Closing Town Residential was Andrew Heiberger’s last option.
No amount of cost-cutting would save the residential firm, he said May 14 during a one-on-one conversation with The Real Deal’s Amir Korangy. In recent years, the pressure on traditional brokerage has mounted, and firms are now facing high commission costs and fierce competition for top agents.
“I don’t think the traditional brokerage model is sustainable,” said Heiberger, who shuttered Town’s brokerage and leasing business on April 19. “We’ve been disrupted.”
According to Heiberger, Town did $13.5 billion in sales during its eight-year run. But it struggled with turning a profit. By 2017, Town whittled its losses from $10 million to $670,000.
But Heiberger said he wouldn’t do anything differently. “I accomplished what I set out to do,” he said. He said he plans to finish two new development projects he’s been working on. “As long as I don’t have a toe tag,” he said, “those projects can get completed by me.”
Watch the full panel discussion above.