After the COVID building boom, 30A’s $1.5 million segment is full of look-alike spec homes, and buyers can negotiate again. Kersten Bowman manages the Miramar Beach office of Christie’s International Real Estate Emerald Coast and leads The Locals Group. She calls the current market “a breath of fresh air”: stable, with room for both sides to get a win at the closing table.
Kersten explains why Florida’s state-mandated condo engineering studies and the large special assessments that followed still make buyers wary of condos. She also covers how steady rental demand from military families, hospital staff and remote workers helps protect investors. For your own business, she walks through how her team runs monthly local events with partner businesses (including a Grinch and Mrs. Claus event that draws about 150 people) to build relationships and hear about off-market listings early. Her advice to newer agents: ask for the business, farm two or three neighborhoods and get really good at two or three marketing channels.
About the host:
Jeff Hamm is a real estate broker with Ivester Jackson | Christie’s International Real Estate, serving Lake Norman & Charlotte, North Carolina and Banner Elk, North Carolina. He specializes in luxury, waterfront, mountain, and investment property, with a focus on buyer representation. He is also the founder and host of The Best of LKN and Banner Elk Living.
Learn more and contact Jeff:
LKNreal.com
BannerElkLiving.com
Jeff Hamm is a North Carolina real estate broker with Ivester Jackson | Christie’s International Real Estate, serving two of the state’s most sought-after markets: Lake Norman and Banner Elk and the greater High Country. He specializes in luxury and second-home property, from Lake Norman’s waterfront, golf, and lakefront communities to High Country communities including The Lodges at Eagles Nest, Elk River Club, Farm at Banner Elk, Diamond Creek, and Echota. He also works with buyers of condominiums, homes in active adult and family-friendly neighborhoods, and short-term rental and investment properties. His focus is buyer representation, where his relationships with each region’s top listing brokers, builders, and designers give his clients a measurable edge.
Jeff is also the founder and host of two local media platforms, The Best of LKN (since 2020) and Banner Elk Living. Each includes a podcast and newsletter that spotlight the area’s most admired small businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs. He publishes the annual Lake Norman Visitors Guide and Banner Elk Guide, produces regular market reports for both regions, and hosts The Best of Lake Norman Business Network and the Banner Elk Business Network.