After a tumultuous two years, Barak Realty, the residential brokerage founded by Barak Dunayer in 2000, is turning its foucs more to rental listings, Real Estate Weekly reported.
In 2009, the firm had as many as 37 agents, but as the market slowed, and Dunayer decided to add on to his managing responsibilities by returning to selling properties, some agents began defecting. Dunayer said he moved from his private office on to the sales floor to show that, despite his agents’ complaints, properties could still sell. However, some agents felt as though he was trumpeting his own listings at their expense, Real Estate Weekly said. The article quotes an unidentified source who was turned off by Dunayer’s aggressive style.
“Some of those people used to base a large part of their business based on my referrals,” Dunayer said. “Their business went down. Obviously, they got upset, and they went somewhere else.”
Last year, The Real Deal reported that Dunayer began giving out bigger bonuses in an effort to keep his top-producing agents looking to move to other firms. But that only temporarily stopped the bleeding, as many agents eventually left, including top-producer Jeffrey Tanenbaum.
Though Barak now has 25 agents, Dunayer insists its more profitable, and he said he wants to continue to grow by capitalizing on the strong rental market and hiring a rental director to focus on that part of the business. [REW]
