Pam Liebman is placing her cash the place her mouth is.
The president and CEO of Corcoran wager Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman $1 million that her brokerage will stay a definite model for years to come back, regardless of its former mum or dad firm merging with Compass earlier this 12 months.
Liebman made the wager whereas on stage at The Actual Deal’s annual New York Forum on Wednesday, after Freedman mentioned the acquisition would create “plenty of sameness” between the brokerages now beneath the Compass umbrella, together with Corcoran, Sotheby’s Worldwide and Coldwell Banker.
“You guys are actually owned by Compass,” Freedman interjected after Liebman claimed Corcoran was the primary brokerage within the metropolis. “That’s what I name a wig snatch.”
However Liebman pushed again towards Freedman’s crack with a dig of her personal, arguing that the Corcoran model was right here to remain.
“Corcoran won’t ever be Compass,” Liebman mentioned. “You’re owned by Will Zeckendorf and Arthur Zeckendorf. Ought to I name you the Zeckendorfs? They don’t even provide you with their tasks.”
Freedman then known as on Liebman to hitch her in encouraging Compass CEO Robert Reffkin to desert his battle to construct an unique private listing network inside the Compass ecosystem, which Freedman has lengthy criticized as a transfer detrimental to each shoppers and brokers.
“We imagine in advertising your properties to everyone,” Freedman mentioned. She added that days on market was an vital metric for dwelling patrons, likening it to the quantity on the odometer of a automobile on the market. “You’ll be able to’t lie in regards to the miles.”
However Liebman rejected Freedman’s analogy, as an alternative evaluating the method of shopping for a house to buying luxurious purses.
“Once you go right into a automobile vendor and also you discover a automobile, you don’t get to say, ‘How lengthy has it been on the lot?’” Liebman mentioned. “Once you go into Hermès to purchase a bag, you don’t get to say, ‘What number of do you’ve within the again?’”
Freedman urged Liebman and Compass management to encourage their brokers to make use of the “Individuals Solely” characteristic on the residential itemizing service, which permits brokers to add listings to the Actual Property Board of New York’s platform with out having them syndicated to different portals, although Liebman mentioned the characteristic isn’t extensively utilized by brokers throughout corporations, not simply Compass.
Nonetheless, Freedman insisted that the business is best off with brokers sharing listings throughout brokerages and the metrics that include them, as an alternative of attempting to “lie and trick” the market.
“No person’s attempting to trick anybody,” Liebman objected. “I don’t know the place this concept of trickery comes from. All we’re saying is, a vendor has the proper to decide on.”
Liebman added that Corcoran has an extended historical past of advocating for cobroking within the business and vowed that she wouldn’t change her tune on that, even when different residential leaders — ahem, Reffkin — had been able to abandon the precept.
“Nobody’s telling me what to do,” Liebman mentioned.
“And in the event that they do, Pam, I’ve acquired a job for you,” Freedman replied.
“What makes everybody assume I’m going wherever?” Pam replied. “I’ve acquired the best job on the earth.”
The duo lowered their weapons when requested about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed pied-à-terre tax on New York Metropolis houses valued at $5 million or extra, a plan each Liebman and Freedman, together with others within the business, fiercely oppose.
“This tax is a feel-good tax,” Freedman mentioned, including that she discovered Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s feedback in regards to the proposal and his nods to 220 Central Park South “deeply irresponsible and immature.”
Liebman added that fears over the tax had been already driving down gross sales within the $20 million plus vary, with patrons hesitating to tug the set off within the present political local weather.
“Once you go one thing like that, it’s solely the primary of many to come back,” Liebman mentioned in regards to the proposed regulation. “None of that is fixing what the best downside is, which is inexpensive housing.”
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