Argo Real Estate is one of the longest-standing independent real estate companies in New York City. Started over 60 years ago by Henry Moskowitz, the firm is still run by his son, Mark. Among some of the top executives at the firm include Barry Brandt, the Director of Sales.
Since coming on board at his current position at Argo, Barry has helped grow the brokerage by 20 percent, and oversees a team of 12 agents. In addition, he has helped establish a number of initiatives to help keep his staff motivated for continuing success, as well as an open-door policy to serve as a mentor for less-experienced agents. Barry also helped Argo shift the focus on rentals to sales, allowing for the brokerage division’s revenue to grow, now accounting for 70 percent earned through sales.
I recently was able to speak to Barry for “The Real New York” about his start in the industry, more about Argo and trends within the market.
How did you get your start in the industry?
I was born in Manhattan, lived here my whole life, and I got my start in the industry because my mom was actually a real estate broker. She was a broker for many, many years, a very good broker, of course, I’m a little biased because it’s my mom. But she really loved the business. One summer, I was in my mid-teens, and she said to me, ‘Would you want to do something, maybe show apartments in one of the companies I’m working for?’ And most of my friends did sort of the standard summer job stuff that kids do, and I felt well, this kind of sounds a little more interesting, and maybe meet some interesting people and see what the business is about, and I loved it from the minute I did it. It spoke to me. I loved interacting with people…back in those days, they were doing all sorts of new construction, new developments, and I was showing new apartments and getting to talk about it. I have a theatrical background, so it’s kind of fun, I got to kind of read from a script, and the whole thing kind of just played to who I was. And I kept going. I kept working summers, and even through college I was getting more and more involved in the industry, and it took off from there. It’s been an interesting career; I worked with some great people, and some people of some notoriety and it’s been a nice road winding up here at Argo, where I really have a good group, and I’m really enjoying myself here.
So you came onto Argo going on 3 years now?
Almost 3 years, yeah, yeah. I was brought on board…Argo’s been around for over 60 years. It’s a great company, and it’s got a wonderful reputation, primarily as a management company. They always had a brokerage division, but the brokerage division, as if often the case with management, often just services the portfolio of the company, whatever they have in the way of properties, whatever they own themselves, or what they manage on a third party basis. And what they wanted to do was have somebody come in and really use that as a foundation to build a competitive brokerage operation. So we’ve been managing to do that; we’re a boutique operation, but we have a variety of niches in the city, and we have some very good brokers on board, very experienced, very successful, very knowledgeable brokers. I like to say, I call them [Argo] kind of “Classic New York;” we’re a very diverse group, a lot of New Yorkers who come from, who’ve grown up in all five boroughs, they all have kind of different backgrounds, not everybody started in real estate. In fact, most came from other businesses, transitioned into the business and used the skill sets they had elsewhere in order to make careers in this industry. So it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve been bringing people on board, again keeping that idea alive, of bringing people who have this real affection for the city, know about it, live it, enjoy it, partake in everything it offers and it’s a good group. We’ve been expanding little by little, our game plan is to continue expanding in Manhattan where we have a nice small team that does very well, and then in Queens, where we’re making a bigger and bigger footprint. We believe very strongly in that market, as well. It’s been very interesting, and it’s so nice that the company itself kind of has that family vibe, but it’s got a very good organization; it’s corporate, but with kind of a family thing. It’s a nice place to work.
In fact, I think I did see that the current president, his father founded it like 60 years ago, so it’s kind of nice that it has all stayed in the family.
Exactly, Mark Moskowitz, lovely guy, very knowledgeable, very bright. Again, a New York kid. He’s very invested in the city, and his dad, who I unfortunately never had the chance to meet, was kind of one of those legends of that era. Very honorable, honest, straightforward, sharp guy, came here with nothing, and built this wonderful business, and again, kind of one of those classic New York stories.
Definitely. Now, I want to go into some trends that we’ve been seeing over the past year or so, especially in lower Manhattan. I wanted to get your take on what sort of current trends you’ve been seeing with the buyers and the sellers in downtown, in lower Manhattan.
Well, the interesting for me, and I’ve been in the business for so long, and kind of seen a variety of cycles and different neighborhoods change, and this gentrification that everyone speaks about where so many areas that were not residential, have become residential. Kind of beyond that, the interesting thing for me with downtown is how much it’s become so family-friendly. Developers are building bigger apartments, they’re accommodating the infrastructure, the schools, the services, the stores, all of those people involved in really creating a community, have found their way downtown. And, I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s great to see, again, there’s an energy. Back in let’s say the ’80s and ’90s, there was always kind of a hit back during that, and it was the creative community, very aware of it. But now it’s much more, that element is there, but it’s also very much a family, this vibrant thing going on down there, where people are going down there to build roots, and to build a community. I think it’s great, I think it’s terrific.
Also with the trends, the sales prices have seen some of its highest numbers in a really long time, and the demand is still extremely high. Do you foresee this trend continuing over the next few years?
I do, I think, we have this recent uptick in the industry, so depending if there is a major shift in an upward fashion or if there’s, god forbid, some sort of tragic event that takes place, that obviously impacts us. Real estate is not only impacted by local and national economies, but the global economy affects what goes on in New York real estate as well. But I think that certainly, there is a limited amount of space to build, people are always looking for new construction, people are always looking for new development. the new developments are getting more and more creative in how they’re marketing themselves, what they’re offering the buyers. they understand the high-end market. I think there’s quite a bit of product out there right now, and I think there’s been a little bit of price resistance, but I think at some point because the demand is there, and New York is really the ultimate destination. People want to be here. They want to be here for business, they want to be here for the lifestyle; there’s never a lack of interest being here. And I think that certainly at that high end, it’s more and more the case. There’s more wealth globally, there’s more interest in coming here than ever, and I think that new development will continue to push that market. Will it run out of steam? Possibly, but again, I think you will have to have a variety of economic situations that taking place for it start to impact us negatively.
What do you think are some common mistakes that both buyers and sellers make when trying to purchase or sell a home?
Hmm, that’s a great question. One of the things that I preach, and the agents at Argo really live is that you have to be knowledgeable, you have to understand not only the wants and needs of your buyers and sellers and clients, but knowing the markets in which that business exists. I think that it is very important when people are buying and selling to really work with agents that they trust, and that they know have their best interests in mind. Very often, somebody will say, you’ll get someone who wants to sell their apartment, let’s say, and someone has a friend who’s a broker. They’ll say ‘Oh it’s a friend, it’s fine,’ and very often, that works out very nicely. But the key thing is working with a real professional, and somebody who can represent your interests well. Selecting the broker is key, and establishing a relationship and making sure you’re comfortable in the advice you’re getting, and also making sure that the broker is listening to what your wants and needs are, very important. What I’m founding now is, because there’s such great availability of information out there, that buyers and sellers are really starting to take advantage of kind of what they need to know, the current trends, but I can’t underscore enough that that really is important. They need to do their homework, it’s important to know what’s going on out there so that they’re able to speak on an even plane with the brokers that represent them. We love having educated clients; it makes our job so much easier. That’s [information] far more available than it is now than it ever has been, and it will continue to be so; there’s more and more information out there, and access to information is greater than ever, so I think that’s an important thing for buyers and sellers to take advantage of.
Do you think that there are any misconceptions about real estate brokers out there?
I think so, I think actually just to circle back to this last point, I think very often the amount of work that they do behind-the-scenes in learning about the market, immersing themselves in what’s going on, getting as knowledgeable as they can, and staying current with trends…I think very often, we are painted in kind of an unfortunate light. I think there’s this idea that there’s kind of a lack of altruism, and everyone is in it just for the personal gain. But, I think the good brokers are very focused on establishing relationships with their clients, and really making a connection with them, and making sure that they are serving their best interests. It’s unfortunate, there are going to be people in every business who don’t handle themselves as they should, and it’s the old one bad apple. You read things that make it to the public that aren’t good news, and it affects those of us that take our responsibilities very seriously. So I think that brokers for the most part are far more focused on doing the right thing for their clients than they’re given credit for.
-by Jackie Hart
The post The Real New York: Barry Brandt, Argo Real Estate appeared first on Downtown Magazine NYC.