Turning 10 in a Record-Setting Real Estate Market

Ashley Anderson and Paul Hurst are celebrating 10 years of success as Anderson Hurst Associates, the award-winning real estate partnership at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties in Montecito. Anderson and Hurst have ranked in the top 1% of Berkshire Hathaway Agents Nationwide for eight years, and Paul is an Associate Manager at the Berkshire Hathaway Montecito office. The partners reflect on turning 10 in this history-making era of the Santa Barbara area real estate market.

“Our 10 years as Anderson Hurst Associates is a tale of extremes. The real estate market has swung from a bottom unlike any other since the Great Depression, to today’s highest real estate market in history,” said Paul Hurst. “In residential real estate, you want to be aware of trends, but also make sure that your decision is the right one for your life at that time.”

Ashley and Paul renewed a decades-long friendship that began when they attended the same high school, The Brentwood School in Los Angeles. They reconnected in 2007 when Ashley returned to settle in Santa Barbara. Two months later he sold her the Mesa home that she lives in today. In 2011, Paul invited Ashley to join forces with him after she retired from her successful 20-year Public Relations career to become a full-time licensed real estate professional.

“Ever since the market started to go up in 2014, some buyers have held off on their Santa Barbara dream fearing that there’s going to be another crash,” said Ashley Anderson. “Now some people who want to sell are on the sidelines, worrying that they will leave money on the table if the market goes up more. Regrets can happen when people put plans on hold in hopes of timing a market perfectly. That’s when there are the most missed opportunities.”

The parallels in Paul and Ashley’s lives are many: they both have family roots in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, and both have deep backgrounds in marketing and publicity.

A Santa Barbara native, Paul was born at Cottage Hospital, has been in the real estate business for 38 years, and has served the Santa Barbara market for the past 20 years. He has a background in advertising and broadcast journalism and is a graduate of Pepperdine University. This passion for promotion fuels the cutting-edge marketing Anderson Hurst Associates is known for. Ashley graduated from UCSB in political science, and built her marketing career in Public Relations, first in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, then running a PR firm in Chicago, and founding her own firm in Aspen, Colorado. Her lifelong dream came true when she returned to Santa Barbara 14 years ago.

Together, Ashley and Paul sell homes in all price ranges and neighborhoods, from Santa Barbara luxury condos to Montecito estates, to modest homes for first time buyers. They have represented some of the most historic residential properties in Santa Barbara from the sale of the iconic 1910 Villa De La Guerra to the sale of 833 Knapp Drive, the original home in Montecito’s Arcady Estate.

“Every home we sell has an important life event associated with it.” said Ashley. “It is an honor and a privilege to help our clients during this very important moment in time.”

Paul adds, “Some sellers leave the state or the country for work and ask us to handle everything for them. For the senior market, we offer concierge service to seniors and their families as they downsize from larger properties. We regularly work with adult children who are selling cherished, generational family homes. Our main goal is to protect our clients and make the process as easy as possible for them. We are very fortunate to have a lot of repeat business and referrals.”

Ashley and Paul are consistently ranked in the Top 1% of Berkshire Hathaway Agents Nationwide and Abroad and are recipients of the prestigious Legend Award acknowledging Top Producer performance for five or more consecutive years.