From left: Some of this week’s top brokers are Liora Yalof, Maria Pashby, Robert Browne, Alexa Lambert and Richard Orenstein

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From the August issue: When temperatures rise in New York City, apartment buyers skip town — or so goes the conventional wisdom. That leads many sellers to believe that they are better off waiting for the fall to list new properties. But this summer, it’s not so clear-cut. Today’s market is more unpredictable than ever. As a result, more brokers are choosing to list properties in August rather than face the unknown in the fall. This month, The Real Deal asked industry experts to weigh in on the pros and cons of listing a new property during the dog days of summer. Here’s what they had to say: [more]

By Sarabeth Sanders and Amy Tennery

The Real Deal  attended an event celebrating the launch of Barbara Corcoran’s new book, “Shark Tales: How I turned $1,000 into a billion dollar business,” last night inside 15 Union Square West’s apartment 5B, which Brown Harris Stevens is currently marketing for $8.1 million. The party was chock full of nautical delights — including shirtless, so-called surfer boys, twin retro bathing suit ladies and a bathtub mermaid — and awash with mai tais and champagne, as well as custom sushi rolls. It drew both real estate bigwigs and Corcoran’s other business buddies, including several co-judges from her entrepreneurial reality show, “Shark Tank.” [more]

From left, Corcoran’s Pamela Liebman and EVP of sales Tresa Hall gave out the annual company awards to Robby Browne, Leighton Candler, Dennis Hughes, among others

The Corcoran Group held its annual Manhattan and Brooklyn awards ceremony Tuesday, with Robby Browne, a senior vice president and associate broker, taking top honors as Salesperson of the Year. The event was held at the Nokia Theater in Times Square with guest speakers Real Estate Board of New York Chairwoman Mary Ann Tighe and New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer. Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman and Executive Vice President of Sales Tresa Hall presented the awards. In addition to Browne, winners included Carrie Chiang, who was named East Side Salesperson of the Year, Sherry Matays, who was recognized as West Side Salesperson of the Year, Fabienne Lecole as Carnegie Hill Salesperson of the Year, and Julie Pham as Chelsea Salesperson of the Year. Lisa Fitzig was named Manhattan Rookie of the Year and Dennis Hughes was rental agent of the year for Manhattan. Leighton Candler received the Deal of the Year award, though as of press time the company remained mum on the deal in question. For a picture from the ceremony, click here. This week, Corcoran also released its 2009 annual list of the top performing agents on the East End. TRD
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Robert Browne, Chris Kann and Greg Sullivan of the Corcoran Group

Robert Browne, Chris Kann and Greg Sullivan, a team that specializes in East Side sales, topped the Corcoran Group’s October list of top 10 sales agents. All but three agents and teams ranked were named as East Side
specialists including Carrie Chiang, who came in second, and Sharon
Baum and David Enloe, who ranked third on the list. TRD [more]