A new office for Santa Fe Properties

By: Paul Weideman
Published online: Sunday, January 01, 2012
Appeared in: Home, Santa Fe Real Estate Guide
Edition: January 2012 Vol. 14 No. 10

The latest response by Santa Fe Properties to the real-estate market downturn was to... open another office! Yes, the company — headquartered at 1000 Paseo de Peralta and with a small branch at 320 Paseo de Peralta — is now also located at 216 Washington Avenue.

That is the former home of santafe.com and the “French Quarter” office of French & French Fine Properties (later Sotheby’s). In fact, Liz Cale, who manages Santa Fe Properties with company founder Wally Sargent, was in charge of the French Quarter toward the end of her 17-year employ under the French & French banner. When asked how many real-estate agents were in the building, she instantly said, “There were 42 brokers there.”

We visited with Cale and Sargent on Dec. 19.

There have been a lot of changes in real-estate companies in Santa Fe this year.

Cale: It’s all about market share. That’s what the big corporations do. For Santa Fe Properties, I would say things are going fantastic right now. If I had to recap this year, it’s been a difficult and successful year in almost equal measure. For example, we started out with a more challenging market than anyone had anticipated, and lower sales than average, but we’re ending the year with some of the best months we’ve ever had since 2009.

The big year, the top of the graph, was 2007.

We’re never going to see that again. But we’re ending the year with some incredible business, both in the number of transactions and sales volume. One reason for that is that we’ve added 45 brokers this year. We had 95 at this time a year ago and we have 131 active brokers today. A lot of brokers have returned home to Santa Fe Properties. A few months ago, because of our growth, we realized we were running out of room and that’s why we looked at 216 Washington. The first exciting thing this year was that Wally rejoined the management team after a 3-year sabbatical. Due to his efforts, we’ve had 45 brokers join us. He’s my secret weapon.

Wally, you came out of retirement, right?

Sargent: I did. Gerry [company owner Gerald Peters] called me up and asked if I’d consider coming back. I talked to my wife and she said it would be great if you want to do it. I’ve had one of the most fun years of my life, bringing in agents old and new. That’s what I focus on.

Cale: And in addition to Wally, the culture we have here is just enviable.

Sargent: I’m selling our culture, which is totally different from corporate culture, Brand X. That’s what we cultivated from the beginning back in 1986. We are celebrating our 25th year.

It’s a family. One comment I hear from other agents is that everything is so upbeat and happy and optimistic here. Other places they have found gloom and doom, just a really clear difference in the feeling.

I think it’s gutsy to make a bold step of opening another office in a market where other agencies are folding or retrenching or cutting back. We wouldn’t do it if we weren’t confident that the market is beginning to stabilize. I think we’re going to have a very, very good 2012.

Cale: These are some of the best affordability conditions for purchasing property in my lifetime.

Sargent: The interest rates are unbelievable. Of course, you almost don’t need a loan to be able to get it.

The prices and the number and variety of homes on the market are all great if the buyer has cash.

Cale: Cash is key, and we’ve seen a tremendous increase in cash sales. We track right in with the national statistics. Nationally, cash sales are 30 to 35 percent and at Santa Fe Properties about 25 percent of our sales are cash.

Sargent: We are very upbeat. I will make the prediction that a year from now Santa Fe Properties will be the volume market leader in Santa Fe.

Cale: Opening the new office is just one thing. We also hired our own in-house photographer this year. In the spring we opened the Professional Development Group, a replacement of our new-agent division that we closed down in 2008. We also had Chuck McKinley, who has great experience in Santa Fe, join our management team.

We took a lot of pride in the downturn market that we never laid anyone off. Housing starts are almost nonexistent in Santa Fe, and a lot of our builders are doing remodels. We have the lowest newly constructed inventory since World War II. This was shared by Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, who spoke here on Dec. 7.

Another change is that Santa Fe Properties is no longer affiliated with Christie’s International Real Estate, formerly Christie’s Great Estates. Is that right?

Yes. The firm is now affiliated with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and Luxury Portfolio, which is Leading RE’s luxury arm. We chose them because they’re one of the fastest-growing networks of — and this is key — independent brokerages, and so we feel like we have more to offer our clients and brokers.

Sargent: We are not trying to be the biggest real-estate agency in town, but the best.