How does a boutique NYC real estate firm compete?

Hello RORE Readers! It has been a a very long time since my last post. Let's see...what has the world been up to....stock market crash, several banks being bought, un-qualified VP candidate...whatever one's world view, there is no way to say that things have been dull!

My business has both contracted and expanded. On the one hand, our mortgage business, Commodore Mortgage Group, has taken a hit. We have lost several banks (IndyMac, WAMU, Citi, GMAC, to name a few), jumbo pricing has gone through the roof, and underwriting standards have become overly tough. On the upside though, our real estate brokerage, Commodore Property Group, is starting to gain traction. Fortunately for us, there is still activity in the NYC marketplace. First time buyers with cash and investors with liquidity are still part of the mix. We have a couple of deals under our belt and a couple more in the pipeline.

Which leads me to the question: Why choose to work w/ a boutique NYC based real estate firm? I was having coffee yesterday w/ a friend and referal source who works for a private client money manager. We have know each other for a couple of years, and he has been a good source of mortgage business. I was somewhat taken aback though when he asked me how CPG can compete with the larger New York real estate brokers. It also made me realize that if I had not done a good job communicating our competitive advantage and strategy to him, I must also be missing the boat w/ others.

As a member of REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York), we have access to all of the listings in NYC. All REBNY members are required to post their exclusive listings with in 24 hours of receiving the business. This means that we have access to the inventory of Corcoran, Halstead, Elliman and all of the others. So for example, when I am assiting a client who would like t buy a property, I log onto the REBNY data base, type my client's criteria (such as number of bedrooms, sq footage, price range and neighborhood), and within in seconds the data base will return all of the listings that meet my search criteria. The same is true when I am working with a seller, only in reverse. I enter in the seller's data to the REBNY system, and within moments, thousands of brokers in NYC have access to my listing. On a qualitative note, clients who work w/ a smaller firm tend to get a much more personalized experience. Because we work w/ fewer clients, we are able to provide a much more focused approach than our larger competitors.

So I guess that time will tell how the New York real estate market ultimately fares. But at least in the short run, for those w/ cash and vision, there are many opportunities to be had.