Entrepreneurs rush into NYC real estate market

From the February issue: Citi Habitats founder Andrew Heiberger’s well-funded new brokerage, Town Residential, made a splash when it debuted late last year. But the brokerage is far from the only new business in the city. The start of 2011 ushered in a flurry of new start-ups, many with innovative new business models related to New York City real estate. Ironically, many of these models don’t involve actually doing deals. With prices down and fewer sales, entrepreneurs are looking for other ways to profit from the business of selling property. In addition, lower start-up costs and the shuttering of older firms have made conditions ripe for new businesses, especially now that the market has started to bounce back, according to Greg Young, the former director of sales at Citi Habitats, who launched the Manhattan-based real estate training and consulting company Broker Heaven in June. [more]