"THE REAL DEAL"...Or Is It???

"THE REAL DEAL"....or is it???

I just read an article in The Real Deal, a New York real estate news paper, and found that the front page article (which was covering the Hamptons real estate market) covered only 2 offices: Sothebys and Corcoran (both owned by REALOGY) and showed ONLY the top agents from those 2 firms, calling them the top agents in the Hamptons. Loaded with amunition regarding the volume each holds in listings, the point was made that these are the only agents worth their salt in the Hamptons. Meanwhile nothing is mentioned about the agents who had record sales for 2010 from Elliman....We sold more than either of the other firms!

Because of the competative nature of the real estate business here in the Hamptons and because the readership is concentrated in Manhattan, (the main source of Hampton's buyers) this one-sided issue of The Real Deal has me steaming!!! Talk about free advertising!

Click here to flip through The Real Deal's June issue in a new format.

....Meanwhile, Prudential Douglas Elliman, which is the largest firm in the Hamptons and New York City, was not mentioned until the 2nd page and then there was only a brief paragraph talking about the "difficulties" the company is having!!! With 319 agents here (more than any other local firm) we came in first among all other agencies in the Manhattan to Montauck selling area.

The paper does have an article covering Elliman; in that article in the back section of the paper, The Real Deal excoriates the whole firm, from Dottie Herman to Howard Lorber (the owners of Elliman) and presents a view that is utterly disgraceful in it's one-sided opinion.

NOW, FOR THE QUESTION OF THE DAY: Why does a newspaper, supposedly the number one source of "real" estate news in the area, come to the industry with this kind of one-sided journalism???

I do know that the firm Realogy, has been suffering their own struggles for the last 4 years yet this was mentioned, almost as an "aside" comment.

The immense photo representation and free advertising for the 2 secondary firms here was disgraceful in it's "push" of the 3 agents...how they got that done is the $64 Million Dollar question!!!

The reason I say this is that the top 4 properties, in terms of price in the Hamptons, were SOLD by Elliman, and that was completely left out of the article. Over $80 Million in new listings just came on the market with Elliman as the listing agency! Those are 4 ocean front properties each in the $20 Million range!

Does anyone here on ActiveRain read this paper? I know it is read online too but don't know how widespread the exposure is.

Would love some feedback if you have any, about this publication...Just an opinion would help!!!