Now how bad can things be when Paul Brennan, executive honcho with Prudential Douglas Elliman Bridgehampton, has two full pages of ads in the NY Post? I mean I know these big nationwide firms get a rate with the media, but it still costs money. Either Paul knows it's smart to spend when things have slowed down as he was quoted elsewhere, or the legendary broker is still doing very well, indeed.

And, for what it's worth, I really loved The Corcoran Group's full page ad telling how the market went down in 2007 and their sales went up. They should run it in all the local media. (Who asked for your advice, LR?).

Property listed with the Corcoran Group.

From Tom MacNiven: Senior Vice-President and Sales Manager of Prudential Douglas Elliman, East Hampton:

Celebrating its tenth year in what they describe as the Hamptons, Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate held its annual awards breakfast Feb. 15 at the Crest Hollow Country Club. Award winners for 2007 included many local agents.

Here are the ones from the East Hampton office:
 • Leading Edge Society award winners included Jon Barton, Brian Buckhout, Marty Ligorner, Rich Maio, Lori MacGarva, and Veronica Monte.
 • President's Circle Award winners included Nick Pizzo, Amy Nash, and Kim Fagerland.
 • Chairman's Circle Gold award winners were John Golden, Tyler Mattson, and the Josiane Fleming-Robin Kaplan Team.
 • Byran Midlam, Lili Elsis, and the Team of Telly Karroussos, Hara Kang, James Keogh, Justin Agnello, Malgorzata Stankiewicz, and Chris Chapin earned President's Circle Platinum awards.
 • Of the more than 4,000 Prudential Douglas Elliman agents on Long Island Brian Midlam was fourth ranking income producer, Lili Elsis ranked fifth, and John Golden ninth.

And from Prudential Douglas Elliman's Bridgehampton Office, we have the following outstanding performers: Vincent Horcacitas #1 agent on Long Island, The Enzo Morabito Team #1 on Long Island, and for the Bridgehampton office a record for third place in 2007 behind Southampton (ranked in first place) and Bayside Queens (the runner-up).

Congratulations all! We know it ain't easy. Very little is. But in real estate at least you have a shot at getting paid very well for hard work.

On to something nice: Citi Awards $100,000 Grant to the Long Island Housing Partnership, which will support Home Ownership Mortgage Education and the "HOME HELP" Mortgage Counseling Program for Eastern Long Island Towns according to Peter Elkowitz, President and CEO of LIHP. Elkowitz said residents are in need of mortgage counseling, especially in today's market with the rising number of foreclosures and predatory lending practices.

"The need for mortgage counseling and default counseling for East End residents is more crucial than ever before, and yet the needs of many residents are not being met since they have greater distances to travel", said Christopher Nuzzi, Southampton Councilman. Elkowitz further stated, "LIHP recognized these concerns and established the Home Ownership Mortgage Education (HOME)HELP Program as a direct result."

Property listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The first counseling sessions have begun in Southampton. Counseling will start soon in the towns of Riverhead, East Hampton, Southold and Shelter Island. The Village of Sag Harbor has also signed on to the program. Congratulations to the Long Island Housing Partnership.

We have been writing about their (Long Island Housing Partnership) good work for years now, starting with their Pinewoods housing development – a concession by the developer of an upscale development in East Quogue. And after all the noise was over everyone was happy with it. Then Councilwoman Marietta Seaman, who took a stand for the project, risked re-election, and lucky for Southampton was re-elected. Everyone was happy with it because the Long Island Housing Partnership worked with everyone in the community to see it happen, and what happened was exactly what was promised to the community. (Moreover, there was no leaning on anyone).

Now for some "kick in the head" news – a friend gave me two land exclusives in East Hampton to sell. A broker heard about it and wanted to co-broke. Broker called and said "I always read your columns, but I never knew you were a broker." Yeah right! Don't these columns read like someone in the business wrote them? I guess not. That's the kick in the head part.

And I tell you it only gets worse. Nobody writes me any more! Okay, that's an overstatement, but, so very few of you respond to my queries. Is it really that bad out there (to go back to my opening comment)? Are you too busy? Are your computers down? Any other reasons, I don't want to know. But we do find what you have to say interesting.

East End real estate? Well, it's always been a very strange business. (You know, maybe the broker didn't read my columns, but was just trying to be nice), and often the people write about it are even stranger.