Real Estate Marketing and Public Relations

Author: Teri Karush Rogers, Brick Underground
Date: Tuesday, June 22

A good rental is hard to find, and some New York City renters apparently stop at little once they find one, including offering swag to brokers in exchange for being bumped to the top of the list.

“I’ve been offered cases of wine by people who work for liquor companies, VIP access to clubs, free drinks forever by bar owners, free meals at a restaurant,” says Jeffrey Schleider, the founder of Noho-based Miron Properties. "Yesterday someone offered me a pair of designer shoes."

Miron does a lot of business in the East Village and has represented several new rental buildings there.
“The East Village draws a really cool crowd of entertainment and hospitality industry people,” says Schleider. “The most desirable units go pretty quickly, and sometimes people try to convince us to take their application over someone else’s.”

Gus Waite, vice president of rentals at The Real Estate Group of New York, says he's encountered similar overtures.

“You have an open house for a really beautiful loft on Spring Street at a good price and six or seven tenants are looking at it—they know there are going to be multiple applications,” says Waite. “So a prospective tenant might take the broker aside and say, hey, I heard you talking about the Yankees-- my brother’s a bartender at Yankee Stadium and I could get you tickets if you move me to the front of the line.”

So...does it work? We're not sure.

Waite and Miron maintain that they personally never accept swag because their fiduciary duty is to the landlord.

“It comes down to qualifications,” says Waite. “While it might be nice to go to dinner at the hot new Italian restaurant, if you’re making $120,000 and another potential tenant is making $5 million, you won’t be getting the apartment.”

He warns that such offers can backfire.

“It should never come across as quid pro quo. If we’re having a friendly conversation and it turns out we’re both really into Italian food, and whether it works out or not you’d like to take me out to the hot Italian restaurant, that’s one thing,” says Waite.

On the other hand, says Waite, “it’s really bad if it’s sleazy or if it comes off as arrogant—like basically you’re telling me, ‘You’re a servant, you have a price, and I’m going to pay you off so that you do what I want you to do.’ I will tell the landlord that you’re sleazy.”

Schleider recommends leaving the designer shoes in the bag and trying these tactics instead:

1. Offer to pay a year’s rent up front, especially when it’s a small owner like someone who owns one condo.
2. If you’re relocating with an employer-paid budget of $10,000 a month, for example, but the apartment is renting for $9,000, offer the landlord the full $10,000 in exchange for including electric, cable, and cleaning service. (Be sure to check with your company’s relo department first.)

Online auction: Is this the
future of home sales?

NEW ROCHELLE — Buying a home in the city's luxury
Premium Point development had always been
considered a safe investment, especially since the
gated community is only about 20 miles from New
York City.

So when Peter Mastroianni bought a home there for
$2.2 million in March 2007, he figured he would
enjoy the summer with his family and then rent out
the property.

But then the housing market collapsed, leaving his
rental prospects high and dry.

"Sobering reality, that's what it is," said Mastroianni,
a community banker who has been unable to rent or
sell the property despite dropping his asking price
to $1.95 million. "You ride the highs and deal with
the lows, like any business."

Now he and his Realtor are trying their luck in a new
venue — an online home auction site called Bid on
the City.

Launched in Manhattan in October, the business is
starting to make waves in Westchester County as
buyers and sellers seek the best deals in a generally
deflated housing market.

The site's second Westchester County auction will
begin at 11:30 a.m. today.

Bidders can register at BidontheCity.com, which will
stream the auction in real time out of the company's
New York headquarters. Interested buyers can also
participate in person at 226 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

There are about 10 properties up for sale, with bids
starting at $1. Sellers have a base price requirement,
though, so don't expect to run away with a complete
steal.

Homes on the bidding block are mostly around $1
million and up this time around. An auction planned
for September will be dedicated to homes under $1
million.

"Our experience in Manhattan shows that the most
successful events are those that are dedicated to
certain groups of buyers," said Vlad Sapozhnikov,
general manager, who co-founded Bid on the City
with Albert Feinstein.

There are no listing fees to put a home up for
auction; the only charge is a 3 percent buyer's
premium once a transaction is completed.

Approximately 70 people are already registered to
bid in today's auction, though many more are
expected to tune in just to watch.

"The people who put their houses up on Bid on the
City are the same people who put their houses on
the market," Sapozhnikov said. "It's people who need
to sell. There's nothing to lose. We take all the risk
up front. We sponsor all the advertising and
marketing."

In Westchester, Bid on the City has partnered with
Realtors to show the properties and conduct open
houses, unlike in Manhattan, where they also handle
this component.

Lester J. Kravitz, a Pelham Realtor who has two
houses up on Bid on the City, says this combines
the best of 20th- and 21st-century marketing.

He sees this as the future of real estate, likening it to
eBay, the online marketplace.

Jennifer Gould Keil
GIMME SHELTER

He’s out!
Joe Torre’s former Westchester residence is up for auction. The New Rochelle mansion, located at 60 Premium Point Road and offering Long Island Sound views, had originally been listed at $2.695 million.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom, 6,534-square-foot home that Torre rented, in a gated community with a private beach, has a dock and an indoor pool. The master suite opens onto a deck, and the family room has a stone fireplace. Bidonthecity.com is auctioning off the property on July 20.

Although Torre is now with the Dodgers, his former Westchester neighbors don’t seem to hold it against him. A Larchmont restaurant, La Riserva, even has a dish — Pollo Joe Torre — named after him.

Bidonthecity.com is also auctioning off a piece of music history — the Pelham childhood home of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Felix Cavaliere. Cavaliere’s band, The Rascals, wrote and performed classics like “Groovin’ ” and “Good Lovin’.”

While Cavaliere rehearsed in the garage/basement, his dad worked as a dentist out of the home, which still has zoning that permits a small medical office. The five-bedroom, 2½-bathroom, 2,810-square-foot house was originally listed at $1.095 million

Going, Going, Gone!
By Elsa Brenner
Bid on the City, a new online bidding service for luxury real estate, has chosen Westchester as one of three upscale areas in the New York Metro region for technologically advanced approach to selling in the current housing market.

“It’s the new eBay for real estate,” says Vlad Sapozhnikov, Bid on the City’s co-founder and general manager. “A standard brokerage approach no longer works in this type of economy. There is a need for much more dynamic tools.”

Live bidding takes place in Bid on the City's 4,000-square-foot Fifth Avenue headquarters, but can also be done online with video and audio streamed in real time.

Properties—not foreclosures, mind you—that are up for bid range from $684,000 to $5 million, with opening bids starting at $1. These are houses that simply have not sold for one reason or another, and the owners, while not in desperate straits, are nevertheless anxious to strike a deal.

Under the Bid on the City model, sellers sign a 60-day exclusive listing agreement, but unlike traditional auctions, these will have no hidden reserve price. The houses will be sold to whomever bids the most above the seller’s stated minimum.

Want a sample of what’s up for bid? Check this out.

Among the offerings, you’ll find a 5-bedroom, 5-bath house with an in-ground pool on 1.25 acres in Scarsdale, with a starting bid at $1.99 million. (It came on the market at $2.8 million.) Taxes: $54,662.

If you miss that one, though, not to worry. There’s more to come, like a 4-bedroom, 5- bath Colonial at 182 Finch Road in North Salem, which came on the market at $3,200,000, but has a starting bid of only $1,995,000.