With the summer real estate market heating up, we welcomed local mogul and infamous Terps supporter Creig Northrop in from Howard County to talk real estate, fed rates and real college sports with Nestor. Some great tips here for how to list and sell a home in any market.
Nestor Aparicio and Craig Northrop discussed real estate trends, the Maryland crab cake tour, and the impact of COVID-19 on the housing market. Northrop highlighted the strong demand for real estate in Howard County, noting an average 5% annual increase in land value and 8% in housing value. He emphasized the importance of staging homes to sell faster and for higher prices. Northrop also shared his long-standing affiliation with the University of Maryland and his involvement in various community charities. They also touched on the current state of the Orioles and Ravens, with Northrop predicting a strong year for the Ravens.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Real estate, Maryland crab cake tour, interest rates, Howard County, real estate investment, COVID impact, home staging, Maryland Terps, college sports, Orioles, Ravens, community involvement, Northrop Realty, real estate market, virtual staging.
SPEAKERS
Creig Northrop, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 towns of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, certainly getting through these hot days. Lucas at Oral Park, Camden Yards, making it happen here, as we hope the Orioles get back into things and the Ravens are off the field. In the meantime, we are on the field with the Maryland crab cake tour. We’re going to be out this week at readers crab house and reisters down. I will have the scratch offs from the Maryland lottery. We have the Back to the Future scratch offs to give away. Just great, great guests coming up, great crab cake tour stops. We’re going to be at deepest squales On the eighth of July in the morning before it’s 102 degrees. Dan Rogers going to join us. Joe Giordano is going to join us. There’s a rumor that Pete cringe he’s going to come back to the old neighborhood in island town that’s on the eighth, and then on the 10th, we’re going to be a Costas in Timonium, the new location which we invite you to the racetrack at Timonium. Just don’t come for crabs. If you want crabs, you got to go to Dundalk to get them. They don’t have crabs at the Timonium location, but they will have me, and Congressman Johnny O is going to join me on the 10th as well as Leonard Raskin and a whole bunch of friends that is all coming up before the all star break. It’s about time I get this guy on, because I see him around town. Ran into him on opening day. I’ve been wanting to have him on. I think the last time we really shared some space was at the beautiful collective encore as guest of Gus colarus and Axios wine. I’m still trying to find the truth. Gus, we had a good time with bad finger that night. Since then, we’ve lost Joey. Mullin, I want to welcome Craig Northrop onto the program. I think this is the first time. Is this your debut? 35
Creig Northrop 01:32
my debut and the most memorable you’re ever going to have
Nestor Aparicio 01:36
for me, our ratings are up. You know, the players that always say that to me, if I come on your show, your ratings will go up, your numbers will go up, and all that stuff, your numbers have gone up. I mean, everybody sees your commercials. They know you’re affiliated with the Terps in Maryland. They see your signs. If you’re in any neighborhood here, you see a North really, really sign. I you know, I don’t know your whole background, and I’ve been out with you on we’ve been at dinners places and all over town. I run into you and your wife all the time, and I keep threatening to have you on but I don’t even know how, like you even got into real estate. I didn’t read up and learn that your mother was in real estate agent. Is that correct?
Creig Northrop 02:09
For 50 years, my mother’s been doing the business crazy. It’s, you know, it’s a heritage. We’ve been here and started in Howard County. Did in Howard County, never left Howard County. Howard County is the central point between Baltimore
Nestor Aparicio 02:20
in Washington nights when Merriweather is happening for me,
Creig Northrop 02:24
that’s it. Yeah, Keith Urban was just here a couple days ago. So, you know, again, they’ve done a really good job of the Merriweather. They’ve gotten much more commercialized and centralized with the community. So I do to give them a credit. And you know, they’re certainly trying to build that downtown Columbia even up better
Nestor Aparicio 02:40
well. And every time I come, I see it and I feel it and look, I’m a kid from Dundalk, right? So a guy like you were almost same age, same era. I’m a little older than you, but I would say for for that part of life in the 80s, when rouse came along and created Columbia, I wanted to be in Columbia, date girls in Columbia. I thought Columbia was this utopian place right in the mid 80s, because I’m from a row house in Dundalk. I had never been to a place where there were no signs, where there were no big buildings, where there were like, trees and pathways and stuff and things, deer and stuff like that. Um, it was a different life to me. Now I go to Columbia and I see, what would Mr. Rouse make of it 60 years later, as to what it’s grown up to be. But more than that, Merryweather stayed the woods. Everything’s grown around that the mall, the mall is going to not be, probably be a mall, because malls aren’t malls anymore. But Howard County is just as strong a county as we have in the state, right?
Creig Northrop 03:38
It’s the third wealthiest county in the United States, basically. I mean, it’s, it’s pretty incredible how much we’ve held on and kept our traffic is fair, you know, when the times are you got your schools are good, you know. And a lot of great places have come into Howard County. So we’re very blessed. And again, it’s because of convenience. I’m here 30 minutes from Baltimore, 30 minutes from DC. It kind of is the perfect place to live.
Nestor Aparicio 04:01
Well, I had a conversation with Leonard Raskin last week, who’s our money guy here at Raskin global, about the S P, and if you just followed the S P, since the beginning of time, since you were 18 years old, put money in your four you did all of that, you’d be able to go live in wherever anybody wants to live. I could go live in Malaya, if I wanted to. I would say, if you invest in Howard County, and you invested in real estate in Howard County over a lifetime, and you’ve got a lifetime now, and your mother’s got a lifetime as well. Um, it, it’s been real estate’s been a good investment, not just a good way for you to make a living, but, you know, getting, getting a piece of land and sitting on it and watching it, appreciate that really is kind of the American Dream that you’re selling,
Creig Northrop 04:40
right? You know, that’s a very good point land in general. And Howard County is almost built out, averaging 5% interest a year. You’re not going to get that in the banks. You know, the housing in Howard County is averaging 8% I mean, the increases of value that I’ve seen for some of these sellers, by the way, if you ever want to know your value, just give me a call. Because one of the things I’ve done when I first got in real estate. Is I learned every street, of every house, of every location. So knowledge is confidence, competence, trust. Trust is sale. So with that, I have people that are making, you know, 100, 200 300 $400,000 in equity in a couple years. It’s not even like 25 years. You know, you had to wait 25 years to make that kind of money. Right now, if you bought a product before COVID, let’s just use it, because COVID was a really good example of it. You are making some really good investment money in all, I would say, all counties, because what happened was COVID realized, when we kind of got quarantined, that we where do you? Where do you quarantine? In a home, right? You need a home. And what you found is you didn’t live in the homes for more than a couple, you know, you’re in, you’re out, you’re in, you’re out, you’re not really staying there. You’re not, it’s not a staycation. You’re you’re kind of and once you got quarantine, you realize, hey, I need a bigger house. I either need a good outdoor space. Which outdoor space? One Crazy pools are down. Just insane in value, you know, like, there’s been that kind of a transition. And the question is going to be, and when people should think about is, where would I quarantine next? Right? Where would I quarantine next? If my home where I need it, or could I, would I? Should I move somewhere else? Your best investment in real estate always is going to be your home right north
Nestor Aparicio 06:14
of here. He’s with north of Realty. Probably seen his ad, seen around town at a Maryland game or whatnot. It is his first visit here, man, I get into this with you, and I go a bunch of different directions, but let’s start with this. How is the market and rates, and you mentioned COVID And it’s and I haven’t had a lot of realtors on, to be honest with you, it’s the first time I’ve had like, a real real estate conversation, right? Hey, man, I’ve been waiting three months get you on, since opening day that was in March for crying outlet, and it’s too hot today, but the interest rates and that sort of miraculous period where you could get a percent and a half or 2% or where the money was kind of free, and then the money went wacky. And I always go back to my first house. I lived at 428, cane Street, two blocks from Patterson high school, there was no grocery store across the street, no McDonald. It was anchor post fence. I bought the house for, uh, $42,000 in 1986 I was 18 years old, and I paid eight and three quarters, and felt good about it, because people paying 10 and 11 at that time, right? And I had good credit for an 18 year old. My parents gave me five grand, and away we go. Right. So I think about that loan and my mortgage, I think, was $451 a month at that time, barely could afford it. I was working at the newspaper at the sun in the 80s. And now, you know, my wife and I made a move three and a half years ago. We found we lived in this condo. We lived in unit 23 nine of harbor court for 19 years, lost our ass, Craig. I mean, I got if I had bought in Howard County. I mean, literally, I just, I got annihilated in the market. So, um, for me to think about getting in at seven, seven and a half percent versus two, two and a half percent, as an old guy, I know the difference. And there’s a time to buy, there’s a time to sell. Nobody rings the bell top or bottom. We know that like the market, but right now it good, sort of middling from a a value standpoint, and and how’s inventory right now? Because I haven’t been in the market.
Creig Northrop 08:13
Fantastic question. First of all, my mother, when she first started selling 16 percentage rates, so I do want to be clear, that was really high, sweet daddy. So now, you know, we were down the twos or threes, and a lot of people bought, obviously, you know, and have her sitting on mortgages that are low. So it is to what has changed our market? You know, it’s a fantastic market, because if you want to sell your property, there hasn’t been a lot of inventory, there will start being more inventory. But a lot of sellers don’t want to sell at 3% or two and a half or 3% and move into a 6% mortgage rate. So they’re, they’re kind of waiting for that to come down. The feds, everything is falling in line to come down in feds. Feds just haven’t done it. They’re just being stubborn. I mean, that’s, that’s just all it really comes down to on that, because everything is aligned to come to do that. Lawrence June. You know any ours economist. He is. He’s coming to our retreat next month. He is, he has predicted that it will well, when it does, it will get down. He believes down to about this, really, in that little bit below 6% when that does that, it was 5.95 will change something. Anything with a five, okay, you put a five front of any interest rate you now wedged all the sellers that for two ish percent will move right? So there’s a lot of pent up demand of sellers that can make some good money on their house, but they don’t want to move from a 3% to a six to six to six and a half percent. So they’re waiting for that to happen, and when that does, it’s going to go amazing. And so you know, you know, as a seller, you don’t, I don’t know that you really want to wait for that. You’re better off to sell now and capitalize on because I tell you why, you could wait for that to come down. But if I can make you 100 grand more right now because of low inventory, why wouldn’t you. Just sell it now make that money instead of waiting for a percent to come down on the interest rate. It that that logic doesn’t pay dollars, right? It’s, it doesn’t. It’s just a mindset that says, hey, I want to keep my mortgage down. I get it. But if you can put more money down, your mortgage goes down as well. So that’s, that’s our market right now, it’s getting to be a little bit balanced. We’re starting to see a little more inventory come up. Buyers are still buying. They’ve gotten over the straight, pretty much they’re buying any good product selling. You know, well, everybody’s
Nestor Aparicio 10:29
carrying a mortgage. It’s just how much it’s going to cost me a month to be where I want to be for my kids, my job, my school, my wife, my life, my family, right? Because when people come selling a house is a big thing, man, right? I mean, just, there’s a lot going in, especially now that guys like you are coming around and flying drones around and video. I mean, the touring alone, from what used to be how I bought my condo in 2003 which were snapshot pictures, to how, not just you, everybody, the industry standard, I’m blown away. I ran into Mike Rowe in recent times. And I always, I don’t think of him as the odd jobs guy or the dirty I think of him as the about your home on Sunday afternoon, and, you know, and they would do those, come on, man, you’re laughing because, you know, we sat, we vacuumed every Saturday and Sunday, watching Mike Rowe and those houses and how they were shown then, and how they’re shown now. If you want to show your house off, it has to be immaculate ready to go. You have to have a professional like you really come in and show it off.
Creig Northrop 11:32
Right points on that first of all, when you sell a car, what do you do? You create the best ever, right? So it’s the same philosophy, if you think about it, because you really know you’re going to get the most money. So you know, decluttering is the biggest issue with most houses. Highlight the features, limit distractions. Houses stage sell 50% faster. Houses aren’t staged over 17% more money. Seven. Hold on,
Nestor Aparicio 11:50
you talk too fast for me. So a house that stage means if somebody’s living in or you got fake furniture in it empty, as we used to see in Dundalk when I was a kid. You go into row houses, they’re mainly empty, right? You’re just seeing empty walls. Good
Creig Northrop 12:03
people don’t realize empty is good, because they can see what they’re going to get. But ultimately, any house we can stage your own furniture, we can bring furniture, and there’s all kinds of different options. But the point is is, how’s their stage sell 50, 50% faster than houses that aren’t staged and for 17% more money? So
Nestor Aparicio 12:20
yeah, so I bring you my house. You’re gonna say, ness, I know it’s empty. Let me put something in it. You’re gonna, you’re gonna make me do that, because it’s gonna help both of us make a sale, right?
Creig Northrop 12:31
And we have virtual stage. You don’t even have to pay anything. It’s really kind of cool. It’s actually virtually done. I sold Kevin spacey’s House way back when, and when it always said, I used to brag about that. I donate more. But the point is, is, is that we virtual stage that, so you can make a house look online, and in the brochures, which are fusion photography, Matterport floor plans, we do it all. And, you know, to the graphic that’s behind you. And basically this podcast, it’s that same vision. It’s like, you can feel like what it’s going to you can see you, see you with your eyes first, so you can feel that emotion, that living there by what we do, in our photography, in our brochures, in our writing, it’s kind of amazing. And I mean, my mother only had newspapers, Baltimore Sun, you talk about that, that’s what she had, right? That’s it. We have all kinds of avenues now to sell. We’re very blessed by that, which is why we do national, we do local, national and international, to market all people from China to Dubai. We’re getting all kinds of demand from all over the world.
Nestor Aparicio 13:35
Greg Northrop is here. He is a realtor. You’re probably familiar with him and the Northrop team seeing him around town. I’ve never really had Craig on the show to talk about real estate or his background the Terps thing with you. How did run me through that? Because that’s sort of your association. I think anybody to Terps fan, seeing the ads or seeing you around the team in certain ways. And I haven’t been down in a while. You know, the Turgeon era begat the next era. Begat the Buzz Williams era, it certainly has been tumultuous in so many ways for Gary to exit, and all that era of coaches to leave and just say, the pay for player thing, real estate’s real estate. Maybe some things have changed. The way we do it. College basketball has fundamentally changed. And I don’t want to say I’m less interested in it, but Craig, I’m less interested in
Creig Northrop 14:21
it. I understand. Listen, I’ve always been a college football and a pro, you know, football, sorry, pro football and college basketball. But the reason I say that is with college so first of all, let me back up. I went to Mount St Joe, and then I went to Maryland, University of Maryland, right? So I was a Terp. I went with Lenny bias and lefty gazelle. That was, that was my error, right? That was the era of the greatest coaches and the greatest, one of the greatest players, outside of Michael Jordan that’s ever played the game, right? And bias was absolutely amazing. So I fell in love with basketball at a young age, right? So, of course, I played it. I’m tall, I’m six, seven, but, but, but it was more about I wasn’t. Enough to be on that court with them, kind of people, you know, in the sense of ability, so anyway, so long, short of it is, is, is, I got to really, got to see it firsthand. I got involved in it. I was very much involved in the athletic programs, very much in the Greek systems, very much into I really decided to align with Maryland Terps. I’m Maryland. I’m a Maryland, you know, I’m born and bred here. I figured, let’s do our logo, which is the north of Realty logo, which is tied in Maryland. And so the
Nestor Aparicio 15:27
flags caught on last 40 years, right? The Maryland flags, everywhere,
Creig Northrop 15:31
everywhere, isn’t it? It’s kind of cool. It’s actually very sexy, by the way. Oh, I have
Nestor Aparicio 15:35
it on my luggage, and it people comment all the time. I mean, we’re gonna be from Maryland. We really got it all over you.
Creig Northrop 15:41
Yeah, so So ironically with that. So as I got into business, what I found out is that you gotta get into TV. You gotta get yourself out there. You gotta be memorable. So I did a commercial. My first commercial was on a cul de sac. I said, I’m a Maryland resident on a University of Maryland turf buy or sell a house with me. That’s all I said. Literally, it was, like 25 years ago. All I said was that, like, it’s not like sophisticated. Just do something different. I was first one to get on the TV. Then I started getting tied into Terps and branding myself, and really kind of getting involved. I did all the Terp clubs, I mean, alumni, you know, everything I could do Terps, and I aligned with all the coaches. I sold a lot of the coaches houses, things like that. So there was a story. It was a fun story. I was walking a home. Somebody called me to sell their home. I walk in the door and there’s this little boy, and his name is Mike and Mikey, I call him, and Mikey goes. And Mikey goes, you got to come see my room right now. I said, well, and the parents were standing there too. And I said, Well, I should probably see the house first. He goes, No, the parents said they, Mikey’s been waiting all day for you to come in the home. I said, Great. I said, he said, he said, go see his room, and then we’ll see the rest of the house. I go upstairs to to see his room. It’s an aquarium, beautiful aquarium, all painted walls very similar, like here, in the sense of, it’s got fishes and frogs and all that stuff
Nestor Aparicio 17:04
and all you’re thinking, to stage his house differently. I mean,
Creig Northrop 17:09
ultimately, but really, I was kind of wondering where he was going with it. And he goes, boy. I said, That’s really beautiful. And he goes, No. He said, you see that Terp turtle in the corner? When I see that, I think of you. And that’s when I knew branding with the Terps was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I did the Lenny bias 25 year dedication to him with the gave everyone in the jersey. They were standing outside, buying them as collector things that same day, one of the best promotions ever done with Maryland. I’m working with Buzz Williams to buy a house, ideally, that’s the goal. And the staff, they’re great people, like very much involved with all of them, loxi and the football side. So so it’s just a blessing. Again. I do some stuff with Mount Saint Joe. I should do more in my high schools, but I did everything with Maryland Terps, and it really kind of worked in that way for a Terp family. I mean, it’s a Terp family, like, when people are Terps, we kind of hang together, right? It’s, you know, it’s kind of amazing, you know, kind of connection that I have with many people in the Terp family. Well, I think
Nestor Aparicio 18:13
you get a new basketball coach and some new blood, and certainly bad blood as the other coach left, but certainly fresh things. And listen, I’m trying to navigate this, like navigating AI, right? Like i No one knows there are no guardrails. I remember seeing Gary Williams speak up here in in Timonium at an event about two and a half years ago, and he said, well, at some point they’re gonna put some guardrails in. And I’m like, I don’t know who’s coming to save this in the way that the NCAA and in the way that all of and I’m sure you’re active in it as well, and Kevin Plank and Steve Bucha tea and all the Maryland boosters in saying, How can we buy the best point guard? How can we buy the best center? How can we get the best players? And that was something for Alabama football. That was something that certainly came in FedEx bags in the overnight at Kentucky a generation ago that it was we’re going from it’s like, it’s like cannabis, we’re going from something that was illegal to something that we talk about, and we’re trying to make the divide happen with fans, with sponsors, with the people who may have money to support bringing players in, and then the whole ethics of, should we be paying players? Should the coach be the highest paid play state employee and all of that stuff? But this is the the engine that college sports has generated through people like you that supported and people like me that have talked about it for 35 years, and people like Gary Williams and Len buys that built it, left you, Giselle, but I don’t know where it’s going, Craig and as a as a fan, as a sports guy, as someone that would buy tickets or have time for it. Just the first thing was leaving the ACC for Maryland was a little traumatic for the fan base, in a general sense, right?
Creig Northrop 19:54
And people ask Matt a lot. They had to financially, because the only program, sadly, the programs that five. In the college are the basketballs and the footballs, right, traditionally, but they have track programs and great lacrosse programs and all these others. In order to fund all that, you had to go the, you had to go to the the other one. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we all love the Carolina Duke matches. They were amazing basketball, but, you know, we traded that for very tough football. SEC is very tough football and and we’re getting really good in the basketball arena, and I think we could dominate this year. I predicted that they will definitely be in the sweet 16 this year. I just think buzz has got the buzz. I mean, you know, analogy wise, he’s a team guy. He loves the game and he loves the players. And if you love the game and love the players, the players will play for you. And I think that, you know, and that’s hard to find in the college coaching world right now well,
Nestor Aparicio 20:49
and it’s a different job. I mean, I’ve talked to Pat scary up here at Towson, Larry Stewart over Coppin. We’re partners with Coppin here, just about the differences between a division one, double, a low Division One, mid major and major, and where the finances are going to be, and how it’s all going to shake out in the end, that when a player is any good at Towson, they’re going to be looking to transfer to Vanderbilt or move move up, that there really is going to be a tiered system. And to your point, for somebody that goes back with with me to I always tell my Toyota people. I used to get the Toyota book in 7879 we had buck Williams, and you had Greg Manning, and you had all the teams in there, and the whole Mid Atlantic area was involved in it. And the players, whether it was Michael Jordan, James worthy, Perkins, those guys would stay three, four years. That era is over, and it’s more like pro sports with like the Orioles. Are they good this year? Will Zach effluent be here next year? I don’t know. College is going to be more like that, and I think younger people will catch on to that. We’re going to have to catch up to that, because BUZZ WILLIAMS isn’t going to build dynasties. He’s going to have to build one year teams, and that’s throughout football, basketball, through every sport. I
Creig Northrop 22:00
think that’s what’s happening anymore. I mean, I think that’s it. You got the one year to make it happen, and what are you going to do to get the best out of your players? Like queen was amazing. We knew they only had one year for him, but you know, he’s going to go fifth round in the draft and NBA in one year. He was a freshman, but we got a good year out of him. Sadly, the coach did not help us when he doesn’t even show up for the for the dinner for the night before the big game. But, you know, that was sad that that we went through that transition. But buzz one of the
Nestor Aparicio 22:27
weirdest things in Maryland history, going back to the date bias died, I thought to have a coach that just sort of walked out. I mean, I don’t think we’ve experienced that. If you’re an SEC football fan, you remember when Tuberville was getting on planes every week and a half, running around before he’s running the government, and you’ll get jobs. But there is a point for me as a citizen, as a taxpayer. Look, I get salty when stadiums, $600 million are given to billionaires. And you know, I do have my I get my Dundalk bird up about talking down to the lower class and giving away to the upper class. But there is a point where if the highest paid employee in a state is a coach, is a sports coach, it’s a different kind of business than an education system for and that’s through 50 states, because that’s true in like 35 states, the highest paid employee is a football or a basketball coach. That is true. That is true. Frank Northam here, he’s doing real estate inventories out. We’re trying to get the rates down. We’re trying to get the Terps up. Anything you got on the Orioles, I ran into you opening day. I know, you know,
Creig Northrop 23:31
you know. Boy, opening day. I love it. I love the energy. I love the things. They’re certainly trying as Orioles, in the sense of keeping this, the stadium is gorgeous. We’re very blessed by the stadium of Orioles and ravens. I got to be honest, I think transition is what Orioles keep going through. I’m not sure why. I don’t have that answer. I wish I did. I I mean, Cal Ripken, certainly a friend. He, you know there, you know, there’s comments that that you know, at least he’s, you know, should be more involved in in the stadium and what they do and all that. I don’t know where that is, but
Nestor Aparicio 24:01
I don’t know what he’s doing. That’s part of, you know, like he was on the broadcast and they’re doing the bobblehead this week. I think the fans don’t know how involved he is or isn’t at this point. And I think last place is a tough no one planned for this. They don’t have a plan for last place. I don’t think any of them, because I don’t think they thought this was possible. And all the injuries have been a huge, huge part of this, you know, get their manager fired. It’s been a tough year for them. It really has been
Creig Northrop 24:26
very tough Oriole year. I think, I think it’s a raven year, to be honest, I do, I do believe that it’ll be a raven year, and I think that Orioles will rebuild and be stronger. Listen, they do a great job. Their stadium is great. The people are great. And we’re very blessed by the Orioles. I think ravens is the focus this year. I think ravens are going to be extra strong. I think, you know, when you got you got the running back that just basically is a beast, and you got a quarterback that’s due and you got good receivers around you, and you’ve got a great coach who’s held on and fought for the place where he is. Is, I think you’re just going to see a lot of good things with the Ravens
Nestor Aparicio 25:02
this year. I think one of the most telling things was Jair Alexander wanting to take less money to come and play after playing in Green Bay. And he’s got a lot of money in the bank. And these guys have a limited period to earn. But part of that is they want to win. They want to have fun. They want to be around winners. And I think the Derrick Henry thing last year, coming in with Lamar was part of that. And Craig, I’ll tell you, I go way back with the Derrick Henry thing to four, five years ago, tweeting out, they need Derrick Henry. If they have Derek Henry, they’d be unstoppable. So believe me, if they’re holding the Lombardi Trophy second week of February, I’ll be the first guy sharing my 2021 and 22 tweets saying, See, I told you so just like what Craig Northup tells you these gonna sell your house. He’s gonna get it done for you. 100% I love that for people in the thinking about selling their home, and they call any real estate agent. We all have somebody in our phone book, our friends, family, whatever. What is it? What is a good real estate agent? And you have, you employ a lot of them more than ever. But when someone comes in to be a realtor for you, if I have a friend that is looking to change and they want to come work for you, what, what is the ethos that you bring into this after all the years of doing this, because rates are going to change, but lands, lands, houses at the the technology we use to sell houses now, but if I had a house and brought it to you right now, what am I looking to do?
Creig Northrop 26:22
Well, Anthony, is a great question. I think knowledge is important in a marketplace and to live where you sell, all of our agents live in the areas they sell, which I think is majorly important so they know they know the local stores. They know the local reasons why people move there. They know what it takes to get your house sold. Then we have a whole staging department that stages your property. We have a whole marketing department is going to put it all out there. We’ve got, you know, we’ve got all kinds of things that are different our reach. We’re going to reach to, you know, we have 160,000 database because we’ve been doing this for so long, you know, over 50 plus years. For my I’ve been doing 37 years. My mother been doing for 50 years, you know. So, so we have an internal matchmaker that we can match it up with buyers that we’re working with right now. So we’ve got all kinds of mechanism. But most importantly, when you make that call, it’s a real simple call. We come out, we talk to you. It’s complimentary. We give you a free analysis of your property. We give you, you know, a sense of what it would cost our plan, and really show you how to maximize your equity, which many people, if you’ve been your house over seven years at this point, have some really good equity that ultimately is probably capping off, you know, so you probably it’s a good time to cash out of your equity and move into a different place or another area or something, whatever that would be. But it’s a really good time. Every house that’s sitting over seven years right now is great
Nestor Aparicio 27:41
equity. So I wrote down some notes, because you were just getting at it in the early part of this thing, you should submit pools. I used to think of a pool as being something like you either want one or you don’t want one. If you’re in Southern California, they usually come with one. But if you lived in Perry Hall, or you lived in Towson, you put a fancy ass pool and it looks like something. Either somebody thinks it looks like paradise, or it looks like I don’t want to pull, um, COVID and changing that. And I could pull up my Facebook from 48 hours ago, Craig, the minute it hit 94 degrees. And I put the APB out to all of all 10 of my listers. I don’t have a lot of listeners. You’ll find that out. And I said, Hey, if any of you have a pool, today’s the day to invite me. This is the week I want to be your friend. I mean, I’ll bring the sausages, I’ll bring I’ll bring some beer, I’ll bring some whatever you drink, and wine cooler. I’ll bring Zima. I’ll bring California cooler, bottles and chains, whatever you need. Um, but pools convey value, or don’t convey value? At this point,
Creig Northrop 28:39
that’s a great question, because in the in the past, it was pool, no pool. Right now, with COVID, what COVID did is create outdoor spaces. People wanted to be in their own backyards more than ever. So fire pits went up a massive amount of money. You know, pools are up 300% it’s crazy. The value of a pool right this minute, because it cost more. The contractors have obviously caught on, and now the pool cost and installing pools are more expensive. So so all of that understood, pools are big are much more value in my whole 37 careers than I’ve ever seen in my career. I it’s kind of amazing, because people want to enjoy their backyard more now, because, again, it’s a question, where do I want to quarantine next? And that’s where the pools and the and the fire pits and the backyard kitchens and all the great stuff that you can do out back have become, you know, huge excitement. I’ll give you example of that. I just on my Facebook page, which anybody can go to. There’s a house right now. It’s, it’s on Clifton oaks, and you’ll see the backyard, and you’ll see the pool and the pool house and all that. And you’ll get a sense of feeling like what it could be like to live there and 100 degrees, wearing suits, a little hot, the pool looks really good. My best, my best post in the career history was a house. Mary Bell, never forget. Yet. It was 20 years ago I decided to jump into a pool with a suit. Okay? It was kind of crazy. And, you know, it’s just one of them, you know, try something do, and I did it, and I tell you what, it went viral. And that’s the person that bought the house has a plaque that says Craig Norther jumped into the pool of this house. It was kind of funny, like, that’s that’s just pools have really have escalated in value since in in the last five years to seven years when
Nestor Aparicio 30:27
you jumped in that pool. Were you a realtor? Be honest with me, Craig, we haven’t had too many conversations when you walked into a house in at the turn of the century, 1999 2001 or two and saw a pool. Do you think nice house, but it’s got a pool. This is going to be a tougher sale. I mean, was it was that not who was
Creig Northrop 30:45
real sexy. Pool was not sexy. There were people burying pools. They were they didn’t want the pool it. You know, there was a lot of that in the beginnings, when I first got in the business, it, you lost money if you had a pool. Actually, back in the 90s, you lost money if you had a pool.
Nestor Aparicio 30:59
I was That’s why, when you were saying that to me the beginning. I’m like, That’s a change philosophically in real estate, correct? 100% All right, we’ll see. I’m this is why I bring you on. You’re like, well, you’re like, me on. So else’s I learned stuff. Frank Northam is here from North really, you can find him. I also wrote something down here about retreat. You said you you’re having a retreat, and I know you do all sorts of charitable stuff, and if I ever get you, do you eat crab cakes? I mean, I don’t know about you. Howard County, crab cakes. I’m born in Maryland. For people, I’m just checking. I don’t I would never have a crab cake outside of Baltimore. I mean, I tell people montgomery county, I had my worst crab cake on my life. In Montgomery County, they made it like a chicken salad sandwich. I’m not kidding you. They may have had raisins and celery, you know what the hell it was. And PG County maybe. I mean, I went, Michael Steele took me for a really crab bomb was really good over Laurel. So I feel differently about PG camp. Excuse me, Prince George’s County. I won’t offend anybody, but, but I would say I could get you out for a crab cake. We would wind up talking about charity,
Creig Northrop 31:55
because number one place, people just asked me this yesterday, number one crab cake. Where is it?
Nestor Aparicio 32:00
I don’t give no. I don’t rate them like that. I will send you to a number. Here’s the problem with crab cakes. And if you really ask me if we were just together, and you’re you’re in the club level on opening day, we’re having a beer together, you’re like, What can I be honest? What’s your really what’s your really favorite crab cake? I’m like, if you like a mustardy crab cake, fade leaves is the only one that’s even like fat. It’s delicious, it’s unique. It’s different. If you like a saltier you Jo Chesapeake Bay seasoning type thing, you want to eat nice Baltimore. You want to go over to Costas. If you like more of a sweeter jumbo, you want to go to Coco. You know what I mean? So like, but here’s the thing, if I put a cost as a Cocos of fade leaves me go through it all. I go over to State Fair, up at Greenmount station, they have a real spin on the old Angelina’s crab cake that I love. And all of these crab cakes I’m mentioning, none of them are fried. And my mother would tell you, if she were alive, I prefer a fried crab cake to a broiler crab cake, and it’s because I grew up poor with little hockey puck special crab cakes at the Memorial Stadium with the mustard and crackers. So I like them all, but they’re all different. And I would tell everybody, try them all, and you come back and tell me, because there’s not my favorite. Might not be your favorite, you know, and that’s just kind of the way, what’s your favorite? Your Howard County guy? You’re going to brag on Timbuktu, or you’re going to brag on, let me be an Anne Arundel County, you’re gonna brag on something Howard County?
Creig Northrop 33:23
Yeah. I mean, you know, I’d say the legend one in Howard County directly. Now this is dangerous, because you got all kinds of people going, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. But, you know, in Howard County, Howard County doesn’t have a ton of Baltimore. Got tons of them.
Nestor Aparicio 33:39
I had a great crab cake at Leland. Can I tell you that I was an unbelievable crowd?
Creig Northrop 33:45
I agree with Leland totally. Kings could try this. Okay, kind of fun. It’s really it’s an old mansion, beautiful house. Richard is the host there. I’m telling you, one of the best crab cakes in Howard County. You want to give then
Nestor Aparicio 34:01
I gotta come to the show. There. There you go. Oh, well, you’re gonna put that together now that you’ve said it out loud and nobody’s heard it, you know?
Creig Northrop 34:07
And you know what? You would love it, because the ambiance things like that, it’s kind of fun, and gives you that feel of old time Baltimore a little bit, along with really good food and great service. See,
Nestor Aparicio 34:18
you’re selling me up on this, just like the real estate. If I get out to a crab kick tour, and one of the things I do on the crab cake tours, charity community, talking about things, I think I’ve nine out of 10 times I’ve run into you because it hasn’t been I’ve been a lot of Terps games and seeing you there, I seen Oriole games. But when I run into you, we’re usually like a charity event. We’re usually involving somebody in something where there’s there’s auction items, there’s good food, there’s reverie, but more than that, there’s a check left behind at the end of the night. I would think you’ve written as many $150 tickets and $1,000 tables as men as anybody, that if I had a table for charity thing, I call you because I know you’re involved in
Creig Northrop 34:54
that kind of stuff. I do everything community. I mean, I’m proud to be doing a lot with the hospital at Howard County High. Hospitals. I’m proud to do a lot of the stuff with the CF events, Alzheimer’s, you know, American Heart Association. We call it Northrop cares campaign. And so what we do is we focus on certain different charities each year, and then, you know, we quarterly, do different events. So we’re very passionate about giving back to the community. Listen, you buy community. That’s why you buy a house. You buy for the communities where you live, what you live, and so it’s very passionate for us to give back to them, make them great places to live. And that’s why we call it the Northrop cares campaigns. Greg
Nestor Aparicio 35:32
Northrup is here. He is from Northrop Realty, not just in Maryland. Now in several states. You can find them out online, all right, so I think I’ve gotten through everything here, other than your retreat, you’ll talk about your retreat. So the
Creig Northrop 35:43
retreat, we go to Cambridge, because, actually we have place. So we have six we’re in six states to your point. We’re in Delaware, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Carolinas, and, of course, Maryland and and so with that, we bring them all together in a place called Cambridge, Hyatt in Cambridge, kind of, in between, beautiful. I know where you are. Love that. And we bring the gentleman named Lawrence Yoon. And Lawrence Yun is the Heidi economist for NAR, which is our National Association of Realtors. And we, kind of, we have some fun. We call it the fun day. Everybody should work hard. Play hard. We play hard. First, we enjoy each other, networking. Kind of get catch up with everybody, then the next morning is all about brand Training, Training Tuesday, where we just kind of talk, meet and listen about the economy. Lawrence June is the most smartest man when it comes to what’s next, and he believes that, yes, the interest rates will come down, yes, the economy is going to see a really good second half of the year. So we’ve been blessed by all of that, you know. And so one of the things that a gentleman that runs a couple of local banks goes, you know, with all the AI stuff going on there, what AI can’t do is ultimately sell. You know, they can tell, but they can’t sell. And so what’s interesting is, I think salesmanship and I think caring, you know, I say to close the sale is you got to be able to care first. You got to be consistent your message and your brand, and you got to be confident in what you do and how you do it. And that’s sort of what we do in the retreats. We kind of remind everybody we we create that culture, and then we bring it back out there, and we’re stronger better for it. We we did last year, we did a greenhouse for the wounded warriors in Cambridge. And very proud about that. We built them a greenhouse so they can grow their own vegetables and things like that, so they can service them. It’s a 500 acre facility right in Cambridge that people wounded warriors go to get you know to rest, to, you know, to retreat, and so we’re proud to be aligned with them as well.
Nestor Aparicio 37:45
Well, Craig, I’m gonna tell you get your pen out, because you asked me about crab cakes. You’re going over the eastern shore. I don’t know when you’re over there on how much free time you have, but this is where it’s going to get good, because families cost this. Places I go, you know, sponsors, Cocos, I’m doing the show, and all those places in August. So in August, it’s my 27th anniversary. We’re changing the logo for the 26th oyster. I’m going to my 27 favorite food items during the month of August. August 3 is our 27th anniversary. So I’m going to count these down there. When is your Cambridge retreat?
Creig Northrop 38:15
That is in July. 14. Mid July, all
Nestor Aparicio 38:19
star. Okay, so here’s Cambridge. Is really special place because it’s on the CHOP tank river. I have been privileged enough to go to one of the crab pickeries right off of 50. I’m talking about you can see it off of 50 to the right as you go over the bill Burton bridge. My one time colleague at the evening sun. And so you can see where the crabs are picked over there. But more than that, I got a couple of places for a space called Ocean Odyssey. Family owned right on 50 you passed it a million times. It’s right on the south bank, or, excuse me, the north bank. As you pass it on the left, right as you’re making the left to go to the Hyatt, two of the finest crab cakes I’ve ever had in my life. I’m helping you here, Craig, I’m helping you. Okay, thank you. It’s a terrible name, but you’re five minutes away, if you’re at the Cambridge Hyatt. It’s called Suicide bridge. Suicide bridge restaurant. It is in her lock Secretary Maryland. It’s between her lock and secretary. It’s called Suicide bridge. It is a five minute drive. It is as fun a crab cake as I have ever tasted. And I will even top that because my dear friend Jason seamers band a bad with names played in Hooper’s Island. You ever been to Hooper’s Island? Craig, you ever sold a house down there? No, I’m not, but I know of it. Okay? You’ve never been to Hooper’s Island, though? No, no, no, this is your chance. Have you been to have you been down to the sanctuary? Have you ever been through Blackwater National refuge? Have you done that? No, okay, Craig, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna get a bus for your realtors out of the Hyatt just for a couple of hours, and you’re 30 minutes away from one of the most beautiful pieces of property. Be and you wouldn’t know about it, because you can’t sell nothing there, because it’s a Nash, it’s a park. It’s the most beautiful place. It’s the I tell people about this all the time, Blackwater National refuge. You’ve seen the sign and the signs Brown. When you get into Cambridge, you make a right, you go 10 miles to the right, birds, fishes, beautiful things. But what you want to do is you want to go from there down to hoopers Island, a little further south. You’re probably about 20 minutes, 2530 minutes away at that point from getting to hoopers Island. And there’s a place in Hooper’s island that my buddy played and I went down. This is as fine a crab cake as I’ve ever had. It’s called Old salties. It’s in an old school house in the early 1900s it has a complete baseball motif. The man who owned it was a Yankees fan. There’s lots of Babe Ruth pictures and old Yankees pictures. I was given this tip by some old heads on the eastern shore, and I’m like Hooper’s Island. I ain’t never been there before. I got friends that have cousins down there from Essex, and I went down there as fine. It’s the most remote crab cake. That’s not Smith Island. I’ve had one there too. But you want to go to fishing Creek, and you want to go to Hooper’s Island, and you want to go to old salties, and you want to get the crab cake, but you want to really stop as a tourist in the Blackwater National refuge. You probably want to do the Harriet Tubman trail too when you’re down there and see that. It’s amazing, a museum there, but there you go. So I built your Eastern Shore. I just made the retreat there.
Creig Northrop 41:31
Look at that. We didn’t know any of that there. And fun part is we’re 25 years anniversary of North the team and north of Realty. So yeah, that’s our celebration. So you’re 27 or 25 so kind of fun, all right?
Nestor Aparicio 41:43
I give Northrop Craig crab cake recommendation. Gave me what now sweet 16 for the Terps Lombardi trophy for for the ravens, right? And can we get a bowl game for the football team, for you and for locks, please?
Creig Northrop 41:57
I know, right. Can we get a bowl game? Yes, I think we’re gonna I think, what are we gonna do? Rose Bowl, baby?
Nestor Aparicio 42:03
I’m checking the box. All right. Rose Bowl by two by 2030 let’s have a goal. I mean, if lefty can make us to UCLA the east, we can be the Alabama of the North. Craig. Keep selling houses, keep doing good things in the community. Keep your spirits. You’re always fun to hang out with you and your wife when I run into these fun events, and I’m glad that you spent a little bit time with me, I get to know you a little
Creig Northrop 42:22
better. North of real. Little better. Northability.com. Thank you, buddy. It was a pleasure. Suicide
Nestor Aparicio 42:25
bridge, old salties, I’m helping you here. I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and Hooper’s violin and fishing Creek and suicide bridge and her lock and secretary. We go everywhere.
