudson (00:56:59) – I mean, how many miles is that? Is that
Adam McKaig (00:57:01) – 20 miles? Well, a lot of that’s being preserved. Um, uh, you know, ranch just got, uh, bought for a hundred million and put into trust donated to, uh, U C S B, uh, Reagan. The Reagan ranch. No, no, no, no. This is another one. Um, um, in fact, Douglas Elman had the listing for a little while. I didn’t unfortunately, but, uh, um, it was, uh, uh, donated to be preserved forever. Um, and it was about a thousand acres. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, so that would be challenging. The, the, the opposition to keep the coastline pristine would be difficult. But, but you know, at Santa Barbara, I think we’ll always have a nice balance of, uh, uh, um, people. And you’re always welcome. Come out here and let’s make this your, uh, home, uh, uh, your west coast home.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:57:54) – Right. I know. Summer Lynn’s a great place. That’s great. And then you’re going up on the mountains there. I know our friends that own the, um, the Hilton hotels, uh, they have a property up there mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, uh, but there, there’s a lot of regular houses in there. I mean, people Oh yeah. Bought those in the fifties for zero, dark 30. They’re bought for nothing. $5,000. Now they’re two or 3 million. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Carpenteria is more affordable.
Adam McKaig (00:58:18) – Carpent r Yeah. You under a million dollars, you can, uh, get, uh, uh, something. Um, and you know, it’s funny, people are, are getting, uh, mobile homes, you know, they’re manufactured homes. Uh, they’re little pockets near the beach in carpentry in, uh, uh, Santa Barbara Goleta that, uh, are becoming a, a, a new trend. And I mobile
Stacy Melman (00:58:43) – Home communities, John in LA and Malibu, there’s tons of mobile homes here. And they’re really, really nice. I mean, great communities actually, and not inexpensive.
Adam McKaig (00:58:54) – Like I remember when Paradise Cove in Malibu, uh, broke a million dollars. A million dollars for a mobile home. Well, now it’s what, 4 million? Yep. I mean, it’s
Stacy Melman (00:59:04) – Paradise 0.2. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Adam McKaig (00:59:06) – Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:59:07) – That’s amazing.
John Engel (00:59:08) – I guess I know who to call if I wanna know, uh, you know, who’s turning over rocks and finding, uh, finding value and finding the great deals I know to look you up in Santa Barbara. And Stacy, thank you so much for lending your expertise from, uh, Beverly Hills. Uh, thank you for inviting me. This was great. I guess you wouldn’t know that Stacy and I just met yesterday, uh, through whom, and I just saw her and she, she immediately engaged everybody else in the room and was naturally inquisitive and I said, you know what? She’s gonna be a great partner tomorrow on the Burroughs and Burbs. So thank you Stacy. Thank
Mary Perry Hudson (00:59:46) – You John. I appreciate it.
John Engel (00:59:48) – This was great and thank you Mary. This was great. I guess if I’m gonna move to Santa Barbara, I better be prepared like you to roll up my sleeves and volunteer with Adam’s Angels on the weekends.
Mary Perry Hudson (00:59:59) – Yeah. Or the Bucket Brigade. Or you could come I do women’s conferences but also do Rise 5k along the beach every December. Yes. That’s fun. So you come, run and walk with us.
John Engel (01:00:09) – All right. You got it.
Mary Perry Hudson (01:00:11) – I’ll
John Engel (01:00:11) – Be there coming. All right guys. Thank you all. This was a great episode 82 and I hope to see you again in person one of these days. Thank you, Stacy, Adam. Until next time, take care.