I truly enjoy reading the posts Fred Peters writes.And this week is no exception. Are you getting your money's worth from your agent ? Are you engaging a trusted advisor and partner who helps you achieve your real estate goals ? Everyone is more cautious, more data driven, more intent on getting va
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
If you are a fan of reality television,and real estate-check out Selling New York on HGTV. The show was a hit in its first season,featuring luxe New York City real estate and the brokers who represent buyers and sellers in these transcations. Warburg Realty has joined the cast ,and some of our top b
Check out these clips from the upcoming season of HGTV's Selling New York-some of Warburg's top brokers join the cast !
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
About a month ago ,I wrote about my thoughts on the select bus service that was coming to the first and second avenue M15 lines in Manhattan. In the last week or so,there have been two New York Post articles about fines that were levied,one where a woman apparently presented the wrong reciept and
A follow up to my original post on SBS15 service on First & Second Avenues in Manhattan
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Blogging for me was an uphill battle to start. I understood what was entailed, didn't think I could do it, or that I had the time. Took me long enough to grasp Twitter,but that to me made sense as a highly mobile activity.Being an agent in Manhattan,its often easy to feel overwhelmed by attending co
And thus began the new phase of my blog ! Suggestions and comments are always welcome. Drop me a line,anytime!
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Today is Thanksgiving Day. I believe it is essential to find something to be thankful for every single day.Whether its good health,or having caught the subway just as the doors shut-find something,no matter how small,to be grateful for,and maybe even make you (or someone else) smile. Some days,it
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Giving Thanks
Posted on November 23rd, 2010 by Frederick Peters, PresidentThanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Every year, at the end of our Thanksgiving dinner, my extended family goes around the table and each person speaks about what they feel particularly thankful for. This year I have a lot: my mother remains healthy and vital; I am still crazy about my wife after 33 years of marriage and we continue to lead engaged lives in which we try to give back at least some of what we get; we will welcome our first grandchild in January; our kids are both happily married and do interesting and challenging work. That’s the personal side. And my professional gratitude list? Here goes:
1) The Manhattan market had a good year overall, in spite of the lingering clouds of the recession. While confidence is still shaky, many buyers recognized value in our marketplace (especially relative to their other investments), so business has been good.
2) I have learned to run a tighter ship. Warburg closed two offices in early 2009 and I don’t really miss them. My wonderful staff, most of whom have been with us for many years, work every day in the dedicated manner which enables us to function effectively with 80% of the support people we employed in 2007.
3) Property is cheaper. More people can afford it, especially in this historically low interest rate environment. We are not selling exclusively to Wall Streeters any more, although finance professionals still make up a substantial percentage of our buyer and seller base. Attorneys, artists, doctors, actors, small business owners, corporate executives, real estate investors-we are working with a more diverse professional group than at any time in the recent past.
4) There are fewer, more dedicated agents in the marketplace. At the height of the real estate boom people flooded into our business, believing that a real estate salesperson’s license was a license to print money. Now most of them have discovered how hard the job actually is and have moved on. This leaves a smaller group of more professional, better trained agents most of whom actually know what they are doing!
5) The real estate agent has not suffered the fate of the travel agent. Statistics from the National Association of Realtors indicate that more consumers than ever use the services of a broker when embarking on a residential purchase or sale. With all the information out there in cyberspace, buyers and sellers need someone to act as an interpreter and advisor. That’s what we do!
Happy Thanksgiving. What are YOU thankful for?
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Filed under Fred's View of Manhattan Real Estate, Frederick Peters, President.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
The View from the Inside
Posted on November 15th, 2010 by Frederick Peters, PresidentAs 2010 winds down, I am reflecting on the 19 years during which I have been the President of Warburg Realty (formerly Ashforth Warburg, before that Albert B. Ashforth, Inc) where I came to work in January of 1986 as the Associate Director of the Residential Sales Division. While the business has changed in many ways, the fundamental structure of how real estate firms operate has remained pretty much the same.
Our agents are all independent contractors. They earn commissions, which we divide with them in percentages based on their earnings history (the more they earn, the bigger the percentage). We provide desks, phones, computer and IT services, marketing and PR. We maintain our website and our iPhone application, making sure that both remain state of the art. And increasingly we provide training in both the traditional areas such as negotiating, working with customers, or handling an exclusive and the newer but equally necessary topics like the intricacies of Web 2.0 and getting the most out of Outlook 2010. As the head of any brokerage firm will tell you, this is a narrow margin business. While the established Manhattan firms have staying power, many of our smaller colleagues have been plowed under during the recession; nationwide, brokerages have folded, consolidated, or downsized in huge numbers since the national real estate downturn began in 2006. Many of the business owners I spoke to at the National Association of Realtors conference last week in New Orleans told me that they are losing money on their brokerage operations, and it is the offering of ancillary services, such as mortgages or title insurance, which keeps them afloat.
The rallying cry at the NAR conventions is “retention.” Seminar after seminar is directed at how to keep your top agents from jumping ship. For those of us who are lucky enough to direct and work at New York’s top companies, the answer is relationships. In the end, I think it is the same in any business. My agents, and those working for my top competitors, stick around because the powerful internal network of relationships which they have built . Many of the agents at Warburg have worked with us for 20 years or more, and I hope and believe it is more than money which keeps them here. They are a second family to me. I have enormous admiration for these highly skilled, hard working, unsalaried professionals, who rarely get credit when things go right but are almost always blamed when they go wrong. And I hope I am communicating that every day.
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Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Grand Central’s Holiday Fair !
Posted on November 16th, 2010 by Nicole Beauchamp
For many years,when I worked in Midtown Manhattan Grand Central was literally and figuratively my hub.Every day I made my way to offices at various buildings in the area -two that still stand out in my memory are the Lincoln Building,which is now One Grand Central Place and the Helmsley Building (such lovely holiday decorations,and often even musicians in the lobby !) That said,while most of the year it could at times feel overwhelming-especially if I was venturing out of Manhattan (shocking,I know) ,racing to catch the Metro-North,like clockwork every year just before Thanksgiving ,my feelings changed.
I love the light shows,and especially the Grand Central Terminal Holiday Fair. Grand Central is one of my favorite buildings in all of Manhattan,but add the fair and I will always find a way to pass thru ! The show opened on Monday,with the Rockette’s cutting the ribbon.
This year there are about 76 vendors.A great place to get unique gifts for those very special people !
The fair is open seven days a week,except for Thanksgiving Day. For more information head to GrandCentralTerminal.com
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Tags: Grand Central, holidays, Manhattan, Midtown manhattan
Filed under Nicole Beauchamp.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Grand Central’s Holiday Fair !
Posted on November 16th, 2010 by Nicole Beauchamp
For many years,when I worked in Midtown Manhattan Grand Central was literally and figuratively my hub.Every day I made my way to offices at various buildings in the area -two that still stand out in my memory are the Lincoln Building,which is now One Grand Central Place and the Helmsley Building (such lovely holiday decorations,and often even musicians in the lobby !) That said,while most of the year it could at times feel overwhelming-especially if I was venturing out of Manhattan (shocking,I know) ,racing to catch the Metro-North,like clockwork every year just before Thanksgiving ,my feelings changed.
I love the light shows,and especially the Grand Central Terminal Holiday Fair. Grand Central is one of my favorite buildings in all of Manhattan,but add the fair and I will always find a way to pass thru ! The show opened on Monday,with the Rockette’s cutting the ribbon.
This year there are about 76 vendors.A great place to get unique gifts for those very special people !
The fair is open seven days a week,except for Thanksgiving Day. For more information head to GrandCentralTerminal.com
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Tags: Grand Central, holidays, Manhattan, Midtown manhattan
Filed under Nicole Beauchamp.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
The View from the Inside
Posted on November 15th, 2010 by Frederick Peters, PresidentAs 2010 winds down, I am reflecting on the 19 years during which I have been the President of Warburg Realty (formerly Ashforth Warburg, before that Albert B. Ashforth, Inc) where I came to work in January of 1986 as the Associate Director of the Residential Sales Division. While the business has changed in many ways, the fundamental structure of how real estate firms operate has remained pretty much the same.
Our agents are all independent contractors. They earn commissions, which we divide with them in percentages based on their earnings history (the more they earn, the bigger the percentage). We provide desks, phones, computer and IT services, marketing and PR. We maintain our website and our iPhone application, making sure that both remain state of the art. And increasingly we provide training in both the traditional areas such as negotiating, working with customers, or handling an exclusive and the newer but equally necessary topics like the intricacies of Web 2.0 and getting the most out of Outlook 2010. As the head of any brokerage firm will tell you, this is a narrow margin business. While the established Manhattan firms have staying power, many of our smaller colleagues have been plowed under during the recession; nationwide, brokerages have folded, consolidated, or downsized in huge numbers since the national real estate downturn began in 2006. Many of the business owners I spoke to at the National Association of Realtors conference last week in New Orleans told me that they are losing money on their brokerage operations, and it is the offering of ancillary services, such as mortgages or title insurance, which keeps them afloat.
The rallying cry at the NAR conventions is “retention.” Seminar after seminar is directed at how to keep your top agents from jumping ship. For those of us who are lucky enough to direct and work at New York’s top companies, the answer is relationships. In the end, I think it is the same in any business. My agents, and those working for my top competitors, stick around because the powerful internal network of relationships which they have built . Many of the agents at Warburg have worked with us for 20 years or more, and I hope and believe it is more than money which keeps them here. They are a second family to me. I have enormous admiration for these highly skilled, hard working, unsalaried professionals, who rarely get credit when things go right but are almost always blamed when they go wrong. And I hope I am communicating that every day.
Share this: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Filed under Fred's View of Manhattan Real Estate, Frederick Peters, President.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Sometimes you have to go old school (ok. In truth its hard to dissuade my techie toddler great nephew *not* to want to play with my gadgets,and for time being he prefers his giant easel pad for drawing) !
What's scribbled on the card ? New buyer client,notes on different buildings that fit the initial search criteria . Product knowledge is key -yes we've got databases and such but the brain of a broker is an *immense* asset when you're looking for that perfect home or investment. Have a great Saturday !Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Over the long term,if you’re in a position to buy (finances in order,feel secure about your situation going forward),and have a long term view,this may still be an ideal time to purchase.And honestly,even from a selling standpoint,depending on when you bought,even if near the apex of the market,the possibilities of what purchasing power you may have as a result of the sale,could be greater now,than they were at the apex.
As 2010 is coming to a close,and 2011 is creeping up on us-what are your intentions and goals ?
Food for thought,isn’t it ?
Nicole Beauchamp
Warburg Realty Partnership,Ltd
O:212-300-1835 | M: 917-528-6501 | F:646-422-4039
Take-Aways From NAR
Frederick Peters, President
I am on my way home from New Orleans, where I have spent the last three days at the National Association of Realtors conference. While I was there I took a fascinating tour of the lower Ninth Ward and the surrounding bayous, so now I have a better understanding of what actually took place in the aftermath of Katrina and why the maintenance of the wetlands around the city, as well as the levees, are so crucial to the city’s survival and health in the decades ahead.
The conference was full of interesting information about real estate values nationwide and the overall impact of the economy on our industry. My favorite take-aways appear below.
Lawrence Yun, the economist for NAR, took the average of the predictions of 100 economists about the years ahead for existing home sales and arrived at the following (Mr. Yun says that even though individual economists are almost always wrong, averaging their predictions shows an uncanny prescience):
· Price increase in real estate during 2011: .78%
· Price increase in real estate during 2012: 2.3%
I love it when 100 economists overall agree with me that we are looking forward to a year with almost no price appreciation! As we all know, real estate is local so in New York, if bonuses are good, we may do a little better. But I do not think we are looking at substantial price growth until we have more consumer confidence and better job growth.
Mr. Yun also informed us that the Consumer Price Index for 2010 is a mere 1.1%. While this is a historically low number, it reflects the fact that that nationally, real estate prices continued to fall throughout much of the year, thus exerting downward pressure on the other elements of the CPI (this made me once again relieved to be a broker in New York, where 2010 saw modest but genuine gains in residential real estate values). The Producer Price Index for crude products, including many raw materials for manufacturing and food production, is at 20%. If prices in the crude products sector continue escalating at that rate, inflation and higher interest rates are inevitable, regardless of the Fed’s desire to stimulate the economy with cheap money.
Mr. Yun predicts that mortgage rates will remain around 5% on average through 2011, and then up to 5.5% in 2012. But he cautioned that continued growth in the deficit is a real wild card and could affect both the economy and interest rates in unpredictable ways.
For today we know that mortgage rates for most products are below 5% and that since the end of the third quarter of 2000 the Dow is up 7.5% (10,650 in 2000 vs 11,407 today), the S & P is down 15% (1436 in 2000 vs 1223 today), the NASDAQ is down 30% (3672 in 2000 vs 2580 today) and real estate in Manhattan has appreciated 40% or more during the same period. Please draw your own conclusions.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
Had a great day yesterday. One of those silently busy ones. Started out at NYC Real Estate Expo. I only had time to attend one session-wasnt able to make it back. But it was good to have caught the REBNY panel discussing the residential market. Some great insight ,from the board perspective (Steven Spinola ) from a general brokerage perspective (Diane Ramirez of Halstead was there) and from broker/agent perspective (Deanna Kory of Corcoran and Wendy Maitland of BHS).
After this off to a meeting, and then some work, to prepare to take some time off for our anniversary. I was preparing to head to a social media seminar at Columbia (they do some sessions for free open to the public) being led by @jeremycaplan . Sometimes you can never be sure what you'll learn-but I'm of the opinion that even learning one new thing or meeting one new person is worth it. But then, on Twitter, someone I met at REBCRYE,alerted me that I won a contest ! A custom Wordpress blog ! Awesome. ( http://techsavvyagent.mobstac.com/uncategorized/thanks-for-taking-tech-savvy-... ) Back to the seminar- I did indeed learn some things, and hearing the perspectives of others trying to use an emerging medium was fascinating. Here are the resources shared as part of the seminar.Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
An oft quoted stat is that Facebook has 500M users and now it even has a movie, The Social Network, a movie about, well a social network,and other movies in which it is a central character as well.
How have social networks become a part of your lives? Why did you join any? If you have not, why not? I joined LinkedIn what seems like many moons ago, maybe 2003 or around that time .It seemed like a wonderful idea, and for many years, that was the only “social network” I belonged to. I used it heavily in my prior business. I never joined MySpace or anything else like that. I was reluctant to join Facebook, I only finally acquiesced in 2008, in order to play Scrabulous (I love word games-one of my preferred methods of relaxing usually involves a puzzle, or a word game, and I adore Scrabble-shall we play?).Slowly I rediscovered former colleagues, classmates, even teachers and recently as more of my family has joined it is another for us to keep in touch. I love especially that I can check it from my mobile device when out and about in between meetings and appointments.
Like everything today, I approach with caution, as I try to maintain boundaries between various aspects of my life, from the subsets of personal life to my professional world. Aren’t we all trying to balance it all? Seems especially difficult given how “connected” we are, email, cell phones, netbooks, iPads.
Not only have I reconnected with many people from various phases of my life, I have as well connected with many new incredible people using Facebook (and Twitter). An incredible opportunity to connect and discuss, with people within the real estate industry as well as out of it. The spirit of open sharing, and communication and support is amazing. Many of these people I’ve met at various conferences, and after getting to know each other via social networking, there is a foundation of trust, and transparency-I feel that I know them to some degree, being face to face, is always the goal-but these preliminary interactions add depth and color to who may have been just a name in an endless see of names before, now there’s that “aha” moment prior.
This isn’t “new” per se, there were many such communities on earlier systems, from bulletin boards to CompuServe and AOL forums. My approach is the approach I’ve always had; there is no distinction between “online” Nicole and “face to face” Nicole. My photo accurately depicts what I currently look like ,what I choose to share on Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn and blogs, shows further insight into who I am, how I run my business and live my life.
How do you view social networks in your world? Are they a part of your world (and if so, how)?
Can’t wait to hear what many of you have to say (of course some of you will share your thoughts with me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email or *gasp* we may even discuss over cocktails as the holiday season rapidly approaches!)
Nicole Beauchamp
Warburg Realty Partnership,Ltd
30 East 76th Street |New York,NY 10021
O: 212-300-1835 | F:646-422-4039
E: nbeauchamp@warburgrealty.com
Nicole Beauchamp @ Warburg Realty
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Here's an up-to-the-minute insight written by
Frederick Peters, President of Warburg Realty.
You can read more on www.warburgrealty.com/blog
The Social Network
Frederick Peters, President
I know everyone is not on Facebook. My mother doesn’t use it. A number of the agents in our office are suspicious of it. But with 500 (or is it 600?) million users, Facebook is an international connectivity phenomenon unseen in my lifetime. And increasingly the Web 2.0 tools (no doubt soon to be eclipsed by a Web 3.0 I cannot yet imagine) have become an indispensable part of both my business and my personal life.
As Mark Zuckerberg says in The Social Network, “Facebook is cool.” Although I am not on every day, I am on most days. I have built relationships with fellow agents, including some who now feel like friends although I have never met them. I applaud their accomplishments, worry about their surgeries, wish their kids a happy birthday. And when we meet on either side of a deal we will work together more effectively because we have created this connection.
The same is true, only more so, with my blog. Each week I use this forum to think about the issues and ideas which seem to me to inform real estate brokerage here in New York City. In all my years working with our staff to market the Warburg brand, the blog has been the most successful thing I have ever done. I don’t use it to promote our listings. I try not to write much about the company at all. Yet I know that, because the content often seems to strike a chord both with agents and with consumers, it has a viral readership way beyond those I send it to, or who receive it from one of the Warburg agents, or who read it on my Facebook or my LinkedIn pages. When I attend conferences or industry events, people I have never met comment on the blog. Attorneys I have not spoken to for years call to list properties with Warburg, citing the blog as the reason. So do others who have found me, and the blog, on Facebook.
When I am teaching I often tell agents that ours is a relationship business disguised as a transaction business. In recent years this new and in my opinion wonderful way to create relationships has become an enormous piece of our interactive landscape. I am not active on Twitter, but my wife has used it to build a vibrant dialogue among her peers in the not-for-profit consulting world. For me Facebook and the blog have been my networks of choice.
It can be a challenge to not overshare or undershare. No one will relate to a Facebook presence which is all business (it is after all a SOCIAL network) while at the same time our Facebook friends don’t want to know TOO much about us. But once we find our voices, the networks are a wonderful venue for enhancing credibility, building trust, inviting opinion and buy in from the community, and creating connection. All of us – customers, clients, agents, and those in between – can both delight in and benefit from the swirling, energizing, ever-changing conversation going on 24/7/365 in the ether around us.
Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource
