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The Tracewater Homes Podcast brings you inside the world of modern homebuilding, market trends, and the partnerships shaping the future of residential construction. Known for their innovative steel-frame homes, Tracewater dives into what today’s buyers want, how the industry is evolving, and the experts who help bring every project to life. Whether you’re a homeowner, agent, or builder, this podcast delivers insights, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes conversations from the front lines of construction.
\[0:00\] All right. Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Trace Water Homes podcast. I am Matt and I am here with TJ Martin, who is president of Abbott Martin Group. And today, we are going to have just a brief conversation about the real estate market in the panhandle. And TJ and his group, they represent Trace Water Homes on the entire panhandle all the way from Pensacola to Panama City. And we're just going to have some conversation around that. So, welcome, TJ.
Thank you. Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and background, that kind of thing? All right. I'm TJ Martin, one of the owners of Abbott Martin Group. We've got a good-sized real estate team of about 47 agents. We run and span the Emerald Coast, as Matt was saying, from Pensacola all the way to Panama City, and also your northern cities as well. I'm in the construction realm a little bit, which has been how I've been blessed to know the Trace Water family, and really enjoy that side of the business. So, the Trace Water family has been very pivotal in my career on helping us grow that platform. But very blessed to be sitting here chatting with you, Matt, and awesome. You know, we've had a good run, and let's keep this thing going, you know.
For sure, for sure. So, I guess, you know, probably the first thing I'd like to do is just give us a kind of a brief synopsis of where you think things are at with, you know, real estate in general, but specifically new construction in the panhandle right now. Yeah. So, you know, obviously everybody's been through a bit of turmoil and some struggles over these last few years with heightened interest rates and a little bit of nervousness in the market. But, you know, as you can kind of feel now, a little bit of new synergy with downward pressure on rates, and people kind of stepping back into that game, seeing a brighter future ahead of us. We were blessed to go be a part of an event with Zel Charles, who is one of the top economists in the country in regards to real estate. Very heavily driven in the new construction world. And he gave us some strong insight of actually good news, which we haven't heard in a little bit, which we love. Yep. Which, you know, basically showed how underserved the panhandle is. Not only from new construction coming out of the ground, but lots being developed. You know, as me and you have been discussing, I mean, we need about 10,000 lots being developed in the next, call it, five years, and we're not there. So, you know, we're we're significantly underserved from the standpoint of demand in the panhandle marketplace.
So, I see some bright futures ahead for new construction. I think the people who are putting lots on the ground are going to end up winning. And I think the people who are a little skittish on the sidelines right now are going to end up paying for it, because I think that it's going to start getting a lot better. And I think new construction sales are going to continue to tick up. And, you know, people are wanting that, especially in the state of Florida with insurance costs and things like that. You know, especially with Trace Water, with what you guys offer, which is extremely unorthodox in such a good way, between metal studs and your fit and finishes that really help, you know, mitigate some of the things that you have to deal with in home ownership in the panhandle. And so, when you combine all those forces, especially with the knowledge behind Trace Water Homes, I just think y'all are going to be in a very strong position moving forward. And anybody who is really looking to get into not only new construction sales, but also owning a Trace Water home, they're going to be in a very strong position. And I personally think right now is the time to make the move because I think as interest rates go down, prices are going to go up.
Yeah. Yeah. And that that's really how we're feeling too, is it's a really good time to, you know, to get into the market. And what what would you say to that that person that's out there? They've just been kind of sitting, waiting to see what's going to happen to build their new house. You know, what would you tell them right now? Well, I mean, I would tell them, "Hey, it's it's time to start really honing in on how you're going to progress forward". We work with Chevlin Lachler a lot, as obviously you know, she's got some incredible programs, especially programs that will float down the rate with you while you're building that product. I personally think in the next 12 months, you're going to see a lot of downward pressure on these rates. I think you're going to see it get into a realm where it turns pretty attractive. And I think that if you don't hit it now, you're going to be behind the times, because I think people, especially builders, are going to start raising their prices because they can, because the demand's going to come back. So, if you're on the sidelines right now, make the move, because by the time you get the house finished in 8 to 12 months, depending on what you're building, you'll have a float down where your rate's probably going to look extremely attractive at that point, but you're not paying the the higher prices of lower interest rates.
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head right there. And that's another discussion we've been having internally is, you know, if you you lock in on a contract now, your price for your home is locked in. You're paying 2025 prices for your house and you're getting 2026 rates when you when the home is done. Love that. I mean, it's it's just a winner right there. Otherwise, you know, if you're going to wait and go buy something completed, you know, you don't know what that price is going to be a year from now. And you may have just lost the advantage of the lower interest rate because you're paying more for the house, right? So, you know, get into the game now. I mean, everybody says real estate is timing. Yeah. Most of your real estate, you know, plays, a lot of it depends on timing. And I think right now is the time you're seeing that that that slight shift. And when that shift goes from slight to a lot, that's when you're now competing against everybody in the market. The investors are coming back in. Your your new buyers are coming back in. Your old buyers are coming back in. Now your resales, you're you got people reselling their homes to then in turn go buy. So now you got more competition there, too. So I think that if you time it right, which I think is is over these next few months, you're going to be in a strong position.
Absolutely. And you mentioned Chevlin Lachler. So, Chevlin's our preferred lender. And I know you work with her regularly. And she actually has some great construction perm programs. And she just actually gave us gave us some really good news yesterday, that the rates on those loans right now, and obviously it depends on qualification and all that kind of stuff, but the the rate during the construction period dropped to 6.99%, which is a really good rate on a construction loan. Interest only during the construction period, and then like you said, the rate floats until the home is within 30 days of completion, and then you lock, which is a beautiful thing when you have some downward pressure on those interest rates, because it's just going to give people such an opportunity to get into a home at at a price point that they haven't been able to in the last few years. I was even running some numbers, just like on a on a, you know, typical $500,000 house, what that drop in interest rates could mean for someone from an affordability standpoint. And just the quick math that I did says, you know, that you could buy about $70,000 more home for a person making $100,000 a year as we see those interest rates shift down, which is that's huge. I mean, that makes a big difference in what you can buy in the market.
Yeah. I mean, it's almost 20%. Yeah. You know, absolutely, which is drastically different. So, I think, like you said, I mean, I think you hit it right, too, where if you have the right components in place, and especially if if you're utilizing something like Trace Water, you win in multiple facets, because not only are you getting a brand new home with a lower interest rate, you've got lower insurance, which is a huge component of what Florida is. Yeah. If you're going to build with Trace Water, which is what you should do, the the systems and the things that they're using within these homes are going to also keep your not only your interest or excuse me, your insurance lower, it's going to keep all of your utilities lower as well, which y'all had the foresight to think about those things. Where there's a lot of builders in the marketplace, they only care about the bottom dollar. They don't really care about what that that future looks like for that homeowner. Not, hey, close on it, and that's great. It's what does five years look like, 10 years look like in your future for purchasing a home with a company such as Trace Water? Y'all paid attention to that. You know what I mean? Which is so different than a lot of these people who really just are only caring about the bottom line of their company versus the bottom line of the consumer as well.
Yeah. And and I mean, that was really in the development of the plans of the process, it was very consumer focused. You know, it was thinking about things like, you know, maintenance, cost of ownership, all of those things long-term, not just how fast can we get them done and how many can we build? Yeah. So, yeah, you hit the nail on the head there. So, give us an idea as we, you know, if somebody wanted to engage with the Trace Water Home sales team, what does that process look like? You know, they they send in a link on our, or, you know, a message on our website, and that goes to our sales team. That that funnels through, you know, your system. How does that how does that all go for them? I mean, it it goes very smoothly. You know, our our, I don't call them an onsite team. They're offsite, but our our sales team in general, what they would like to do is obviously first off, understand, do you already own a lot, or are you are you purchasing a lot? And if so, the awesome thing about, excuse me, awesome thing about Trace Water is they're hands-on with the sales team. So, if there isn't a lot that's been purchased, but there's ones that they they think they may like, the fortunate thing is they have people like yourself who will come out and tell them, this is this is a good purchase, or, hey, this is going to take a lot of fill. There's a lot of topography. This may not be the right play for you. And to be able to have that support system, not only with the sales team, but with the construction team joining those forces, so that people know what they should and shouldn't buy, really helps. But with that being said, we need to understand what you're purchasing or what you currently own to kind of tell you exactly what's needed. But with the sales funnel, essentially, you'll hear from our sales team. We'll understand either what you own or what you're looking to purchase. And then we'll be able to put boots on the ground to say, "Hey, does this make sense? Does the plan fit on the lot? Does does the topography work on the lot? Is the lot in a place that Trace Water would be able to build in"? But with that being said, those efficiencies come in once we can kind of dive in on exactly what your expectations are and what you're wanting. And then we hone in with the sales team and with Trace Water to make sure we can bring those things to life for you. Sure. Um, but we try to keep it very seamless, especially the fact that how Abbott Martin Group and Trace Water work is seamless in itself as well.
Yep, absolutely. And, you know, through that that process, we we engage, you know, very regularly with the sales team on, you know, questions that they have regarding, you know, lots and and, you know, locations and things like that. Additionally, when somebody comes, if they already have a lot, one of the cool things about the construction loan process that we have is whether they have a lot or they're buying a lot, they can roll that lot into their construction financing as well. And that's the that's the thing that makes it such a smooth, seamless process on the lending end. And so, again, we go back to Chevlin, Chevlin Lachler with Acushure Mortgage, and she has these programs set up where they can they can fund their purchase of their lot. They can refinance the existing lot. They can use the existing lot if they own it as the down payment for the construction loan. So there's a lot of different ways to go about it, which is really great.
Well, and the fact that you guys already have your plans in place, which creates so much efficiency. As you know, you've built beautiful custom homes as well. That takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of money. You want to sit down with an architect and you want to draw plans from scratch. And then you want to understand what that costs to do so. On top of the fact that if you did purchase the lot and you're paying interest on that lot while spending six months with an architect trying to figure all that out, you took all that brain damage out of it. You've still got exceptional upgrades, options, things you can pick from that give you that custom feel, but give you the efficiency where your money goes a long ways, instead of you sitting there and feeling stagnant. Because a lot of times people get scared of stepping into the new build process because it's time consuming. It's it's brain damage. It's a lot. You fixed all that for them. You know what I mean? And that that was another big piece of being very consumer focused in the in the development of Trace Water Homes, was coming up with ways to make that process easy, because as you said, building custom homes, we would see that with clients all the time where they would they would just be so overwhelmed by the process of, you know, I have to go to, you know, different places and pick this out and pick that out. And, well, now I didn't find something I like over here, I have to go back there. And it it becomes a full-time job just going through that process and making those selections. And we've dialed that down to where, you know, you can really do that sitting in a easy chair like we are right now. Exactly. On your laptop, on your phone, looking at the selections. Go ahead and and and really customize your home the way you want it. And we've just taken all the pain out of it.
Well, it also helps that your wife is one of the top designers around here that has already picked out all the selections that you probably wouldn't even know to pick. So, having obviously your wife and your son on on your side to be able to make that seamless, if I were to go try to build myself a brand new custom home right now, I would probably just go go ahead and already pick all of Trace Water's finishes anyways, because it's so top-notch and they all flow together that it really just takes that that whole overwhelm and really hones it in into a spot that you still feel like you're getting such an elevated product, but you're not being run ragged. You can continue to do your job the way you need to do your job and not have to be at 14 different appointments a week at a tile store, a cabinet store, all these different things. Y'all handled all that. Y'all took years and years of data and years and years of time and years and years of being in the marketplace that you've been in, honed it all into one place, and gave everybody else the the least path of resistance.
Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Trying to think if there's anything else that we should be highlighting right now. Do you have any any thoughts that you want to bring to the forefront on housing the market? I mean, as you know, we've kind of been discovered since COVID, you know, our panhandle here, anywhere from Pensacola, Destin Beach, 30A, Inlet Beach, Panama City Beach. We we kind of got really discovered, and people realized that we have, in my opinion, the nicest beaches in the world. Absolutely. Some of the best fishing in the world, and some of the best food in the world. But I think that we still, as Zel Charles said, and as me and you have done the research on, we still are extremely underserved. And I think that people need to be encouraged to really step into this marketplace and seek out the people like Trace Water Homes. Even if you're just curious, like even if you're like, "Hey, maybe this is for me, maybe it's not for me," get with the sales team. Ask them those in-depth questions. Don't be afraid to ask those questions if you want new construction, or if that's been a part of your thought process recently.
Be curious, you know, because I think that you can really hedge your bets. And I think that also your future equity in your home, if you've got a new home right now, and let's say you live there for the average cycle of seven years, well, that home is still going to be in such top-notch shape, especially with Trace Water product, that you don't have to compete against those 25-year-old, 20-year-old homes anymore. People are going to lean your way, right? And so, having that opportunity to really hone in, especially in this panhandle market, where we, even though it's been a down market, we've continued to uptick. We've continued to have buyers in our corner. We've continued to have people making it intentional to move here. And so with that being said, if you can hone in on what you like, what you love, and and see if that Trace Water product really touches you with that, which I would say you're going to be hard pressed for it not to, because you've really checked every single box that you could find. I mean, I I tried to poke holes in it, you know what I mean? I tried to find where I would say, "This doesn't work for me". And with y'all's knowledge, your extensive amount of time in the market, you've been doing this for a very long time in multiple different markets, you knew which boxes to check. So that even somebody who's in the game, who's built multiple houses himself, who's sold a boatload of houses, even me who trying to poke a hole in it, I couldn't find it. And it's something that not many people spend the time. I mean, y'all spent what, three, four years putting this whole thing together. Most people just throw an LLC out there and go, "Hey, I got a cabinet guy. I got a tile guy. I got some framers and some roofers. I'm a builder, and I'm going to do this, and it's going to be great". Y'all spent the time. Y'all y'all have subs that are building three, 4 million homes still building Trace Water Homes, too. That attention to detail, the people that are in your corner, the time you spent finding that sub-base is something that, to be quite frank, especially in our market, is unheard of. And so, I think that my take on the market is the market is on its way up. I think that you're going to see continued downward pressure on rates, and I think you're going to see more and more people coming into the market. But I think you're going to see them wanting a lot of that new construction play, because it helps mitigate what living in Florida does, unfortunately, include: storms, hurricanes. Y'all mitigated that. Termites, you've mitigated that. Insurance costs, you've mitigated that. So, all these different things that are usually the pain points of the buyers in our market, it's handled. We took them away. You took them away. So, at the end of the day, if you're nervous about it, or if you're nervous about all the things that I just said, it's been mitigated. So, I would encourage you to reach out to the sales team of Trace Water and let us have a conversation with you and dive into it to see if we can really fix your needs. And I think that we will, you know.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you brought up a good point. So, our sales team that we have, each of them are experts in their specific area of the panhandle, which is great, because not only are they going to be able to talk to you about real estate, you want to know where the best place to go grab an anniversary dinner is, they're going to be able to tell you. You know, so they're just a wealth of knowledge for someone who's moving into the area, deciding whether or not they want to make this area home. Yeah. And it's great. And so, I encourage you, yes, reach out, ask questions, and also, back to Chevlin again, she has a website. It's lockwithler.com. You can go to that website and put in your information. You can find out what you're approved for. So now, you know, you you can talk to our sales team, find out where you should be. You can talk to Chevlin. You can find out how much you, you know, you can spend in the market. And it just takes all of the unknowns out of out of the equation, and you're able to come and look at it from a a really, you know, dialed in perspective. Exactly. You've got the trifecta. You're dealing with a lender who has sold new construction better than most that I've ever seen in my 15-year career working in new construction. You've got a sales team that just like you said, I don't want them to be sales agents, I want them to be advisors. I want them to be able to not only tell you this is a good buy or a bad buy in regards to purchasing a lot or a home or whatever it may be. I want them to tell you the nuances of the area you're buying in. "Hey, here's the good, bad, and the ugly. And I know it because I live here". And then you've got a top-notch builder in your marketplace that can handle anything that you need. And if anything's thrown at you guys, full disclosure, they built my custom home. And there was a lot of things thrown at us. And there was always a way to fix it. And I've never seen really anybody in my entire career, and I grew up on job sites with my dad, a custom builder, that has got the actual intellect and knowledge of what is actually being built like you do. And so being able to have those kind of people on your side, it takes all of the scariness of building a new home out, takes it all out of the way and turns it into a very enjoyable process that's seamless and that's fun. And that's that's the goal here. Is so many people when they say, "Oh, I'm building a new house," it's not saying it in excitement. It's saying it in stress. They're like, "Right. Oh, you know, like we're we're building a new home," instead of, "I'm building a new home. It's going great. This has been seamless". And y'all provide that. I've watched you do it multiple times. So, if you're watching this, I just encourage you do some research on Trace Water. Do some research on us as a sales team. Let us help and guide you in a way that can keep you 100% calm during the process and excited and fun. So, I just encourage you to reach out to us and let us show you what we're creating, show you what they've created, and let us get you into a new home.
Yeah. Yep, absolutely. Well, thank you very much, TJ. I I really appreciate you being here, all of your insight. Appreciate the partnership. That that's been wonderful. And anybody that wants to reach out to us, www.tracewwater tracewwaterhomes.com will get you to our website, and you can connect with our sales team there and get the process rolling to your new home. Love it. All right. Thank you. Yeah.