James Suer is on The Desert Sun's list of the Coachella Valley's Top Content Creators of 2026. To see the full list, click here.
It seems like the Coachella Valley is changing constantly with new businesses opening and developments breaking ground frequently. Indio resident James Suer is on a mission to keep locals informed about it all.
A restaurateur-turned-real estate agent, Suer has lived in the Coachella Valley for more than two decades and has taken a deep interest in its growth and development. So much so that he's taken to social media (@james_suer_realtor_on Instagram) to share all the latest business news with his followers. Two years ago, he shared one of his first videos to his page, discussing big changes coming to north Indio with new restaurants,
and his popularity only grew from there.
"Leading up to that, I had almost 1,100 posts and 1,700 followers. I woke up and I had like 6,000 followers. I'm like, is Instagram broken? What happened?" Suer said in a recent interview with The Desert Sun. "I clicked on it and everybody was sharing it and commenting and tagging. I said, well, it seems everybody's as curious as I am about development, so I'll just double down on that content, and I made it my mission to find out what all the projects were in the entire Coachella Valley."
Suer is one of five winners for the Coachella Valley's Top Content Creators of 2026. Take a look at The Desert Sun's conversation with him below.
(These quotes have been edited for length and clarity.)
How does it feel to be a top content creator?
James Suer: I don't know how to put it into words. I wasn't expecting it. When I got the message that I was nominated as the top 50, I was like, wow, I screenshotted it and I sent it to my parents, my wife. Then when the voting happened and it was a slow progression, and I didn't really follow it, I have so many things going on, my wife and my in-laws were like, look at you, you've got this many votes, you're in third place, you're in second place, you're this and you're that. I looked once and it was like 15,000 votes. I was like, this is really cool. It was very humbling and I'm just grateful.
How did you get into real estate?
JS: I was the general manager of a lot of the restaurants out here for many years. I managed the Macaroni Grill, I opened the Pieologys out here, I managed the Red Robin in La Quinta for a while. My sister's been doing real estate for like 20-something years. She's at her kids' games and events, she's enjoying the holidays, she's on vacation, meanwhile I'm working every holiday, working 24/7 it felt like. So I said, you know what, I'm going to jump into real estate. It's something that always interested me when I bought my first house. I got intimidated pretty quickly. I thought it'd be easy when I jumped in, and I'm like, who's going to work with me who doesn't know anything sitting next to all these people who have been doing it for 20-30 years? So I said, maybe I can combine food and real estate because everybody loves food and I've never met somebody who doesn't like free food.
So I started creating my chips and salsa, and it kind of became my handshake. Every time I met somebody, I brought them chips and salsa. My thought process was, they might not remember me, they might not remember my name, but they're going to remember that for sure. It worked. All of the sauces are named after real estate things, so I've got like a Home Sweet Home, which is a date sweet and spicy salsa, the Mortgage, the Realtor. My branding is Home Made, the food is home made, but the emphasis is on home because it helps you find your home. It's worked for me. This is my sixth year in real estate, and I'm having a record year.
How did your videos begin?
JS: For as long as I've been out here, I've always been intrigued by the development in the Coachella Valley. I'd just take a picture, Texas Roadhouse is coming to Indio, and I'd post it and I'd like seven likes and two comments. I never got any engagement. My wife always said, you need to do video, you need to put your face in the video. I'm like, I don't want to do video. But I'm driving home one day, I live in north Indio, and I see we're getting a Chick-Fil-A and a Raising Cane's, so many things going on over here. So I just stopped and took little clips of the construction sites, and then I played with the green screen and I made the video with my floating head.
What about spotlighting local businesses on your account?
JS: I love food. Before my social media grew, I would do a segment called Foodie Friday and it was food that I was cooking, and then it was my favorite restaurant. Everybody kind of saw my platform and started reaching out to me and going, come try our food, come try our restaurant, do a video for us. It's hard to say no. I've never charged anybody for a single video, and everybody keeps telling me I need to charge. My business is thriving, I want to see other people's businesses thrive. I'm a huge supporter of small businesses. The way I look at it is, I'm going to support your business, I'll make a video. I've been to placesd that didn't resonate with me, and so I didn't make a video. My videos are authentic.
I've had business owners come to me later in tears saying, you changed our business, we were on the brink of closure, and now we have a line out of the door every single day. That's what fills me up. I've been super grateful that I've been given this platform, and I like to see everybody win and help people in any way that I can.
What do you think makes your content so appealing to so many viewers?
JS: Everybody's curious about everything, and everybody has their opinion about everything. Some big projects like Disney Cotino are definitely a hot button, you either love it or you hate it.
Do you have any criteria when it comes to places you want to check out or spotlight?
JS: I try to visit everything. I've gotten vitamin infusions, stuff I've never done in my life. I'm going to a doctor's office once a week right now, just stuff that I would never, didn't even know existed and stuff that I would have never even walked in and done. I get barbershops all the time, and I've been going to my barber for 10 years, so I'm like I can't do a video for another barber, my barber would cut all my hair off and I'd be done. I'm not really a drinker, I'm not a smoker, so these cannabis shops that reach out to me I can't do that because that's not something that would resonate with me. I just got a pedicure the other day, stay tuned for that video, at Brothers Nails and Lashes for their third location in La Quinta. They kept inviting me and I thought, what am I supposed to do, talk about nail colors and stuff? That's kind of off-brand for me. But he was persistent, so I was like OK, let's just go. Wow, all I've got to say is wow.
What is your favorite thing about living in the Coachella Valley?
JS: My favorite part is the community itself. The fact that we've got half a million people that live out here, but it still feels like a small town. You run into people all the time that know you, you know them, you go into your favorite places to eat and they recognize you and they call you by name. It's the community and how everybody supports each other. One of my favorite areas is downtown Indio. I love the small business community that's down there. I'll be hanging out with the owners of Gabino's, Marcel (Ramirez), or Matt (Moreno) with Papa Headz, Gil (Ruttenberg) with Painted Dough, Adrian (Romero) from Rosemary HiFi, they're all friends and they all support each other and they all talk about ways to do stuff. I went to the friends and family of the newSixth Street Coffee in La Quinta, and the owners of Everbloom were there, the owners of Saguaro Coffee were there, all the owners of the other competing coffee shops were there to support.
What are some of your favorite places to eat in the valley?
JS: I get this question all the time! My favorite, favorite restaurant would be Bougainvillea Fresh Cuisine in Palm Springs. My first management job, there was a place called Cosmo's Italian Kitchen. The guy who owns it was one of the chefs there, and the other, his nephew, was a prep cook there. He made some of the best food I had ever had in my life. (At Bougainvillea), they make their pastas fresh in-house, they make their sauces fresh in-house, everything is their recipe from scratch. The way they cook and the presentation, you'll see them taste everything before it goes out, a little flower on the side, wipe the edge of the plate.
The other I would say is Luna's Bar and Grill on Jefferson Street. Very passionate owners who came from being servers and bartenders and whatnot and opened their own place. Same thing, all the recipes are scratch recipes, everything's fresh, made in-house. Some of the best pizza I've ever had, but they also have really good steak, seafood, full bar.
Then I'd say Gabino's and Papa Headz. It's hard to choose. Marcel is awesome, his product is awesome, really good person involved in the community. Seeing his story too, starting with a tiny hole in the wall in Palm Springs and then opening in Indio and now in La Quinta. Matt with Papa Headz, he started with an easy-up on Indio Boulevard selling his burgers there until he had enough money to buy a food truck, he was at Food Truck Fridays, and then share space with Marcel at Gabino's, and now he's opening his very own restaurant in north Indio in the old WaBa Grill.
What comes next for you?
JS: I just started my YouTube channel about three months ago. All that's out there is real estate house tours. The next segment that I'm excited about is I'm going to be interviewing all of these business owners that I've made connections with over the years and on a podcast-type setting that will be on the YouTube channel to give everybody an opportunity to hear their story that they shared with me. You know your favorite restaurants and you may know who owns it, but do you know where they come from? Do you know what the inspiration was, why Marcel started Gabino's and what his journey was from no restaurant to his first one to now his third? So just casual conversations with some of these business owners to help the community and residents get to know them on a personal level.
Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com, on X @ema_sasic or on Instagram @emasasic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: This Indio content creator can help you find a home and a dinner spot
