From left: Diane Ramirez president of Halstead Property, Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president of REBNY, and Duncan MacKenzie, the CEO of the New York State Association of Realtors

The first major overhaul of state real estate advertising regulations in 34 years is nearly complete but is being held up because the Real Estate Board of New York and the New York State Association of Realtors can’t agree on a few final points.

The 11-member quasi-governmental New York State Board of Real Estate, which advises the state Department of State and helps craft real estate brokerage regulations, held its first meeting in more than two years this month and briefly discussed the new rules. The board is supposed to meet three times per year, but as The Real Deal reported in July, it has not gathered since June 2009. Members include Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president of REBNY.

REBNY and NYSAR agree on most issues in the 11 pages of proposed regulations that aim to update scattered rules (see first PDF below) as well as the two-paragraph advertising regulation, that was passed in 1977, as part of the broader Real Property Law (see second PDF below), but can’t see eye-to-eye on the size of brokerage names and logos relative to the brokers and agents placing the ads.

The major players in the negotiations are the state Department of State, which regulates real estate licensing, REBNY and NYSAR, insiders said.

The state sought to update the rules in part because of questions from brokers and agents who did not have a clear idea of advertising rules in the Internet age.

The new proposed rules lay out the relative size of the names of teams, brokers and salespersons compared to the company name in multiple forms of advertising including on the Web. The other major change is for the first time regulating teams, which first became popular around 2000, and became more prominent as the market started to cool in 2006. For instance, a team name has to include names of team members, or if it does not, it must include the name of the firm.

The two sides provided a hint about the split over name size and placement in the Nov. 16 hearing held by video conference in both Albany and Manhattan.

NYSAR wants to allow broker and agents to have their names larger than the brokerage company name, although the company name would have to be “clear and conspicuous” to a consumer. On the other hand, REBNY wants the firm’s name to be “equal to or greater” than the name of the broker or salesperson. The current draft has the REBNY language.

The seemingly hyper-technical issue is important for brokers and agents that want to highlight their names more prominently than their firms to create brand awareness.

At the Nov. 16 meeting, the board members briefly discussed the new rules, then heard comments from the public, including from Neil Garfinkel, counsel to the 12,000-member REBNY, New York City’s most influential industry voice, and Duncan MacKenzie, the CEO of NYSAR, the state’s largest real estate trade group.

“We ended up in a pretty good place,” Garfinkel said at the meeting, about the overall draft rules, but he highlighted the strong difference with NYSAR on the one topic. “I am concerned that the ‘clear and conspicuous’ standard will create more problems… [And] is going around the clear intent of the law.”

Duncan, whose group represents about 51,000 brokers and agents in the state including about 11,000 in New York City, in an interview with The Real Deal today, said changing to the REBNY-backed standard would cost professionals a great deal of money. For example, they would have to alter sales material and signage in which many associate brokers and salespersons have their names larger than the firm’s name.

He wondered why the standard should change, when he was not aware of instances where the public has been harmed.

“If there has been no harm, why create a standard that will change a bunch [of companies'] business models?,” he asked.

The new rules, which were first proposed in 2008, will next be formally discussed during a board meeting that has not yet been scheduled, but will likely be next spring. Once the board approves a draft, the rules are sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, then a public comment period follows, and then it goes before board again for a vote. If approved, the regulations would become official.

Proposed Advertising Guidelines
Current Real Property Law [more]

Sara Rotter, the former director of sales for the Gramercy, Flatiron, Chelsea and West Village offices of Citi Habitats, has joined Halstead Property as director of sales for downtown, Halstead announced today.

Rotter will be working closely with Richard Grossman, the executive director of sales for downtown.

“I am thrilled to welcome Sara to our executive team,” said Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property. “Sara and Richard will be the winning leadership team in the downtown market.” – Katherine Clarke [more]

From left: Devlin McNiff East Hampton office, Stuart Epstein, owner of Devlin McNiff, and Diane
Ramirez, president of Halstead Property

Halstead Property is expanding into the Hamptons by joining with the local firm Devlin McNiff, Halstead announced today. The new company will be known as Devlin McNiff Halstead Property. This will be Halstead’s only presence in the Hamptons.

Devlin McNiff Halstead Property will be based at 3 North Main Street in East Hampton, the 2,500-square-foot current home of Devlin McNiff and will continue to run under the direction of husband-and-wife team Stuart and Lynn Epstein.

Because of Halstead’s status as a privately held company, Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, said she could not disclose details about the deal. There was a transfer of equity, Stuart Epstein said, but it was not an 100 percent acquisition. — Miranda Neubauer Comments

From left: Halstead Property President Diane Ramirez, Eileen Spinola of REBNY and Secretary of State Cesar Perales

The little-known 15-member New York State Board of Real
Estate that helps craft regulations for the industry and hears
public complaints about brokerage licensing has a mandate to
meet at least three times per year yet has not held a meeting in
more than 24 months.

The quasi-governmental body, which includes appointed
members such as Diane Ramirez, president of
Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president
for the Real Estate Board of New York, last met in June
2009, before either Ramirez or Spinola began their two-year
terms. Other members include real estate brokers from the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and upstate as well as corporate
representatives. The governor, and majority and minority
leaders in the State Senate and Assembly appoint the members.
There are currently two vacant positions. [more]

A former vice president and director at Brown Harris Stevens has been named director of sales for Brooklyn at sister company Halstead Property, Halstead announced today.

Starting July 11, Trish Martin will manage Halstead’s offices in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill with a goal of enhancing the presence of the firm in the borough.

Martin is replacing Roberta Benzilio, who has been promoted to executive director for Terra Development Marketing, a new company overseeing new developments for Halstead and Brown Harris. TRD
[more]

From left: Diane Ramirez and Susan Goldy

Halstead Property acquired longtime residential Riverdale brokerage Susan Goldy Real Estate, the firm announced today, marking its second office in the upscale Bronx community. Both sides refused to disclose the terms of the deal, but Susan Goldy’s 12 agents will remain in their Moshalu Avenue office while joining the Halstead Property brand, as of today.

Halstead already has a 20-agent office at 3531 Johnson Avenue, but Diane Ramirez, president of the firm, said she coveted Susan Goldy’s “incredible reputation in the community and great client base” along with the added depth and marketshare the firm immediately provides Halstead.

Susan Goldy, who founded the eponymous firm 34 years ago and maintains an office at 5626 Mosholu Avenue, said that merging with Halstead offered her firm the opportunity to keep pace with a changing real estate landscape. [more]

From left: Elliman’s Dottie Herman, Corcoran’s Pamela Liebman, Halstead’s Diane Ramirez and Brown Harris Stevens’ Hall Wilkie

Tight credit, a harsh winter and a return to seasonality led to a relatively quiet first quarter in Manhattan, according to several residential sales market reports released today by some of New York City’s top firms. While reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman and the Corcoran Group show a rosier picture than those from sister companies Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead (which release the same data), experts across the board agreed that the market is stable.

The median home sales price dropped to $782,071 in the first quarter of the year, down 9.9 percent from the same time a year earlier and 7.4 percent from fourth-quarter 2010, according to the Elliman report. [more]

Home sales slowed in Manhattan during the fourth quarter of 2010, but aggregate prices increased as consumers bought larger homes, according to fourth-quarter market reports released by the city’s major brokerage firms today. The median price of homes sold in Manhattan in the last three months of 2010 increased between 3 and 11.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, according to market reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman, the Corcoran Group, and sister companies Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens (which use the same data to produce their reports). [more]

From left: REBNY’s Neil Garfinkel and Halstead’s Diane Ramirez

A new law requiring a real estate agent to have clients sign a form stating that they understand whom the agent represents and to whom the agent will give “undivided loyalty,” will go into effect this year, the New York Times reported. The disclosure law is designed to clarify the roles of buyers’ and sellers’ agents. “This is a consumer protection law, but it also protects brokers, because now they will have a written record of what they’re already required to do now verbally,” said Neil Garfinkel, residential counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York. [more]

From left: Diane Ramirez, 380 Lenox Avenue and 1485 Fifth Avenue

Halstead Property has just signed on to be the exclusive sales and
marketing representatives for 380 Lenox Avenue and for 1485 Fifth Avenue, president Diane
Ramirez told the New York Times. She also spoke about Windows on 123 in Harlem, where Halstead
replaced the Corcoran Group as marketing agents; two contracts have been
signed since they took over, and 13 units are left. As 2010 comes to a close, the real estate market is doing better than expected, Ramirez said. Comments