It’s a broker’s market, real estate bigs claim

by amy zimmer / metro new york
JAN 29, 2007

BARUCH COLLEGE. There were no charts outlining low mortgage rates or predicting changes in Manhattan apartment prices at a seminar held here last week entitled “Why Buy Now.”

Instead, the standing room only crowd of real estate brokers — some sat on the floor with their Shearling and fur coats folded next to them — listened to industry leaders dole out professional advice. To succeed in a city with a glut of brokers — the state has licensed more than 66,000 in the city — the players suggested the rank-and-file should be up to date on the market, professional and well-dressed.

“Our industry has never been known for its professionalism,” said Hall Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens, explaining the importance of appearance and phone etiquette.

“Consumers now have so much at their fingertips and you have to be ahead of them. You have to know more,” added Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property.

“This is not going to be a buyers’ market or sellers’ market,” said Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group. “It’s a broker’s market. You need to play multiple roles. You’re a therapist, a friend.”

She told the group about the benefits of a new internal listings service her company makes available to brokers via BlackBerry. When one of her brokers received a listing while on a ski trip in Aspen, he slid to the side of the slope and was on the phone with his client within five minutes.

John Crafton, a 29-year-old broker at the boutique firm Barak Realty, could relate to the BlackBerry story. He is available to clients at all hours, sometimes showing apartments at 2 a.m.

“I work 20 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Crafton, a former producer at Bad Boy Records who turned to real estate because there’s no “long-term wealth” opportunities in music. “I’m seven months into this and I’m already marketing $5 million in terms of exclusives.”

Damion Williams, a broker with NY Living Solutions — who calls himself an “affordable luxury specialist” — bemoaned the number of brokers in town, saying many people get into real estate as a hobby.

“The industry is obviously oversaturated with brokers, but not necessarily quality brokers,” he said. “You can have 900 brokers at a firm where 850 turn out to be idiots.”


Why buy now?

All agreed that “now” was always the time to buy in New York. “People will say, ‘You’re in real estate so of course you’re going to be Pollyanna-ish,’ but numbers are numbers,” said Dottie Herman, president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman. “You’d be hard-pressed to make a case against New York.”


Portal prep

Brokers are gearing up for a big change to their industry. The Real Estate Board of New York plans to unveil a Web site this spring enabling the public to see up to 15,000 exclusive listings for Manhattan and Brooklyn to which only its members have access.

Smaller firms balked over the original fees proposed to join the service — $3,500 for small firms and $7,000 for large ones. Though that has been tabled for a more equitable fee structure, which has yet to be announced, some firms are still worried their listings will be overshadowed by larger firms.

Yet Barak Dunayer, of Barak Realty, believes the site could be a real boon.

“This is going to give boutique firms equal exposure,” he said. “Right now, the big firms get all the traffic on their Web sites because they have millions of dollars to optimize them.”

He also said it will be cheaper to advertise on REBNY’s site than on the New York Times’ listings — which REBNY hopes to eclipse. But, Dunayer added, “It’s going to take a lot of time and money to make the site the one and only destination.”