Everything You Want Him To Be

Brian Carter, our favorite broker (although to be fair, that’s not saying much), adjusts his work style by “playing dumb”:

No longer the grey voice of reason and experience, I’ve decided that if a client believes the Upper East Side is a great place to explore cutting edge nightlife, it’s not my job to disagree. I may see the neighborhood as an unfortunate blend of the ultra rich and wildly immature, a sort of a large fraternity mixer sponsored by corporate donors who have to double as chaperones, but that’s just my opinion.

If they have to live in the Village because that’s where Sarah Jessica Parker lives, then to the Village we shall go. I’ll then admit to almost having moved there myself for the exact same reason. They are somehow under the impression that Hells Kitchen is a dangerous and drug infested neighborhood where criminals are forced to mug each other because no one else will venture there. I’ll confess that I had no idea and will thank them for the tip. In the meantime we should keep looking on the Upper West Side where crime doesn’t exist.

. . .

In the past, I’ve allowed my personal experience and taste to dictate my sales technique, naively believing that informing and educating renters would be rewarded with loyalty. But that hasn’t been the case. The “honesty is the best policy” approach in this business has gotten me nominal results, but plenty of dinner invitations and comments like, “Sorry about finding our place with that other jerk, but we should really hang out sometime.” I guess, but it seems pretty weird to me that somehow these people missed the fact that I was working. My new approach of agreeing with absolutely every misguided idea that renters come up with and enthusiastically sharing in their fantasies is going to pay big dividends. And they’ll never mistake me for a friend again.

I don’t want to start worrying about Carter, but it may be getting more difficult for brokers:

In a step toward opening up New York’s real estate marketplace, the Real Estate Board of New York announced yesterday that it plans to launch a public Internet portal containing all the exclusive apartment sales and rental listings of its 319 members, including the city’s biggest brokerages.

While similar systems exist in many real estate markets around the country, establishing a comprehensive, shared, and free listing system on the Web has been a long, hard slog in New York City. Earlier attempts at cooperation among the city’s largest and most competitive real estate firms crashed and burned amid squabbling.

Currently, brokers with member firms must share information with one another about their exclusive listings within 72 hours, and about 10,000 to 15,000 sales and rental listings are available to brokers from member firms. The new portal, to be released early next year with the fanfare of a seven-figure advertising budget, would offer these listings online to the public.