After years of inflated prices for cramped apartments, an apparent surge in migration to tri-state suburbs hasn’t deterred city brokers from cashing in.
If the first maxim for success is location, location, location, the second is surely that it’s not what you know so much as whom. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more and more brokers are hoping to cash in on the interest in the suburbs by casually referring clients to each other.
The suburban drift trend is bolstered a bit by companies such as Sotheby’s International Realty and Halstead Property, which are buying up suburban brokerages or opening offices in the suburbs to capture new sources of revenue.
While news of the latest record-breaking price for an average two-bedroom apartment — $1.5 million — suggests Manhattan’s appeal is stronger than ever, some market watchers say not so fast. It may be a recent phenomenon, but New York real estate rewards the swift, and getting a suburban foothold is no exception.
Debby Glasser, who has worked as a broker for 22 years, says that, “Only recently have I felt that New York City brokers have picked up their heads to notice Westchester brokers. No matter how we tried to penetrate their consciousness, it wasn’t happening.”
Glasser worked for Julia B. Fee, a powerful real estate firm in Westchester that was bought by Sotheby’s in February. Now as an associate broker there, Glasser says, “New York City brokers’ awareness of the inventory in Westchester, Fairfield County, and Long Island has been elevated.”
Glasser says that, years ago, personal connections were needed to establish relationships with Manhattan brokers that would refer her clients; now, she suspects that all those under the Sotheby’s umbrella feel a deeper connection to each other.
Some real estate firms prefer to leave the referrals process to the professionals. One example is Brown Harris Stevens, which is the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates in New York, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach. Silvana Malpelli, director of relocation for Brown Harris Stevens, cites the inherent value of having all the referrals come through one referral division. While she says that agents are trained with their own relocation information, she has access to over 600 real estate offices in more than 17 countries. “I’m the personal point of contact for all referrals, which in the end is comforting for the client,” she says. And, according to Malpelli, the number of referrals this year is up.
Halstead, which opened an office in Riverdale in October 2005, tries to increase communication among its brokers in and out of Manhattan by giving bus tours of outer-borough neighborhoods where they have offices. While Halstead already gave some of its brokers a tour of Brooklyn, they plan to do the same for Riverdale.
Vasco Da Silva, director of sales for Halstead’s 6-month-old office in Riverdale, says other venues for discussing inventory are sales meetings that all the office managers attend. “We talk about the locations Halstead is servicing, capturing the synergy between them, and providing a better, broader service to clients.”
Indeed, Riverdale is a strategic location for bridging the suburbs and Manhattan; while many of the office’s clients are young families leaving Manhattan in search of space and light, some move there from New Jersey or farther afield, looking for a shorter commute and to eventually move into Manhattan.
But setting up more offices in the suburbs may not be the only way to capitalize on families moving in and out of Manhattan. Glasser, Da Silva, and David Menendez, a senior associate broker at Corcoran’s Soho office, all cite the Internet as a terrific source of information. Menendez says, “Most of my clients [moving to the suburbs] will ask me to do legwork for them, and the Internet allows me to access all the Web sites of real estate firms and familiarize myself with the listings of where they are moving.”
In Menendez’s case, staying put in Manhattan is a sure bet. “When we send business to the suburbs,” he says, “the suburbs send us business back.”
Indeed, Menendez estimates that 60 percent of his clients that move to the suburbs eventually move back in. “When you leave your doorman building and wake up to a lawn, it can be quite a shock,” he says. “There’s some post-partum-Manhattan depression. I’ve had clients call me and say they can’t order in any good Chinese food, or that everything gets quiet once Jeopardy is on television at night.”