Dozens of Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) members gathered to participate in seven roundtable discussions at the REBNY Membership Committee’s first “Shark Night: A Round Table Event,” sponsored by Citibank.
Following the opening remarks by Joseph Barbaccia, co-chair of REBNY’s Membership Committee and director at Essential New York Real Estate, each participant spent 15 minutes at each table learning about and discussing topics that ranged from competing with all-cash offers to working with foreign buyers.
“REBNY’s Shark Night of round tables was a great vehicle for delivering knowledge to our members, particularly those who are new to our industry and new to REBNY,” said Corinne Pulitzer, co-chair of REBNY’s membership Committee and Licensed Associate Broker at Douglas Elliman.
“Each of the round table discussions was led by a “Shark” (a.k.a. industry pro) with expertise on the timely topics chosen by the Membership Committee for this inaugural event. The evening closed with a networking cocktail hour, a perfect end to this sold out event.”
Ken Evans, branch manager vice president at Citibank, walked participants through a breakdown on financing for his discussion on “How to Get the Deal If Financing ‘Competing With An All Cash Offer.’”
He explained that a buyer who is financing is just as viable as an all-cash buyer, if not more so in some cases, for many reasons including verifiable income consistency.
Ryan Serhant, associate broker at Nest Seekers International, and Elise Ehrlich, real estate salesperson at Halstead Property, led a discussion titled “Marketing Out of the Box,” which looked at how relationship marketing can create a sustainable business.
Harold Kobner, associate broker with Argo Residential, and Jessica Cohen, associate broker with Douglas Elliman, gave participants first-hand knowledge on assembling a team of brokers in the discussion, “To Team or Not To Team: Pros and Cons.”
Among the most important takeaways of their presentation was that contrary to how it may seem, working with a team is not always the best way to approach a sale.
According to Kobner and Cohen, it is important to decide early on what your expectations and goals are, and where you want to see yourself going. Once this is established, then one should start thinking about how many teammates are required to achieve these goals.
Nicole Beauchamp, real estate specialist at Engel & Volkers, presented an interactive session on the “Top Three Apps You Need To Be More Efficient.” and Richard Herrmann, partner at Grant, Herrmann, Schwartz, & Klinger, and Corinne Pulitzer, gave tips on what to remember when working with international buyer.
Diane Levine, senior vice president at Sotheby’s, shared ways to keep a deal on track after the contract has been signed in her round table titled, “ABC’s – ‘To Get To Closing.’”
And Charlie Lewis, associate broker with Warburg Realty, and Vickey Barron, associate broker at Douglas Elliman, went over a comprehensive list of the advantages of working on a new development and the benefits of a resale home in their discussion, “New Development vs. Resale,”
They also covered how to read an offering plan.
