How Much Can I Make? - Discover Your Dream Job.

NYC Real Estate Agent

• Mirav Ozeri

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NYC Real Estate Agent

Maggie Kent of Core Real Estate, shares her journey from growing up in a real estate family in Canada to becoming a successful agent in New York City's competitive luxury market. A business where the barrier to entry is low but earning potential is high. Listen to the conversation about this commission-based job.



Topics

0:00 Real Estate Family Roots

2:42 How Commission Works in NYC

6:07 Finding Success as a New Agent

9:41 Reality Shows vs Reality

14:43 Navigating Client Relationships

19:03 Market Cycles and Industry Changes

22:50 AI and the Future of Real Estate



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Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Speaker 1:

You can absolutely make a great living and you can make a lot of money. There's no mistake it's a very well-paid job when you are good at it and you stay in it. Consistency is the key.

Speaker 2:

Hi and welcome back to how Much Can I Make. I'm Erav Ozeri, a journalist who is curious about what people do for a living and how much they can make. Curious about what people do for a living and how much they can make. Today's guest is Maggie Kent, a real estate agent who helps people navigate the fast-paced, expensive real estate market in New York City. So, Maggie, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 1:

Of course, thank you, mara, for inviting me to talk today.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm very curious. So first of all tell us how did you get into real estate?

Speaker 1:

It's a family business. I'm from Canada and my mother did it when I was growing up. She raised three kids and she went into real estate once we were in you know, we were all in school my aunt had her own business, was a broker and started off as an agent in Canada and then started her own brokerage company. My mom worked with her, so the matriarchs of our family really were winning in the business, as they say. So it was very influential in my life that I watched my mom do real estate and I saw her go through the ups and downs of that industry in a suburb, mind you, in Canada, in Canada, yeah, in Ontario. Industry in a suburb, mind you, in Canada, in Canada, yeah, in Ontario. So I learned from a young age I would. My mom had me go around and advertise with little flyers in people's mailboxes and I got a commission if she made a sale and I. She actually made a sale from one of the flyers and I made 200 bucks, which is a lot for a little kid.

Speaker 2:

So I understand you never forgot the 200 bucks, I never forgot.

Speaker 1:

Also, I was a bit of an entrepreneur myself, I think in this business you're basically an independent contractor and when you work for a real estate firm you pay the house, so to speak. You pay them a percentage of a sale and everything is commission. So you basically you know you get to eat what you kill, but it's kind of like you build your own business and it's up to you, because it's commission based, to keep the business running as effectively as you can. So there's no salary involved unless you actually work, you know, on a building that's perhaps doing rentals or sales, and you have a salary and you stay on that one particular project and you have a salary and you stay on that one particular project. Most of my colleagues are independent contractors and they are among thousands and thousands and thousands of agents and brokers in this city. I don't know if we could fact check this, but I'm pretty sure there's over 25,000 agents in this city.

Speaker 2:

What In New?

Speaker 1:

York City. Yeah, some of them might have an active license. Some of them might be active in the business or just keeping a license for a reason.

Speaker 2:

Okay that's why license. This is what I want to know. What does it take? If somebody wants to become a real estate agent in the city or in New York City or any other city? What does it take?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the bar entry point is very low. You just need a few weeks. Basically, you go and you take a couple of exams and the time it takes is a few months, if that. So you can get. You take an exam that takes maybe three, four weeks and then you have to take a state exam and you need to pass that sign up for it and it's a. You know, the state exam maybe takes a couple of hours. Once you pass the state exam, mail your license to you and then you place it with a firm, a brokerage company. You have to be with a brokerage company, right? Attorneys do not, because they, as part of their license it's my understanding as an attorney in New York they are a licensed agent as well, it's part of their.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I didn't know that, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, depending on what your goal is and you can also get your brokerage license and have your own brokerage firm. I happen to be a licensed broker as well. My title is associate broker because I work under the banner of Core, which is in New York Boutique firm, amazing luxury firm. I love it and you know why I'm associate broker as associate broker.

Speaker 2:

do you make part of the percentage that the broker does? No, no.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

No Too good of a dream. Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1:

I'd have to be a partner in the company or I'd have to start my own company and create my own brokerage company in order to get like a full commission. When my license is with a firm, there's usually a percentage on every sale that you make, every transaction, every rental. What percentage is it? It varies, it depends on many things. So let's say you did a sale for $1 million in New York City. Okay, the fee to the buying agent and the selling agent are negotiable, but I can give you a ballpark. So, for example, if I sold an apartment for $1 million and my fee my commission to my firm not to me, maggie Kent is 3% of that. Let's just say and there's someone has a buyer, they have a broker and their commission is 3%. Let's just say that would be $30,000 on that sale.

Speaker 1:

Now I take the check which is made out to my firm, not to my personal name and they cash it once the sale is complete and everything has closed and that's called the commission. So then that commission let's say it's $30,000, depending on your split they call it with your firm which can range from a 50% split to even 80% split. So, like my split of that, if let's say it's 50%, I would make $15,000 and my firm would take their $15,000. And then, of course, I pay tax on that right, because there's no taxes taken out of these commissions.

Speaker 1:

So if my split was, you know, 75, then there's a, you know, know, you see what the numbers go. So it all depends sometimes that's based on your performance. So if you're a new agent, your split might be 50, 60, 70 maybe, depending, and that has been evolving over time used to be always 50 or 60, would never go higher than 70. But now I've seen, because there's a lot of competition out there, that a very senior top agent might get what we call a better split. So perhaps they get 75 or more.

Speaker 2:

So that's how the numbers work how much money can you make as an agent for rentals?

Speaker 1:

well, if you have a lot of volume you can do well. I mean, you know, I'll give you a quick example excellent. So let's say, a one bedroom in New York now rents for 6,500 and you're rich.

Speaker 1:

It is a luxury, $6,500 in a luxury building. So your fee would be one month fee, so $6,500. And now if you do four rentals a month, 10 rentals a month, you know that's pretty well, that's a good, that's a good monthly fee. Now there's rental seasons too, so you might not close that rental, you might be working and they don't end up renting or whatever the case may be. It's having a sphere of influence that you can pull from, whether that's your classmates, your colleagues, to gain access to people who are looking, whether it be for rent or sale. That's one piece of it, and it's to have a flow of business. So, just because you did one rental today and you made $6,500, where's your next meal coming from? Right, exactly, so you need to be farming and planting seeds, and that's the patience.

Speaker 2:

Do you have a dream to open your own brokerage?

Speaker 1:

Interesting thought. I really don't, you know. I think if I didn't live in New York it would probably be something, because there's so much advertising. And I do know some great brokers that have decided to open their small brokerage company because they have a niche that they can address and they don't want to give away anything to the house. If they have their own clients that they're working with and they can have a small brokerage, it's just them. They may have a vast network on their own and not need to, for example, advertise and have a website that's boosted in certain ways and overhead of a staff A big headache Right.

Speaker 1:

There's plenty of ways to do business in this town and it depends on your particular needs. I like a boutique firm. I like having a staff that's there for us an office assistant, an attorney, in-house PR.

Speaker 2:

So you have all this support system in-house.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and that's what our percentage goes to. It's to maintain the staff, it's to maintain the website. That takes a lot To advertise and to you know it's New York. You've got a lot of competition out there. So I think that to pay for the photographs, to pay for the floor plans, to pay for the visibility and have experts in-house who are available to you Also as an agent, as a broker, associate, broker, you know you are running your own business.

Speaker 1:

So even within that, your own hours too, yeah, your firm is there to support your business, right? So you choose your firm based on what kind of support you really want and how big is the firm. What are the advantages for me, agent X, you know to have by working with this firm, that or the other? Why did you pick the firm you're with? Good question. So I was working at a competing firm. I started sales there and I started in rentals in Soho and then I met some people in that company. When I first started in the business and I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay in the business, I said I'm going to try this. I felt like I needed to be educated and understand if I liked the business because I came from another industry performing arts and I tried other things in Manhattan. Trust me, I gave myself a goal, I set it and I said I'm going to make my first deal in two weeks and you did and I did, I made it in 10 days, and that's the power of manifestation.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God.

Speaker 1:

And I had no experience. You see, I had very little training at this company. I joined and they said get out there and go do some rentals. And I thought, well, I need to pay the bills, I'm going to figure this out or I'm not going to figure this out. I don't have the time to figure it out, I better do it. And that's the best. Inspiration is, need you know, a necessity right.

Speaker 1:

So from there I learned very quickly and I was also, you know, surviving in New York, which is a hustle town. I mean, let's face it, you in order to be here and work here. There's an energy to it and if you can last a couple of years in New York after moving here from another country, you feel confident. You feel you can keep going, you can keep doing it and lots of things are coming at you in this city. I got my license quickly. I learned from even just getting my license what the business was about. And then I started it, and I started small. I didn't join a big team. Now there's this trend to join a big team and work under a senior agent. That opportunity didn't present itself to me at the time, but if I were starting out now, I'd do it.

Speaker 2:

There are people they think selling real estate in New York is a piece of cake. You know, everybody want to live in New York and it's a lot of money. I can make a lot of money. Is that a misconception?

Speaker 1:

Yes, it is. You can absolutely make a great living and you can make a lot of money. There's no mistake. It's a very well-paid job when you are good at it and you stay in it. Consistency is the key and I think I, as you know, I was on a television show for several seasons and I think that what's happened in the last decade and a half is the shows present it looking easy and that's what shows do. That's the fun of it. It's a fast, it shows things, it condenses it down to this glamorous, wonderful thing and there's, you know, a lot of drama and fun in these gorgeous homes and luxury is like a dopamine thing. You get to look at all the way these gorgeous homes and luxury is. It's like a dopamine thing. You get to look at all the way these people live and it's fantasy and there are great agents on. I happen to know the people on those shows because I've worked with them And-.

Speaker 2:

What was the name of the show?

Speaker 1:

I just want the audience to the show that I'm in reruns on now is called Selling New York on HGTV, and it was the first of its kind in New York. It was actually the first real estate reality show and it was really fun for me. It was great branding. I have no regrets. I felt that it was also the brand that worked for me because it was HGTV, and many other people ended up on the show too, but I was the first and it was in the first pilot for that show. It was fantastic.

Speaker 1:

But there's a lot that's happened since then and there's a lot of fantasy and there's a lot of, you know, staged moments and we get it. That's what that's fun. So, with that, though, when you see that it does look very easy and you see these big numbers of hundreds of thousands of dollars of commission going to agents, that does exist, I think. Where I come from is I feel like you could make $80,000 a year or you could make $80,000 a month. I mean you can make a lot more. The thing is, because it's commission, it's all based on luck. Based on luck, based on work, based on network, based on consistency, based on marketing, based on referrals, based on knowing and learning this business and really understanding it. People are very wise in New York, they're smart, they have money, yes, but they can also, especially in this age. They can do a lot of research on their own online.

Speaker 1:

My mom, you know it was a very different time. There were fax machines. You know you had to go see the property. You couldn't swipe like you're dating a house right. So now you can do that and you can not even read the copy.

Speaker 2:

You can just look at the pictures. Did it take work away from agents online? Yes, doing that.

Speaker 1:

The online and the zillow and all of those strangely enough, I I don't think it did, because in new york it's very interesting. You, you need an expert. In my opinion, you really need an expert. What it does help with is it helps. Information is always power. Information is helpful In New York. It's a contract state. There's co-ops here, which is very different than if you're working outside of the state and in a suburb. You can show up and there could be a lockbox and you don't even need the other agent there. They just send you a code. So that doesn't happen here. What happens is you make appointments and quite typically, you're in the room with an agent that represents the seller and you represent your buyer, or vice versa, and you still need to understand what you're buying.

Speaker 1:

There are situations where people buy off a floor plan in new development, but a very typical sale here would be okay. I'm living in a one-bedroom or I'm living in a rental and I'd like to get more space. I'd like to home office. My career is different than it was five years ago. I'm going to buy a two-bedroom now. Let me go see some apartments. Can you do that on your own? Sure, it's a full-time job if you're a really serious buyer. So you need to have an expert to understand how to purchase in a co-op, for example, what to ask the right questions, and also, it's great to have a consultant. Like in anything, we consider ourselves experts and consultants, as if you wanted to, you know, have a financial advisor or it's something that's important in your life. Why wouldn't you want someone to advise and be your expert?

Speaker 2:

What if you show somebody 20 apartments and they don't buy, that happens a lot.

Speaker 1:

It does, yes, oh yeah, and highly frustrating. I think you know you get used to it. You get a thick skin about it because think of it yourself. I always think of the other person. It's a service industry, so who's going to hold you to? I'm going to show you 20 apartments and you could think, oh, I'm hopeful that it will take less time. But often, more often than not it takes quite a while for someone to make a decision after seeing even 20 apartments. I'm working with someone right now who's worked on and off with me for one year Wow yeah, and we've seen over 20 apartments.

Speaker 2:

I'm working with someone right now who's worked on and off with me for one year.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah, and we've seen over 20 apartments. We've seen, but it'd be off and on. You know, they have a busy life, they have a great budget and they don't have to buy. It's a choice to buy, can they?

Speaker 2:

just go in the middle of the process to a different agent or you have a contract with them.

Speaker 1:

Today we do contracts and this is very recent. In a contract state there's what we call a deal sheet, and all of the commission is already laid out on that, and then it goes to the attorneys who review a contract.

Speaker 2:

So you go and you show them an apartment and let's say they want to do it. They sign a contract, they go to the lawyers. Is that? Your job ends right there until you get the money and have to give it to your broker.

Speaker 1:

No. So there's a. It takes many, it takes a village right. So good question, because in New York it's seven or eight people that are could help a deal go forward or kill a deal between buyer, seller broker representing seller broker representing buyer, a lender mortgage broker, attorneys for both.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's like 10 people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so all of those all along the way. The contract process could be a week to two weeks, let's say, before you actually sign the contract. You didn't make an offer, it's accepted, it goes out. Someone else could still come. Didn't make an offer, it's accepted, it goes out. Someone else could still come in and make an offer on that property before it's fully executed. Once it's handed off to the attorneys, it is their job to do the diligence for the buyer and for the seller. We keep in good communication in terms of where the deal's at during that process. There's also final walkthroughs, closings, inspections. If you decide to have an inspection here in New York, which is, you know, sometimes you do, sometimes you don't, I know, with homes outside, it's usually a given. Those are a few of the things. So I feel it's like from day one that you're working with someone right to the closing table and beyond, because of course, when you say beyond, do you have any responsibility beyond.

Speaker 2:

somebody signed the contract, moved in and they found out something is wrong with their apartment is that?

Speaker 1:

that's? That's that would be typical. That would go to insurance and lawyers. I'm licensed for, you know, in the real estate industry. So, having to do with the process and the transaction till it's done, yes, I'm involved and at certain points I'm more hands-off, but what happens eventually, you know in this business, and if you're, you keep in touch with your client.

Speaker 1:

Many of my clients are referrals from that family or that person because I did a good job. So they come back around. Or when they decide to move in five years, you're their agent. In some cases they I didn't even do a transaction, but they remembered me because they liked working with with me to your point of showing 20 apartments and nothing happens. Because you know what? Maybe they lost the job, they decided to move out of town, but they're back, or their, their kid is coming to school here. They remember you, not always, but your hope is that you provide good service, no matter what, whether you close or not, your job is. You're in the service industry, so you make the experience as seamless as it can like. I would like to be treated Just like you'd like to use a plumber again that you trust. Right? You did a good job on your pipes, right?

Speaker 2:

So it's mostly referrals that come to you. You don't get leads from the office or you don't approach people. They come to you.

Speaker 1:

You know it's a mix, but I do find after a certain amount of time in your career, you do get referrals and you get referrals from other agents too, from outside the city, and it can happen that way. Some people have a really gangbuster referral business. They work mostly on referrals.

Speaker 2:

You can really hit the jackpot in New York as a real estate agent, as we found out from you. But what is the biggest challenge of working as an agent in New York?

Speaker 1:

the biggest challenge of working as an agent in New York? That's a good question, my, my. The biggest challenge, I would say, is when the market conditions are tough to manage your expect, your own expectations and manage your clients' expectations. I find there's a lot of that. It's a lot of patience. If you are, if you're not good with people, don't bother. I mean, if you can't take rejection, don't bother. And some people really aren't in this industry for that, or they leave this industry. You have to have to have the tenacity and the drive to want to be in sales number one, number two, although those commission checks are great, you could have a great sale and then you could be dry for three months.

Speaker 2:

That's what I wanted to know how do you navigate this? I know that after the pandemic, new York real estate went down, you lived on your savings, yes, and you can still do business in that.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that you learn is, even in these crisis markets, people are still out there because there's always an investor, there's always someone speculating and there's that. People sometimes still have to move for whatever reason. Maybe they got a job in Europe and they have to sell they or they have to rent. I was here in 911. I saw how the city bounced back. I seen the crash in 2008. The pandemic.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so you went through at least three cycles like this yes, you know, interest rates also didn't help when they climbed that has made these last couple of years just sort of very interesting, like because people are staying put in their rentals and they're maybe not wow purchasing. Because, like, if you have a, let's say, a three percent interest rate in the home you're in now, maybe you would stay in and renovate that rather than move to a shiny new penny because you're going to pay 6% or whatever. Yes, so that's altered the last few years.

Speaker 2:

Well, of course, I want to talk to you about AI and you just mentioned, before we started to record, about virtual setup. I never heard about that. Virtual staging. Staging, sorry, yes, what is it exactly?

Speaker 1:

So when you take a photograph of an apartment, the technology now is such that you can furnish it entirely digitally. The photographs can be completely altered with beautiful, modern furniture and this. You could walk into the apartment in real life and it could be a complete wreck. Apartment in real life and it could be a complete wreck. So the eye candy of virtual staging, and it's so advanced now sometimes you can't even tell. So I've been doing this long enough. When I first saw Virgilies, I'm like, oh, that looks so fake.

Speaker 2:

You know, it looks terrible, it's like oh, so obvious that this is. But wait a minute. People see the pictures. That's fantastic modern apartment and they come to buy it and they look at it and it's dumb, so it kills the deal right there and then no.

Speaker 1:

Yes and no, because people do get disappointed if something is virtually staged and they didn't realize it was virtually staged and they're expecting this fancy furniture in there and a modern kitchen. In truth you should say that this is virtual staging in your photographs. It should say it somewhere. Now I think people can sort of tell they're getting used to it. But it really works because it draws. It also gives aspirational thoughts to the home.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1:

In new development. There are renderings you know of the future building before it's built and they're gorgeous and they show all the amenities. That's common. That's been common for many years, I think. In terms of virtual staging, it's so advanced and there are new models for it now where you can actually plan your furniture yourself. There's apps you can get to look at an apartment and they can plan it for you. It's really really cool. I think it's amazing.

Speaker 1:

I think it's inevitable that AI is coming to every industry if it's not there already. We're all really using AI anyway. Right, it's just a matter of like how and how much, and whether we realize it or not. It's to be seen. Will a real estate agent exist in 10 years in New York where you have to physically go see apartments in order to understand what you're buying, or if you want to physically go see them and not have a robot do it or a drone, and you're that kind of person, you're going to live there. I think it would be helpful to have a human there who's bought and sold themselves, who's done it for several years and knows the ins and outs of the process. You know there's always going to be a need for the service industry. In that respect, a personal touch, All right.

Speaker 2:

Where do you see the business in New York City real estate going in the next five, 10 years? Because?

Speaker 1:

of COVID and building like building new buildings here, when you think of it's an island and absorption and how much more can you build and how much more is going to be new product coming to the city. I think we're going to see less in the next five years. We're going to see less new build because there's it's more expensive to build and so if it's more expensive to buy land to assemble properties, we're going to have to go into office conversion.

Speaker 2:

Oh, uh-huh.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to start seeing more office conversion and maybe hybrid in that way for this town, because there's going to be a lack of space to build. Now, if you're talking about going to Queens and building there, that's different, maybe way more activity happening there from what I've read and I don't do a lot of business in Queens, but I understand the new development.

Speaker 1:

there is a very different animal than it is in Manhattan, which makes sense, and this was the same for Brooklyn when it started exploding in the market there, so we could say that I'm going to see more conversions. We're going to see zoning changes for that reason, like Hudson Yards, which didn't exist really 10 years ago, A whole new who thought that that would become a new high-end luxury neighborhood, but it did. You know, everyone's talking about AI, how the workforce changes. But the good news about New York if people are working from home, they're going to need a home to work from right. We've seen people move out of the city. We've seen some people come back from the city. There's always new industry popping up here. The tech industry changed things. Disney, Google is here.

Speaker 2:

Oh really, disney is here too, disney's downtown now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so there's studios opening up New Jersey. I hear the film business is starting to really happen in New Jersey now. There's always change. This is the good news. There's always new changes in industry and I think it's always going to survive, in the sense that there'll always be people buying and selling. This is why I think in this town you're going to always be able to do business. It's just a competitive business because, again, the entry point is very low to enter into the industry and it's highly competitive. So to survive and make money you have to stand out from the crowd and you have to make it work for you alright, then.

Speaker 2:

On that note, thank you so much for your time. Yes, you're welcome, thank you. Hopefully some listeners become agents in New York and make millions it'll happen.

Speaker 2:

Trust me, it'll happen alright, thank you so much. You're welcome, rob. Ok, that's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at howmuchcanimakeinfo. We would love to hear from you and, on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time.

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