Lorie F. Bartron

– Prudential California Realty

By Lance Hwang & Giuseppe Russo

We can’t stop time because time is forever. Time changes our life and in our life one day, sooner or later, we must make an important decision. Where should we buy our dream house? Are you single? Are you married? Are you black? Are you white? Are you happy? Are you sad? Don’t worry because, if it’s true that we have one angel sitting on our shoulder for sure, we will find a real estate manager on the other side. That person is Lorie Bartron.

Why did you choose this job?
I have been in this business almost 20 years. At the time I chose real estate, I had little children at home and I wanted a job and a career that would be flexible, so that I could be with my family.

Is real estate flexible?
Um, at the time, it was. (Laughter) I was a bookkeeper for an accountant and I had a client who thought I would do well as a partner in real estate. She asked me to come into the business. And by the time I got my real estate license, she decided she didn’t want a partner, so I did it on my own.

Do you want to recommend your job to students?
I absolutely love what I do. I’ve been very successful in this business. I earn more money than most people can even imagine. But everyday I come to work, I love what I do, and I’m happy to come to work everyday. I love the people I work with, and I love the clients that I work with. I love meeting new people everyday. It’s very much a service oriented business so I like to be able to offer my service and how they make their home in Santa Barbara whether they are coming from Italy or Korea or LA. I like to help them make that transition and make Santa Barbara their home, so I would highly recommend it. However, it’s not an easy business. I would say that it’s much more common not to succeed in real estate. I would say out of 10 people who come in the business may be one makes it.

What was your know-how to be the one out of ten?
I think that knowing how to offer great service and being determined made it work. Also, the ability to work with lots of different types of people, make them feel comfortable and educate them to real estate along with selling real estate. I also mentor new agents and I teach them how to sell real estate.

Are there many real estate agents in Santa Barbara?
Yes. Correct, so there is a lot of competition. There are 1200 real estate agents all over Santa Barbara. Our company has two offices, one in Santa Barbara and one in Montecito. In these two offices, we have about 110 agents. There are some other companies that have more than 250. They have bigger offices, but we like quality, not quantity.

When people want to sell their house how many agents do they contact?
That’s a very good question. Normally, people will call up to 3 different companies, 3 different agents, and they will interview us just like you go on a job interview. I would go to your home and I would interview for you to hire me to sell your home.

Do they contact up to 3?
That’s very common, but sometimes just one. They interview me, and they decide it I’m the right person to sell their home. But oftentimes sellers will choose 3 different companies to interview because they want to know the difference between the companies and the agents. So I interview for jobs very often. Most people interview, get a job and work there. I interview all the time. As a realtor, I have to keep my skills very high, and my reputation as to what I do is very important because you call me to interview me. I will refer you to other clients that would work with me so that you can call them and they can say, “Lorie did a fabulous jobs selling my home; you should hire her.”

How is the real estate market in Santa Barbara nowadays?
It’s a great market. Selling real estate in Santa Barbara is very good market, but the problem is we have a very small market. Although we had a slowdown at the end of last year, now things are picking up again. Overall, Santa Barbara is what’s referred to as a destination location. People from all over the world want to come to Santa Barbara to visit or to live.

Why do you think people want to come to Santa Barbara?
Because it is paradise. It’s beautiful, you have mountains and the ocean. It’s a beautiful place to live. People come from all over the world and they want to live here, but it is not affordable for every body to live here. It’s not easy to make a living here or own real estate here. Even in the markets going up and down across the country, it stays pretty strong in Santa Barbara.

What is the most expensive or inexpensive area in Santa Barbara?
We have a lot of different neighborhoods in Santa Barbara. The least expensive part of the market would be a condominium or even a mobile home that is permanent and sits on land. That’s the least expensive home and those really attract young families that can’t afford a home or senior citizens. The bottom of our market is really about $400,000. That’s our least expensive home.

How many bedrooms do they have? Or square feet?
About 1,000 square feet? That’s a very small one or two bedroom house. The average price is over million dollars. That’s our average home in Santa Barbara. But our top of end goes into Montecito and Hope Ranch, and those properties can range from 2 to about 26 million.

I saw a villa. Beautiful! It was 26 million.
Yes, on the Ocean.

26 million!
26 million! No problem.

It’s a lot of money also in the U.S.
Yes it is. We have a lot of people from the entertainment industry that work in LA, but they don’t want to live there. So they come to Santa Barbara or Montecito because it’s very private.

Then do they come there every day?
No. Not every day but they commute because it’s easy.

The Market is different from other countries. In Italy, the old houses are more expensive. Is that true here too?
In many cases that’s true except in Santa Barbara we don’t have very much new construction because there is so little land available. The developers have not been able to come into Santa Barbara and build. So new construction is very rare. When we have new construction, it sells pretty quickly because it has grand counter-tops and the amenities that the older homes do not have. In other hand, we have homes that were built in the 30’s and 40’s, and they are very charming and they are very desirable. People like those homes because of the architecture. Their architecture is more interesting than the homes that were built in 60’s and they were basically just boxes. No charm, no architectural detail. So, new and older houses are desirable but in the middle are not so desirable.

How will be the market in next 10 years?
Well, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think that we are going to see a more even level market for several years. In Santa Barbara, we have had a tremendous amount of appreciation over the last ten years. We had an average of 20 percent appreciation every year. It’s been crazy, so now I think we’re going to see maybe 8 or 9 percent appreciation over the next few years. It’s still better than you can do with your money in the bank. The real estate market is cycle, so it goes like a roller coaster, up and then down and then up again. In Santa Barbara, we have less lows and then we do highs again because it’s very desirable place to live.

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