Elliman recruiting up to 75 agents for new rentals-only office
January 23, 2009 06:00AM By Candace Taylor
205 East 42nd Street
For the first time since the early 1990s, Prudential Douglas Elliman is opening a new office specifically for rentals, according to Stephen Kotler, an executive vice president and director of sales and rentals at the brokerage.
To fill out the new department, the company is recruiting 50 to 75 new agents who will specialize in rentals, Kotler said, and has leased 15,000 square feet of space to house the rental operation.
The space is located at 205 East 42nd Street between Second and Third avenues, where the company currently has an office that handles rentals and sales, with sales comprising the majority of the business. The new rental department will be located in an area of the building that the company had previously subleased to another company, Kotler said.
The new rental space is slated to be up and running in the next 90 days, Kotler said. The opening will be timed to coincide with the launch of a new Web site specifically designed for rentals, with listings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island including the Hamptons, as well as Elliman's new rental market report. The report will be prepared by numbers guru Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, and a regular preparer of the company's sales reports.
The last time the company had an office specifically dedicated to rentals was in 1991, Kotler said, but that office was merged with a sales office two years later "to meet customer needs," he said in an e-mail.
But, now the company has noticed a slight up tick in rental transactions accompanying the economic downturn of the past few months. Each month since July 2008, the number of rental transactions the company has done has been roughly 15 percent higher than the same month in 2007, he said.
"Based on market conditions, more [potential buyers] are moving towards rentals before deciding what to buy," he said. "For us, it was a no-brainer to do more rentals."
Elliman, one of Manhattan's largest real estate firms, is primarily known for its sales business.
"We don't publicize rentals very much," Kotler said. "We have such a big client base, and we need to let our clients know that we're in the rental business."
The expansion comes at a time when real estate firms all over the city, including Citi Habitats and Bellmarc Realty, are closing and consolidating offices, while others are closing altogether. To make up for lower profits, many sales agents are doing more rental transactions.
Elliman will come out of the gate with 800 new rental listings at Columbus Village, an Upper West Side mixed-use multi-building project currently under construction, Kotler said. Five new residential towers are slated to open at the mega-development in the next year, and Prudential Douglas Elliman is the exclusive marketing and leasing agent for all of them. A leasing office for the first of the buildings to open, 808 Columbus Avenue, is slated to open in March, he said, though the project has faced its share of neighborhood protests, scuffles with the city Department of Buildings and legal troubles.
Daniel Segal, an executive vice president, and director of sales and the current manager of the 42nd Street office, will manage the new recruits, Kotler said.
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Comments
Anonymous
Attention everyone, stay away from Elliman, stay away from this company, it is led by the most dishonest people in the industry. Will they put Dolly lenz in charge? Or will Dolly just skim a piece of every commission?
Comment #1 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
#1, everyone knows Madoff is running the office, he's the kind of person Elliman loves.
Comment #2 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
This is a joke as the whole world knows that sales companies do not have a clue as to how to do rentals; they must be desperate to do this!
Comment #3 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
You are just jealos. You must be an ex Citi habitats agent
Comment #4 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Absolutely ridiculous to try to fool their own agents about this. Elliman sales agents need to be aware that there is a huge monopoly within Elliman rentals already. Sales agents need to know that they will be required in many incidences to use the Elliman rentals team to process their transactions. Dottie has lost decision-making and unfortunately is misguided that an effort to grow is a loss in efficiency. She has let the worst agents come into a firm that had a wonderful reputation. Quality is what keeps a brand strong and she is letting Kotler run it to the ground.
Comment #5 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Really, I wonder how many rental transaction you did last year?
Comment #6 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Dottie is a joke, have you ever heard her speak? It's embarassing.
Comment #7 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
smart to move more towards rentals...poor decision to not bring in someone with more rental experience to run it.
Comment #8 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
rentals are not that hard to do, it is not brain surgery. What' is wrong with rentals? Dottie is a wonderful woman, a leader who inspires us all to know that we can. so please, keep the negativity aside
Comment #9 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
poorly rolled out as the managers of each office did not even announce this internally to exisiting agents. Is it b/c individual office managers do not approve it and don't want to say so?? each agent should be encouraged to offer rental services to their own clients, instead there will be a rentals dept going after business of existing agents. We all watched the relationship of Corcoran to its step child citihabitats agents - not a warm welcome. elliman will be further tarnished by the ethics of rental agents hired to get the job done to make numbers. they won't be able to sharply split the great rental agents to come on board so guess what you'll be left with ...the agents who otherwise would never be hired by a reputable manager to come on board. Now they've opened the gates for this to happen. so much for quality service at Elliman.
Comment #10 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Wow, all this negativity! News flash--we have been doing rentals successfully for years. This is an intelligent move that services a growing need, sorry you guys can't cut it and have to close offices. Those who adapt and change with the market are the ones who are the professionals in it for the long run not just the easy times.I guess the order takers will be on the unemployment line or getting a 2nd job.
Comment #11 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
in the old days elliman always had a rental divison that was run out of existence during the Insignia debacle... used to be located at 3 E 54th and then 485 Madison....the rental agents started demanding to do sales and management acquiesced..this is not news
Comment #12 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
David
I am thinking of trying out this company to do rentals. I would assume that the very top agents in the industry will be in the office and I'll learn and grow with them. Any feedback?
Comment #13 Posted By: David 01/23/09
Anonymous
WOW. All this negative energy because Elliman has decide to grow its rental business. It sounds like competitors that must be scared. There is more combined years of rental experience at Elliman than any other firm in the city. All the naysayers said the same about Dottie when she took over The Hamptons.
Comment #14 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
I guess the competition is running scared, if you are a top producing agent call PDE managment team.
Comment #15 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
I hear that they have more exclusive rental buildings than any other broker in the city.
Comment #16 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
good luck to elliman; they will need it as sales agents think they are too good for the rental market and most of what is renting is lower end no fee apts that elliman has no stomach for. Ch is deflating so this will just be another Ch with a different name. 26,000 agents in Manhattan is too many and companies that do the same thing with different names will not make any money without the right people running them! When they were in the rental business before the world was different and there was no internet, less inventory and it was hard to find an apartment; anyone could rent then!
Comment #17 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
I have been renting apartments in Manhattan for over twenty years and I would be very suprised if they have more exclusive buidings than anyone else in the industry
Comment #18 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Horrific! Their sales teams are falling apart, not knowing how to cope with the times - and not receiving any help or support... so what does Elliman do???? They try to re-group and take over the rental market, which they used to look down on for years... Blah.
Comment #19 Posted By: Anonymous 01/23/09
Anonymous
Elliman has always been professional to me. They have rented me my past 5 apartments and were always professional, educated and had the best listings. I would fully recommend them
Comment #20 Posted By: Anonymous 01/24/09
Anonymous
ive used elliman for all of my transactions in the last 10 years. ive dealt with only the best professionals in the business. kudos to elliman and their team. especially the 485 madison office.
Comment #21 Posted By: Anonymous 01/24/09
Anonymous
May I respond to comment #17, and also to comment #19: you guys don't know what the hell you're talking about. Not only does Elliman have the best training, but their education is ON-GOING, not like the dimwit "duh" sales meetings that CH has. Plenty of CH agents defected to Elliman, to do both sales AND rentals. After leaving CH, these agents have joined the top tier of sales. Elliman agents are hardly the "fast-talking used car salesmen" that you get at CH. They are truly professional. CH has been and always will-be a Corcoran-wanna-be, and the bottom of the barrel. The interesting thing is how Gary Malin doesn't want his agents to advertise that they are owned by Corcoran; he instructs them to say that they are a "sister company". Good move, Gary. Because you are NOT Corcoran. Your brand will always be what is was when the company started: low-end crap.
Comment #22 Posted By: Anonymous 01/24/09
omg anti elliman
elliman is the most shady greedy group of people you will meet . Brokers and customers alike realize all the "foreign" isreali people that work at elliman dominat that company and make it a kill or be killed milue...among brokers in the industry no one trusts elliman brokers because their training seems to have a millitary feel to it. Goo dluck in rentals as they will def try to trick clients and screwd over all the competition unfairly....do your research they are evil
Comment #23 Posted By: omg anti elliman 01/25/09
Anonymous
Lord Almighty...That's some pretty stunning commentary!
Comment #24 Posted By: Anonymous 01/25/09
Anonymous
Elliman's sales business must be TERRIBLE for them to make this move.
Comment #25 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
Does Elliman really think that they are going to take market share away from Citi with one small department in an office and 50 untrained agents?
Comment #26 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
Face it, y'all: the business model for apartment rentals in NYC has changed... and hopefully permanently. Gone are the days when people would pay top dollar for the "privilege" of renting an apartment in Manhattan. Gone are the days when broker fees start at 15% or above. What we have here is a rapidly dwindling pie and it will be a Darwin-esque feeding frenzy all the way to the bottom. CH, checkmate.
Comment #27 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
All this talk about their great listings! This goes to show you they think it's about the listings and not the clients. This is not 1985 when any good listing got a 15% fee in five minutes! Plus in order to do well in the apartment rental business you must know the "new rental" business and CH is not the only other company out there that has a business model that works in 2009. I predict they will close this office also. It's just a matter of time.
Comment #28 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
I was from Elliman, and let me tell you this - if you are prepared to 'suck ass' everyday with the likes of all the horrible fake blonds and 200lbs old Agents,and,treats their Agents like s*%t!! It is NOT a good company to work for....
Comment #29 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
READ THIS! Prudential Douglass Elliman is the WORST company to work for! The top executives only care for their own pockets and provide NO relevant training or insight to the industry. They are also reactive and not pro-active, or else, they would have gotten on the rentals a long time ago....Dottie, poor Dottie - stop believing in all the 'sugar coated' remarks said in front of you on how fabulous you are. The moment you turn your back 5 bitches, 5 queens and 100 wanna be's stick it up YOU! Are you as naive as the Real Estate market???? Wake up and smell the competition - like the one that is REALLY professional - Corcoran! Stay away from PDE!
Comment #30 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
Sounds to be like a lot of agents wish they could cut it at Elliman, like #29, who obviously couldn't. As for #30: the Corcoran agent: uh, excuse me, but why has such a "professional" company like Corcoran snapped up low-end CH a long time ago? In order to add rentals to its bottom line (talk about "sucking up"; or in this case, sucking down"), lied to the CH agents that "they are part of Corcoran" and provide Corcoran training to those agents (so they believe the fairy tale), and when these poor CH agents really start to believe that they are part of this Corcoran utopia, they get screwed royally by the "really professional" Corcoran group, now owned by Realogy, which, by the way, is going to fast start to sell off their brands. Look what they've done to Louise Sunshine; yeah, really "professional". As for #26: "untrained agents?" Elliman has been doing rentals long before CH even came on the scene (started with a bunch of little kids running around showing 20 apts a day). Elliman has been chosen as the exclusive agent for all of Columbus Village, and that's what's really eating you guys, right?
Comment #31 Posted By: Anonymous 01/26/09
Anonymous
i work for Elliman and have been doing mostly rentals since i started here nearly 5 years ago. They are naturally adjusting to the times in opening a new rental office. this is by far the best real estate company to work for, no bait and switch here!
Comment #32 Posted By: Anonymous 01/27/09
Wanderful Rainmaker
Dear dudes, You need to understand something; a lot depends on you, the most important thing that the company can give you is Name, advertising budget, listings, friendly and environment. If Elliman has that, I'll work with them!!
Comment #33 Posted By: Wanderful Rainmaker 01/28/09
Anonymous
#33 you left out one very important quality - INTEGRITY - oh, forget that Elliman has none of that. So, dude - you need a lot more than that in this market. Name - smeared. Advertising budget - cutting back. Listings - your call. Friendly - ???? and finally environment - the worst back stabbing team Elliman can ever assembled.
Comment #34 Posted By: Anonymous 01/28/09
Anonymous
Oops! Another disaster - well deserved though. LOST Manhattan House to Corcoran. Like they say - the prove is in the pudding. I hope this will shut #22 up for good!!!! Thumbs up for Corcoran. While Elliman can stick their thumb wherever they want.....
Comment #35 Posted By: Anonymous 01/28/09
Anonymous
I'm not threatened and no one else should be either. Brokers who actually do a good job (wow, yes! there actually are some good guys out there) will get business and referrals, etc. whether you work for the big cheese or a small time mom and pop. Brokers who are complaining here are the ones who overcharged, made tons of fast cash and whose startup companies had to close shop already. and you all know who you are....or at least WE all know who you are...and moved on (oh, but I must confess, I leave citihab out of this because they are in a league all their own...and not necessarily in a good way)
Comment #36 Posted By: Anonymous 01/29/09
Anonymous
You all must be in the business for 5 days. Let me refresh you. Douglas Elliman bought Sopher 10 years ago. Sopher was the first real rental company in NYC. Those agents have and still do many rental transactions and most are still with Elliman. This is a highly trained group who are some of the most competent agents in the industry. You can not compare them to the "bait and switch" that you all are likely a part of. Good luck in your new careers.
Comment #37 Posted By: Anonymous 01/29/09
Anonymous
Sopher was raided and shut down by the state for illegal business activities, and one of PDE's Executive VPs was the manager at the time.
Comment #38 Posted By: Anonymous 01/30/09
Anonymous
#38 - at least someone got their facts right! #37 - good luck with PDE (well, for now anyway....your 10th day???)
Comment #39 Posted By: Anonymous 01/30/09
Anonymous
For #38 and #39: you guys are soooo green. Anybody see the channel 7 news flash on CH confidential info strewn all over the west side??? Like SS#s, bank statements, etc. Is #38 trying to say that CH has LEGAL activities going on? Oh come on, when they conduct "fair housing" seminars for their agents, it's a joke. During one of these, a CH agent actually stood up and said: but when a landlord wants me to discriminate, it's with the blessing of my manager. How do I report this and still have a job? Take a look at the shady characters that run that place. You guys are dreaming. As for #35: I think you're the one who needs to shut up. Thumbs up for Corcoran, you say? You guys are going to be sold off by Realogy real fast; they just can't afford to keep you. It's a good Manhattan brand, but in this market, you need more than Manhattan to make it fly.
Comment #40 Posted By: Anonymous 02/01/09
Anonymous
I recently did two co-broke rental deals with DE brokers. They had a strong and skilled background with sales but they both had no clue on how to handle a rental. One was in a co-op requiring board approval and the package they submitted to me had to be redone. if the opening of a rental only department will prevent this from happening then I am all for it. Although, look at CH most of the agents working there have no clue on how to do a rental and they are trained by Corcoran. Help us all if that is how DE rentals end up. The market will have two large rental firms with a bunch or stupid agents
Comment #41 Posted By: Anonymous 07/06/09
Anonymous
Each person brings a new experience to the table. I think the beauty about real estate, it is an art-form. Each person's education, background, and life experience and training will of course affect that agent/manager conducts business. It is easy to get into a war of subjective rhetoric, with only pieces of the puzzle or what we choose to project. It is feasible however to notice that each space may have a climate, a culture, a context and the speakers who have no immediate knowledge of that chooses the easy way out and thats to project their subjective mindset. I highly doubt that one model is perfect over another, otherwise there would be a perfect monopoly. We will come together and do rentals just fine at PDE, you make the best of what you have, and strive forward and add and contribute instead of complain and be negative.
Comment #42 Posted By: Anonymous 07/06/09