Margot Reutter’s rapid success in the Hamptons luxury real estate market, marked by over $55 million in sales in recent years, is a testament to her commitment to delivering exceptional results to her clients. Reutter of The Corcoran Group offers a differentiated client experience that stands out in the crowded real estate landscape. With a strategic finance and marketing background, she brings a unique blend of skills to her real estate practice, providing her clients with an elevated and comprehensive service. In this interview, we delve into the principles and experiences that have shaped Reutter’s career, her insights on the Hamptons market, and the collaborative dynamic with her husband Jason in the luxury home-building industry.
Margot, with over $55M in sales in the past few years alone, what do you believe has been the key to your rapid success in the Hamptons luxury real estate market?
I think that the single most important thing that has contributed to my success is the results that I’ve delivered to my clients. I offer a differentiated client experience and provide a level of service that stands out in the cluttered real estate landscape. Creating true value for clients is the only thing that matters to me.
You’ve earned a reputation for your integrity, loyalty, and professionalism. Can you share a specific instance where these qualities significantly impacted a transaction or client relationship?
These key pillars transcend through every one of my relationships and influence every single transaction, big or small. These fundamental principles set the tone for my business and legacy. I am proud of myself because I’m always doing the right thing and working in the best interest of my clients.
This is so critical as it relates to real property because having the facts, knowing the opportunity, and making it all come together is critical and follows an overall strategy specific to each client’s goals. Advocating for my client’s best interest is the perfect example of how these qualities impact every aspect of my business. Who you hire matters.
Having a background in strategic finance and marketing, how do you leverage your experience in investment banking and business development to benefit your real estate clients?
It’s an interesting and unconventional background as a real estate agent, but blends the perfect foundation of skills. It allows me to provide an elevated and differentiated approach to real estate to my clients’ overall experience. It’s something that most are accustomed to at the highest levels of business, and am delighted to find that same level of expertise in me.
Earlier in my career as a marketing brand manager, I managed multi-million-dollar consumer brands and led cohesive, global marketing campaigns to grow and support each brand. Translating these business skills has proven to be incredibly effective in selling luxury real estate. Investment banking and business development refined all the complicated macroeconomic, value creation, and negotiation lenses that most professionals take years to focus on. Deal flow and the overall process were all seamlessly tied together.
What are some of the most challenging aspects of handling large-scale transactions and complex negotiations in the Hamptons luxury market, and how do you navigate them?
I think the most challenging aspect of negotiations in the Hamptons luxury market is the emotional elements that are specific to each client and deal situation. Listening to what’s important, even if it isn’t financial, and understanding each underlying goal is critical. A lot of brokers will just push to move fast instead of understanding some of the real, tangible elements that play into why every home purchase or sale matters, sometimes leaving money or key terms on the table.
You mentioned you love each Hamptons town, village, and hamlet for unique reasons. Can you tell us what makes some of these areas special?
Every area has something special to offer, east to west, I could go on forever here. East Hampton Village for its bustling Main Street, heritage estate charm with almost European charm you’ll find in the legacy homes in Georgica. Sagaponack for its ocean-adjacent estates, vast open preserves, homes that are a modern work of art, and amazing farm stands. Sag Harbor for boat watching, great food, and a fun vibe with immaculately designed reimagined captain’s homes in the village, and the transforming landscape of Westhampton Beach. I appreciate Southampton for its iconic luxury.
How has your involvement in your husband Jason’s luxury home building and designing business influenced your real estate career and approach to helping clients?
Jason’s luxury home-building business is what got me excited about real estate and is the connective tissue that allows us to truly offer a full-service boutique. The real estate transaction piece is just the beginning for us. Beyond the purchase, we offer design and renovation advice and property management so that owning these second homes is carefree for our clients.
Our first project together was our personal home in Westhampton Beach Village, that we rebuilt during Covid. It was a true labor of love. Jason managed the build, and I handled the design. Never have I had a better investment, and I wanted to bring this service to my network.
Jason, can you share how your collaboration with Margot has enhanced your luxury home-building projects and how her real estate expertise contributes to your business’s success?
Margot has a great way of translating a construction vision through to end-market value. For example, one of our high-profile clients purchased a home with Margot for $4.9M, and then they invested $1.2M into a design renovation that I managed. That same home is now worth over $10M, only two years later, and every year we get off-market offers. The property is also cash-producing for the owners, and Margot rents it a few weeks per year while the owners aren’t enjoying it themselves. Hamptons real estate is an amazing value stream when you have the right team in place.
Margot, you often lead private investment opportunities that drive value to your clients’ personal portfolios. Can you provide an example of a successful investment opportunity you’ve facilitated?
Most investors and wealth managers will agree that real estate is the best investment that you can have, and they aren’t wrong. What they don’t talk about is how hard it is to find the right opportunities and the tremendous amount of effort it is to make those opportunities unicorns.
A few of our clients were advised that they needed more of their wealth distributed through real estate, so we sourced new opportunities for them and are about to break ground on one that will be worth about two and a half times their investment once it’s completed in 18 months. This is our second home for them.
What trends are you currently seeing in the Hamptons luxury real estate market, and how do you foresee these trends evolving in the next few years?
A home that is impeccably designed feels new and loved, and hits differently from the second you walk in the door. The generation of buyers that are beginning to come into the luxury market and will be the primary customers of the next decade don’t want to think about putting in the effort to make these homes, home. They want to be here in the Hamptons and enjoy making memories and time away from the hustle of daily life. I understand the tax of a 100-hour work week, so making it seamless in every way possible is essentially important to clients today.
The one focal trend of the next decade will be focused on unique and elevated design, with no personal effort. Almost like owning original artwork that creates value over time.
For both of you, Margot and Jason, what do you find most rewarding about working together in the luxury real estate and home building industries, and how do you balance your professional and personal lives?
We live and breathe this lifestyle, and this work is meaningful to us. We are part of creating something that brings our clients lifelong memories. Bringing people together in a beautiful place that clients can escape and ultimately adds to their overall wealth. During the summer, we spend Sunday at “family dinner” at one of our great friend and client’s summer homes, where it’s an open door of amazing people coming together to enjoy food and the view. Facilitating things like this, that’s the most rewarding part for us.
We don’t believe in work-life balance and think that balance is an illusion that people who aren’t passionate about how they spend their time are created to separate themselves from what they consider mandatory. This comes with a tremendous amount of work and effort by each member of our family, including our two young daughters. Jason and I are always “on” and understand that the demands of our business change quickly. Hard work is a core theme in our family, and we know that it allows us to be here and enjoy every piece of the Hamptons. This has become a small problem because now the girl’s favorite restaurant is Sant Ambroeus. Eloise is nine, and Anabelle is 13!
Learn more about Margot here.
