Navigating New York Real Estate Through the Good Times and the Not-So-Good Times with Amy Herman Schechter

Brokerage Insider

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The real estate industry is effectively made up of hundreds of thousands of individual agents who are all, in a sense, their own small business managers. It takes tenacity, grit, marketing prowess and flexibility to make it in this industry, and that's especially true when you're talking about red hot, super competitive New York City.

Amy Herman Schechter of SERHANT knows first-hand what it takes. She's built quite a name for herself, whether through navigating New York co-ops, or helping forever-New Yorkers land a brilliant investment property in the Hamptons -- she's done it all. You may have even seen her on an episode of Million Dollar Listing New York, which, coincidentally, is how she came to work with Ryan Serhant and the rest of the agents and brokers at his prestigious brokerage.

On this episode of Brokerage Insider, Amy Herman Schechter talks about what it was like starting in real estate in a post-9/11 New York, and what she's bringing to the table now with 20 years under her belt and a wealth of industry insider knowledge.

TRANSCRIPT:

📍 Hi, everyone. Welcome to brokerage insider the podcast where we interviewed the leaders in real estate and technology. I'm your host Britt Chester, and I'm the director of client success here at Travis. We're one of the largest independent prop tech companies in real estate and providers of custom real estate technology to real estate companies around the world.

Today, we're joined by Amy Herman. Schechter one of team sear, haunts leading Manhattan realtors. And one has been named one of New York. City's top 100 real estate agents by the wall street journal. Amy. Thanks for doing my pleasure. Thank you for having me. I think to start, why don't you give our listeners a little bit of an introduction to yourself as well as how you got into real estate?

You know, a little who, what, when, where and why. So I actually started in real estate back in 2002, which is now just about two decades ago. I came from a celebrity and tourism PR background. So I was working with celebrity clients as well as hotels restaurants. Sports heroes and I got into real estate when I was 24.

And so now, you know, my age and at the time I was fascinated by the way, people, especially new Yorkers lived. I'm sure most people can remember. It was back in the days of gossip girl meets. Sex and the city life. And I was one of those girls running around town, checking out the latest restaurants dating, and I loved seeing how people live.

And my father and actually the guy I was dating his father at the time said, you know, why don't you go into sales? You really should like get into sales. You're so persuasive. We feel like you could sell ice to Eskimos and maybe that would suit you in something like real estate. Cause they know I didn't really care to push a product.

It wasn't really, that's not my jam. So The rest is kind of history. I took the exam. It was actually half as difficult in terms of the hours at the time. So you only needed 40 hours. I studied, I took the state exam and then I started in the business and I was like, how am I going to do this? How am I going to get clients?

How am I even going to sell my first home? And it did take me a good 18 months to figure it all out. I started in the rental market and I realized rentals are not for me. I definitely was. You know, I think what happened was, is that rentals were, are a quick fix and you, you know, short, a quick job and you get paid quickly, but I actually really.

Found that I thrived on figuring out where are people going to be for the long-term. How do you navigate this process? How do you get a mortgage who's agreed attorney to come with us along the way, design team to renovate. And I love all those aspects. And I started just really, as a buyer's agent.

By the time I was 26 I moved offices to work underneath a person who actually specialized in purchasing and helping brokers thrive in like a buying environment, as opposed to the rental coach that I had had for the start of my career. And it was in the same company. I stayed there for 13 years.

And then at some point in my career, I met a little guy named Ryan, sir hat, and we met on a huge transaction downtown and I represented the buyer. He represented the seller. We reenacted it for million dollar listing, New York, and the rest is kind of history. I'm with Ryan Everson. I think that speaks to a really good point.

Number one, I think the state has changed a lot, probably in the last 20 years that you could probably provide a lot of insights there, air, but, but also how moving from rentals to really helping buyers and sellers navigate that process and building that relationship. I think that speaks to just how much real estate is still and always will be a relationship focused business.

It it's, there's so much that goes into this transaction, but there's also. The part where, you know, you are helping them navigate a major, major purchase. New York being kind of a unique market in that. Some of them are going to be second home. Some are third but summer, you know, these, these, these people's forever homes.

And so kind of talk about if you can, you know, if we're going to look back to 2002, maybe the 2008 know you've seen the rise of relationships, you know, Building those organically as well as building those online. And you know, I think the last 20 years has been a big part there. Can you just kind of talk about what that journey's been like, you know, what, what's it like, there's going to look back into that, that post 2000 post Y2K era to now, how has real estate really kind of like changed?

And, and what, what keeps you in it? So that's actually a great question. We I've seen the ebb and flow. So right when I got into the business that was post nine 11, right. In 2001. And that was the crisis, obviously that New York was having at the time. And then we come upon 2007 and 2008, which was the financial crisis.

And so I lived through these times where people were before Corona virus, where people were terrified. What's happening next with my job. Where am I with my assets? Do I need to sell and buy? Did I just make a mistake purchasing and do I need to resell this thing? I, I closed on on a Friday that following Monday, are they taking my job away?

When they're merging these two companies? I had all of that in my. You know, 20 years experience. And some of it was very frightening because I mean, watching people, their quality of life shift, you know, in a moment with no notice kind of, I mean, there was obviously rumbling. Especially during the financial crisis, but, you know, especially starting with nine 11, when I actually lost my tourism clients and the hotels and the destinations were all bleeding.

And the airline that I worked with, everyone said, oh my gosh, we're not traveling or we're not, you know, we're only doing business travel. And when that happens and I got jumped right into real estate, there were some great opportunities. Yes for people. And, but you need it to have the right real estate broker to navigate around and understand what the marketplace was doing.

And there was really only a short it was a very abbreviated opportunity, right? Between like 2001 and 2003. And I was in there, but I was doing rentals. So it was like, I wasn't in that sort of, I'm able to coach this buyer or teach them this, you know, figure out how to navigate. Then when I, when I, the navigation of then to sales marketplace, between, like you said, 2003 and 2008 was all about the new development.

All the new condos were coming into the marketplace. This city used to be 60, 70% co-op apartments, and now everything was changing. And you needed to know the developer that was creating the newest building you needed to walk through. You needed to sell people opportunities from a floor plan and make them believe this was the best opportunity they could ever have and tomorrow is going to be gone.

And that was your job at the time. It wasn't walking through places. It wasn't even, you know, there, there were, there were a lot of times where you just needed to know, okay. This is the newest building, where this is happening, where the D you need it to actually even talk to the rep of the developer and have that inside track.

And so I was really good at conjuring. People's inner sort of weaknesses of saying, okay, this is top secret information, but you can have it, but just don't give it to anyone else. Suffer, maybe a buyer. And, you know, obviously everyone's playing with everyone's sort of highs and lows, but the quality of life that people were having when they were feeling like they invest in this new building and then they turned it around and sold and created this empire for their, you know, a little child, it was an amazing thing you would buy for one to sell for one seven, that was the market.

And then everything changed in 2007 and eight. And Lehman brothers. Of course, my brother actually worked for them at the time. So I was very familiar in the mortgage backed securities group. So I knew everything was happening as it was happening from his perspective, from the news perspective, from my client's perspective.

And we had to change. That was a very scary time where we, as brokers were afraid, we were like, okay, Are we selling these people's assets? Is this like a mutual fund gone bad? Like, what are we doing? How are we anticipating the person's next move? How were we there as a partner and a friend? Because we want to be their lifelong realtor, as opposed to saying, sell, lose money, get out of Dodge.

You, you lost your job or are we helping them through coaching them to get another job in this very difficult marketplace? So I became sort of like a Jack of all trades. I had to be a fixer. And that was one of those moments where you have to have your toolbox open with all your bag of tricks and be like, okay, this is for this.

This is for that. And this is how we're going to make this work. And I actually had to figure out that I needed all people who were not getting mortgages to buy my client's properties that had just closed because the mortgage is the appraiser would go in and they would say it's worth X, Y, or Z. And I didn't really want that to be happening.

If someone just was closing for one five, and they were trying to sell for one, five or one six to kind of try to break even I, and we were in a down-market. Viral. So I had to start figuring out how to do, okay. This can only be a cash purchase or, okay. This has to be remarketed as maybe a two bedroom. We have to put a wall up even though it's 1100 square feet.

So it was all about the challenges and creating an excitement around something that was very, very challenging. So that was how sort of that ran. And I had a lot of bankers who entrusted their work with me, and that was a huge blessing. It was like one after another, after another. And that's actually how I kind of launched my larger part of my sales career was during that time coming to the rescue of a lot of these guys, I love that you kind of, you kind of talk about that getting that inside track with developers, and like you said, everyone's kind of, everyone's kind of playing that game with each other, but that goes back.

It sounds like to your, to your PR days, right? Absolutely. This is secret information. We'll have this as you should make sure it works. And then of course, it's to their advantage that they gave you the information they're selling. It it's, it's all a sale, but it really is. Figuring out. What's what I'm figuring out.

What's actually good information as your secret information. You know, and going from there, I worked in PR last year with real estate companies, like for a PR company and it was it was great, but it's also about like, you've got this, this valuable information. That's. Yeah, you have to know how to make it valuable.

Right. You have to create that value. And you do that by contacting the right people and kind of like giving that, that information, a journey in a sense, but something else you talked about that I, maybe there's a little bit of a comparison there, like where the market that we're seeing maybe even outside of New York now you've dealt.

I think you have some experience in both Miami as well as the Hamptons, is that correct? Yes. How did you expand out of New York into those markets? Those are, I think Miami in New York might have some comparisons. Hampton's obviously having a great connection there, but how did you kind of expand out and, and what, what kind of brought that up?

Well, I have a great partner that once I saw people were navigating toward Florida, I basically picked up two or three contacts that I had as great contacts. Long-term life contacts when a great friend of my husband's and one, a friend of mine. Since growing up who have their Florida licenses. And I said, let's partner because I have a lot of people who are going to be coming your way to avoid the state tax and also to grab some sunshine, because especially in the time of COVID, a lot of people were wanting to have that outdoor lifestyle throughout and have.

The freedom and flexibility of being able to still socialize and be with people when everything was kind of shutting down in various other colds, or, you know, more closed off cities where the, there was higher population density. So Miami Palm beach, all of those areas became sledded with my clients wanting second homes.

And or relocating. So I said, I have to ride with the times, this is not like a moment to be like, oh, I don't have anybody in Miami or Palm beach to help me. Who's located there. It was more like, okay, who is the savvy person who can close everybody and let's work together and make this happen. Let's figure out where people want to be.

Community-wise. And I had a couple of people that I had already moved down there, pre COVID and they were really happy. You know, whether it was in Boba or Northern Miami Aventura. And we, I understand the neighborhoods because I've been traveling myself to Miami often, since I'm a kid, it was the very first place I ever visited.

The very first place we took my daughter. We spent, you know, four weeks in Miami when she was little, we used to go for a length of time. And I really, we stayed at the founds in blue. So I really love it out there. And I think, you know, I can survive there all year long, but I love the snowbirds and I love everybody wants a second home.

And if you're relocating there, I want to be your person that you come to asking me for help. So that is how that happened. The Hamptons is actually even more, I guess, interesting because I grew up in long islands and I said, I'll never go back to Lynn islands. I won't even have anything to do with lung islands.

I am done with long island. Since I was 18. However, I really love the beach and I love swimming and I have a little girl who's seven. And at this point in her life and our lives, we really wanted some extra space. It's hard sometimes in the city to, you know, get your contains. Everyone's sort of in their boxes.

And if you're not in a box, You do have to have like 20 million and up, you know, net worth. So that said, we said, why don't we grab a little investment property? I'm very into investments and investment properties. We also own our place on the upper east side. And I said, let me put my money where my mouth is.

And then just as a result of that, People started calling me actually crazy amount of phone calls and interest and incredible resources that I have working with Ryan. We said, let me start taking on all of these Hampton's clients. I'm licensed to New York, which obviously we're discussing right now.

And yeah. Hamptons is New York. So why don't I work these deals? And that's when I started actually really building out my whole team and saying, okay, well, if I'm in the Hamptons, I need someone in New York. If I'm in New York, I need someone in the Hamptons. And it was, it's just been incredible. It's been an incredible 12 months that the last 12 months I thought we would have made lemonade out of lemons.

And that's, that's what I was a great lead into the next question. Cause you mentioned like what it's like building those, those lifelong relationships with your clients. Right. And, and so it makes me wonder, like, how are you coaching them last year? You know, if they, were they coming to you and saying, you know, we want to sell or get out, or were you kind of looking at it?

Like we want to, you want to hold this property for right now, this will pass. You know, it's obviously COVID was unprecedented, but but you know tragedy and catastrophe is not unprecedented. Historically. We, we we've been through it. It's it's we see it's going to be cyclical. If it goes down now we'll always come back up.

How are you kind of coaching your clients last year? In, in their best interests, because I think everyone's interests are going to be different. Are you looking to, to really relocate full-time and not come back? Do you just want to take, to keep your properties here in New York and then, you know, look outside and you're.

Maybe move to Florida for a little bit over six months and, you know, take advantage of the tax benefits there. What was some of the coaching tactics that you employed last year? So we had a lot of coaching that we were sharing as myself Ryan, my team members. We were really figuring out what people wanted.

And a lot of people, this is the problem with last year. A lot of people didn't actually know what they wanted. They were confused. And a lot of their financial advisors were even saying, can you just wait please until 2021? So take any action because we need to sort of see where things. You know, fall. And I was definitely interested in the people who were leaving the city to basically help them sell their homes and do everything I could to get them resettled that I, every single one of them.

And they will tell you this. I said, are we really losing you? And I actually gave them like my spiel of why they should stay in New York. And I said, are you really going to, like, not being able to walk outside to your nearest little bodega or to grab your favorite coffee, whether it's at Ralph's or via Cadrona or, or some rose.

And you, you just want to like, have to get in your car and drive to like a local store. Starbucks, are you sure this is the lifestyle you're looking for and why are you thinking about this? And they'd be like, well, we're just like a free to go outside our apartment. We're this we're that we just don't have enough space.

We're trapped in what we feel is a box. There's no way outside. We're leaving our home once a week. And I did look and see that my friends in Newport beach in Miami, everyone seems to be having a great time. Everyone's still living life. And we were like, it was. An unbelievably sad moment in New York where people