Hamptons Confidential: Randi Ball

Where are you from originally?

I grew up on Long Island, Syosset. I did live in the city for forever, right out of college, and I had a career in advertising.

And where do you live now?

I live in Amagansett down in the Dunes. It’s near the beach so my two dogs, Calvin and Henri, who are littermates, run around on the beach 365 days a year. They like to go in the water, too.

How did you end up in the Hamptons?

We had a summer home that I bought 20 years ago. And ten years ago, we decided that we just didn’t want to be in the city anymore. We had two little boys, who are 11 and 15 now. It was sort of a conditional move: you know, if we like it great; we heard the schools are awesome. And if we didn’t like it, we were probably going to California. But we loved it immediately. And never left. And now we’re living in our beach house that we’ve never left either.

We got rid of our regular apartment in the city and we rented a small one-bedroom. My husband was still working in the city and he was there four nights a week and then he’d come out for a long weekend. And we did that for seven years.

You do what you gotta do.

Absolutely. Raising the boys out here was the best thing ever. And then I found this career which is awesome.

You were in advertising before?

I worked in advertising agencies and production companies. And then for the last five years, I had my own company which was a repping company. Basically, I was an agent for anybody, any company, who made a TV commercial, whether it was production companies, editing companies or music companies. It was all commission based, so I was kind of used to that structure when I started in real estate.

And you started when you moved out here?

I started five years ago; I moved here 10 years ago.

Well, why not? Everybody up to and including my dog seems to have their real estate license out here.

I was very hesitant, because everybody was telling me how I should be a broker, but it sounded so cliched to me: move out to the Hamptons and become a broker.

But what was happening was I had friends and acquaintances and people I hardly knew calling me from the city because I was the first person they ever knew to move out here full time. And I was referring out and trying to figure out what I was going to do out here. So, I started in real estate and went like gangbusters. I was rookie of the year for all of Corcoran in my first year. And it just completely took off. It’s been amazing.

Do you think having a background in advertising has helped?

I’m sure it has. Especially in the last part of my career, because you know I had to work with people all the time, and it was the kind of job where as much as you put in, you’ll take out. When I first started real estate, I thought I’d just dip my toes in, but I work seven days a week 24/7.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I do yoga, I work out at the gym, I spin at SoulCycle. I go to the beach, I read. I still have relatively young kids, so they need time. I have a full life out here–I’m happy. Yeah.

If you could just snap your fingers and do something else, what would you do?

I really feel like I’m doing what I should be doing. It’s just serendipity that it happened at the right time for me, and I don’t have any aspirations to do anything else.

What are the best things about being an agent?

It’s meeting amazing people. If I have a buyer or a seller, and we connect, we have such good chemistry, I feel we feel like we’re partners in the process. And it’s an amazing connection–I love it. Also, starting to connect with fabulous brokers that I just really click with and it’s fun to do deals with them.

Where advertising and marketing comes in for me, I wanted to figure out what my brand was going to be. So, I was very careful taking my first listings–I felt like they needed to reflect who I was. And I had buyers and I had sold houses but really waited a while for the listings and that’s against the grain of what you’re supposed to do. Waiting was the best thing for me.

What are the downsides?

The downside is that your schedule is not your own. You can schedule things in your personal life, and you understand that they’re probably not going to happen. Somebody is going to come along who needs something and it’s your job to be there.

What’s the best advice you ever got?

Stick to my brand; keep my eye on my own ball. Don’t worry so much about what everybody else is doing and what the market statistics are. Stay focused on my own business.

What do you think of the market right now?

There’s been a coming together of sellers and buyers. And getting down to more realistic selling prices has brought more buyers into the fold, where they were hanging back. I think at the end of the year, we’ll see that it was a good summer. Things are selling. A lot is in contract.

For the Hamptons, it’s hard to compare it to what other markets are doing. It’s a little enclave and for the most part, it’s a want and not a need. It doesn’t really ride all the other trends; we are basically still a resort town.