Upheaval For Agents

David Goldsmith

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Top Connecticut broker joins Compass
Team lead Leslie Clarke departs William Raveis after 12.5 years

The leader of Connecticut’s top small team is headed to Compass.
Leslie Clarke, head of The Leslie Clarke Team, is leaving William Raveis after 12 and a half years with the family-owned brokerage. Clarke’s team crowned RealTrends’ 2022 ranking of small teams in Connecticut with over $124 million in sales volume.

Clarke declined to share the size of her team and whether members would be joining her at Compass.
“I’ve been in sales since I was 20 years old,” Clarke said. “I’ve actually never stayed at a firm for as long as I had my last one, so I think I was ready for a change.”

Clarke credited her move to Compass to the brokerage’s technology and its nationwide network of agents. The firm lists 288 agents in Fairfield County on its website and reported an average of 13,600 principal agents in the second quarter.
“I found that, especially in the last few years, referrals and networking are super important in this industry,” she said.
Compass invested $900 million in developing a technology platform for agents, which includes features like the predictive modeling “likely to sell” tool.

While at William Raveis, Clarke peddled properties in Fairfield County and Westport, with a particular focus on luxury waterfront homes. Clarke said her deals are largely for single-family homes with an average sale price around $2.4 million, though her team handles some condo sales and rentals.

Clarke’s team last year closed a $5.3 million deal for a historic Westport waterfront property at 42 & 44 Compo Mill Cove. In July, she sold another Compo Cove-facing home at 248 Hillspoint Road for $7 million.

At Compass, Clarke said she plans to continue selling in her primary markets but is open to expanding.
William Raveis, headed by chairman and CEO Bill Raveis, was founded in Fairfield in 1974 and now covers markets in the Northeast and Florida.
Compass said in its second quarter earnings call it was cash flow positive for the first time since it went public in 2021. The numbers followed an aggressive cost-cutting strategy, which involved multiple rounds of layoffs and eliminating its cash and equity incentives for new agents.

 

David Goldsmith

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Berkshire Hathaway poaches top Christie’s team​

Brian Meier’s defection comes as both firms try to crack NYC market

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York’s effort to ascend the ranks of the city’s brokerage world has proven challenging, but the firm just took its biggest step yet, nabbing one of Christie’s International Real Estate’s top-producing teams.
Brian Meier and his Meier Estates & Ventures Team defected Tuesday. Meier’s contingent was the second most successful Christie’s team in the country last year, according to RealTrends, with $259 million in volume. That ranked 35th nationally among medium-sized teams.

“It’s a watershed moment for us,” said Steven James, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway New York Properties.
Meier is bringing five agents and two assistants with him. One team member decided to stay at Christie’s to form a team. Meier said he will have $125 million in listings in his first month at BHHS New York, which ranked 25th in New York City last year with only $36 million in sell-side, on-market deals in Manhattan, according to The Real Deal’s brokerage ranking.
By comparison, Corcoran Group, Douglas Elliman and Compass all had more than $6 billion in closed sales volume, followed by Brown Harris Stevens with $3.6 billion and Sotheby’s International Realty with $1.5 billion. No other firm in the top-heavy market reached $550 million.
Meier said he consulted with his wealthiest clients before pulling the trigger on joining a new firm.
“By far and away Berkshire was the leader in their positive responses,” he said, adding that the firm’s vast referral network was a major factor in his decision to join.
The defection comes at a time when both BHHS and Christie’s are making big pushes into the Manhattan market.

Christie’s effort is just getting started. After a seven-year buildup in the tri-state area, the brokerage this year opened a Manhattan office at 1 Rockefeller Plaza. It has 45 agents selling in the city. The brokerage declined to comment.

James, a longtime Douglas Elliman executive, took the helm of BHHS New York last year, along with fellow former Elliman executive Brad Loe and former Halsted CEO Diane Ramirez. The trio were charged with turning BHHS New York into a major New York City brokerage.
The trio took a shoe-leather recruitment approach that stressed mentorship over technology and branding, a different approach than taken by Compass and Serhant, for example. The stated goal was to grow the company’s headcount to 150 to 200 agents by the end of last year across four offices.

Two-thirds of the way through 2023, their headcount is at 110 and BHHS has just one office in Manhattan, at 590 Madison Avenue.
James said BHHS New York has shifted strategies to target more experienced agents. He added that clawbacks have been challenging to overcome and many agents are reluctant to give up their listings to switch firms.
Plans for a second office, Downtown, have been put on hold until next year, by the end of which James believes the firm can hit its headcount goal.
“There’s a lot of unrest across the city, at all the companies but especially the big companies,” he said. “The same precious small few get all the referrals. … I don’t want to be part of a system like that again.”

 

David Goldsmith

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Compass’ Michael Graves returns to Douglas Elliman​

Musician-turned-broker targets new dev, international business after 4-year stint

Michael Graves is heading back to Douglas Elliman.
The classical musician-turned-broker is leaving Compass after more than four years to rejoin his former firm, where he started in 2013.

Graves attributed his return to Elliman’s national pipeline of new development projects and its international network through its ties to London-based consultancy Knight Frank.
Joining the New York City brokers who said earlier this year that international buyers offered a boost of business after skyrocketing mortgage rates slowed domestic activity, Graves said he expects international interest in the city’s market to rise. He added that about half of his clients are based in other countries and he sees New York as an “oasis for pied-a-terres.”
While at Compass, Graves headed a 10-person team and focused on both resale and new development deals. His active listings on Streeteasy include a 3,900-square-foot penthouse at 240 Park Avenue South, last asking $17 million, and a three-bedroom co-op at 10 Park Avenue, last asking $4.7 million.
Graves said his team will join him at Elliman, but did not specify how many members and whether he’ll be bringing any of his current listings.
“We made a deal very quickly and negotiated it over the weekend and had it signed by Monday,” Douglas Elliman executive chairman Howard Lorber said.
Graves’ move comes as the new development pipeline in the city is drying up. New housing construction filings in the second quarter were down 30 percent compared to the same period last year.

“New development in the city is not actually booming,” Lorber said, pointing to the sector’s activity in other markets where the firm operates, including in Texas and South Florida.

Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman’s Real Estate arm, said that Graves will be in the mix for new development projects for the firm — which he said holds no hard feelings about Graves’ prior move.
“It’s a very small industry, and we always say that we will welcome you back,” Durkin said. “He’s seen the making of where he went at Compass, and I think he missed the culture.”
Compass declined to comment on Graves’ departure.

Before becoming a broker in 2009, Graves was a classical guitarist with plans to compose music and write film scores. He also worked for his family’s Minneapolis-based hotel development company, Graves Hospitality.
Graves, who also appeared on HGTV’s “Selling New York,” was a top agent at CORE before his first stint at Douglas Elliman. His departure from CORE in 2013 was just two months after another of the brokerage’s top producers, Vickey Barron, also went to Douglas Elliman.
When Graves joined Compass in 2019, he cited the company’s tech-centered approach and buy-in from investors.

 

David Goldsmith

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BHS broker joins Elliman’s Holly Parker Team​

Matthew Cohen comes to top team as agent, CEO

Douglas Elliman’s top-ranking Holly Parker Team is adding a new member and chief executive officer.
Former Brown Harris Stevens agent Matthew Cohen is taking over the team’s day-to-day operations. Cohen will continue transacting as a broker, in addition to overseeing recruitment of agents from New York, the Hamptons and Florida.

While at Brown Harris Stevens, Cohen managed a team of three agents, one of which will join him at Douglas Elliman. According to the broker, he completed $62 million in sales last year and $70 million in 2021.
The Holly Parker Team has appeared in The Real Deal’s rankings of New York City’s top brokers in recent years. For 2022, the team placed 11th among the top resale brokers with $145 million in sales across 47 deals and 11th among the top new development brokers with $156 million in sales across 13 deals.

Earlier this year, the team onboarded David Juracich, a real estate investor and longtime partner of JDS Development’s Michael Stern. Juracich worked with Stern on 111 West 57th Street before pivoting to sales full time.
The team’s listings include two three-bedroom residences at The Plaza, asking $14 million and $13 million, as well as a seven-bedroom townhouse on the Upper West Side, with an asking price of $11.7 million.

Cohen, who has also led sales at new developments, last year worked with designers Gina and James de Givenchy to sell their four-bedroom apartment at the Gatsby on the Upper East Side for $4.4 million. He sold a $7.5 million home at 104 Wooster Street and a $6 million condo at 93 Worth Street.
“I’ve been doing this on my own for almost 12 years,” Cohen said. “I don’t have an ego. I’ve just always wanted to be a part of something big.”

Cohen added that he joined the team for the opportunity to mentor its other eight agents. He will be based out of the firm’s office at 690 Washington Street in the West Village.
A spokesperson for Brown Harris Stevens said the firm wishes him luck in his new role.

 

David Goldsmith

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Frederick Peters stepping down from Coldwell Banker Warburg​

Founder to become president emeritus as COO Kevelyn Guzman steps up in January

After nearly 33 years, Frederick Warburg Peters’ time atop the New York City real estate firm he founded in 1991 has come to an end.
Peters will become president emeritus in January, when Coldwell Banker Warburg’s chief operating officer will assume the brokerage’s top position in January. Kevelyn Guzman, a 16-year veteran of the firm will take on the title of regional vice president.

“I will be on call for Kevelyn as she charts the exciting path she has laid out for Coldwell Banker Warburg going forward,” Peters said in a statement on his new role. “I’ll continue representing the company on the Executive Committee of REBNY, assisting agents with deal-related issues, and offering ongoing support in every way possible.”
It’s the second major transition for Coldwell Banker Warburg in the last three years. The firm, which Peters founded by buying the New York City residential business of Albert B. Ashforth, was known as Warburg Realty until 2021. It then sold to Coldwell Banker as part of a series of independent brokerage sales in the city. Peters said at the time the sale allowed him to give agents more support.

The firm he built is a mainstay on The Real Deal’s rankings of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages, finishing eighth last year with $305 million in on-market, sell-side volume.
Guzman’s career began on Wall Street with Meridian Capital, before landing at a real estate brokerage called Outside Ventures. After the firm failed during the 2008 financial crisis, Guzman followed two brokers to Warburg Realty, where she helped lead an overhaul of the company’s technology infrastructure. More recently, she helped lead the company through its acquisition by Coldwell Banker.

“The biggest challenge was going from having full autonomy to now having to explain every single thing to corporate and needing their approval,” she said. “I think that was my biggest accomplishment: getting to the point where we are today, where we’re running like a well-oiled machine.”
Guzman, who has had her real estate license for over a decade, created the firm’s agent development program and helps agents strategize before big pitches and assembling board packages.

The initiatives planned for her first year include traveling to other regional Coldwell Banker offices to shore up connections and strengthen referral networks. Guzman also serves as head of the New York City chapter of “What Moves Her,” a campaign created by Susan Yannaccone, the president and CEO of Anywhere brands.

 

David Goldsmith

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Corcoran’s Pashbys join BHS​

Mother-daughter duo is teaming up with Wendy Sarasohn, Jamie Joseph

Two of New York City’s mother-daughter broker duos are teaming up.
Corcoran agents Maria and Joanna Pashby left the firm to join with Wendy Sarasohn and Jamie Sarasohn Joseph at Brown Harris Stevens, according to a BHS spokesperson. The brokers made up the Pashby Team, which ranked 98th among RealTrends’ top small teams in New York last year with nearly $64 million in sales.

The pairs will form the Pashby Sarasohn Team — one of BHS’ 44 parent-child groups. The team will be based out of the brokerage’s office at 445 Park Avenue.
The move marks Maria Pashby’s second stint at BHS. The broker, who formerly headed the Pashby Buckworth Team, jumped from Corcoran to BHS in 2014, along with Robby Browne. Browne, Pashby and their sales team returned to Corcoran the following year.
Around the same time, Sarasohn and Joseph also traded Corcoran for Brown Harris Stevens. Before their move in 2014, Sarasohn had been with Pam Liebman’s firm since 1988, when she was named Rookie of the Year.

A spokesperson for Corcoran said the firm wishes the Pashbys success in their new venture.
With Joanna’s help, Maria Pashby has sold 21 apartments at the Beresford — a landmarked co-op on the Upper West Side — including two for over $10 million in the past three months. Maria also sold photographer Annie Leibovitz’s West Village townhouse for $28.5 million in 2014.
Sarasohn and Joseph — who said they often work with multiple generations of the same families — sold a four-bedroom penthouse at 6 West 77th Street to billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman for $22.5 million in 2018. The duo also recently sold a penthouse at 21 East 91st Street for roughly $10 million.

Sarasohn’s listings include a four-bedroom Park Avenue co-op asking $5.8 million and a 2,200-square-foot condo in Lenox Hill asking $4.3 million, according to Streeteasy.

 

David Goldsmith

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Nest Seekers sues Serhant, Connecticut agents​

At least the third suit targeting Serhant since its East Coast expansion

The Connecticut arm of Nest Seekers International is suing Ryan Serhant and two of its former managers.
The brokerage accused Garvey Fox and Danielle Garvey of breaching their contracts and stealing commissions, clients, listings and marketing materials when they left the firm to open Serhant’s Connecticut office, Inman first reported.

The complaint, filed in the Connecticut Superior Court in November, also claims Serhant relied on “unfair and deceptive trade practices” to lure Nest Seekers’ agents to his eponymous firm. Nest Seekers is seeking $10 million in damages.
Since Serhant launched its East Coast expansion in April, the brokerage has been named in at least three lawsuits, including those filed in Philadelphia and Palm Beach County.

In the complaint, the plaintiff’s attorney argued that Serhant’s “modus operandi” is to “steal and/or otherwise take the corporate brokerage’s listings, customers, clients, related lists and good will, and convert the same to his own use.”
The Connecticut lawsuit alleges Fox and Malloy were subject to an eight-month “restrictive period” in their employment contracts, which prohibited them from competing directly with Nest Seekers in a specified area and from attempting to poach its clients, employees, listings and vendors.
The pair signed five-year contracts with Nest Seekers in July 2020 and resigned from the firm in December 2022. Fox and Malloy then helped found Serhant’s Connecticut division in April.
Nest Seekers alleges that Malloy and Fox secured two of the listings named in the lawsuit — including a New Canaan home asking $14.9 million and a Westport listing priced at $7.9 million — while they were employees at the firm.

In a statement on the lawsuit, Ryan Serhant dismissed the filing.

“More traditional brokerages that are losing agents to innovative upstarts like Serhant use litigation to interfere with agent mobility even when those agents and their new brokerage have done nothing wrong,” Serhant said. “It’s not a new story about employers who lose people trying to use the courts to interfere with departures; and the courts generally reject those claims.”
Serhant worked under the Nest Seekers brand for over a decade, during which he rose to broker stardom as a cast member of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York.” He left Nest Seekers and launched his own venture in 2020.
Several former Nest Seekers agents have since jumped to Serhant’s firm, though a notable few have moved in the other direction.
In September, one of Serhant’s top brokers, Loy Carlos, joined Nest Seekers to head the firm’s new Global Wealth division. Nest Seekers scooped up another of Serhant’s top producers, Tamir Shemesh, after he was fired from Serhant in February.

 

David Goldsmith

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Serhant nabs top new dev broker, six other Corcoran agents​

Peter Zaitzeff, new megateam coming to three-year-old brokerage

Serhant got an early start to its Christmas haul, adding a bundle of new agents just before the holiday.
Among the new arrivals is Corcoran’s Peter Zaitzeff, who RealTrends ranks 54th among New York individual agents with $82 million in self-reported volume last year.

Zaitzeff didn’t comment on whether he’s bringing any new development projects with him. His past projects include Related Companies’ 70 Vestry and Steve Witkoff’s 150 Charles, where he had the listing for a penthouse that traded in August for $38.5 million, or $8,350 per square foot.
Zaitzeff, who is ending a six-year stint at Corcoran and previously spent six years at Douglas Elliman, said he wasn’t planning on switching firms until he was personally recruited by founder Ryan Serhant.

The other seven Corcoran agents that joined Serhant this week include Alexandra Newman, MaryElizabeth Smith and Amit Golriz, along with three other agents to form the Luxury Alliance Team.
Corcoran finished first in The Real Deal’s ranking of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages by closed sales in 2022 with nearly $6.7 billion in sales, up from $6.5 billion in 2021. Serhant finished sixth in the borough with $542 million — nearly doubling its 2021 volume.
In a statement on the agents’ departure, Corcoran president & CEO Pamela Liebman pointed to her firm’s status atop New York City’s residential brokerages.
“Coming out of a challenging year, I definitely know where I’d want to be,” she said. “I hope this move gives these agents what they are looking for and I wish them well.”

It’s yet to be seen if Serhant will continue its rise through TRD’s ranking, but the brokerage has had an eventful year.

Serhant Ventures, the firm’s educational arm, kicked the year off by antagonizing Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman with an offer to coach her agents. In February, Serhant abruptly terminated star agent Tamir Shemesh for reasons unclear, marking the broker’s third abrupt exit in recent memory.
Serhant in the spring expanded to six East Coast states, a push that prompted lawsuits from local firms in Pennsylvania, Florida and most recently Connecticut. It also opened a second New York City office for executives and staff.
Serhant has also seen some notable departures this year, including top luxury agent Loy Carlos, who left in September for Nest Seekers.

 

David Goldsmith

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Townhouse heavyweights leave Leslie Garfield for Serhant​

Top broker Ravi Kantha leads agent exits from top team

Serhant picked up five brokers from boutique firm Leslie Garfield, sapping the townhouse-focused firm of its top team and one of its top agents.
Broker Ravi Kantha was a founding member of the firm’s top-selling team. The Real Deal’s ranking of New York City’s top brokers in 2022 by sell-side volume placed the Lesser Kantha team at seventh overall with $186 million in on-market deals.

Kantha joined the firm in 2015, and was brought on as an assistant to 18-year industry veteran Matthew Lesser eight months later. The duo, former lawyer Kantha and senior firm partner Lesser, went on to grow the team to seven people and Kantha helmed their expansion into Brooklyn.
The team’s priciest deals in 2023 include the $17.4 million sale of a 10-bedroom townhouse in the West Village in September and an Upper East Side townhouse that closed for $13.8 million in October, according to StreetEasy.

At Serhant, Kantha said he plans to expand his business beyond the townhouse market to include resale and new development sales.
Joining Kantha at Ryan Serhant’s firm are Cameron LeCates and Christopher Johnson, both previously members of the Lesser Kantha team. Also moving is broker Stanley Montfort, whose website bills himself as a brownstone and rowhouse specialist, and an administrative staffer who will work as an agent at Serhant.
Lesser said the firm was “already in the process of filling the void.”
It’s unclear what the loss from the top team will mean for Leslie Garfield, which has been a mainstay among the city’s top-selling firms because of its niche in the high-dollar townhouse market.

The firm finished 13th in TRD’s 2023 rankings of top Manhattan brokerages, with $164 million in on-market, sell-side volume.

The firm in 2015 began a partnership with London-based brokerage Beauchamp Estates, also specialized in townhouses. The joint venture prompted speculation the two boutique companies could merge, but no deal ever materialized.
Kantha’s move to Serhant bolsters the up-and-coming brokerage’s presence in Brooklyn. The firm — which ranked fifth among the borough’s top brokerages last year— heads sales at some major new development projects in Brooklyn such as the Huron in Greenpoint.
Serhant’s emphasis on social media — complete with an in-house studio — was a big draw, according to Kantha.
“It’s never easy parting ways with someone you’ve worked with for a long time,” Kantha said of his exit from the partnership with Lesser, who he said was “instrumental in helping him learn the ways of the business.”

 

David Goldsmith

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Serhant scoops up a Sotheby’s team in Short Hills
Two-person team is New York-based brokerage’s third move after the Garden State expansion

Anthony Verducci and Cristian Perez almost lost a listing to Ryan Serhant last year.
The client insisted on listing with the star broker. There was just one problem: the New York-based brokerage of the same name hadn’t yet expanded into New Jersey. Verducci and Perez ended up with the listing, but the experience left an impression.

“It planted the idea in our heads,” Verducci said.
Now, the two-person team has left Sotheby’s International Real Estate for the star broker’s eponymous firm, just over nine months after Serhant entered the market as part of an expansion across six states.

Verducci and Perez, who self-reported $60 million in annual sales volume in 2023, eventually decided it was time to make a move. The pair claim to have the highest ever sale in Livingston, New Jersey, at $6.5 million and Summit, New Jersey, at $8.2 million.

“For us, it’s about getting more eyeballs on our listings,” said Verducci, adding that he wanted to make a move before activity picks up.
It’s Serhant’s third addition in the Garden State. It entered the market with the addition of Michele Zyska, Compass’ former agent of record in the state, and then announced an affiliation with Jersey City brokerage Trompeter Real Estate in July.
The firm has been on a recruiting tear recently after suffering some departures last year, including an up-and-coming team led by Maggie Wu left Serhant for Compass and veteran agent Loy Carlos, who left to head Nest Seekers’ Global Wealth division.

Serhant reports 85 agents have joined in January, including Ravi Kantha, a top townhouse agent formerly with Leslie J. Garfield, and Corcoran’s Peter Zaitzeff.

 

David Goldsmith

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Darcy Stacom, who has brokered $150B in investment sales, has left CBRE to start her own firm.

Stacom is launching a New York-focused boutique advisory and brokerage firm, Stacom CRE, after more than four decades in the field, including 22 years at CBRE.

“Commercial real estate in New York and globally is in transition, and that provides a great opportunity for a new nimble boutique advisory firm in this space,” Stacom said in a statement. “I think this is the right moment to strike out on my own.”

Her new firm will provide traditional brokerage services and will also offer consulting and strategy services not typically provided, according to a press release. Stacom CRE will provide advisory services for clients looking to rightsize, restructure or exit portfolios, engage in ground lease negotiations, introduce limited partners to general partners and execute asset dispositions.

“We thank Darcy for numerous contributions in building our New York Investment Properties team. During her more than 20 years here, Darcy drove some of New York's most iconic transactions and has been a champion of diversity and giving back to the community,” CBRE President for the New York Tri-State Area Matt Van Buren said in a statement. “We wish her well with her new firm.”

CBRE’s Doug Middleton, who has been running the firm’s investment properties group for the last year and a half, will continue to oversee the group, CBRE told Bisnow in a statement. Bill Shanahan, who long worked as Stacom's partner, will stay on as senior producer, connecting owners with troubled properties to capital sources.

Stacom’s career trajectory led The Wall Street Journal to nickname her “Queen of Skyscrapers” in 1997. She began her career at Cushman & Wakefield, where her father, Matthew Stacom, was a leading broker, before jumping to CBRE in 2002, The Financial Times reported.

Her fingerprints are all over transactions including the $5.4B sale in 2006 of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, which covered 80 acres and 110 separate buildings and is still the largest single-asset real estate transaction in NYC history.

Stacom also broke records in 2008 when she closed the $2.8B sale of the General Motors Building, the largest single-office-building sale in history.

She was involved in Midtown South’s largest office asset sale, brokering a deal for 11 Madison Ave. for $2.6B, as well as the $1.3B sale of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which was the largest office condo sale in history.

She has most recently served as CBRE’s chair and head of NYC capital markets, and she has been named CBRE’s top investment sales professional eight times. She is also the co-chair of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Diversity Committee.

“This industry needs more women-led enterprises, and I look forward to continuing to forge that path and bring the next generation of women leaders along with me,” she said.
 

David Goldsmith

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The Daily Dirt: Bob Knakal gets a glowing profile and a pink slip​

Did JLL punish the legendary operator for his Times profile?

In commercial brokerage, breadwinners’ behavior is tolerated, but more so if they are family members.

For evidence, we will make an unlikely comparison between Bob Knakal and Eric Haber.

When Ruth Colp-Haber of Wharton Property Advisors is not brokering office subleases and doing media calls, she pens an entertaining newsletter. In last week’s edition, the quintessential New Yorker called out her husband, the firm’s counsel, in explaining the challenge of getting employees to go to the office.
“Our sources tell us that these corporate directives to return to the office are often defied by the rank-and-file at the banks and elsewhere. In one clever ploy, recalcitrant employees sometimes enlist their friends to do card swipes to give the appearance that they are in the office. Further, sometimes employees will only come in for a few hours a day just to give the impression that they are on hand.

“How do they get away with this? Well, maybe the boss is in on the game and is doing the same thing! And while some employees work at home for good reasons, others are not all in.
“Take my husband Eric as an example (please) of someone who rarely graces us with his presence at the office. He does not even attempt to hide the fact that he might be watching soccer games during the day. But what am I to do as he is very capable and helps us get the big accounts, so I have to put up with him.”
Apparently, that dynamic did not exist between Colp-Haber’s fellow commercial broker, Bob Knakal, and his bosses at JLL, who sent the legendary (at least in real estate circles) operator packing this week. It was likely not a coincidence that his dismissal happened right after a glowing profile of Knakal ran in Sunday’s New York Times.
JLL was not mentioned in the first 1,390 words of the profile. Eventually, the firm was named only in passing:
“During the week, Mr. Knakal splits his time between his office at the Madison Avenue headquarters of JLL, the real estate firm where he works, and another building in Midtown where he leased space just for his map.”

JLL was not mentioned again. That’s right: Just one reference to JLL in the 1,728-word story. The firm did not appear in any of the seven photographs, either.
That is not the only reason Knakal is no longer at JLL. More likely it was a final straw.
Business people are known to turn down media opportunities that do not include their bosses, but Knakal is not one of those people. JLL should have known to expect that when it brought Knakal on board.
Having enjoyed a long and successful career, Bob Knakal is not going to change. Ruth Colp-Haber knows someone like that too.

 

David Goldsmith

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Serhant scoops up a Sotheby’s team in Short Hills​

Two-person team is New York-based brokerage’s third move after the Garden State expansion
Anthony Verducci and Cristian Perez almost lost a listing to Ryan Serhant last year.
The client insisted on listing with the star broker. There was just one problem: the New York-based brokerage of the same name hadn’t yet expanded into New Jersey. Verducci and Perez ended up with the listing, but the experience left an impression.

“It planted the idea in our heads,” Verducci said.
Now, the two-person team has left Sotheby’s International Real Estate for the star broker’s eponymous firm, just over nine months after Serhant entered the market as part of an expansion across six states.

Verducci and Perez, who self-reported $60 million in annual sales volume in 2023, eventually decided it was time to make a move. The pair claim to have the highest ever sale in Livingston, New Jersey, at $6.5 million and Summit, New Jersey, at $8.2 million.

“For us, it’s about getting more eyeballs on our listings,” said Verducci, adding that he wanted to make a move before activity picks up.
It’s Serhant’s third addition in the Garden State. It entered the market with the addition of Michele Zyska, Compass’ former agent of record in the state, and then announced an affiliation with Jersey City brokerage Trompeter Real Estate in July.
The firm has been on a recruiting tear recently after suffering some departures last year, including an up-and-coming team led by Maggie Wu left Serhant for Compass and veteran agent Loy Carlos, who left to head Nest Seekers’ Global Wealth division.

Serhant reports 85 agents have joined in January, including Ravi Kantha, a top townhouse agent formerly with Leslie J. Garfield, and Corcoran’s Peter Zaitzeff.

 

David Goldsmith

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Side snatches 27-agent Compass team​

Louis Belisario, Joe Cruz founded Revived Residential at Side

Leaders of a top Brooklyn team have left to start their own company at Side, a white-label platform for real estate brokerages.
Louis Belisario and Joe Cruz have taken their 27-agent Compass team to found Revived Residential. The team’s $115 million in sales volume in 2022 placed it fourth on Real Trends’ ranking of New York “mega” teams, or those with more than 20 agents.

Belisario emphasized that he and Cruz, who founded the Belisario Cruz Team at Compass in 2020, aren’t leaving the firm because of any issues there.
“It’s about working for ourselves and having our own company,” said Belisario. “It has nothing to do with superiority of technology. To tell you the truth, most real estate agents don’t even use the technology.”

(“Side streamlines the rest with a proprietary app that automates transaction management and premier support services,” Side’s website boasts. Compass, for its part, has spent about $1.5 billion building its platform.)
Revived Residential is housed in a Marine Park office and is opening a second Brooklyn location, in Park Slope, and launching a commercial division, called Revived Commercial. Belisario and Cruz want to nearly triple their agent count to 75 by the end of the year, with the vast majority working on the residential side.

Belisario previously served as executive director of sales at his family’s company, Fillmore Real Estate, and Cruz owned Urban Realty, which merged into Town Residential.
Elysa Berlin, who most recently worked at Longbrook Real Estate after stints at Massey Knakal Realty Services and Cushman & Wakefield, will head the commercial division.

Belisario and Cruz built their team by focusing on lower price points in Southern Brooklyn and other non-prime neighborhoods, a starkly different strategy from that of most top-tier teams, which tend to focus on luxury real estate. The pair feel they can better serve that market as a boutique operation.
“That clientele really requires a boutique experience and a higher level of service, more hand holding, and things like that,” said Belisario.
Side recently named Stephen Capezza, formerly of Zillow, as its president. The firm made a major splash in 2022 with the addition of Tal and Oren Alexander, who left Douglas Elliman to launch their own company, Official, with Side.

 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member


Corcoran poaches Elliman’s Espinal Adler team​

After 15 years, Marie Espinal and Jeff Adler jump to rival brokerage

The Espinal Adler Team, a veteran Douglas Elliman group, have left the brokerage for rival Corcoran.
The team last year ranked eighth in New York City in the large team category, according to RealTrends, with nearly $140 million in volume. Leaders Marie Espinal and Jeff Adler, who spent 15 years with Elliman, are bringing nine of their 10 team members with them. The only member staying behind is Shaun Anders, who joined Noble Black’s team.

“We didn’t leave Elliman, we joined Corcoran,” said Adler. “What I mean by that is they came to us in their recruitment and did a 360 of our business and marketing and proactively told us how they could help us. ”
The Espinal Adler Team does business in New York City, Westchester and Miami, as well as resale and new development. Adler said the team isn’t bringing over any new development projects, but took “a few” listings to Corcoran.

A company representative said in a statement that “Douglas Elliman wishes Jeff and Marie the very best in their new endeavor.”

The move bolsters Corcoran’s agent roster a little over two months after it lost eight agents, including Peter Zaitzeff, to Serhant.
Corcoran finished first in The Real Deal’s ranking of Manhattan’s top residential brokerages by closed sales in 2022 with nearly $6.7 billion in sales, up from $6.5 billion in 2021.
While sales were slower last year, Espinal said she’s optimistic about this year’s market, and expects an uptick until shortly before the presidential election in November.

“The fundamentals are super strong,” she said. “The last 18 months have been driven by uncertainty.”
 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member

Elliman brokers Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon join Compass​

Former “Selling New York” stars and CORE top producers launch team, market expansion

Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon will be selling in New York and beyond with Compass from here on out.
The agents, who rose to prominence in New York with a celebrity client roster, have left Douglas Elliman for Compass. In addition to the $60 million in listings they’re bringing to their new firm, the brokers are launching a team with plans to expand into markets outside of New York.

They aim to build a new team of 10 to 12 agents at Compass in the next six to 12 weeks, part of the team’s planned expansion into markets outside of New York.
The targeted markets include Nashville, Austin and Aspen — all areas that have welcomed new residential brokerage rivals in recent years. The team also plans on expanding its footprint in markets where Compass has claimed the top spot among firms, including South Florida (nearly $3 billion in closed sales in Miami-Dade County in the year before April 2023) and Los Angeles (more than $18 billion in the year before March 2023.)

Postilio said the expansions are about “organically growing our team in other places throughout the country where we have clients that are making moves.”
Postilio and Conlon first joined forces at CORE, where Postilio was a founding member. The pair were the brokerage’s top-producing team in 2013 and garnered a celebrity client roster including Joan Collins, Barry Manilow, Liza Minnelli and David Sanborn.
They moved to Elliman in 2015, counting $1.5 billion in self-reported sales. They now claim that total has risen to $3 billion in lifetime sales. RealTrends ranked the team 35th in volume in New York City last year with $64 million in volume.

The team is trading one of New York City’s top firms for another. TRD’s 2023 ranking of the Big Apple’s residential brokerages deemed Douglas Elliman in second place, with $6.45 billion in sales. Compass rounded out the top three with $6.1 billion in sales.

They’re the second well-known team to leave Elliman recently, after Corcoran announced this week it pulled over the Espinal Adler Team.
The brokers, who appeared in some episodes of HGTV’s “Selling New York” between 2010 and 2012, said they were eyeing a possible lead to get back into television.
“We have a new agent in L.A. who is shopping an idea, we’ll see if it comes to fruition,” said Postilio.
Former team members Stuart Sussman, Clara Chung, Eric Gabbard and team administrator Sarah Orenstein aren’t joining the new team at Compass.
An Elliman spokesperson said in a statement the firm “wishes Tom and Mickey the best of luck.”

 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member

Migration and the Power of New

March 18, 2024 Mike DelPrete

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I recently wrote about Learning From A New Generation of Brokerages, which includes the migration patterns of tens of thousands of agents across the industry.

Why it matters: Agents change brokerages for a variety of reasons – technology, compensation, support, brand – but it turns out one of the biggest factors may simply be that agents are attracted to new things.
  • During 2023, agents continued to stream out of the big legacy brands for the lure of low-fee brokerage models, where agents can keep more of their commission.

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Dig deeper: Aside from compensation structures, another factor appears to be at play: the average age of the brokerage.
  • Real, Fathom, United, RealtyOne, Compass, and eXp Realty, with an average brokerage age of 14 years, are all attracting agents.
  • While HomeServices of America, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and Anywhere – the legacy brands with an average age of 43 years – are all losing agents.

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Which raises an interesting question: why?
  • Real estate agents are entrepreneurs, and like the hard-working hustlers they are, appear to always be looking for something new: new ideas, new models, and new opportunities to grow their businesses.
  • New brokerages are brimming with actual and perceived potential – the potential to be more and do more for agents.
The bottom line: The industry is shifting, and one powerful trend is the migration of agents between brokerages.
  • A number of factors are driving that movement, but a major determinant appears to be the relative age of the brokerage.
  • Which is a timely reminder of the entrepreneurial spirit of agents and the alluring power, and potential, of something new.







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About the author: Mike DelPrete (email me)​

Mike is a global real estate tech strategist, and a scholar-in-residence at the University of Colorado Boulder. He's a former tech entrepreneur, CEO, strategy director, and head of corporate development with broad expertise in online real estate tech, and a passion for growing new businesses.

Mike is internationally recognized as an expert and thought-leader in real estate tech. His evidence-based analysis is widely read by global leaders, and he is a sought-after strategy and new ventures consultant.

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