For Agents

For Agents

The Care and Feeding of Brokers and Managers, Revisited

13 years ago I wrote a post entitled “How Salespeople Can Prevent Their Broker From Premature Gray Hair.” It was a fun piece on things that licensees do that range from driving their managers crazy to working smarter and not harder. With the evolution of the industry and technology, I’ve decided to update the list. […]
Buying, For Agents

Buyer Agents and Due Diligence

I’ve posted many times that people seeking to buy a home should use a buyer agent. The transaction is too expensive and complex to not have your own exclusive representation. Recent events have inspired me to address buyer agents themselves, as the role is a huge position of trust from the client. Buyers don’t need […]
Commentary, For Agents

For Agents: Open House Parking Etiquette

This past weekend some agents on my team held an open house for a listing in Mahopac. It was busy, with 25 separate parties and possibly 50 or 60 people walking through the home. The one wrinkle was that street parking was sparce. It had a driveway that could fit up to 10 cars, but […]
Commentary, For Agents

7 Things the Industry Should be Doing Amid Coronavirus

(Note: the following piece was originally published in Inman News) Like many of my colleagues, I’ve been reading — with great concern — about how the ripple effect of the coronavirus pandemic is playing out and how it will affect my business. However, unlike many of my colleagues across the nation, I am seeing serious […]

For Agents The Care and Feeding of Brokers and Managers, Revisited 13 years ago I wrote a post entitled “How Salespeople Can Prevent Their Broker From Premature Gray Hair.” It was a fun piece on things that licensees do that range from driving their managers crazy to working smarter and not harder. With the evolution of the industry and technology, I’ve decided to update the list. […]

Buying Buyer Agents and Due Diligence I’ve posted many times that people seeking to buy a home should use a buyer agent. The transaction is too expensive and complex to not have your own exclusive representation. Recent events have inspired me to address buyer agents themselves, as the role is a huge position of trust from the client. Buyers don’t need […]

Commentary For Agents: Open House Parking Etiquette This past weekend some agents on my team held an open house for a listing in Mahopac. It was busy, with 25 separate parties and possibly 50 or 60 people walking through the home. The one wrinkle was that street parking was sparce. It had a driveway that could fit up to 10 cars, but […]

Commentary 7 Things the Industry Should be Doing Amid Coronavirus (Note: the following piece was originally published in Inman News) Like many of my colleagues, I’ve been reading — with great concern — about how the ripple effect of the coronavirus pandemic is playing out and how it will affect my business. However, unlike many of my colleagues across the nation, I am seeing serious […]

Company News Gloria Hernandez Elevated-Again- to Briarcliff Market Center Manager I am delighted to (belatedly) announce that as of December 1, 2017, Gloria Hernandez has added the J. Philip Real Estate Briarcliff office to her existing managerial responsibilities. Gloria is already managing our Pelham Center, and it was a no-brainer to have her take the helm in Briarcliff. This raises the number of agents that […]

For Agents What Does a “For Sale by Owner” Want? This past Tuesday I was wrapping up a team meeting with 5 agents. The question came up on how to list “For Sale by Owner” properties. Before I continue, let me state that it’s fairly established that most “FSBOs” eventually list with a broker. There is a learning curve to the process, and these home […]

For Agents Zillow and Real Estate Xenophobia Recently, in a real estate Tech Support Forum on Facebook, someone posted their opinion of Zillow’s latest TV commercial. Zillow is a powder keg for controversy in the real estate community as it is, but since the commercial didn’t make a prominent reference to a real estate agent (there was a broker sign in the […]

Commentary My Cell Phone is (914) 450-8883 This is one of those posts that I write for strictly therapeutic purposes, so please indulge me. Unlike some agents who keep their cell phones a state secret, mine is not. As a matter of fact, when I hear a licensee talk about how they “value their privacy” and prefer that their mobile number not […]

Commentary “Yours is the Hardest Business I Have Ever Seen.” Weekends are busy in real estate, so you can imagine the feeling when my head sank into the couch pillow at 6:20pm when I remembered that I had to drive to New Rochelle meet with a client I promised to see. My client is a retiree, and straight shooter as well, and our conversations are […]

Commentary STOP Posting Your Listings on Social Media for the Love of God I just discovered Sulia, a this cool, channel based social media platform that allows people to follow subjects instead of people. It is a phenomenal idea. Clicking on the real estate channel, I found the same social media fail by my esteemed colleagues that plagues every other platform: spam. They think people will want to […]

For Agents For Real Estate Agents: How to Communicate with Your Broker or Manager A small, benign event occurred recently that made me dust off a list I have been compiling as a broker who has had his share of communication fails over the years with the real estate agents in my brokerage. You might be going out of town, need help with a file, or just want to […]