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May 15, 2009
Help Finding a Good Bklyn Broker
My wife and I are looking to buy a brownstone in brooklyn, we're pretty ideal candidates—great financials, perfect credit, etc.
We've been disappointed by 2 brokers, most of whom got into the game late and have no perspective on a non-bull housing market. Used to rolling out of bed and selling a property.
Anyone have suggestions on Brooklyn Brokers that have at least 7-8 years experience, hopefully more, know townhouses in particular, and who do a lot of the homework you need as a buyer--comps, inside info, historical persoective? We're both pretty savvy financially and are sick of brokers who don;t help quantify value of properties with things like comps and historical sales and have no real follow up to dig up info behind the scenes.
Thanks for your help!!
Biggest purchase of our lives, and market still frothy. We really need a smart, savvy, aggressive broker to work with a very qualified buyer.
Thanks!!!!
Comments
Joey La Penna
joey@twyfordrealestate.com
joeyrealty@gmail.com
917-826-7086
He did a great job looking for listings when I was looking. Brooklyn born.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at May 15, 2009 12:33 PM
Whereabouts in Brooklyn?
I find the smaller boutique realtors can do a solid job rather than Corcoran or Prud/elliman
Posted by: gemini10 at May 15, 2009 1:04 PM
We're looking in Park Slope, BoCoCa, and possibly Fort Greene.
Windsor, Pro Hites and Clinton Hill on the off chance.
I'm of a mind to use the boutique folks as well (had an amazing boutique guy in hoboken w/ 25 years experience, and he made such a difference), and think maybe Brooklyn Properties, who have been local a long time might be the way to go.
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 15, 2009 1:39 PM
My pet peeve is that brokers don't understand the concept of "original details" or "original details with good mechanicals and good structure." They think good condition means ten-year-old Home Depot updates. Bad condition is everything else.
When they hear you want "original details" they rush to show you falling-apart properties that were renovated top to bottom in 1962. They don't know the difference between 1971 and 1871. They really don't. It boggles the mind.
But all that aside, I was blown away by Angela Slater of Fillmore. She knows everything about housing types, history, condition, cost, and financials of buying, selling, and renovating houses in Bed Stuy. I think she grew up there. 347-668-9799.
Also in Bed Stuy, I have had good experiences with Corley Realty and Michelle Lyons of Corcoran.
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 2:17 PM
We were fortunate to encounter Gigi Zimmerman as the selling agent when we bought in Carroll Gardens.
She lives in the area and has for a number of years. She has restored brownstones herself and is a wealth of knowledge, and has also been in real estate long enough to understand the cycles. Highly recommended. Contact info:
Gigi Zimmerman
Brownstone Real Estate
718 499 1410
gigi@brownstonelistings.com
www.brownstonelistings.com
Posted by: gila at May 15, 2009 2:24 PM
We worked with Nick Ferrone at Corcoran and I have since recommended him to a number of friends. He was conscientious, understood what we were looking for and stuck with us over several months until he found us the right place - then walked us through the purchasing process. and I enjoyed working with him.
Posted by: 11216 at May 15, 2009 2:25 PM
I used Pablo Cuevas & Marissa Scali @ Douglas Elliman in Brooklyn Heights. They know Brooklyn well, I had a great experience with them.
Pablo 718-780-8178
Marissa 917-686-8129
Posted by: Pluto at May 15, 2009 2:33 PM
Thanks for the recommendations, this is really helpful.
11216, what corcoran office did Nick work out of?
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 15, 2009 2:34 PM
MFN: I'm in a very similar situation to you, financially and in terms of what I'm looking for (although focusing on a slightly different set of 'hoods). I'm finding my broker to be absolutely useless in terms of convincing me of why a certain property is worth a particular price. It's as if this person thinks the job is just to ferry us around to different appointments and make comments about how big the closets are or whatever. We went to make an offer recently and the broker scoffed (too low!) but then had no justification for why the place is worth more. I'm tempted to just go at it completely on my own, since I can find all the listings I need on the Internet. At the same time, someone who would work to dig up inside info on particular neighborhoods, put together comps and give us some historical perspective would be very valuable. Please let us know if you find such a broker in Brooklyn.
Posted by: chebubble at May 15, 2009 2:35 PM
Angela Ferrante
Brown Harris Stevens
Posted by: superstooper at May 15, 2009 2:46 PM
chebubble,
I'll let you know. I'm not going to go it alone b/c I have a FT company to run and a daughter, so way too much to do. I also hate spreadsheets ;) So I expect to find someone.
I found a guy in Hoboken who was outrageously good...so they have to exist. And his insight and willingness to pull data for us made it really easy to determine relative and even intrinsic value on the home we bid on.
My experience has been jsut like yours. A friggen chaperon who comments on their opinion of a home, but knows nothing about mechanicals, or historical prices, or even comps.
As someone who takes pride in bringing an informed mind to my clients work, it's kind of annoying.
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 15, 2009 2:52 PM
MoneyForNothing, the brokers work for the seller. You should do your own comp analysis (very easy). Anything they show you will support the seller's price.
Of course, this could be useful if you and the seller agree but the bank's appraiser does not. Brokers can also be useful to talk some sense into either buyer or seller if one is highly unrealistic. Ultimately, it's in their interest to get the deal done.
Just go on PropertyShark or StreetEasy or whatever to do comp analysis. Stick to comparable properties: Square feet, stories, building type, rental units, immediate neighborhood, etc. (You won't know about condition.) Brick and stone are worth more than wood. Once you've seen a number of properties in an area, you'll recognize them when they close, and this is very helpful to gauge what's going on, since you will remember the asking price.
It's pretty easy.
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 2:52 PM
Mopar,
So long as my broker isn;t w/ the listing company, they don;t work for them. Dual-representation is an issue though.
I jsut don;t have time to do comps...that's the issue. I run a design firm and what little time I have after my family I just do not want to do digging up data.
I have seen a lot of places (and we know they're all overpriced), but seeing what comps for properties were 5-6-7 years ago, which I had done for me when I was looking in Hoboken is REALLY helpful.
I'm hoping for that sort of support. Maybe I'm high thinking someone will do it.
So if not, I'll take "knows a ton about brownstones in brooklyn and has sold them for 10 years or more" anecdotal insight ;)
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 15, 2009 4:00 PM
Oh, and is aggressively trying to find me the right house instead of sending me links to the NYT real estate page and driving me around town... ;)
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 15, 2009 4:15 PM
"So long as my broker isn;t w/ the listing company, they don;t work for them."
But the seller pays them.
Posted by: mopar at May 15, 2009 4:48 PM
repeating an earlier comment, in New York State
ALL brokers are Sellers brokers. There really is no such thing as a buyers broker in our state. There are brokers who will help you to find a property - and they will either sell you a property which they have the listing for - or co-broke it with another broker who has the listing. In either case they are paid by the seller and are therefore SELLERS brokers. This is not to say that they can't be helpful and knowledgeable but if you are the buyer they are not working for you. Let the buyer beware.
The other headache is that most brokers think only location. When we were looking for a house - we were looking for a specific type of house - not a specific neighborhood and it got the brokers kind of nuts.
We lucked out when an inexperienced broker gave us 3 addresses to look at. The broker had no idea of the difference between a brownstone, a limestone or any other type of attached or semi-detached house. We drove by the three - asked to see only one - and that's the house we
bought (and we're very glad we did!)
Posted by: rickintheridge at May 15, 2009 5:43 PM
Try Noah Rosenblatt, that runs urbandigs.com
He is a true buyer's broker and is a trader on the side, so he is very savvy when it comes to the financials and the market downturn and is excellent with comps and pricing in risk.
I don't know if he has any experience with brownstones though.
Posted by: mkop at May 15, 2009 9:13 PM
Brooklyn Bridge Realty
Angela Ruggiero
Posted by: christopher at May 16, 2009 12:42 AM
Thanks for all the great feedback everyone
Posted by: MoneyForNothing at May 16, 2009 11:34 AM
Sorry - late to the party on this - We used Gabriele Sewtz at PDE. She worked for us as a buyer's broker. Rickintheridge is right that all brokers are seller's brokers, but I found Gabriele to have tremendous integrity, and I wouldn't say that lightly about someone in the real estate business. Can't recommend her highly enough. gsewtz@elliman.com or 718 360 7326.
Posted by: UnprotectedWrecks at May 17, 2009 9:52 PM
I can't believe that anyone actually had a good experience with Corley Realty. They are HORRIBLE, particularly, Mike Corley, the owner. When you look at their website or call their office, they refer to themselves as "the best experience in real estate" They should change it to "the worst experience in real estate." Both buyers and sellers beware of this cut-rate shop.
Posted by: bedstuytownhouse at September 17, 2009 12:13 PM
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