serhant.

Saw that a couple days ago. I'm no insider, but I'm guessing this is less about "tech revolution" and more about "sick of sharing commission with my boss".

Ryan and his team are excellent people to work with at least that's been my experience. We did a buy and sell deal with him in the middle of the pandemic, pretty creative arrangement... Definite candidate for REBNY deal of the year : )

I think it's more about creating and expanding on his own brand than commission split. I'm sure he was on a pretty aggressive split with nest seekers, and now he has a significant amount of overhead that he's responsible for.

Definitely a lot of positive mental attitude!!

I think it was about a year ago?(pardon me if I'm wrong on the timing) I wrote here to expect to see a strong amount of agents switching firms as deal volume drops. When agents find their incomes drop rather than blaming a market change or their own failures the first place most look is the firm they are with and think if they change that everything will go back to whatever "the good old days" were for them.

You've got Triple mint crowing about their machine learning algorithms and Compass claiming they are a technology company. Can anyone point to me what's substantially different about either of those two than pretty much what everyone else is doing?

Here you have a reality TV star who isn't getting the attention he's used to. Did you notice his co-stars left NYC?

Serhant deserves a lot of credit for identifying a hole (Brooklyn $1mm-$2mm) that a lot of the big firms weren't paying attention to, and gunning for it and making it his own.

Similarly, running classes and then using the signups from classes for referral lead generation is a pretty clever move.

I don't know that I'd call either of those "tech genius" as much as "marketing genius," really.

Whats different about Compass is that they used to have a bunch of Softbank money to offer insane splits and, in some cases, guarantees to get proven agents to join.

I don't know if Ryan identified that hole in Brooklyn. That's a big piece of the Brooklyn real estate market right there. The game changer was really when Corcoran went out there and opened up an office. Before that it was still old school, not much co-broking and there must have been 10 real estate offices on Court Street, each with its own exclusive listings they didn't share. I'm going back a little ways for that, but at least that's how I remember it when I was looking for a place. Corcoran blew all that up, and then came element in Halstead and the Brooklyn real estate biz suddenly became much more legitimate.

Ryan just has a giant team and he's done quite well with his YouTube channel, partnering with Casey Neistat on a few episodes, along with his book and online learning platform.

I think he's taking a big risk, but I certainly hope he's successful!

https://thebridgebk.com/fierce-competition-brooklyn-real-estate/

Meant to include this...

Elliman and Halstead...

What will be interesting to see is that being an owner is a very different skill set that being an agent or team leader. If he really wants to buck the trend of the big firms gobbling up more and more market share he may need to shift more attention away from himself and towards his team members.

The comments about opening up the Brooklyn market are interesting. I will say that as a non-New Yorker who is well educated in economics and antitrust law, I remain utterly fascinated by the collusion/corruption/inefficiency that pervades NYC. I had a great property professor who has written numerous books about “where to begin?” when you realize the rule of law/winning the judgment is just the opening move. @30yrs would like his books; they focus on his study of human nature, which he views as very dark indeed.

And for those who are interested in real estate that are surprisingly not “open,” I draw your attention to Tilghman Island on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We were looking at buying on the Eastern Shore in 2006, and a study of the map lead me to drive out to that locale despite all the warnings from the St Michael’s and Oxford brokers. So interesting; it was the Staten Island (on steroids) of the Eastern Shore in 2006. No idea what it is like now (other than I have a vague recollection of Trump’s lamenting that it is literally sinking), but in 2006, the prevalence of militia signals and Confederate flags were enough to make me understand why none of the DC brokerage houses were out there.

https://youtu.be/nlwQu0AaCa8

OMG. Howard Hamlin's stunt double starting a vlog channel is the most "2020" thing I've seen all day.

How much do you think is really on that table? Maybe 8 months of hair gel?

The building does offer some fine fodder for the "crappy yields" thread. Nice patios, but they're only a few stories above the loudest block on the LES. https://streeteasy.com/building/196-orchard-street-new_york

I'm surprised, I guess even glad, to hear all the good things about Serhant, and I certainly have no experience in purchasing or having any interest in the multi-million dollar listings he handles; but watching him on Million Dollar Listings has show me that the only bigger jerk in real estate other than Serhant is Fredrick Eklunk (who is now showing rentals at 10 Sheridan Place -- so I take it his star is falling???). If I had the money, I would deal with ANYONE but these two narcissistic a__holes.

I think you have to be careful with conflating the personality on TV with the person in reality. One is there to create a storyline to make for non-boring TV, the other is reality.

I’ve never met Serhant, but Fredrik lived in my building for a short while. I haven’t watched the show in years, but when I did he was the flamboyant / energetic asshole. In reality (from interactions at the gym / pool / sauna), he was introverted & aloof. The introverted / reserved side was surprising, not just because it was so opposite from the show. You figure if your business is selling rich people real estate, then when you are in a building full of rich people you should be more into engaging in friendly chit-chat. His husband, on the other hand, was exactly who you saw on TV: a big, quiet sweetheart. The only time Fredrik was interested in what was going on around him was when a pair of infrequently-present neighbors who are each independently 100x more famous than him came to the gym. That would be a regular occurrence whenever their schedules put them in the city, but for whatever reason this was the only time Fredrik had seen them. He was somewhere between star-struck and wanting to engage, as the pair are very friendly and chatty with the few regulars they’d see often in the small gym, but having a tough time doing so because he barely even said hello to anyone ever.

Obviously I do not know enough to say who Fredrik really is, but I am not surprised that Keith’s interactions with Serhant are totally inconsistent with what you’d think from the TV version of Serhant.

Response by inonada
about 2 hours ago
Posts: 5336
Member since: Oct 2008
"I think you have to be careful with conflating the personality on TV with the person in reality."

Could not agree more; I was actually a fan of DJT on The Apprentice.

On a separate note - is anyone else dying to know who the "infrequently-present neighbors who are each independently 100x more famous than him" are. The only couple that comes to mind for me are Kim and Kanye.

Well I'll add to that I've done a handful of deals with Frederick and John Gomes (still have one outstanding deal with them), his partner. John is a total sweetheart, the first time I met him he was representing a buyer for a 600 square foot walk up one bedroom I had on mott Street. He was dressed impeccably, a total gentleman and made his client feel like she was buying a penthouse on 5th avenue. This was many years ago of course.

My direct contact with both Frederick and Ryan was fairly minimal, limited to a few phone calls as we tried to come to terms on a deal. However I'll also say both their teams are exceptionally professional, well prepared and knowledgeable about their listings. It can really be hit or miss with any agent/team in the city, you'd be surprised at how many are woefully underprepared.

Keith
TBG

Fredrik (need to pay better attention to spell check) also tried to get me to come on the show, I politely declined. But his string of texts were charming and funny.

On one deal, we submitted a rather aggressive offer in a new development building where he lived at one point. Literally 5 seconds after I pressed send, my phone rang and all I heard was "offer declined!". I felt like I was on mdl! Lol. We did eventually come to terms, and they even arranged for my clients to have a one-on-one with the architect to go over some changes they wanted to make.

I’ll stay quiet on that one online, MCR. It’ll be like the saga of Nowhere, a mystery for the ages.

I personally find it problematic when those involved in fictional "reality" TV shows about Real Estate bring the shenanigans into IRL Real Estate and play it of as "just marketing" even though the stuff they are pretending is real is extra-legal.

@inonada - Fair enough, and as for "the sage of Nowhere, a mystery for the ages," I fear you have chased George away forever with your silly "data" and insistence on verifiable "facts." Oh well, he was interesting while he lasted.

@30yrs - Ignorance is bliss; as previously noted, I suspect you are burdened with knowing too much.

George will be back, I like conversing with him. As the father of a friend of mine once said some years ago when I was trying to look something up in the middle of a spirited debate: “Whoa, let’s not let facts get in the way of a good conversation!”

https://youtu.be/spTMmkIe2u0

Looks like he had to take down the signup page https://www.serhant.com/agents/