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Updated: April 15, 2009, 11:38 pm	Share    Print    Email

East Hampton - Exclusive rentals? The givens are: The brokers' fiduciary (legal) responsibility is to the seller/landlord and only to work in his/her best interests. And from an agents' point of view it is all about money, work, time, money, money, money.

Here are some facts:

A high power South Fork broker convinced a high power, high profile, homeowner to give him the exclusive on his high-end, high-end (that's high end squared) rental property - in the neighborhood of, would you believe, around $200,000 for two weeks. It had previously been successfully rented as an open rental listing by a different broker for the past three years. End of story, the house was never shown while the exclusive broker had the listing. For the six-month duration of that listing agreement, the landlord's property had been effectively withdrawn from the market.

Property courtesy of The Corocran Group.

Canvassing just two of the multi-office real estate firms on the North and South Forks, there is a grand total of over 30,000 rental listings on their computers for 2009. The rental season has had a slow start. The weather, the economy, the governor's tax-the-rich strategy, and Bernie Madoff's scheme haven't helped things. Summer rentals and second home sales are a discretionary expenditure of the affluent. Does an exclusive listing, which lowers the rental agent's money earned go to the bottom of that 30,000 listing stack? You can bet your mortgage on that one.

There are cases where litigation or well publicized unpleasant events have occurred at the rental property, where attorneys insist on special care and attention, clearly not wanting to see some rogue photo of "bedroom where it all happened" crop up in or on whatever tabloid or website would pay the most. This example of handing out an exclusive rental listing clearly meets the criterion of the owner's best interests in the fiduciary relationship between owner and broker.

The rental business has always been a real estate service, hoping that better things come from them - future sales customers, referrals from both tenant and landlord, future exclusive sales listings, and the like. (I, for one, not in the monopoly money player category, would exempt those astronomical rental fees asked and gotten and heavy duty brokerages earned from this service category. That's bread and butter, Bub!).

How did exclusive rentals on the East End come about, you ask? They started on a wholesale basis on the North Fork which operates through Multiple Listing Service systems where rentals at all price ranges were co-broked. So imagine a $10,000 rental - and remember that as much work, effort, time is spent by agents on a $10,000 rental as on a six figure one - that is an exclusive which means that each brokerage gets $1,000 each, then slip with listing agent and rental agent, that's $500 earned for hours and hours and headaches and crises and inspections, and handling the horror - which can go on for years - of the security payments going back or not going back - all handled by the $500 fee agent. Makes no sense. I know a real estate lady who made more selling diet cookies on street corners in town when times were bad.

Property courtesy of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

As to protecting things of value being lifted by whoever comes into one's home (agent or customer), things of value shouldn't be out there in the first place. Aside from theft, they can be broken through heavy traffic, which right now, no one seems to need worry about - the heavy traffic that is. (Especially those who have been talked into listing exclusively).

An agent showing a house, once customers are safely back in the car, should go back in the house, check the lights, the bathrooms (I don't need to explain), the ashtrays for customer use and any smoldering ashes. It takes two or three minutes. But an agent should do it.

New Agents
In other news: Kimberly Stengle is welcomed to Town & Country's "select list of professional agents." Stengel will work from Town & Country's Noyac Road Office.

On the state of the market: "Permit me to weigh in on the oft-discussed East End "Downturn." This is deepest in my 30 years experience with buyers resistant to bid. The Urge to Splurge and Conspicuous Consumption are out. The small properly appointed home in prime location is in. McMansions built on outlying potato fields are so dial-up. Our first job today is to persuade sellers to the market-based realities. For the interim, the rail-thin runway model is the new paradigm," Joe Schiffer commented from Main Street Realty.

Terms defined for us by Schiffer: "Dial-up is "old fashioned" "rail-thin" is suggesting $$$ will be harder to come by and sellers should consider today's fashion is more diet-conscious than former years."

East End real estate is a very tough business, folks, sometimes over-rewarded, sometimes under-paid (rental example given above) most times, professionals working hard to make clients and customers happy and to earn their own livings. As in life there's always something new and unexpected that comes up, but that makes them both a very strange business.

Lona Rubenstein is an accomplished author residing in East Hampton. Her new book, "Getting Back in the Game: Finding the Fountain of Youth in Cyberspace" can be found at local booksellers and online at www.gettingbackinthegame.com. For more real estate news and views contact Lona at lonafirst@aol.com.