WATCH: Can the traditional brokerage model survive ​growing threats from VC-backed firms, lead gen?



Though Andrew Heiberger ​says traditional real estate firms are being disrupted, it’s business as usual for some of the city’s top brokerage heads.

“I disagree that traditional brokerage is not a sustainable business model,” CORE’s CEO Shaun Osher said during The Real Deal‘s 11th annual New York Showcase and Forum, adding that the most recent quarter was the firm’s strongest in over a decade. “If that were true, none of us would be sitting up here.”

Osher was joined by Douglas Elliman broker Raphael De Niro, Brown Harris Stevens’ co-president Bess Freedman, Halstead Property’s chief Diane Ramirez and Warburg Realty president Clelia Peters. The panel discussed threats to the traditional brokerage model, including the infiltration of Venture-backed firms with hundreds of millions to spend, outside brokerages trying to crack the New York code and how online lead generation is changing how the rules of the brokerage game as margins get thinner.

Watch the full panel discussion above.