If you’ve been seeing real estate headlines that make you think the sky is falling, long-time local Realtor® Kristy Darragh of Florida Executive Realty in Tampa Palms says to brush it off — it’s just click bait.
“I monitor trends weekly, monthly and quarterly, as well as the long history and economics of housing,” she says, “and the local housing market lately has been a bit wobbly, but is still basically a flat line.”
She says that plateau is a good thing (not a sign of death), meaning the local market continues to be steady and predictable for those who are looking to buy or sell.
With almost four decades in the industry and a near obsession with crunching the numbers, Kristy has a deep understanding of the local market and promises her clients expert advice for how to sell their homes for the highest price or buy a home at the best value.
A staple in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel real estate market since 1994, Kristy has recently updated her brand to include her daughter Megan, so you’ll now see ads for Kristy & Megan – rather than just Kristy – not only in the Neighborhood News, but also on billboards and in direct mail.
Megan began working with her mom in 2020, after previously serving as the office manager for the Westchase branch of Florida Executive Realty. Now, they’ve solidified their partnership with the team’s name change.
Kristy and Megan say they are able to serve their clients with client service umatched in the local market, thanks to assistants Jace Haitz and Toni Osborn, both of whom have worked with Kristy for many years.
“There’s no way I could provide the excellence and volume of work I do without them,” says Kristy of her support staff. “They are what makes it possible for Megan and I to offer this level of service.”
Kristy uses all of those years of experience to translate what’s happening in the market into useful information for her clients.
For example, she says she tells her clients to always look at the current inventory to understand the basic fundamental principle of supply and demand. Historically, she says, the 33647 zip code has had around 300 active listings in a normal market. “Right now, we’re at about 170 active listings,” Kristy says. “We came from a peak during the pandemic where we only had 18 listings in the entire zip code.”
At the time, prices were sky high due to demand. She says that while the market has recovered to be more balanced, there’s still plenty of room for more inventory.
“Prices on a lot of homes have come down, but they needed to, because people were pricing their homes the way they were in 2020 and 2021,” she says, “and that was when the market was unbalanced and somewhat frenetic.”
Meanwhile, In Wesley Chapel…
Wesley Chapel has its own trends and metrics, and Kristy explains that all of the new construction in the area means resale prices are somewhat suppressed. That means Wesley Chapel sellers need to have realistic expectations as to what they can sell their homes for, and that they should always work with an expert who can help price the home appropriately to sell quickly or meet the seller’s goals.Â
“This is a normal cycle,” Kristy says. “You can’t use prices for new construction for your asking price on a resale home because builders offer incentives, such as money back toward closing costs, bonuses and interest rate buydowns.”
She says these incentives can be valued at up to $100,000, so resale homes have to take that into account to be able to price to sell.
“I’ve got 38 years of knowledge, including 30 years here in the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area,” Kristy explains. “I see trends so clearly and have lived through so many real estate cycles that I can tell you the market is not falling and prices are not dropping. We are in a healthy plateau, and that is what you want so the market can normalize.”
She says there also are annual trends that always happen, and that we’re just about ready for an influx of seasonal buyers in April, May, June and July.
“This is when the most buyers are in the market, so prices definitely go up,” Kristy says. On the other hand, over the year-end holidays and the first quarter of each year is when resale prices are the lowest, giving buyers the best opportunity to purchase a home at a lesser cost.
“This happens every year,” Kristy says.
Kristy and Megan are each licensed as both a real estate agent and as a Broker. Kristy joined Florida Executive Realty in 1994 and became partners with Doug Loyd in the Tampa Palms location of Florida Executive Realty way back in 2003. Loyd owns five other offices of Florida Executive Realty located in and around the Tampa Bay area.
Kristy and Megan have many satisfied clients, including Nancy and Mike Yetter, who recently sold their home in Ashington Estates in Tampa Palms to move to The Sanctuary (also in Tampa Palms), where Kristy and Megan helped them find the perfect smaller-sized home to fit their empty nest. But, the Yetters’ new home still provides enough room that they don’t feel cramped.
“It was a lot of fun,” Nancy says. “We felt very lucky to work with both of them.”
While most people wouldn’t call the stressful sale or purchase of a home “fun,” Nancy says Kristy and Megan made the process stress-free and actually enjoyable.
Nancy also says that she and her husband first met Kristy when she was the seller’s real estate agent when they bought their Ashington Estates home in 2018, after experiencing what Nancy described as a “horrific” experience selling the home they were moving from on Anna Maria Island.
“We were so impressed with her back then,” Nancy says. “We said if we ever moved, we wanted to ask her to be our agent.”
Because the couple travels often, they trusted Kristy and Megan to handle the entire process, including showings and repairs that needed to be made to the home.
“To have absolutely no hiccups was great,” says Nancy. “We were able to close on both homes the same day. It was perfect the way [Kristy] organized that.”
Nancy says that both Kristy and Megan understood their needs and didn’t waste their time showing them homes that weren’t what they wanted.
“I’ve recommended Kristy and her team to three people already,” Nancy says. “She’s very professional, she’ll work for the best deal possible, and she doesn’t let anything fall through the cracks. She knows the market and that’s so important.”
The Tampa Palms office of Florida Executive Realty is located at 15802 Amberly Dr. For more information about Kristy and Megan Darragh, visit RealEstateNewTampa.com or call (813) 931-6700.
