Carmel broker Tim Allen will become Coldwell Banker's top agent in 2023, outselling 52,000 agents with $243 million in home sales last year, the company said. Big-ticket luxury sales that contributed to this total include a rare Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home that sold for $22 million in February 2023, and an architecturally significant home that sold for $29 million in July. “Butterfly Home'' is included.
Allen grew up in the Carmel area and raised his wife of 34 years, Lynn, and their three children there. The self-described “real estate addict” said he bought his first investment property at just 24 years old with down payment assistance from his parents and a seller-assisted loan. Mr. Allen doesn't like to pass up opportunities when they arise, he said, and if his favorite item doesn't sell after several months, he's been known to buy it himself.
He has a special affinity for Pebble Beach and is the only real estate agent with an office in the golf course's Lodge Hotel. He sold five of his properties to buy one of only a few homes on the 18th hole, a property he says he intends to pass on to his children “for generations.” said. According to the rental property listing site, it is rented for $120,000 a month in the spring and $150,000 a month in the summer, and is one of the ultra-luxury rental properties owned and managed by Allen.
“I’ve always believed in real estate and believed in this market, so I’ve collected and stored as much real estate as I could,” he said.
Below is a typical working day for a broker and investor, in his own words.
5:30am My wife, Lynn, jumped out of bed and got on the treadmill in our bedroom. When I hear the drone of the treadmill and her singing along to the music, I know it's time to wake up.
6:15am Now we are empty nesters and live in the middle of Carmel Valley. But I started this great morning routine about 10 years ago when we lived on the beach in Carmel. That way my kids can go to high school and see their friends without having to drive into town. This routine was so revolutionary that I still use it to this day, about 11 miles from the beach.
My dog Brick and I drive over and have coffee. I grab a cup of coffee and start running down the dunes for a bit, my heart pounding. I feel negative ions from the water. It's a no-lead beach, so your dog can run around. Meet and greet people. It's this little burst of energy every time, and it's a really great way to wake up. I feel weird if I don't go for a beach run.
7:15am I often go to the office right after the beach. He has 11 people on my team, but he likes to come in and start emailing when it's quiet.
7:45am I drive home, take a shower, and change my clothes. I usually send voice command text messages frequently on my way to and from the office. I actually he has two offices. One is located at Junipero in downtown Carmel and is Caldwell's main office, which has about 45 agents. The Lodge also has an office in Pebble Beach.
My history with Pebble Beach goes back a long way. At least 10 years ago they were doing a 90 lot development and I got the business, but it was a tough time to sell lots. A developer had planned to buy 80 percent of the land, but ultimately backed out. I called the CEO or vice president at the time and said he was buying two lots and that he was organizing a syndicate to buy two more. I took that risk with my partner and invested over $20 million.
One of my weaknesses is that I'm more focused on investing every dollar it costs to do something right, rather than working to a budget. So the investors made a profit and put that money back into development, but I didn't get a big profit. I received a commission and he kept one piece of land that he built for himself. There's more. In addition, we have started a lot program and the lot is currently sold out.
An individual custom home out there is much better than if one builder had bought it and installed tract housing instead.
9:30am I usually go back to the office and have a meeting with my team. A lot of them are people I've worked with or known over his 15 or 20 years. They are not scared of me at all. They let me know how they feel and I tell them how I feel. But it is a benevolent dictatorship. Basically I make the final decision based partially on their opinion and they respect that.
12pm I'm a brown bag. My wife makes me lunch every day, but it's usually sandwiches or leftovers that I heat up at my desk and eat.
We don't do a lot of in-person business, so we don't typically have lunches or dinners with large clients. Although the majority of our customers don't live here, we've seen three or four changes in the amount of people using our Carmel homes since the pandemic. When people first started fleeing cities, my experience was intense. During that time, there was a huge influx of buyers and prices soared.
Our prices haven't gone up as sharply as other places that are currently softening, but they haven't really gone down because inventory is so low.
3 pm I am in and out of the office throughout the day depending on the needs of my clients. When a client calls to say they're looking to sell their home, I want to be able to meet with them the same day.
Plus, some of these big listings require a lot of prep work, including taking social media and digital campaigns to a whole new level. Our videos are Hollywood quality and created in-house with our own designers and editors. We want our launch to be more appealing and engaging than anyone else's.
We recently visited the 1923 Spanish Revival home, famous for fox hunting, and had horsemen tour the grounds for our video.
I created another video list around Christmas a few years ago and it went viral. “Breaking news: Santa is getting off his sleigh and coming to Pebble Beach to shred it,” said someone who looked like a news reporter. It then shows Santa and Rudolph, me and Brick, getting dressed up, driving home in a white Volkswagen van, waking up in the morning, eating cookies and hot chocolate for breakfast while watching the waves, and finally going surfing. Masu. .
It popped up on the screen of a private equity guy in the Bay Area, and he called me. He and his wife came and bought the house for $16 million. They were looking at Santa Barbara, not the Monterey Peninsula, but the video caught their interest.
Then they divorced, which was sad, but it meant I had to sell the house again, this time for $17 million.
I want to get to the essence of what I'm selling. We are not selling real estate. We sell a lifestyle.
Some of my biggest competitors are still obsessed with objectively counting the value of bricks and mortar and trying to tell people what their home is worth. that's a joke. The value of a home, especially the homes we sell, varies from person to person. Therefore, if you find the right buyer who values these subjective essential aspects more highly, he or she will pay more and get better value than the market itself. Lifestyle is a way to appeal to these people. But when you do that, you always have to pick up the phone.
5pm. I have a lot of energy and need a lot of physical and mental stimulation every day. My birthday is July 11, '60, but I've started telling people it's July 11, '80 because I think age is just a number. So, around 5 o'clock, I put my phone on “do not disturb” mode and jumped into the deep end of the pool. I put on my earphones and blast music, usually Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Santana, Led Zeppelin, and sometimes Adele.
I keep my head above water and dance like crazy to the music. A great workout that provides cardio, resistance, and stretching. I close my eyes and literally go to a different place, but I also think about the day and what I can do for my business.
6 pm After about an hour, my wife came out, splashed me with water to let me know it was time to go outside, and prepared me a cold Blue Moon by the pool. I know everyone loves a fancy IPA, but I love Blue Moon. So I take it to the hot springs and check the text. I mostly text people on my team, but I also text some clients if they're still having their first beer.
My staff is very careful to filter anything that comes in after 6 p.m. Because I might come up with something crazy. I get big picture ideas while working out in the pool. These are bold, but sometimes scary, because everyone is afraid of failing. It is very important to be curious, inquisitive, and open to new ideas. That's what makes life worth living.
7pm Lynn and I have dinner. We sit and talk and I try to get away from work. Lin is an amazing cook. When we first got married, she couldn't make scrambled eggs, but she loves cooking and learning, and she watches a lot of cooking shows. She experiments on me and I love it. I try to avoid carbs as much as possible to stay healthy, but I love beer and healthy fats.
9 pm If possible, I try to be in bed by 9 o'clock and go to bed by 9:30. We might watch an episode of Succession or a nature documentary from time to time, but we're homebodies. I do a huge amount of work, although I do go out from time to time. I love it, but training, work and family leave me with only so much time. I just became a grandpa last year and it has changed my entire life. Therefore, they don't have much time for social interactions. I don't even play golf!
