From left: Joseph Moshe, co-owner of Rutenberg Realty, and Paul Purcell and Kathy Braddock, heads of the brokerage

A co-owner of Rutenberg Realty is suing the brokerage and firm heads Paul Purcell and Kathy Braddock for almost $2 million, claiming they have failed to pay him any dividends since the company’s founding, a new lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court says.

The suit was filed last Friday by Joseph Moshe, who heads the large Long Island branch of the Rutenberg franchise and is a co-owner of the New York City office. He claims in the suit that Braddock and Purcell are improperly siphoning funds from the New York Rutenberg office, and that they are competing against the firm with their own consulting company, Braddock + Purcell. [more]

From left: The animals include a coatimundi and a tamandua; guests include Kathleen O’Leary Garbarino, president of the Staten Island Board of Realtors, Laird Klein, committee chairman of the gala, and Georgianna Diaz, president elect of SIBOR

At the Staten Island Board of Realtors’ holiday party this evening, the borough’s top brokers may bump into some unexpected guests — a coatimundi, which is a member of the raccoon family, and a tamandua, a type of anteater.

This strange turn of events is the result of a partnership between the realtor board and the Staten Island Zoo, the board said, whereby proceeds from the gala will assist with the renovation of the children’s classroom at the local zoo.

“Despite a tough economy, Staten Island’s real estate professionals have continued throughout the year to support local causes in every way possible,” said Laird Klein, committee chairman of the Staten Island Board of Realtors’ Winter Wonderland Holiday Gala.
[more]

From left: Steven Kopstein, a broker at SKNY Real Estate, and the interior and exterior of the apartment at 450 West 147th Street

The crowded residential marketplace often leads brokers to take great lengths to market a property for sale, sometimes offering unique incentives like free landscaping or even free flights for international purchasers, but today one New York real estate company launched a marketing scheme that even the most jaded New York brokers may balk at.

Steven Kopstein, whose firm Steven Kopstein Real Estate recently merged with Forecast Realty to become SKNY Real Estate, is dropping the price of a two-bedroom, pre-war Harlem co-op listing by $1,000 a day until the property sells or the owners decide to take it off the market.

For Kopstein, the main challenging of selling the 1,150-square-foot apartment at 450 West 147th Street in Hamilton Heights is getting prospective buyers through the door. [more]

Clockwise from left: a screen shoot of the application, Streeteasy’s Sofia Song, Steve Dawson of Sotheby’s International Realty, Warburg’s Richard Steinberg and Rutenberg’s Kathy Braddock

The still somewhat mysterious world of brokerage has become more transparent.

New York sales and rentals listings website Streeteasy.com has launched a new feature allowing users a unique way to asses a real estate agent’s performance through data about the deals they’ve closed. The feature, called “Shop for a Broker,” links property with closed sales data from the city, letting users view completed transactions by price point, type of property and neighborhoods.

“This is the first product in New York that’s done anything like this,” said Jared Kleinstein, manager at Streeteasy. The tool will be accessible to consumers with Streeteasy.com insider accounts, which cost $10 per month. Starting today, prospective homebuyers and sellers will be able to identify the most qualified broker to work with, judging by their deal history and how long their listings sit on the market. [more]

From left: Steven Spinola, president of the REBNY; Eric Anton, executive managing director at Eastern Consolidated; Debra Shultz, managing director at Manhattan Mortgage; David Heiden, a principal at W Financial and Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group

As the debt ceiling debate nears a critical juncture in Washington D.C., real estate executives in New
York are concerned that absent a final resolution, the fragile recovery will be short circuited by a sudden
spike in interest rates.

Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, the 12,000-member trade organization,
said the industry’s main concern is the impact a debt ceiling default could have on projects financed
with tax exempt bonds.

“If there is no agreement and our credit rating goes down, what will that do to interest rates?” Spinola
said. [more]

Chris Shiamili, founder of Ardor

Another residential brokerage is getting into the high-commission split game and
as more firms with this model pop up across the city, it’s becoming imperative
that the companies differentiate themselves.

Chris Shiamili, founder of Manhattan-based Ardor New York Real Estate,
launched a new commission model for his firm July 1 and said his firm is distinct
in two ways.

The first is agents’ option every couple of months to switch between three
different commission split models — two offering a 90 percent split on all non-Ardor exclusives and one being the already existing, more traditional, 50-percent split — and the
second, he said, is the amount of back-end support Ardor offers to all of its agents
compared to the other high-split firms. [more]

Clockwise: Amnon Hecht, 2336 Second Avenue and Brad Brigati (building source: PropertyShark)

In joining the legion of residential brokerage firms beginning to offer a 100 percent commission model, Titan Real Estate of New York is banking on volume for profit.

Titan’s model requires agents to pay Titan $375 for each deal in which they collect a commission of at least $2,000, and $250 for deals that yield less than $2,000. In addition, there’s a $475 monthly fee that covers office space and an advertising package (note: clarification appended).
“We don’t have much use for those $50,000-a-year agents,” said Amnon Hecht,
CEO of Titan. “We want people who are fed up with giving away their earnings, are
driven, and ready to work to pull in a quarter million dollars a year. That’s, literally,
why we called it ‘Titan.’” Hecht said he’s nearly doubled his agent stable at Titan, which operates under Hecht’s Hecht Group brokerage, from 36 to more than 70 since February, shortly after Titan launched and began offering the model. [more]

From the April issue: In the mid-2000s, residential real estate brokerages seemed to be sipping from the fountain of youth; that is, staffing their firms with freshly minted college graduates.

Today, though, firms appear to be going with the more fine-wine approach of “older is better” when it comes to bringing on agents, according to brokers, firm managers and teachers at real estate schools.

This brain drain of fresh-out-of-college talent in New York City’s residential real estate world, which has happened over the past few years, is the result of a perfect storm of forces, sources say.

In a still-tight market, many young brokers don’t have Rolodexes stuffed with established contacts, or the financial wherewithal to last through lean times. Comments

While the 6 percent broker commission has been a long-held tradition in New York City’s residential real estate market, that figure has recently come under attack by buyers and sellers looking for a deal in the tenuous economy, according to the New York Times. Many agents at some of the city’s biggest firms say they’ll settle for 4 and 5 percent commissions today to get a deal done, as more residential shoppers turn to websites and other low-cost means of browsing real estate. Kathy Braddock, a founder of Rutenberg Realty, said that negotiability is particularly important in the higher end market. “At a certain price point, 6 percent just feels vulgar,” Braddock said. [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]