Ed Kaminsky: [00:00:05] Well good day everybody. This is Ed Kaminsky with Sportstar Relocation. Checking in, on location here in Hermosa Beach California. We’re really excited to have our guest on the phone from my favorite state in the union Ohio Neal. Matthias welcome to the call. I’m going to just go ahead and let you give an opportunity to introduce yourself and the company you are with.

Neil Mathias: [00:00:34] Thanks. Glad to be here Neil Mathias with Coldwell Banker King Thompson realtors here in Columbus Ohio.

Neil Mathias: [00:00:44] Offices in Dublin Ohio which is kind of the northwest part of Columbus for those of you that know the city has been selling houses for going on 17 18 years part of the family business business that’s been doing it for over 30 years here in Columbus.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:01:07] Wow. That’s a long time you know, (me) having been from Ohio and no longer there and I’m in the sunny parts of Southern California. I have to ask what’s going on there in the winter? Is it nice cold rainy snowy?

Neil Mathias: [00:01:24] Depends on the day the hour. As you know the old saying is if you don’t like the weather wait a few minutes it’s going to change. We woke up yesterday morning with about five inches of snow that we weren’t expecting.

Neil Mathias: [00:01:39] And today we’ve got sunny skies and I think we’re going to hit close to 50 and a lot of the snow is already gone.

Neil Mathias: [00:01:46] So you know I actually had an inspection on our property yesterday that we had some roof concerns and it was one of those that we had to get a roofer out and we’re trying to deal with the snow stuff and luckily I think all the snow that we got yesterday is going to be melted and my roofer can get out there today and take a look at it. So it is one of those interesting challenges that you never know what you’re going to get. But luckily we’ve got some great transportation stuff where a lot this week I was able to actually get down to Florida and just had direct flights into Tampa with a two hour flight and I was down in Tampa playing golf for an eleven o’clock tee time.

Neil Mathias: [00:02:26] So no complaints.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:02:28] Yeah that’s an easy commute isn’t it. Yeah.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:02:31] That is the direction to go when you want to get to some warm weather. Florida usually this time of year anywhere anytime you can get to Florida that is always a nice nice way to go. So let me ask a question you know I’m sure people have heard of Ohio but if you’ve never traveled to Columbus because there’s no reason to get there for it for your business or family or anything else what would a new player

Ed Kaminsky: [00:03:02] Being drafted or traded to Columbus. What can they expect about the community once you toss a little bit about that.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:03:10] Yeah I think that’s one of the the the stories that we hear the most is that we’re kind of one of those cities that kind of flies under the radar if you haven’t been here.

Neil Mathias: [00:03:21] You don’t necessarily know a whole lot about it but then once you kind of start to get into it and hear what’s going on it’s kind of surprising whether you’re talking about you know economy business growth stuff there’s a ton happening and when you talk about athletes and I think it’s somewhat surprising. We’ve had a number of athletes that continue to live here while they’re playing in other cities or come back and are retiring here even after their playing careers are over multi-sport wise. Obviously NHL is the only major sport we’ve got in Columbus and no disservice to the MLS.

Neil Mathias: [00:04:09] We do have a great MLS team and if you follow the MLS we just went through a really big save the crew campaign where they tried to move our soccer team and we were successful in keeping the Columbus Crew here even though the owner wanted to move it to Texas.

Neil Mathias: [00:04:26] But when you talk about the major sports NHL is our our major franchise here. We don’t have football, basketball, or baseball but you know an example is Michael Connelly who plays for Memphis has just finished building a house here in Columbus. Even though he’s playing in Memphis. James Warren just moved back to Columbus after retiring from the NFL. Jason Day is one of the top golfers in the world. He keeps his family and lives here year round. So we’ve got a lot of players who have said even though it doesn’t come up as one of those top three that you think about. It’s one of those things that there’s a ton going on from restaurants arts business. It’s just a great place to raise a family and be a part of a lot of it started. I think back in 2009 our business leaders really got together we have a group called the Columbus Partnership and it’s made up of 65 of our central Ohio CEOs and they launched what they called the Columbus 2020 initiative.

Neil Mathias: [00:05:45] And they said that even though we’re coming out of or kind of a Great Recession they said we want to create 150000 new jobs within that region.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:05:58] Wow that’s a lot.

Neil Mathias: [00:06:00] I wanted to do that by Yeah by 2020. And so all the companies guys the guys that we’re going to do this. And within seven years they actually reached their goal and created one hundred and sixty four thousand new jobs. And that was a seventeen point eight percent growth rate when the national growth rate was 12 and a half percent from your job.

Neil Mathias: [00:06:25] These guys should run for president. Exactly. And so I mean there’s a lot of things I think that contributed to that.

Neil Mathias: [00:06:35] I think there’s a wide diversified economy here. We’ve got you know Ohio State University is a big part of it. You know we’re the capital of the state so we’ve got you know our our government hub and center here that leads to that less. Wexler who’s the CEO of Elle brands and is on the Forbes top 150 richest people is here and the big instrumental leader in our community. So a lot of those leaders kind of all play that we’ve seen some interesting things where I don’t know if you’ve heard of a company called cover my meds but it was kind of a local startup that recently sold for one point one billion dollars and they’ve kept their headquarters here.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:07:22] And what did they do. You know they basically pioneered a way to pre authorize prescription authorizations.

Neil Mathias: [00:07:33] Got it.

Neil Mathias: [00:07:34] I mean I can’t wait to electronically do prescription make it easier for the whole insurance industry to do pre authorization stuff. But starting here locally in Columbus and Cardinal Health which is I think the third largest pharmaceutical wholesale company is headquartered here in Columbus and actually in Dublin. And so there’s a lot of these companies that you don’t necessarily think of but our large companies that are here in the Midwest because we are within few hours of half of the country’s population and we’ve got good taxes. We’ve got good cost of living.

Neil Mathias: [00:08:21] We were on the short list for Amazon HQ to relocation we obviously didn’t get it. Now I think we’re getting some second looks here as New York has you know backed off.

Neil Mathias: [00:08:38] If you look at the headquarters or the headlines on the headquarters there that it’s up there are they’re reconsidering where they’re going to do headquarters in New York and I think they’re relooking at if we’re going to get some additional space as part of that.

Neil Mathias: [00:08:54] But it’s just one of those cities that kind of flies under the radar.

Neil Mathias: [00:08:58] Rick Nash who’s a player that started in Columbus and went to New York he always kept his house here in Columbus and actually bought a house next door for his parents lived here in the off season and then when he retired and still living here in Columbus and a number of other players market test to their set all of retired here after their NHL career.

Neil Mathias: [00:09:23] So it’s just one of those great cities that offers a ton for families that want just a nice good life that we’ve got. Traffic’s not crazy. I mean how long did it take you to get around L.A.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:09:39] Well if you’re in L.A. and you want to go from one part of Beverly Hills to another and it’s more than three blocks you better change your calendar because you may be flipping to the next month. Yeah it’s literally I mean it could take you an hour to go a mile in this town sometimes so it can certainly be a challenge. If you get into the suburbs though in L.A. You know L.A. is really just one long sprawling city after city after city after city and each community’s a little bit different. If you’re in the heart ofL.A. where were Hollywood’s living. It’s one thing if you get out to the sub communities like Thousand Oaks or Manhattan Beach those type of areas it’s a little bit closer to normal. We actually you know growing up in Ohio I learned to really love the small town feel that community interaction that happens. I have to imagine Columbus is probably a bit like that but. In Cleveland where I grew up we had small little communities. You know our school district for example was just really tight right. And so you’d have the parades and things like that. So finding those type of communities out inL.A. is something I seek all the time and we have that in palace Verdi’s estates which is just down the coast from where my office is. We have it Manhattan Beach for sure it’s a it’s a small town with the with access to the big city but still the interaction of the community with the community events that happen. I imagine Columbus is like that is Columbus to ask is it like Cleveland in that sense where there’s different cities throughout the area that are known for different reasons whether it’s schools or restaurants and things like that.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:11:42] Yeah I mean I think Columbus obviously you’ve got the downtown which is the center.

Neil Mathias: [00:11:48] We’ve got our outer belt that runs in a circle around the city and then the suburbs are kind of laid out around that outer belt.

Neil Mathias: [00:11:55] And so each suburb has a little bit of its own feel. And of course everyone feels like it has its own little stereotype if you will of course that creates all of its own unique rivalries and you know why everyone wants to live in each of the different suburbs for their own reasons.

Neil Mathias: [00:12:15] But I think that just adds to its own character and you know just fun you know.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:12:22] Now tell me about the schools. What is the education opportunities like for middle school high school elementary schools. Obviously you have a great university and I’ll state with certainly a great reputation but pre pre college what what are the school systems like out there how are they ranked.

Neil Mathias: [00:12:41] Yeah I think that’s one of the biggest things that people find when they come here when I get people coming in from out of the area is that they’re really surprised to find is that our public school system amongst probably the top five or six suburbs is competitive and better than most private schools that you find in other states and other areas.

Neil Mathias: [00:13:07] And that when people look at you know what they’re spending in other areas on private schools they come here and they go “Gosh I don’t have to pay tuition because the public schools are so good.” They really find a huge savings in that. Initially they may look at our property taxes as being a little bit higher than some of the other areas but they go gosh I’ve got two or three kids going through schools and the public schools and I’m not having to pay tuition.

Neil Mathias: [00:13:36] It’s a huge savings for them you know. Yeah I mean it’s the suburban schools here are just I mean it’s unbelievable how they’re ranked throughout the state. And when you look at Dublin Upper Arlington Oakland TNG New Albany schools are probably the top four or five that you’re going to hear in the state rankings. And when you look at not just the academics but the extracurriculars that they offer. I mean the programs that you see when I get kids that that want to participate in stuff. It’s not just that they want to do band or marching band but they have every type of band and every type of program you can think of when it comes to sports. It’s not just the major sports that you can do crew you can do hockey you can do field hockey you can do lacrosse you can do every type of program you can think of they’ve got for you through the schools. We actually have one of the schools here that I think was a really interesting thing that they did that as a way to save taxpayer money.

Neil Mathias: [00:14:55] One of the local schools just built the new high school that cost about 95 million dollars while the Dublin High School the waves are growing and they’ve got three high schools and as a way to prevent building a fourth high school they actually bought a four storey commercial building that was only about 10 percent full from a lease standpoint.

Neil Mathias: [00:15:20] They purchased this building for about 10 million dollars and repurposed the school as a tech robotics science building and said that we’re going to put all of our physics and sciences in this building and then be able to send from the three different high schools all of our AP students and these robotics sciences to this one central location because it allows them to not build a fourth high school. And so they’ve only got about 20 million dollars in this facility rather than spending 95 million on a brand new purchasing land building a fourth high school. But then they have this whole facility that’s just dedicated to sciences and just really cutting edge facility as a way to not only save costs that.

Neil Mathias: [00:16:15] Dedicated space for these other uses. And it’s right next to one of the existing schools and it’s a really neat campus that they’re able to utilize. So they’re doing some really progressive neat ways of rethinking space. And then on the fourth floor they were able to put a lot of their administrative space for the school district.

Neil Mathias: [00:16:37] That’s an intelligent strategy is good and good for them probably ways to keep your taxes lower to out there. Smart. Yeah. So yeah. And then I’ll switch back to real estate for a second. So. In regards to someone coming to town what what is the expectation of. Well let’s start with where the players are going to live. Right. I find in most of our cities where the players are gone they want to live with a practice. We’re talking about the Blue Jackets mostly obviously soccer’s becoming huge. So. These teams are getting some pretty well paid high paid players that are having more opportunities for. For real estate. But for these guys what do they typically live in one part of the city or are they scattered around.

Neil Mathias: [00:17:27] Yes so we’ve seen the players have gravitated to I would say three areas and we’re really lucky in that our practice facility and arena are essentially the same building. We have our rink that they play games on and then our practice facility is attached to it. They’ve got two rings together so it’s all centrally located. We don’t have a practice facility you know in a different area. That’s it’s all within our arena district downtown. So a lot of the younger single guys are live in downtown within the arena district and we’ve got a couple of newer kind of high rise loft style buildings downtown that the young single guys are going to because they’re going out and having fun at night and other nightlife. The guys that are married with families that are going into the suburbs and the first area that they’re going to is Upper Arlington because it’s the closest to the downtown arena district and it’s really only about a 10 15 minute drive tops without having to get on the highway. And that’s the main kind of focus for a lot of the guys. And that’s where I just put Cam Atkinson who was one of our all star players and just signed a long term contract with the Blue Jackets and he is so excited about being in Columbus long term he’s actually played his entire career here and is looking forward to retiring here in Columbus as well.

Neil Mathias: [00:19:01] The second area that we’ll see guys go is out into Dublin. And those tend to be the guys that are a little bit more focused on golf. And we have Muirfield Village Golf Club which is Jack Nicklaus is kind of personal golf club they host the Memorial Golf tournament there.

Neil Mathias: [00:19:22] And so some of the guys that are big golfers want to be up and around that golf course. And so a couple of guys have houses on the golf course. And so that’s kind of the second area that we’ve seen guys go up into the Dublin area which they tend to do either for the golf reason or just a little bit more kind of parks green space which is a little bit of Dublin’s focus in the way that that community has developed. So you see a lot of players and retirees up there Scott Hartnell who’s retired has a place up there although he’s looking to head back to Philly. He just they just announced the partnership with NHL Network he’s gonna be doing some work with them on the TV commentating and he’s headed back out east for a little while. So we’re going to be selling his place here shortly.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:20:13] Very good and exciting. You know working with these guys you know as an agent we know what’s standard in the business but there’s a high expectation that’s put on us that are helping our VIP clients what what are some of the services that you’ve been able to provide your clients that they really appreciate outside of finding them a home or selling them a home and selling your existing home. What are some of those added services that you’re able to help these guys with.

Neil Mathias: [00:20:46] Yeah I think it’s obviously each time it’s a case by case basis and it’s all what they need.

Neil Mathias: [00:20:55] In the case of Cam and Natalie the house that they bought a Burlington is an older community. And so there’s a lot of remodeling going on.

Neil Mathias: [00:21:07] So I was able to help them identify a couple of her modelers work with them through the bid process identify which is you know the better bid and then we actually went through a selection process help them pick out you know materials that kind of stuff and just kind of be a second set of eyes be some advice help them through that entire thing added.

Neil Mathias: [00:21:36] And as we’re going through they’ve never built a house they’ve ever remodeled a house they don’t know how you know plumbing works and so even if it’s talking with the contractor you know they felt like just having me there was just a lot of confidence to be able to question is this done right. Is this you know the way that it should be. And I’m happy to be a part of that. You know there’s been times when you know players out of town they’ve got someone staying at the house and it’s just a one time hey Neil can you run over and make sure that you know this is taking care of where the house is unlocked and you know it’s just that you know the unavailable to him you know it’s it’s interesting.

Neil Mathias: [00:22:25] And I don’t know if you’re marketplaces is anything like ours but our market is made up of a lot of homes built in the 50s and the 60s and they’re small they’re 15 or square feet or 2000 square feet and really do not meet the needs of today’s clients. And so a lot of our players that are coming in they want a brand new home so they either have to find something under construction or find one of these old homes and have it torn down. And we’ve been instrumental out here in helping them secure these properties and line up the builders and the architects that are best suited for that. I’ve got a NFL player now retiring and plays in Carolina. The home is just nearing completion now and one of our college coaches it’s building a beautiful ocean view home but Ohio. I have to imagine has more land and we have out here we have none left. If you start gone too far west you start swimming. So what about out there. Is it a lot of land that you’re buying and building on or you turn down old homes. What happens out there now.

Neil Mathias: [00:23:38] I mean I think it’s probably a lot of the same. Believe it or not it’s just that a lower we don’t get the same price factor that you do.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:23:48] Yeah well the last lot I saw is a nice little. There was 30 feet wide by 67 feet deep and I sold it for four point seven million. Is that about same out there.

Neil Mathias: [00:24:04] Yeah yeah. No no no.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:24:08] But it’s still location location location.

Neil Mathias: [00:24:10] I mean it’s Arlington is going to demand you know 20 to 30 percent more than doubling because it’s so much closer to downtown and the arena.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:24:21] And where people want to be what our prices I mean what can you expect out there for you know I find it is what I found. But. Guys the average decent size home across the nation is probably 4000 square feet as a comfortable place. Right. And you’ll see someone who wants a five or six or ten or twelve thousand square foot home but you want a 3000 square foot home or a 5000 square foot home. What can you expect to spend out there.

Neil Mathias: [00:24:51] Yeah I mean I would say obviously it all depends on.

Neil Mathias: [00:24:55] I mean it goes all over the place but I would say a very high end home in Columbus is two to three million dollars. Still poor learning. Yeah we’ll see. We had one of the players buy a house that was three point seven million dollars. Now that was you know 12000 square feet on several acres on you know a very exclusive course and had high end high end finishes with top of the line electronics where you had TV behind mirrors you had everything controlled from your iPhone. You hit one switch when you walked out and turned everything off.

Neil Mathias: [00:25:38] You know that you put a DVD in the system and it was played everywhere in the house. And that was the top of the line and you could see. You could also find a very nice 30 500 square foot home for eight hundred thousand dollars. But on the low end side it’s hard to find something for less than three to four hundred thousand dollars. You know a 20 500 square foot home is going to be 354 four hundred thousand dollars in one of the nicer communities and that’s going to get you a two car garage three bedroom two and a half bath and that’s where we’re really hot market right now. You talk about that 250 to 500 thousand dollar price point. Realtor dot com right now has this as the number eight hottest market in the country. If I list a three hundred thousand dollar house I’m going to put it in our and our MLS on you know Wednesday and I’m going to say showing start Saturday and I’m going to have 25 people through on Saturday and I’m going to have five to 10 offers to choose from. That’s how high above list prices are going to go and you know are there any contingencies. I mean it’s that kind of a market right now in that price range. You get up around 800 to a million and it’s not that same situation. Right. But for the everyday buyer where we’re seeing all of that growth. I mean they say in Columbus last year we had a net increase of 35000 people came into Columbus last year and they’re projecting by 2050 we’re going to go from 2 million to 3 million people in the central Ohio region.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:27:30] So what would you say are some of your investment opportunities that are out there.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:27:35] If you are living there you want to invest in real estate and build towards your wealth. What would you invest in. As a you know real estate investor in Columbus.

Neil Mathias: [00:27:47] Isn’t that the biggest area we’re seeing a lot of growth right now is in the apartment side. We’re seeing less and less on the individual rental, rentals home side. But I think that’s where we’ve got the most opportunity for demand. When you look in the suburbs right now we have very few rental homes in the you know twenty five hundred thirty five hundred square feet home and that’s where I think we’ve got the most opportunity for someone because we’ve got a lot of people that come in that go hey I’m not ready to buy I haven’t sold my house and. You know whatever community I’m moving from and maybe I’m not ready to commit to whichever community is I need to rent.

Neil Mathias: [00:28:34] It’s so hard to find something.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:28:36] So let’s let’s talk our numbers. I mean talk numbers. I don’t know what a 20 500 square foot home cost but if you went out and bought one of these little ones you’re talking about lower priced ones that are let’s say three hundred fifty thousand dollars.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:28:52] What would that home rent for three and fifty thousand dollar house would probably rent for three thousand dollars a month now.

Neil Mathias: [00:29:02] Just know my numbers quick. That’s actually a very good return if that’s the case. What are property taxes out there.

Neil Mathias: [00:29:10] Property taxes on a three hundred fifty thousand dollar home is going to be probably close to ten thousand dollars a year 10000 a year.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:29:20] Got it. OK very good.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:29:23] Well it sounds like a growing marketplace we’re not hearing a lot of that in this time of the year but it’s good to hear that you are getting that still that kind of interest out there in that price point. And so it shows a lot of strength in your market. And by the way I won’t be in here. I got a jack camera in the back here. We just moved into these offices and the last thing they want to do is the driveway so they’re out. Turn that thing up. So I apologize for that sound if you hear it. No worries. But in closing. Anything else you want to share or add about your what you’re doing out there your market.

Neil Mathias: [00:30:03] Anything I didn’t ask you if you’ve got a reason to stop I’ll come through. Come check us out. I think you’ll be surprised. We’ve got a lot going on some great restaurants great places to check out. Come see the blue jackets I think we are a great team great prospects and hopefully we’re going to make a couple of deep runs in the Stanley Cup. Would love to see if you’re following the news at all. We’re trying to keep Timmy pinned Aaron around. Yeah. What happened with that. That’s the big news right now. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. But we’ve got some great owners and we’ve got some great management that are committed to making sure that we’re staying in the top third of the league and we’re got some great players so well they’re a fun team to watch for sure.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:30:58] What. How far are you from the Hall of Fame.

Neil Mathias: [00:31:01] The NFL Hall of Fame and can probably about an hour and a half maybe hour and 45 minute drive up there.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:31:09] Got it. Okay. Well great. And if someone wants to get a hold of you Neil what’s the best way to do that.

Neil Mathias: [00:31:18] E-mail is this Neil at Neil Mathias or you can always just shoot me a call 6 1 4 5 8 0 1 6 6 2 in my cell and that’s always on and I’m always answering that or you to text back.

Ed Kaminsky: [00:31:30] Sounds good. Well Neil thank you for jumping on the call today we really appreciate it. I feel like I got a really great understanding of a Columbus Ohio now and sound like you do an amazing work out there for your clients. We appreciate you being a part of sports star relocation and we’ll all chat again soon.

Neil Mathias: [00:31:49] Thank you so much. Great. You got to appreciate that