With the crowd at “The Real Deal Real Estate Forum and Showcase” all warmed up by two previous, dare I say… fiery… panel discussions, the final forum of the day brought together 5 of the most influential realtors in New York City, Richard Steinberg of Douglass Elliman, Dolly Lenz, Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers Intl, Brenda Powers of Sotheby’s Intl., and Leonard Steinberg of Compass. There seemed to be more cohesion between these five panelists than in the previous panels, as agreements and additions, rather than disagreements and counterpoints, dominated the discussion.
The conversation, moderated by Editor-in-chief of TRD Stuart Elliott, started with Leonard Steinberg’s responses to Howard Lorber and Pam Liebman’s condemnation of Compass’s recruiting strategies and Howard’s suggestion that the company will be out of business in the coming few years. Leonard took the high road and talked about his intention of elevating the whole industry, rather than just improve his company. Leonard touted Compass’s accomplishments in major cities around the United States, and professed confidence in his young company. Ryan Serhant, a bit later on, stated thatCompass wasn’t going anywhere because of how automated and impersonal New York City real estate is becoming. Compass has figured out how to successfully automate much of the pre-viewing process, and Ryan thinks it’ll play heavily in their favor in the coming years.
Discussing the recent dip in New York’s luxury real estate market, Richard Steinberg flatly said, “Anyone that tells you they’re not making concessions… is not being fully transparent.” The “luxflation”, a term coined by Leonard to mean the extreme escalation in pricing focused on the very high end, of luxury housing prices brought up differing view points of how to handle developers’ pull back from the trend of skyrocketing prices. According to Dolly, some buyers who signed contracts before the dip in the market are trying to renegotiate the terms of their leases.
And at the forefront of everybody’s mind was StreetEasy’s Premier Agent feature, which allows “buyer’s brokers” to buy ad space on an agent’s exclusive listing. For more on the “Premier Agent Fiasco”, as I’ve termed it, check out: http://www.morrismoving.com/premier-agent-fiasco-the-what-how/
Serhant, who had publicly admonished the program initially, is now taking a patient approach. After meeting with StreetEasy, the company is working on modifying its approach to be more upfront about who is the listing agent and who the buyer’s agent is. Ryan is willing to see where they go with their compromise, “so far I haven’t seen too much.”
Playing off of an infamous quote from a white house staff member, Leonard claimed, “the real estate industry invented the term ‘alternative facts’ and ‘alternative facts’ have been around long before StreetEasy came along… As an industry, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘we couldn’t get our act together, allowed StreetEasy to create the monster, so now we have to live with it.”
But the issue remains, as Richard expressed that it’s extraordinarily frustrating for agents who work so hard to get a listing, to be contacted by a “buyer’s agent” who has nothing to do with the project to nudge his/her way in. Leonard came quickly to the defense of starter agents trying to get their foot in the door through the premier agent feature. Dolly added on, “StreetEasy and Realtor.com are entitled to make a living. Why are we the only ones allowed to make a living?”
Brenda slammed the program by saying that the program “is not in the consumer’s best interest. We sign a contract with these people, and we have a fiduciary responsibility to them. If a third party comes, and they try to broker, it’s not right…you pay to play, and that’s not fair.”
Through all of this hoopla about this feature, where does the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) come into play? Richard says it’s not at all. “I work hard enough. I don’t want to be a policeman for these unethical brokers.” He believes that cases like this are exactly why a REBNY exists, to protect the ethics of the New York real estate industry.
This conversation really gave the viewers everything they were looking for: an excellent discussion between 5 of the most influential people in the luxury real estate market, and opened up a dialogue about some of the most interesting topics surrounding the real estate industry.