J Azocar on Coastal Real Estate Trends Today

HOST: J, welcome to Founder Floor. We're talking coastal real estate development and how you're navigating the market right now. You're running several multi-million-dollar spec projects on Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island. Walk me through one of those projects—what's the square footage, what price point are you targeting, and what market signal made you pull the trigger on building spec rather than waiting for a custom client? GUEST: Great question. I am currently so excited to be starting one of our newest spec builds here in the north end of Longboat Key. It's about 3,500 square feet, a little over 3,500 square feet, four bed, four bath, has a guest house on it. Beautiful rooftop deck, water views, sweeping water views over Jewfish Key and and Whitney Bayou. And we're really excited to start that one. That one it was just a deal that was, you know, too good to to be true when we bought it. So it was an excellent acquisition. Went into it with a positive equity and you know, just roll into development just to maximize the the the return and and build a beautiful home. HOST: You're describing the features of that place, but what specific buying behavior are you seeing on Longboat Key that makes you think *that* exact footprint and amenity set is what people want? Are there specific floor plans, for instance, that are moving faster than others? GUEST: That's just kind of been my own research in the market. I think that when I look at MLS and I see what is moving at the price point that we're going for, which, you know, it's going to be in the mid threes. You know, anything just under four is really the the the max end of what we're looking for in that neighborhood. But what tends to be, um, moving the most in Longboat in and around that price range, I'm seeing is that's kind of the sweet spot, especially there in the village. You know, anything beyond that, you kind of start getting a, you know, diminishing returns. Uh, there's no rentals allowed, uh, for, you know, weekly or nightly in Longboat Key. So trying to maximize, you know, eight bedroom houses in in a place. I mean, you rarely see it and like I said, I think you you end up spending more money on, you know, doing multiple bathrooms, everything else. I think that, you know, around four or five bedroom, everyone gets an on suite, you get a powder. That's kind of the the most popular and best sort of value that you can get to develop in terms of, you know, what people are looking to buy in that area. HOST: You said weekly or nightly rentals aren't allowed on Longboat Key, which changes the investment calculus quite a bit. Who's your typical buyer, then? Are they people looking to live there full time, or seasonal residents, or maybe folks purely looking to buy and hold for appreciation? GUEST: So, folks that are looking to buy and hold, um, get some appreciation. The demographic that we're getting is usually, you know, well off, affluent, people that are buying a second or third home. Down here in Florida, they want to be on the island, close to, you know, our restaurants, our beaches, away from, you know, a lot of the hustle and bustle of Anna Maria, especially. It's folks that are looking for an experience that feels like less like, you know, vacation rental, um, you know, busyness of Anna Maria, but still want that sort of elevated, uh, little classier experience to where, you know, the beaches are quieter, restaurants are a little bit more refined, I think in Longboat, and you're just that much closer to, to, to Sarasota, so you can, you know, shoot into the city and, you know, really have a nice night out. Um, and, and it's people that have, you know, the disposable income to afford, uh, you know, second or third residence usually is what they're buying here in Longboat Key. HOST: You described this affluent buyer moving from busy Anna Maria to quieter Longboat Key, which is a specific market shift. What amenities are they willing to pay more for in Longboat Key that maybe didn't matter as much in other places they lived? Are there specific finishes, layouts, or technologies coming up standard now? GUEST: Well, I mean, I would say that definitely the the the price point is sort of reflected in longboat. Like I think the price per foot in longboats actually sells less than you get in Annamaria because of that. Um because of that uh inability to rent it, but you are still expected to deliver a very custom um custom home. And so, I mean, they want every finish, you know, thoughtfully uh planned out with interior design. We have an in-house interior designer, um Annabelle Bene. She is uh the owner and founder of the Bene Collective. Um and we collaborate on several projects, most of our projects. And um, you know, everything that we do spec, we work together on because ultimately, even if it's a house that doesn't have a buyer yet, when it's time to go on the market, they are expecting a product that looks like it was built for them. So, every single um, you know, detail um in the trim, finishes, uh material selection. They want something unique that's going to end up speaking to them. Um and then, you know, a lot of fundamental things like lighting, uh smart home integration, um and those kinds of things are just, you know, expected at that price point. HOST: You just mentioned the collaboration with your interior designer, Annabelle Bennett, which is part of your design-build integration. For a single founder running several builds at the same time, at what point does "personal oversight" become the ceiling on your growth? Have you started thinking about how you scale that without it becoming a bottleneck? HOST: So, when GUEST: Definitely a good question. Definitely something I've been, you know, wrestling with for the last year, I would say especially. GUEST: You know, we kind of had a period of really rapid growth and sort of kind of coming to another inflection point to where, you know, the scalability kind of is going to require removing um my personal oversight for every single project and just trusting a system that's going to um that's going to be able to, you know, significantly increase our volume. Um and you know what? I mean, I think that that's something that I want to eventually work towards. I just think that right now we are still refining that process. I I'm still feeling like I you know, I'm benefiting a lot and really, you know, being hands-on in the execution of the product, especially since we're such an early company. I really, you know, want a a strong start in um, you know, building out some of these flagship properties uh right off the bat so that, you know, once we start to systematize a little bit more, which we're working on now and and and expand our team, it just becomes um, you know, routine and habit from the for them um as opposed to, you know, constantly learning and sort of adapting these new systems. Everything is just sort of, you know, falls into place and um and can continue to grow without, you know, my uh every bit of attention attached to every single problem that comes up. HOST: So, when problems do come up, which they always do in construction, and your client is managing that remotely, how do you handle that? Say, something goes sideways on one of your spec builds—what's the first call you make, and how do you walk them through the solution? GUEST: Well, the great thing about, you know, working with us on the custom home side is that because we have the design builds integration that we remove the need for you to have to you know, babysit us or babysit your contractor or your interior designer to to fulfill your vision. You know, our purpose and our goal, our function is to, you know, completely take that off your plate and um and and deal with 99.999% of all the challenges um and issues that come up in construction. on your behalf and you know, with the design side as well, being able to make sure that your ultimate end vision and goal is completely satisfied through our construction. As far as the spec build goes, um, you know, that's something that we, you know, have work internally to audit and, you know, I think having, you know, Annabelle and the and the design team is really significant too because that gives us a really clear picture of what we want the finished product to look like. So any modifications that need to be done in the field. can be caught and and changes can happen, um, you know, to ensure that that we're, you know, really hitting the mark on what that finished product is going to be. HOST: Before we go—for listeners who want to follow up on what we covered, where can they find you and the work you're doing? Thanks so much for coming on, J—the bit about using Buildertrend for full client visibility is going to stick with me. If you're enjoying Founder Floor, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or whatever app you use—so the next episode lands in your feed automatically. And thank YOU for spending part of your day with us. It means a lot. Until next time—AIHosts.fm signing off.