 How about you? I grew up down here in the Orange Beach, Gulf Shores area. I've been selling for 16 years. My dad was a roofer, so I started out roofing houses and then got into real estate. What's that? Yeah, so you know roofing houses you get paid for what you do, so it was a good transition into real estate. And man, it took me eight months to make my first sale, but once I started figuring it out, you know, I made a ton of money when the market really blew up in the mid- 2000s. And then when the market crashed, I lost everything and kind of learned a lot of lessons. I came back in 2008 and from the lessons I learned in the crash, I just started doing better and better and better. In 2014, I sold a hundred properties. I was the number one, yeah, I was the number one real remax realtor in Alabama. And then since then, I mean, I've done better and better each year. Last year I did 130 sales, you know, so this year I've already closed, I guess, 14-15. So yeah, man, I'm just a hard worker, you know, that just loves helping people and stay positive and, you know, don't worry about deals I miss out on. I just keep moving forward. The area in Gulf Shores called Fort Morgan. I don't know if you're familiar. Are you familiar with the area? Have you ever been here? We're in there to the west of Gulf Shores. It's kind of, it's a peninsula that goes out into the Mobile Bay on the north and Gulf of Mexico on the south. And then east of Orange Beach, you get into Florida. We're right on the Florida line. And so you go into Perdido Key. So Perdido Key is probably a 10-mile stretch of beach. And then you have to go through Pensacola and kind of go north a little bit and then come back down through Gulf Breeze and hit Pensacola Beach. You know, and then it just goes down Florida coast, you know, Fort Walton, Navar, Destin, Panama City, all that stuff. But the area that I'm in, I got to have my Florida license. And so I do maybe 10% of my deals, I guess, are in Florida right across the line. But most everything's right here in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. And I do a little bit in Foley, which is just north of Gulf Shores. So that's where I went to high school. Foley, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach is kind of like one area to us locals. As far as my sales go, or just the area in general. Yeah. Yeah, I sell overwhelmingly more condos just because, you know, condos are second homes and investments and they just turn over more. You know, on average, they turn over every three years. And I think homes turn over every seven years, you know, primary homes. So they just have a higher turnover. And so, you know, there's just more turnover. They're really good average price. And there's just more money in the condos. But it's not that I, you know, it's not that I necessarily target condos. That's just, you know, that's just what happens. You know, I mean, I sell houses. I sell commercial. I sell lots. You know, I sell whatever somebody wants to do. I help them do it. It just happens to be they're just more condo sell. It just depends on where you are. Yeah, it just depends on where you are and what you're looking for. But yeah, you can get something for 300,000. That's really decent. You know, as far as that goes, you could find something 250 range, you know, when you get down to the 200 range for something that's decent, you're probably really slim. I mean, you're probably nonexistent. You know, so I would say 250 to 300, you know, you can, it's probably slim under 300. But around 300, you can definitely find something that's decent. Okay. And it's a condo market. The BP oil spill bottomed our market out. And then 2010 and 11 was the bottom. And then we had about, actually, we had about 18% growth that first year coming back because the prices were so low and everybody wanted to really jump in. So we jumped up a good percentage that first year that we started to increase. And then it kind of came down to 12 and then to 8%. And then we've kind of settled out in that 4 to 5%, 3% kind of appreciation per year range until last year, you know, last year was about 8 to 10%. You know, and it was a weird year because, you know, the stock market went up the whole year. And, you know, everything was kind of just really optimistic, you know, and so, you know, you know, we had a kind of unusual spike last year. But, you know, we'll see what happens. January is our slowest month. So we're just coming, we're just coming out of that. The winter, this past winter was the one of the busiest winters I've ever seen. And of course, January, it slowed down finally. And I got a chance to breathe. And then now it's starting to pick up steam again. I mean, I mean, I did well, you know, January, I did like 14 deals. So it wasn't like it was down, but it's just a different kind of work, you know, in January and more in the office, organizing and making calls and putting stuff together. And, you know, in the spring and summer, I'm showing a lot of property. So it's a different, it's a different kind of busy. But I'm still doing deals. It's just a different kind of, you know, a different kind of work. It's an incredible place to live, man. Like I said, I grew up here, and I've seen it grow from nothing. I'm 36. And, you know, I mean, I remember when I was little, you know, in the 80s, I mean, it was, it was nothing down here. So from what it was to what it is, is incredible. They just did a big amusement park up in Foley. It has one. It really is. I mean, you know, they're doing it in phases. So this first phase is this big amusement park. It's got one ride that's kind of like a Busch Gardens, Disney World kind of ride. And then they have a mall that they're opening up slowly, the bunch of restaurants. But eventually they're going to have more rides and they're going to have a huge 100 acre water park. I think that water park's really going to make it an exciting place. They also, the city of Foley kind of, it was kind of a deal they swung with the people building the amusement park, but they built, I don't know how many soccer and baseball fields right next to it and hotels and everything else. So, you know, it's not a, you know, a lot of people when it was being built, they asked me, you know, how it's affecting the market and how do I think it's going to affect the market. And I told everybody that I didn't think it would really do much to the market, except for give people just another reason to come down. You know, we haven't seen a spike in prices because of it. We haven't seen, you know, any real effects so far, except for it gives all the people just another reason to come down. But like I said, when they get that water park open, I really think that's going to be kind of the missing piece of the puzzle for that place to really go to the next level. But outside of that, man, we got the wharf that they have concerts all the time. You know, we got festivals, you know, got the oyster cookoff, shrimp festival, all kinds of different events that happen in the area. We got Mardi Gras parades that are happening this weekend. The Orange Beach has a parade and Gulf Shores has had a parade for as long as I can remember. So there's always something and one reason I like it better than a lot of places on the Gulf is, is there's so much room. You know, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach has spread out so much. Destin is so compacted on that little island and traffic is just, traffic is horrible over there. Same thing with some of the other beach communities. You know, Gulf Shores Orange Beach is, it's really spread out and it's just, it is, man. It's a really nice quality of life. It is, man. They, you know, back a couple years ago, Panama City outlawed alcohol on the beaches during spring break. And so all those spring breakers migrated to our area that year. Well, as soon as they did that, Gulf Shores said no alcohol on the beach during spring break from like March 12th or something to the mid, mid April or something. And they all left, you know, and Orange Beach didn't, didn't, they didn't say no alcohol, but they were very strict on underage drinking. And it cut it right out because they're trying to preserve the family, you know, lifestyle, the family community, you know, they're trying to maintain that, that family atmosphere. There's tons of great restaurants. You know, there's, there is, there's just a lot of stuff going on. There's also a state park beach in between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. It's three miles of vacant beach. And it's, it's really a sight. I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's, I'm pretty blessed, man, to have grown up here and to be able to do something I love, to be able to do something I love and the place I grew up in is, is really, really a blessing. Like I said, last year we did about eight or 10% appreciation. The year before that was about three to five. The year before that was about three to five. So, you know, we've experienced about 20% increase in the last three years. I'll put it like this, you know, I'm selling one bedrooms on the beach for over 300, you know, they're 320, 330, 299, up and down the beach and those condos were 400,000 at the peak of the market. So, you know, we're creeping up, you know, we're, I've seen a couple sell for 320 and 330. So, you know, we're kind of creeping up. I really do feel like, you know, I hate predicting stuff because I'm always wrong. Number one and number two. Number two, if anybody ever tries to tell you they know what's going to happen, that's because they're trying to sell you something. So, I don't ever believe anything anybody says. But, but I really do, I really do have a feeling that if inflation is going to keep moving the way it's moving and then they have to raise interest rates to kind of keep up with it, then I just, I just have a feeling that we're going to see kind of a plateau for a second on prices because they've just went up so much, you know, over the past five years, you know, that, you know, if they raise interest rates, I think, you know, I think, you know, we saw eight to 10% appreciation last year. I just feel like, you know, it can't keep going, you know what I mean? I would say maybe, you know, a large percentage of them are buying it for both really, you know, they're buying it because they want a place to stay a really nice place to bring their family to the beach and enjoy the beach and then rent it while they're not here and kind of get the best of both worlds, you know, it's like a halfway second home for the family and halfway investment, you know, for for the future. So I think I think maybe you're looking at a good 80 or 90% are buying with those intentions and then you got the other, you know, 10, 15% that are buying it as a second home that don't rent it. They just they just buy it and they pay all the expenses and they just want somewhere to go and those people that do that, they just don't want to come into a condo or their beach house knowing that there's been all kinds of different people in there, you know, they they want to know when they get there, everything that they that that was theirs is still right where they left it and you know, nothing's been touched and it's a peace of mind type thing. So two completely different clients there but most most everybody is renting. It just depends on how you buy it, you know, if you if you pay cash, then you're going to make money, you know, you don't have the you don't have the mortgage to worry about. So normally if you get alone and you put the minimum percent down, which is 20 or 25%, you're going to end up basically breaking even every year. If you do make 2000 or 3000, you're going to have to put that right back into it with some fresh paint or a new couch or whatever, you know, you're going to have to touch it up and fix, you know, maintain it. So when you when you figure the maintenance cost in there, you know, and you have a loan, then you're you're going to be breaking even, you know, you might make a little but you have to put that back into it and you know, and if you if you pay cash though, then you know, you don't have that mortgage, you're going to you're going to make a little you're going to make some money, you know, you might not, you know, you might you may do after you pay your condo fees, your your taxes, you know, any assessments, your your mortgage, your rental company fee management fees after you pay everything, you know, you might walk away with a good three, four, five percent, something like that. If you pay cash, you know, you may do better on some condos and not as good on others, but you know, it's it all depends on how you buy it and what your intentions are and what your goal is with with you know, with your exit strategy. And what you got to think of too is is, you know, when you're breaking even, it's not really breaking even because that's paying the note and the note is going towards paying that principal off and so, you know, depending on how long, yeah, sure, I mean, you know, appreciation is a whole different game though, you know, you know, you got to be prepared for if something happens, you can you can still maintain it, you know, with your with your cash flow, but yeah, you know, that's part of the game is the appreciation for sure, you know, that's what I say, it just depends on what your strategy is, you know, what your what your end result, you know, what your goals are and how you're trying to get there and what what exactly you're trying to do, you know, so, you know, I can sit down with a condo buyer and we can sit down and go through their whole strategy and what they're really trying to accomplish and we can figure, I can figure out exactly what avenue we need to do and and which condos we need to look at and so on and so forth to fit their specific strategy. I think down here in my area, I don't know about other areas, but ever since Hurricane Ivan, which is 04, you know, 04 was, yeah, Ivan was pretty bad, I mean it was a big one, it hit us directly and it took out a lot of buildings and houses, but the insurance kind of got flipped upside down for a while, you know, insurance rates were really high for a while, they've calmed way down, they're really great right now, but what people need to watch out for is that maybe half of these complexes have what's called an insurance assessment every year on top of the condo monthly dues. See, there was a law in 92 an Alabama state law that the association has to cover the insurance on the whole building and all the units in 92, so that by law the association has to cover that building and your unit and everything. They have to cover it just as the developer built it, so if the developer built it and put carpet in the floor and a hurricane comes through and wipes you out, then you get you get replaced with carpet. If you went in and put tile afterwards, then you don't get, you know, covered for that tile through the association, you get covered for that carpet, so if you want to cover your upgrade, you need to cover your upgrades in your additional insurance, your contents policy, so that's two things you really need to kind of think about is is there an insurance assessment because that's kind of a hidden thing, a hidden factor, so when you're talking to your real estate agent, you know, you should be asking about, you know, the dues which all the dues are about, you know, pretty similar. There's a few that are a little high and a few that are a little low and stuff, but for most part they're all pretty close, but you really need to watch out for those insurance assessments and some buildings have them and some don't, and they can range from a thousand a year to two or three thousand a year, just depends on the building, so that's one thing, and then you should cover all your upgrades in your contents policy. And see, that's the great thing too about getting, getting a loan through doing a conventional loan on these condos is that the Fannie Mae guidelines are so strict on condos, they they literally sift through the entire association and determine if that condo association is strong enough for their standards, and they look at the balance sheet, the reserves, how much of the condo dues are getting allocated to the reserves, the insurance policy, they want to know if there's one entity or one person that owns what percent of the building, there's a lot of stuff they look at that you wouldn't look at yourself, and so it's kind of like they're your partner on the deal, you know, they're kind of looking out for you, so if you get into, if you get into a situation where you're going after a condo and you're getting a conventional loan and Fannie Mae says no, we're not, we're not, you know, we're not going to finance this one because of this or, you know, we'll finance it but you have to put 25 percent down, not 20, those are some red flags, you know, that you that you should ask questions, well why won't Fannie Mae finance this building and or why do they want more of a down payment, you know, so that's one good thing about about getting a conventional loan is Fannie Mae is kind of your partner on the deal, absolutely, absolutely, it changes it a whole lot, it changes the interest rate, it can change the down payment, you know, it can change a lot of things and that stuff's always changing too, you know, they're always coming up with new roles and everything but but it does affect it big time and you can only own so many of these, you know, you can only have a loan on so many of these things too, you know, you can only have, you know, one second home, I mean, like for example, I, you know, I just bought my mama condo to live in and it's right down the road from my house and I could not, what's that? Yeah, kind of set myself up for that one but yeah, but the thing was is I wanted to buy it as a second home because it would have been a better interest rate and a better down payment but because that condo was so close to my primary home, they made me claim it as an investment property, they said, there's no way that you are using this condo that's, you know, I guess it's about five miles from my house so they're pretty strict on that stuff, you know. If you guys have any questions about Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, real estate market, you can find me a couple of different ways. One way is my website and that's just rickiecuruthrealestate.com So, you know, my first and last name, R-I-C-K-Y-C-A-R-R-U-T-H realestate.com My cell phone number is 251-752-1138 and you guys can just find me there and if you have any questions or anything I can ever do for you, you know, let me know and you know, to me, if any of you guys that's listening, you know, get down to the area, write my number down and give me a call. Let me know beforehand. I'll take you somewhere to eat lunch and, you know, meet face to face and we can chat. Carus or a friend over there, that's my great, let's see, that would be my great grandfather and then all the relatives before him are all over there in Louisiana so I have a lot of relatives over there in Louisiana but I don't know any of them and I'll be glad to meet up with you. I appreciate you having me on. I enjoyed it. Yes, sir. Have a good day.