The Real Deal

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Dottie Herman gets her close-up

Appraiser Jonathan Miller and Elliman CEO Dottie Herman on PDE TV.

Though the financial networks and local news channels regularly cover real estate, brokers at Prudential Douglas Elliman can now flip on their computers to get their boss's take on the market at any time.

Dottie Herman has begun sitting down for a series of quarterly in-house video talks with ubiquitous appraiser Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, to analyze trends in New York City real estate.

The videos, dubbed PDE TV, launched in April for the first quarter and are available on Herman's public Web site and the company's intranet. In addition, every day, Elliman posts a video message on its private Web portal for staffers in the city and on Long Island with reminders about meetings and deadlines.

"We're a big company and we need to communicate in a variety of ways," said Herman. "A lot of papers spin the facts and I want my agents to have the data and know what the numbers mean so that our customers can be educated."

In the video for the second quarter, Herman said her bullish view of the long-term market is sometimes disregarded by those who perceive her as biased. Obviously, it's in her interest to put on a happy face to sell properties.

Miller's role is to provide objectivity. Since 1994, Miller has supplied quarterly reports to Douglas Elliman and continued when Herman and partner Howard Lorber bought the firm in 2003.

"The goal is to bring the message and pull no punches, but when I go to the public, my whole focus is about neutrality," said Miller. "I'm not selling, I'm providing clarity."

Herman got the video bug during the firm's fifth anniversary celebration in February, when it produced a video time-capsule and a montage in which brokers discussed their work over a swelling musical soundtrack.

Some scenes show brokers getting makeup applied, sometimes at odd camera angles. One nice touch: the closing song snippet from "Our House" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, which ends with the line "now everything is easy 'cause of you."

Herman's informal chats with Miller, filmed on her office couch, crunch the numbers and offer perspective. The pair's chemistry has evolved from the first quarter video, which ran about two minutes.

The second quarter video has a short version recapping the numbers, and a longer one where Herman expressed some concern over the credit crunch, but also stressed that brokers should "kiss the ground they walk on in New York City."

The pair note that comparisons with last year are tough, since 2007 recorded the highest number of transactions in history. And, of course, though the percentage of foreclosures is up in Manhattan, the overall numbers of properties involved is miniscule.

Though she could easily fit in on "the View," Herman disavows any aspiration to be on broadcast TV. "Could I do it? I'm capable of it, but that's not why we do these segments."

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