Episode 37: Interview With Marsha Kotlyar

Scott: Sweet Home Santa Barbara, where the skies are so blue. Sweet home, Santa Barbara, what’s worked for me can work for you.

Johnathan Robinson: Well, welcome friends to Sweet Home Santa Barbara. I am your co-host, Jonathan Robinson. I’m with my friend, realtor, and trustee co-host.

Scott Williams: Scott Williams.

Johnathan: Scott, today is part of our call it a continuing series of interviewing top realtors. We have someone who is very inspiring today. See if I can get the name correctly. Marsha Kotlyar. Is that how you say it?

Marsha: Kotlyar.

Johnathan: Kotlyar. Yeah. Okay, there we go. Well, thank you for correcting me, Marsha. Marsha has an amazing history. She was born in Russia in 1987 and immigrated. She is one of the top realtors in America. She’s the number 1 small team agent locally at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, and the number 2 small team for Berkshire Hathaway nationwide. She has a lot of experience. She obviously is extremely good at what she does, and we get to pick your brain and find out how you got to where you are, and maybe some tips for our listeners as to what  that many of us don’t know in the area of real estate. Welcome to Sweet Home Santa Barbara, Marsha.

Marsha: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Johnathan: Yeah. 1 question, just as your background, I’m curious, you were born in St. Petersburg, Russia, you came here in 1987 and now you’re incredibly successful. What in your background do you think was helpful in getting you to be so successful in a relatively short time? I know you started out as an assistant, now you’re a very successful agent. I’m wondering what you can say about that.

Marsha: Yeah, so I think that I was very fortunate to move here at the age of 6, and we pretty much landed in Southern California, just North of Santa Barbara, sorry, South of Santa Barbara, and so I had the great fortune of growing up in one of the most incredible communities here in Santa Barbara and county, actually grew up in Goleta and it was a great place to grow up. It was an amazing childhood, and coming here as an immigrant with my parents, I feel like I just never took for granted coming from a place like the USSR, which it was formerly.

Just the privileges that we have here and so I feel like that has really carried my work ethic and that gratitude. I guess has carried my work ethic and everything I do, and everything that I represent as an agent in my career. I am a week shy of my 20-year anniversary in this business, and I can’t believe it’s been 20 years, but pretty much straight out of college I answered an ad working for Dan and Sell who is and remains one of my favorite realtors in town. Dan is an outstanding guy and couldn’t have been fortunate enough to have started my career working under him, and he was a great mentor to me and I was definitely immediately just hooked in the business.

He had fabulous listings, he had fabulous clients. He is incredibly kind and gracious and so I got the bug right away. I loved the business. I loved pretty much everything about it. Who doesn’t love selling real estate in Montecito, right?

Johnathan: Yeah.

Marsha: Yeah, I got into the business that way. I worked with him for 7 years. Never expected to kind of be working with him for that long, but it was great and then sort of made the shift into working on my own sort of accidentally. The market really shifted. I don’t know if you remember 2008. Subprime Mortgage Crisis. Well, so when that happened, it was just sort of like the natural progression to go on my own, and Dan and I still joke to this day, it was the best breakup we ever had, and we’ve able to remain friends since then. I that point was ready to start a team and I felt like that’s really where the industry was headed.

It wasn’t predominantly team-based business then, but I felt like this is really the only way to succeed in this business, is to multiply myself, and so that was what I set out to do from the get go. I am very much a team player. I love the collaboration. When I worked with Dan, I got a lot out of that, and so I set out to set my own team and immediately right out of the gates, hired my own assistant to do the things that “did not want to do” it was just as simple as like setting up a T char. Here’s what I need to do, here’s what I don’t need to do, and luckily had lots of other mentors in town who could kind of guide me, who would had start startups and things like that.

That was in I don’t know, 2009, 2010, I don’t even remember, but slowly but surely have worked really hard, and worked my way up, and just really grateful to be ranked where we are, have a successful team. I’ve got 4 team members total. We’re growing the team and probably going to be adding 1 more person this year, and just hope to continue in that success and continue to do a good job for people, and people say, “What’s your goal?” It’s just continue doing a good job and being good at what we do, and excelling at advising clients on how to make the real estate decisions.

Scott: Marsha, for the people who don’t know of the type of work that you do, what type of homes do you sell?

Marsha: Yeah, so predominantly, we… well, what kind of homes do we sell? Beautiful homes and if they’re not beautiful, then we’ll make sure they’re beautiful before we go to market. We I would say our average price points around 6 million right now, maybe 5 and a half, and we sell properties anywhere from a million and a half to 40 million, so a pretty wide stretch and ranging and anywhere from Carpinteria to San Ynez. We had a ranch that we sold in San Ynez last year, and so kind of branching out a little bit beyond that Goleta boundary, but that’s generally the area that we represent.

Johnathan: I’m wondering, Montecito went through the big tragedy a few years ago and had some floods this last season. Is the market affected by that, or is Montecito pretty much Montecito and it’s always going to be desirable?

Marsha: Yeah, after the debris flow really as a community, it was devastating, number 1, it was absolutely devastating for the community. We lost one of our own realtors through that event, and I will say the real incredible thing that came about is that our community really banded together, and I always like to say that like the gates came down, the gates of Montecito came down and the walls came down, and everyone banded together and we’re there for each other and it was incredible, and I feel like the market really took a turn after that.

People were fleeing Montecito, they were moving to Hope Branch, they were moving out of areas. We kind of just jumped right in, and we’re doing whatever it took to service clients and to help clients, and I think we even did pro bono work for rentals and leases, and I think through that people recognized that we’re very capable team, and I think that was a big turning point in my career as far as selling and helping the community. When the market sort of evened out, the market started to come back up in Montecito and slowly was making its way back up, we then had our pandemic.

I felt like as Montecito ends, we had already experienced our own kind of version of the pandemic through the mad slide, and our own trauma and everything that had gone on, so I felt like we were a little more equipped in that sense to deal with something like the Pandemic, and so at that point that’s when Montecito kind of got on the map, and our price per square foot really skyrocketed with all the influx of new people that have been moving here, and so the market here has really evolved from the pre mudslide to now, and it continues to evolve.

Even the market this last month is different than it was the previous month, so it’s an interesting place to sell real estate. There is never a dull moment, as I like to say.

Johnathan: I imagine.

Marsha: Yeah.

Scott: Well, one of the things that has happened is of course, people have come in from out of town, there’s been an influx of people, but when they come to our community, when they come to Montecito, they come to Santa Barbara, some parts of town are considered more desirable than others, less desirable. How do you look at our community to help people decide what’s a most desirable place to live?

Marsha: Within Montecito or in the…

Scott: Let’s start within Montecito. Let’s go about Montecito.

Marsha: Yeah. Well, a lot of people don’t realize, but Montecito there’s so many microclimates and there’s so many different neighborhoods, and it’s a small community but I think depending on what you’re looking for, and how you’re going to use the property, you’re going to be here full-time, part-time. There’s kind of a different area and location for whatever time of your life you’re in, or what you’re looking for.

I think through the pandemic, the lower village, the hedgerows, the lower parts of Montecito have really skyrocketed in price, because primarily we have all these city folk, city goers that are moving here from congested areas, and they’re used to being in close proximity, and so those kind of more remote areas of Montecito were sort of less desirable, because of the caliber and the dynamic of the buyers that are moving here.

They like to be “in the fray”. We call it the fray, because it feels more tight knit, feels more nooky, you’re more contained in those areas.

They feel a sense of security and safety from their community, and so that in turn has really created this desire to be in 1 of these neighborhoods that are “lower down”, and then also simultaneously, if you’re somebody who desires a more remote just feeling of expansiveness. If you are craving views, you have to go up in order to achieve that, and so high-end residences in the hills of Montecito are still very desirable as well for that reason people want exclusivity they want privacy, so I think, again, it’s like hard to answer that question because it depends on where you are, what you’re seeking, why you’re coming to Montecito.

Generally, people come here for the weather and for exclusivity privacy, and for acreage. Usually they want to get out of a congested area, and so this rural feeling and this semi-rural feeling that Montecito offers is very much desirable thing for the people that are coming.

Johnathan: I’m curious, Marsha, what makes you so good at what you do? What you’ve accomplished is pretty amazing, and what is it about selling a 5 to $40 million house that’s different than selling a normal house, somewhere in Santa Barbara?

Marsha: Well, first of all, I am house obsessed. I dream and home, I always joke about this. I literally remodel homes in my dreams, I love to see the potential and the possibility of a property. I have a background in city planning and real estate development, and so literally my senior thesis was writing how to get through the Santa Barbara building process, and so I truly have always loved it. I love it now, I love helping people with, achieving those goals and dreams of renovations or builds, and I’ve done a number of my own renovations.

I also love that there is a start and a finish through that process. I’m very much result oriented. I am also just a people pleaser, and I like helping clients win, it’s as simple as that. I really like helping people get to the finish line. If that means, doing whatever it takes to do that. Studying the comps, being on the phone, listening to your client’s needs and wishes, and going to every broker open house, and whatever it is that I have to do to be the best in my field. I take a lot of pride in that, and I try and pass that on to my team members, and so that we can kind of divide and conquer together.

I very much rely on my team. I have an amazing group of team, Allie, Nell, Lily, and so, yeah, I feel very fortunate that I have their support and their help and their expertise as well.

Scott: I’ve got a question about Montecito. Montecito has a lot of estates that date back a 100 years or more, and sometimes you can get a pedigree, a famous architect or famous builder or both, and some of these homes that come on the market, they’re not in the same condition as a new house, a much newer home, and so you have to help people through the buying an old historic home, that may not be in quite as good a shape as a newer home. How do you present this? How do you help a buyer in that circumstance? It might be a 10 or $15 million house.

Marsha: Right? Well, I will say that old homes are not for everyone, but there is something about the qualities, and characteristics of old homes really reveal the craft, and the architectural just caliber pedigree that we just do not see today, and if you are into history, if you are into craftsmanship, then there are some really great properties that we’re really fortunate that we kind of experienced the architectural revolution here a 100 years ago, and so there’s a number of homes that are in a state of needing renovation, and so I personally love older homes.

I think there’s something about an older home and the history and everything and the residents that have lived there. I’m fascinated by all that. That said, there is a price that comes with that. There is the cost to rebuild and renovate, some of these homes are often more than building new, and so I always try and talk my clients through and make sure to manage their expectations on that process, and they have to know that you’re not really saving money by building, and buying a house that needs extensive renovation.

Or a house that needs to be built, you’re probably not going to save money, but you’re going to put your stamp and your spin on a property, and it’s going to change the evolution of that home forever and ever. Everything you do to a house it’s going to matter to somebody, so you might as well do it right. Having again, leaning on your list of vendors, we have a list of local experts that can weigh in, can help somebody get through that process of entitlements of just understanding the nuances to remodeling, or building.

We’ve got great experts. We’ve got great experts. I bring people in very early in the process, and the clients end up having a great relationship with those experts and continuing to work with them through their whole renovation process. It’s not a simple quick process. There’s county timelines, there are a number of things to be aware of before going through that, but we sure have seen some beautiful transformations. I know Scott, we’ve got some excellent properties here that have seen some beautiful work achieved through that, through that hard work.

Scott: Yeah. We’ve had some fantastic architects bless our area with some homes that are amazing. We’re very lucky in that regard.

Marsha: I agree.

Johnathan: This might be our last question Marsha. I’m wondering what you make of the current Santa Barbara Montecito market, especially with changing interest rates, so how do you see it now?

Marsha: Yeah, I’m definitely seeing a divide, the interest rates are definitely affecting the lower end of lower market, and if you look at Montecito as the lower end, that’s like the 2 to 4 range. We’re seeing that market stall, I think the 5 to 10 market is hugely under considered we don’t have enough inventory at all in that price point, and we’re also seeing the ten plus market continue just based on scarcity, and there’s a huge under supply of available inventory, to really fulfill sort of a lot of the buyers that are hoping to be here are just not seeing the products that they want, so they’re not buying.

We’re seeing a lag on number of sales for that reason, so the demand supply situation has not improved. In fact, it’s gotten worse. Our inventory continues to get worse, and we still have a lot of buyers who are trying to move to the area. I will say there are fewer people that are looking to jump into these kind of fixer properties. People prefer to pay a premium for a house that’s done and turnkey, and so those sales and still raising, I should say, our high price per square foot.

Yeah, I think there is inventory coming on a lot of fixers and not everybody is willing to jump into a scenario like that just based on the time it takes to go through that process that we just talked about. It can be lengthy and it’s not for everyone, so I would say the interest rates are affecting the lower end, not as much shifting the higher end, but based on scarcity, that’s really keeping our market afloat.

Johnathan: Any final words Scott or Marsha?

Scott: Well, I’m really pleased that we could bring such a top realtor to Sweet Home Santa Barbara. Thank you very much, Marsha.

Johnathan: Yeah, thank you, Marsha. It’s very informative and we thank our listeners and hope you tune in next time to Sweet Home Santa Barbara.

Marsha: Thank you.

Scott: The best way to reach you Scott.

Scott: Best way to reach me is Scott@scottwilliams.com.

Johnathan: If people want more information from you Marsha, what’s the best way to reach you?

Marsha: Our office line is 805-565-4014, and our email is home@mkgroupmontecito.com.

Johnathan: Okay, thank you. Hopefully we’ll catch all of you next time at Sweet Home Santa Barbara.

Marsha: Thanks for having me.

Scott: Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to our podcast on your favorite app. If you know someone preparing to sell their home, please tell them about the podcast. Visit scottwilliams.com to contact me and download the 2 free e-booklets, “Is my House Saleable Now” and “How Not to Buy a Money Pit”. Thank you for listening.