TrueGotham: Top Broker Doug Heddings to busy to blog

maybe he can sell 11,000 apartments.

amazing, a top producing broker is busy during the one of the traditionaly busiest months of the year...wow, thats it, the bottom is in...

aboutready, your competition is out buying making deals, while you sit around trying to make witty comments. Outstanding!

No steve, once again i was serious.

Why would you buy when rates can only go higher from here? Wait until rates increase 2-3%, then buy the same place for 20-40% less. I feel a little sorry for the buyers who get suckered by the govt's artificially low rates.

Um, he posted on his blog. That means he is not too busy to blog. Maybe he should wait until he actually closes some contracts and then let us know.

I could be wrong, but if aboutready is not looking to buy right now, she is not competing. Therefore she has no competition.

Logic. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

and malthus, remember, waste is a terrible thing to mind.

there's little to no competition for my current,and going forward, living situation, much to Tishman's regret.

who is Doug Heddings

He is a famous magician with big teeth.

Dry, pithy humour.
My kinda gal.
But you knew that already.

BTW, Doug Heddings is another honest broker to add to the list:
Noah, Sandy Mattingly, Ali, Keith Burkhardt (sp? I'll look you up if I never need you - honest).
Tina24hour seems pretty straightforward and informative also.

This is not to say that there isn't more detail that would be helpful but, like the man said, he's kinda busy right now.

As an aside, didn't Doug get into trouble by appearing on TV and saying that prices were falling in NYC long before any other broker except Noah admitted this?

I like Doug H. His only fault is that he is a shade more optimistic than Noah. He'd probably never had said NOT to buy at the peak but said something like "proceed with caution" which is a big NO in broker-speak.

Divvie, thanks. Humor gets me through the day, even when I just amuse myself (fairly frequently).

I think he did. I don't think that Elliman is as supportive. Noah's been a bit lucky, although he's had his issues as well.

Doug has tried to straddle the fence a bit more than Noah and Keith, but I'd still very much put him in the plus column.

I wonder which ones are going to contract - I think this is a good candidate - well priced and though I didn't see in person, I did like the apartment in the pics & on floor plan -

http://www.prudentialelliman.com/Listings.aspx?ListingID=1073870&rentalperiod=&SearchType=Broker_Current&Region=NYC&BID=DLH

Isn't Doug the one who lowered the prices on virtually every listing he had, and did so with some kind of notice?

Doug is definitely one of the ones ahead of the curve, and is a 16 yr veteran I believe. These experienced and succesful agents will survive, and perhaps take business, in a shrunken industry. Its the new agents with no referral base and minor connections/networking reach that will find it very tough to survive in this market.

What amazes me though is the willingness to grasp on a month-to-month report of increased activity in a market that is at the tail end of our busy season. Year over year, I would guess that sales volume is the most sluggish in the past 10 years or so. Why ignore the bigger picture? Month to month is meaningless considering how dead OCT-JAN was. Even a few calls would equate to a pickup in activity after that kind of silence. Its all relative, and y-o-y puts it in much better perspective. How is action now compared to this time last year, and the year before, and the year before that? My guess is much much slower.

He's an optimist. Optimists will tend to cling to any positive data. OTOH, if you are not an optimist at heart, it'd be awfully difficult to sell RE today with a straight face.

I see the top brokers on the UWS on a regular basis at OHs, ACL, LL, MP, DK and they invariably radiate optimism. It's hard to fake that. It's part of their appeal and salesmanship abilities.

I agree, that is why I suck as a salesman and will never be a top producer.

OH's open houses, then on to
ACL any crooked lawyer for advice on an ambulance to chase (potential estate sale)
LL liquid lunch to unwind
MP michael price novel in the park im hope of learning sales techniques then
DK donna karan shoes, to keep the image on the stumble home

Awww, UD. I do marvel at the salesmanship abilities of the top brokers. They radiate positivity without spouting stupid platitudes when they're showing - although they have to toe co. line in interviews.

Steve keeps talking about this recovery thats coming. he's been saying it for an entire year!

He picks up on stock market jumps (even though those aren't correlated) and then brokers claiming they are busy.

Of course, he never actually thinks to check a fact or two.

http://www.urbandigs.com/charts.html

Whoops.

Prices still declining, inventories still climbing.

If this is a bottom, SteveF is Warren Buffett.

nyc10023:

"Awww, UD. I do marvel at the salesmanship abilities of the top brokers. They radiate positivity without spouting stupid platitudes when they're showing - although they have to toe co. line in interviews."

Maybe I just don't get it, but I think I have better experience than the avg non professional RE investor/owner. I currently own or rent 7 properties in 4 states. And have bought and sold many others over the years. I have NEVER, bought anything because of the listing agent, sometimes, only sometimes has MY broker helped me make a decision. I have always felt the listing agent was an impediment to the process, not a positive. I would generally prefer to never meet them. Maybe this is part of why I have always felt the industry does itself a disservice by its current split system. I think it should be 75% to the buyside, 25% to the list. Approximately 100% (give or take) of all RE transaction occur because a buyer showed up.

Unfortunately, because of the flawed compensation system, most of "star" brokers, have rarely proved they can sell anything. What they have proved is they can sell themselves to the current owner to get the listing, that's it. Then, they hope a real salesperson shows up with their client and sells the apt for them. Just my flawed .0275 cents worth.

P09: Hey, their charm wouldn't work on you or me. But trust me, they work on a great many buyers in the "luxe" price range. They can sell themselves to the current owners & the buyer's brokers (in this price range, the buyers almost always have their brokers).

Turns out DH wasn't necessarily busy selling; he was busy switching firms.
http://www.truegotham.com/

i posted a comment asking him if he realized that he blogged about being too busy to blog and it never appeared. he did just say in his video that the comment section is messed up though.