Corcoran alum opens new brokerage

Sounds like there’s a new residential real estate brokerage in town. The new firm, EAR NYC, was founded in late September by former Corcoran Group broker Reale Rose.

EAR (pronounced as letters “e-a-r”) opened its first office at 35 West 38th Street in Midtown West, a neighborhood where Rose felt there was room for a new residential firm to make its mark. The neighborhood isn’t as “saturated” with brokers as other Manhattan neighborhoods, Rose told TRD.

EAR — named for Rose’s father’s initials — has five agents so far, and Rose expects the company to swell to 15 or 20 agents by the end of next year. The firm’s 38th Street office is about 1,100 square feet, and he hopes to add another office in about a year and a half.

The new firm is an outgrowth of EAR Properties, the property management firm Rose founded in 2008. He decided to launch the brokerage after he grew tired of referring homeseekers to other firms. “Instead of giving the business to other brokers, I decided I wanted to create a new income stream,” he said.

Rose, who worked at Corcoran from 2006 to 2008, said the new firm will offer agents a choice of commission split structures. Agents can choose either a traditional commission split structure or a “cyclical” plan, in which they get a higher percentage split with each deal as the year progresses.

“The most important thing is we are giving agents options,” Rose said.