From left: Vanessa Gad, Rolan Sereny and Neil Binder

Residential real estate brokerages often boast about the breadth and quantity of their offices, as well as the number of agents who work full-time on-site. But recently, several firms have gone the virtual route, forgoing physical offices in an effort to shave down operating costs and retain agents with higher commissions in an increasingly competitive environment, brokerage owners told The Real Deal. [more]

Vanessa Gad

From the January issue: Milan-born, Monaco-raised and fluent in five languages, real estate broker Vanessa Gad recently noticed an unfilled niche in New York City real estate: a brokerage focusing exclusively on international clients. So two months ago, she left the Corcoran Group to launch a firm that does just that. So far, she’s hired two agents for the new brokerage, called Gad Realty: Italian-born Miriam Menda, who speaks six languages, and Japanese broker Yoko Honda. Gad said she is actively looking for more, with plans to hire up to 20 agents in the next six months. Speaking a foreign language is not a requirement to work at Gad, she said, but it is encouraged. [more]