From left: 101 Warren Street, Asher Alcobi of Peter Ashe Real Estate and Michael Chen of Bond New York (top), Wei Min Tan of Castle Avenue Partners (bottom), Trump Soho, and 250 East 53rd Street

Now added to the long list of exports from China are buyers of New York City real
estate.

Chinese residents flush with cash from the Asian nation’s booming economy, and in
some cases limited in what they can buy at home, are starting to look at Manhattan
apartments.

Between March 2010 and March 2011, 9 percent of foreign buyers in the U.S. were from
China, according to the National Association of Realtors, up from 5 percent in 2007.
Canada sends the U.S. the most foreign buyers, with 23 percent, but China is number
two, the data shows. In contrast, England, Mexico and India, next on the list, each
represent 7 percent.

And many of those Chinese buyers are trickling into New York, say brokers, who are
creating customized services to greet them. [more]

Kurland Realty’s founder, Kevin Kurland, has started a new firm, offering his take on the 100 percent commission model.

The new venture, known as Spire Group, launched this past Saturday, Jan. 1, said Kurland, who started the boutique firm Kurland Realty in 1997.

Rather than splitting their commission checks with the firm, Spire agents will keep all of their commissions, but pay “agent dues” of $495 per month, he said. In exchange, they get access to the firm’s listings, website (which operates as a virtual office website, or VOW) and other resources. [more]

From left: Antonio Del Rosario, Rosario’s proposed group logo, Kathy Braddock of Charles Rutenberg and Larry Friedman

AC Lawrence has parted ways with its one-time director of sale [more]

As more NYC brokers and firms change business models and adapt to today’s Facebook culture, they are forced to transform their images too

From the June issue: Branding. It’s the reason you choose Coke over Pepsi, Stumptown over Starbucks or Barneys over Saks. But when it comes to buying real estate, how much do brand names matter? As Manhattan’s real estate firms jockey for position in a tough market, the significance of branding is changing rapidly. This month, The Real Deal looked at the importance of image — for firms and agents alike — in the altered marketplace. Some believe that brand loyalty is becoming less crucial in real estate, as technology grows increasingly sophisticated and consumers can access property listings without brokers’ help.

[more]

As more NYC brokers and firms change business models and adapt to today’s Facebook culture, they are forced to transform their images too

From the June issue: Branding. It’s the reason you choose Coke over Pepsi, Stumptown over Starbucks or Barneys over Saks. But when it comes to buying real estate, how much do brand names matter? As Manhattan’s real estate firms jockey for position in a tough market, the significance of branding is changing rapidly. This month, The Real Deal looked at the importance of image — for firms and agents alike — in the altered marketplace. Some believe that brand loyalty is becoming less crucial in real estate, as technology grows increasingly sophisticated and consumers can access property listings without brokers’ help.

[more]

A new residential online brokerage hopes to unlock a new palette of analytics from which sellers can track how their advertisements perform among buy [more]

Charles Rutenberg Realty’s new office in Valley Stream

Charles Rutenberg Realty announced the opening of its third Long Island office today, this time at 515 Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream. Louisa Borriello, an associate broker with the company, will be managing the office, which will be utilized by as many as 150 agents. [more]

Homestate Properties office at 102-104 Fulton Street

A new sales and rental brokerage with ties to embattled developer Yair Levy has opened at 102-104 Fulton Street, the former home of now-defunct firm Homestead New York. And with a remarkably similar name — Homestate Properties — the new firm may be trying to piggyback on the success of its predecessor, which ceased operations in 2008 in the midst of the real estate downturn. The new firm is being run by Daniel Deutsch, Levy’s son-in-law and onetime business associate, and is headquartered in office space owned by Levy in the Fulton Chambers building, a nine-story building that Levy and partners converted to 14 condo units in 2004. After selling out Fulton Chambers, Levy retained ownership of commercial condos in the building, according to city documents, and leased space to sales and rental firm Homestead, founded by Eli Adahan and Danny Shamooil. Homestead had about 35 agents and three offices by the time it closed. Its co-founders, who are not involved in Homestate, have now moved on to other ventures. Levy himself may not be involved in the new venture, either. Homestate filed for incorporation with the Department of State in November 2009, according to the agency’s Web site, listing as its address Park Columbus at 101 West 87th Street — a stalled condo conversion, owned by Levy, which is now in foreclosure. But Homestate’s real estate license lists 102-104 Fulton Street as its headquarters, naming Deutsch as a salesperson and attorney Lior Aldad as the broker. [more]

From the December issue: Until last year, The Real Deal‘s annual accounting of real
estate records was a Mad Libs of giddy peaks: The highest price ever
paid for [insert type of real estate] in [insert name of borough] was
catalogued, time and again.
Even in 2008 — before Lehman Brothers fell and the recession
tightened its stranglehold on the city — records were toppled. On the
residential side, Manhattan logged the highest median sale price ever,
$945,276, while on the commercial side, Boston Properties paid $2.9
billion for the GM Building, the highest price ever shelled out in the
United States for an office tower. But many of 2009′s records are record lows, rather than record
highs. For example, the second quarter of the year saw the largest
year-over-year drop — 25.6 percent — ever recorded by appraisal firm
Miller Samuel in Manhattan’s median sale price for apartments. The firm
has been releasing market reports for the last decade. [more]

From left: Kathy Braddock and Paul Purcell of Charles Rutenberg Realty, and Jonas Lee, who has founded several internet startups, have launched TopAgentGuide.com

Ask any Manhattan resident how to go about finding the right real estate agent, and you’ll likely get a flood of horror stories about high-pressure sales and terrible apartments.

A new Web site is trying to change that.

TopAgentGuide.com, newly launched by the founders of real estate consultancy Braddock + Purcell, aims to function as a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal for real estate, by prescreening agents and pointing users to the best ones.

“We’ve got thousands of agents in New York, but there’s really no way to find the best one,” said Kathy Braddock, executive consultant at TopAgentGuide.com. “Hopefully the site will make the consumer more aware of the fabulous agents out there.”

But Braddock has even loftier aspirations for the venture. [more]