Advice Needed:Corcoran and/or Douglas Elliman broker

check out uri at elliman http://www.prudentialelliman.com/mainsite/agents/agents.aspx?BID=UH

Ed Hardesty, Elliman. Does a lot in Gramercy area. Have known and worked with him for years. Great guy.

Tristan Harper of Elliman does more Upper East and Midtown East, but has done several deals downtown too. Very smart (cute too); won't waste your time.

I second Ed Hardesty

What about the guy who writes Urban Digs? He seems to have a better grasp then most on the current market conditions.

You could also speak with Ali. She focuses on downtown and has a very good reputation

I used Uri Hanoch of Prudential Douglas Elliman a year ago and he was very professional. He is one of the few brokers who is not fake and is a realist. Definetly worth at least an interview. We were impressed.

David Menendez is a good downtown broker with Corcoran:

http://www.corcoran.com/agents/Listings.aspx?userid=DJM&region=NYC

gramercygrl: here's what you do. Go to both Corcoran and DE. Tell them you'll go with whichever broker is willing to accept the smallest commission. Under no circumstances should you be paying 6%.

Slope, that would imply walking blind into a Corcoran or Elliman office. She's looking for SPECIFIC brokers, hopefully worth something to her in this process. Whether that's 6%, maybe not.

Waverly, thanks for the shout out! I work downtown, but for a small neighborhood firm. Before I recommend my competition, can I have a neighborhood and a rough price point please?

ali r.
[downtown broker}

Noah @ Urban Digs works with Halstead. I think most of his focus is representing buyers rather than sellers. But if you like him, give him a call.

why no Brown Harris? ;)

I'm with a small firm now and really thinking it's worth my while to pay up for a name. I have sold in the past through douglas elliman & corcoran but unfortuantely one of the brokers we worked with is no longer in the business and the other we are not on good terms with. Anyhow, thank you for the advice, we will follow up on them!

brown harris isn't a small firm ;) i have a friend at Elliman who is great. Please let me know if you want her #.

best,
Rachel

Thanks, I has an awful experience wtih Raja something or other of Brown Harris and will never deal with them again, sorry, nothing against you personally, but we refuse to give any buisness to brown harris because of him. Thank you I will post back if i need the Elliman name, we've got three so far from Elliman, so if they don't pan out.....

gramercygrl - let me just say one thing. Ask yourself WHY you did not like the service of your first broker; was it marketing? was it service? was it consulting/strategizing?

I would guess it was a consulting/strategizing issue; in other words, its NOT a marketing issue. Its a MARKET issue. In this sense, make sure the broker you ultimately work with understands what is going on right now, because where you price your property and explaining to you where bids are likely to come in at, plays a HUGE role in determining where along the curve your listing starts out at / comes back (relisting). You must be ahead of the curve in this market or you will find yourself chasing the market down.

Good luck.

Well put digs. I find a lot of sellers won't accept the truth about the market and what their property is worth. I have been lucky to get a few re-listings after an overpriced apartment didn't sell.When I sold it at the appropriate price I was hailed as a hero, as you said it's the market-not the marketing. In some cases I know it was the broker who priced up, others the seller. Sometimes as a broker you are damned either way(especially on SE:) but these days you do need to find an experienced person to help you price correctly- without that all the staging, baked cookies, pretty photo's and virtual tours become worthless.

Since I still don't see a price point but I see you have three Elliman recs, I'm going to add William Marshall of Corcoran to your list. Been in the business a long time; I think of him as a townhouse broker, but I know he's recently closed a 2-BR in Gramercy House. A good guy.

ps: you do have a right to negotiate commission with any of the brokers you talk to, no matter what firm they're from.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

how about me

aboutready: "Slope, that would imply walking blind into a Corcoran or Elliman office. She's looking for SPECIFIC brokers, hopefully worth something to her in this process. Whether that's 6%, maybe not."

Thiking any particular broker is "better" than any other is silly. They're all identically mediocre. Go with whomever is the cheapest. Frankly, the only thing that a broker can do that I cannot is spout nonsense with a straight face. If you can get a trained bird to learn a few lines, I'd say go with the trained bird.

slope11217, you are just bitter, you can't generalize. Yes it matters, some small no name company is not going to expose the listing as much as it can be. Further, giving it to some broker who has 4000 other listings, is the same as giving it to his/her secretary to handle and less likely to co-broke, thus your apartment will be sitting there longer than it has to. Look up some agents, check out their bios, and interview them, and yes, you do pay for what you get, if you want 4% service, then go with a 4% company.

Hence if you go with 6% you get 6% service? Who are you bmw?

I did not mean to insult the small companies, I have worked for a few small shops, my point is that a large brand does affect exposure, because it is widely known. If the listing is given to someone exclusively, it will end up in the databases, and it will naturally be shared within the community - and I am sure that there are agents/brokers out there who will personally service the listings in a positive and excellent manner, that was not my point, my point was merely less is not always better and 6% isn't standard, that would violate the antitrust laws...

hate to break up this love fest, but in this market or any other market : price = 99% of the strategy

Having said that in an illiquid market with continuing bad news coming out of the woodworks, I agree with UD and burkhard, get ahead of the curve b/f another unit in the same line in your building starts competing against you.

hmmmm. Don't know Raja but I'm really sorry to hear that!

bmw: "slope11217, you are just bitter, you can't generalize....and yes, you do pay for what you get, if you want 4% service, then go with a 4% company."

I'm not bitter in the least. But let's assume that gramercygrl's apartment is worth roughly $1 (not unreasonable given the average price of a Manhattan apartment and her location). 6% of that is $60,000. I can't, for the life of me, imagine what a broker does to earn $60,000 off one transaction--or $30,000 for that matter.

And as for your 4% comment, I think it's beyond hysterical that a broker wouldn't put in full-effort for "only" $40,000 commission (or $20,000, for that matter). Frankly, they bring no skills to the table to justify that price. It's just one MASSIVE anti-trust violation.

w/ you buddy, Slope11217... I only work off of percentages... I'll do your open heart surgery for 10% of your income... or we can do 10% of your 10x leverage net asset value... you can choose... :)

i like how we've come to a truce.. AR :) R we just avoiding each other? I miss the banter back and forth... :)

Slope: I do agree with some of your points, but take it from someone that's been doing this for 17 years,don't judge me, I have my reasons:). Don't just through a dart at the board when picking a broker to sell your home because even at the "big" firms there are plenty of morons-like you said it's a few hours of "training" and off you go! But that's the kicker in this biz, I have known many brokers that make a small fortune turning keys, yet don't know who pays the transfer tax or what a land-lease is. Plenty of socially connected, "beautiful" people without a lot of smarts(street or University)can earn more money than a pediatrician.

Funny thing is while the real estate market was booming you could have put a flyer on a post and sold your place. But now you need a good broker more than ever to help you market/sell your home and get the eyeballs of the entire brokerage community. Price and exposure=sale Oh yeah my commish.=3.5%, 1 for me 2.5% for the other borker :)

slope, I never said she should pay 6%. My post must not have been clear. You don't just walk up to Dottie and say I'm not paying 6%. You have to find a broker to start that discussion. I'm not wedded to big companies, although the senior people at those places have traditionally had the best advertising budgets. Ed had experience in my neighborhood and building when I chose him years ago, and I'm lucky I've never regretted it (through subsequent purchases and sales).

I still say a good broker can make a great deal of difference. w67th is right, price does matter, which is why it's a good idea to look up some comps, preferably today's and those from a few years ago, and see what the brokers you are interviewing are proposing. Stay away from the ones that promise you the highest price like the plague.

slope11217, I do agree with you, the ironic thing is that I do see both sides of the coin, but the brokerage model, I imagine, will continue to change as new leaders and innovators, continue to see and realize that something has to change. Perhaps technology will help with cutting some of the overhead that brokers have to deal with, and in part the reason why they have to charge whatever it is that they charge. I do not have all the answers, I just apply what I know in the given context.

theburkhardtgroup: I could not agree with you more that "But that's the kicker in this biz, I have known many brokers that make a small fortune turning keys, yet don't know who pays the transfer tax or what a land-lease is. Plenty of socially connected, "beautiful" people without a lot of smarts(street or University)can earn more money than a pediatrician."