Manhattan real estate has always been different. Over the years REALTOR® friends and colleagues from other parts of the country have been very sympathetic toward how we do business in Manhattan. They would say: "You have it so hard", "how can you make a living? " No dominant MLS, coops, coop boards, board interviews, buyer's financial statements, building financials, only attorney's can write contracts, accepted offers that don't mean anything, How do you do it"?
MANAR the Manhattan MLS is only about 5 years old and has about 15% of the market. The dominant board REBNY is a real estate board. They claim they are not an MLS because there is no central database. Broker members cooperate but each have their own electronic system to send and receive listing data. REBNY members are not only brokers but builders and management companies. Management companies represent coop boards. There is a bill in the city council pending that will require coops to put in writing why they rejected a buyer. Most brokers are for this bill REBNY is against it because they also in directly represent coop boards. I know that the justice department has investigated REBNY. REBNY recently announced a web portal for the public with all it's members exclusive listings.
I thought we would catch up and do business like the rest of the country. I thought the big Manhattan companies would eventually join the MLS but what is happening with MLS and the justice department throughout the country It doesn't seem likely. It seems like what is happening with MLS throughout the country is forcing more markets to become like Manhattan. Many of the arguments about VOWS and opting out is similar to the politics that has been going on in Manhattan real estate for many years. The big firms have always been very proprietary regarding their listings.
The changing of MLS throughout the country won't affect listing agents but I think it makes it harder for buyers agents because it makes it easier for buyers to go directly to listing agents. However, I don't see any of this changing the role of a good agent. 2/3 of my business comes from the buy side.
Selling real estate is an art not a science. There is no software, website or tool that comes with emotion. Selling and buying real estate is emotional not logical. Data isn't looked at objectively but emotionally. There certainly is enough data about real estate but personal attachment and emotion get in the way.
When I first started in real estate I worked for a boutique broker that had a very good reputation primarily in one neighborhood. Appraisers would all call my broker for comps. We primarily used comps for appraisers and not to get listings. My broker knew every apartment on the upper west side. I would mention an address and she would say "that board is tough" that building has bad finances or I converted that building". I would go with her on listing appointments. We didn't come armed with data and reports and a formal presentations. We listened we looked around we were ourselves down to earth and basically shot from the hip. She would compliment me on my pricing ability.
Since then I've read studies, market reports each one contradicting the last one. There is much more data and information and resources available to me now. It's all available to the public too. I've had "formal" training, I take it all with a grain of salt, it really doesn't mean much. The median went up but the average went down. The average per square foot went up but the average price came down.
There is an art to selling real estate and pricing properties. I can walk into an apartment with comps in my hand, take one look around see something and throw out the comps and price it right out of thin air.
It's an art, it's a skill, it is a talent. ...But it's not out of thin air. It's from my brain and my gut. It is innate knowledge.
I was really good at The Price Is Right as a kid. Jeopardy was for my brother and sister. How about Life? Could it be experience living in Manhattan for 25 years? A consumer myself, first a renter, then a buyer, buying and selling my own home, working with buyers every day knowing what they will buy and what they will spend, knowing what I would pay for an apartment myself, knowing the inventory, knowing the history of the inventory, knowing things about the inventory that is not data. Information in my head through osmosis. Knowing what I could market it for. Knowing how I would market it. There is no magic number, at best it's an estimated guess there are too many variables.
Pricing right is very important, some say it's everything but it won't ever come from software, or data. It comes from a brain and a gut.
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Mitchell this is very thought provoking; and your market sounds like the Wild West to me here in Cleveland!
It sounds like your brain and your gut are pretty gifted! I do know what you mean about walking into a place and seeing something (either good or bad) that throws the comps out the window.
What do you mean you can't write contracts? I am very intrigued and had no idea there was no MLS. Great post! I'm going to have to mull this over a bit and come back tomorrow too. I was never any good at the Price Is Right! But Family Feud..... so I have the gut down but not the brain