They are the envy of New York real estate: the top brokers who do the deals for the rich and the famous.
The recipe is part hard work, part luck and, according to some of Manhattan’s top high-end brokers, certainly involves who you know — and who those people know. Most superagents began with connections forged through corporate positions, schools, and charity and social events; all expanded their business through referrals.
The tree of referrals
Sharon Baum of Corcoran, a broker at the top of the industry, said nearly all of her business comes from referrals, including her very first deal in the Ardsley in 1987.
Sotheby’s Nikki Field said her business has grown to involve referrals from trust attorneys and wealth managers.
“Rich people love to pass their brokers around, especially the ultra-rich,” she said. “Each deal begets better potential for a better deal and those branch out into this enormous tree of referrals.”
Michele Kleier, president and chairwoman of boutique firm Gumley Haft Kleier, doesn’t even bother with the unknowns.
“I really don’t deal with strangers, and I really never have,” she said.
A willingness to pitch
Still, even top brokers occasionally pitch those they don’t know for business.
Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens brokered the highest price ever paid for a Manhattan townhouse ($40 million for the Duke Semans Mansion at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street), last year. Although, like other top brokers, Del Nunzio gets a lot of her business through referrals, she believes it is essential for brokers to have the confidence to make a “cold” pitch.
“Business comes from all of the people whom you have ever dealt with — the engineer, attorney, interior designer, the architect or anyone they have dealt with,” she said. “But I have also written cold letters to people in which I have devised a plan for their property and people have called me.”
Corporate contacts
Another commonality among those at the very top appears to be dues paid in other careers prior to entering the field of real estate.
Corcoran’s Baum parlayed years of marketing experience into an arsenal of contacts.
“I think what I did was a big mailing with very nice engraved cards that I sent to my master list saying I was no longer at Chemical Bank, and I am going into a whole new field — and word got around,” said Baum.
“It is one of the few careers left where seniority pays,” said Kirk Henckels, director of Stribling Private Brokerage. “It is very difficult for someone to enter this business right out of college when you don’t have any contacts.”
Parents on the playground
Of course, rising brokers don’t all come from corporate backgrounds. For Field of Sotheby’s, referrals initially came through parents at the Nightingale-Bamford School, an exclusive all-girls school where her daughter was a student.
The introduction into the world of high-end real estate was similar for Kleier.
“I started off in the business when my daughter Samantha was at Horace Mann; she was a first-year nursery school student. Then two of my other children also attended Horace Mann and they started meeting people whose parents wanted to buy apartments, and that just led to more referrals,” said Kleier. “It was really an extension of my life.”
A fundraising presence
Being seen is also important to becoming a high-end broker.
Corcoran’s Baum admits she does not entertain much but believes in the importance of making social connections.
“You have to be out there. It is like what your mother told you when you were 18: You are not going to meet anyone if you are at home washing your hair,” she said. “I think brokers who are really successful are active in many organizations, temples, churches, charities, museums, the Philharmonic. You can’t meet people if you are at home.”
Field said that her early days at Sotheby’s attending social events helped her build an impressive Rolodex.
“At these cocktail parties or fundraisers or charity events, people would ask me questions about different properties,” she said. “You know it is just like a woman who packs her bags with lipsticks and a mirror; I made sure that I brushed up on recent sales before I left the house that evening.”
Developing a specialty
Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens said one way to get started is to focus on particular property types. When she entered real estate 19 years ago, she decided to focus on what she calls “house type” properties.
“Whether it was penthouses, townhouses, or large apartments with four bedrooms or more, I focused on a specific type of property and then I focused on the people with whom I wanted to deal,” she noted.
A load of luxury buyers
If you’re hoping to get a slice of the high-end pie, appraiser Jonathan Miller notes there are plenty of wealthy clients . “Wall Street is having a good year,” said Miller.
A report issued last month by Johnson Associates said Wall Street bonuses coming this year are projected to best 2005’s record round of $21.5 billion. “Bonus money,” Miller said, “feeds directly into real estate in New York.”
It takes a little wealth to snag the wealthy
Spending money to make money is a key to becoming a high-end broker, too.
Sotheby’s broker Nikki Field believes a broker should constantly invest in her business.
“No matter what, you should put aside 25 percent of your income and invest it in yourself, in getting your name and yourself out there,” she said.
Sharon Baum of Corcoran, who by all accounts is one of Manhattan’s top brokers, doesn’t have a publicist, bucking one of the current trends among brokers competing for high-end clients, and doesn’t advertise much. “Yes, I might put an ad in Quest or the New York Times, but it is really not much more than that,” said Baum.
Still, she does spend money on other forms of marketing: Her well-heeled clients travel in her chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce with a vanity plate that reads SOLD 1.
“I bought my first Rolls about 10 years ago,” said Baum, telling a story that has been related in various press accounts about her over the years. “I had always used a Town Car from a service, and one day I got in a car that was not a very good car; it was rather worn and the driver did not know where he was going. I had a very high-end client in town from Los Angeles and in L.A., you are what you drive. After viewing just one property, the client looked at me and said ‘is this the best you can do?’ She was referring to the car, and I wanted to crawl underneath the carpet. That night I went home to my husband and told him that we have to do something different,” says Baum.
“[The rich] expect a certain type of service and they also expect you to really know what you are doing. You do have to pay a lot of attention to them, but of course the payoff is really big,” said Michele Kleier of Gumley Haft Kleier.
As with many brokers selling in the luxury market, Kleier counts many celebrities, including John Travolta, Diane Keaton and Billy Joel, among her clientele.
“I got into celebrities because I sold to a couple of celebrities who began referring me to other celebrities and I also met a lot of money managers who referred celebrities to me as well,” said Kleier.
When Stribling’s Kirk Henckels got started, he realized a Grand Slam victory by securing tennis legend Billy Jean King as a client for his very first sale. “A roommate of mine worked for her — and she is a terribly warm and friendly person and was happy to work with the new kid on the block. I sold her a penthouse on the Upper West Side and also her offices in a condominium building a block away. That was in 1982, and that certainly did help getting started,” said Henckels.
Cathy Hobbs is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and interior designer.