OUTER BANKS, NC (EYT) – New Bethlehem native Cooper Hawk is a real estate expert in the Outer Banks and is being featured Saturday at 9:00 p.m. on HGTV’s “Beachfront Bargain Hunt Renovations” in Southern Shores, NC.
The show features the renovations made on beach houses, and at the end of the show the expert – in this case, Hawk – tells what the property is now worth.
Spoiler alert: “I sold a couple a house for $250,000.00, they put $60,000.00 in it and now it’s worth $400,000.00,” said Hawk.
He credits the client for being picked to be on the HGTV.
“The clients called me one day and said, ‘Hey, we want you to interview for an HGTV show,'” said Hawk. “HGTV called me the next day via video conferencing and said they were going to do a story about one of my clients, a young couple from Pittsburgh with two kids that moved down here. That was interesting to them. They like young people, and everybody that produces the show like camera people, director, and everybody that came out here were younger than me. They were pretty impressive, all top-notch people.”
Redbank Valley High School Graduate
Hawk is a 1993 graduate of Redbank Valley High School. Hawk’s mother, Bayonne, still lives in New Bethlehem, and his brother, Drew, is a dentist in Clarion. Cooper is married to the former Jenny Schwartz of Lawsonham.
Hawk first visited the Outer Banks as a youth, traveling there with Chad Shaffer and his family. Captivated by the beauty and relaxed atmosphere of the Outer Banks, he knew he wanted to live there one day. Many years later OBX drew him back, and his real estate career blossomed.
Following graduation from Redbank in 1993, Hawk went to Washington Jefferson for a year and then transferred to Penn State and graduate in 1996 with a degree in Telecommunications.
“I couldn’t get a job to save my life out of college, but I got into sales of different things and gradually started networking with real estate people and seeing how much money they made.”
Selling real estate in Pittsburgh, Hawk made the move to the Outer Banks in 2002 and hasn’t looked back. He credits his background as a commercial real estate representative in Pittsburgh as helping him understand and gather buyers’ wants and needs for their home.
“I feel fortunate to raise a family and work in this special place. My wife Jenny (Schwartz) and I live in Kitty Hawk with our five kids Cooper Ray, Eli, Celia, Penn, and Fern. We love the beach, and when we aren’t participating in the seasonal sport, that is where we go for fun. Only living here since 2003, we are impressed by the strong sense of family our neighbors, schools, and friends have given us. I don’t have any hobbies except for family. I coach various sports as needed, but it’s really all about working and hanging out with the family.”
Hawk has a few ideas of what attracts so many people to the Outer Banks.
“I think it’s the unbuilt naturalness of it. It’s not commercialized yet, and hopefully, it doesn’t get that way. I think it’s a special place because it’s going back in time. There’s a real sense of community and neighborhood and it’s a good place to raise kids. It’s not that where I grew up wasn’t a great place; you have a lot more options here.”
It’s also kind of amazing how many people he still sees from his hometown area at the beaches. He said he sees more people and friends from western Pennsylvania the at the Outer Banks than he ever did in Chicago or Pittsburgh.
Real estate market changes
Sales are running strong.
“It’s strange. The first quarter was low, but the second quarter was so amazing. The first seven months of this year we’ve had more properties under contract than we had in the previous 10 years. Inventory is at its lowest since we’ve been measuring it. The next thing we need is for value to come back and we haven’t seen them come back since the big bust.”
More people are buying to live in the Outer Banks.
“When I started out, it was pretty much pure investment with maybe five percent of the people looking to move here and make it their primary residence. In the past 10 years, the place has kind of changed, and more and more people are moving here, retiring here, or having a second home here renting it. My business right now is 50-50. I get a lot of referrals with younger families because I know schools and sports primary residence, and I’ve got investors that want to be near the ocean.”
Working with Resort Reality, Hawk’s webpage is http://www.obxbeachproperties.com/about-me/
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