The ascent of the little guys

Big firms like the Corcoran Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman,with thousands of agents,still dominate the market,of course. (Elliman says it sells 33 homes a day.) But whether the clout of little firms is growing is an important question for buyers and sellers,as they decide between a highly visible name with vast listings and resources,and a smaller firm that promises to shower the client with individual attention,in many cases focusing on a particular segment of the market,like new downtown condos,prewar Classic 6s or East Side brownstones.

Back in 2005,none other than Barbara Corcoran,the queen of big firms who built the multibillion-dollar Corcoran Group from a $1,000 (borrowed) investment,declared in a Business Week interview,I think the future belongs to small brokers. She acknowledged that not many people held that view but went on to argue that while the big firms were richer and had more resources,the little ones were more creative and nimbler,having far less bureaucracy and layers of management. We need to be responsive to a changing market, Corcoran said. And more often than not,the little guy can move. The big guy is still thinking about it.

Reached last week,Corcoran,who sold her firm in 2001,stood by her pronouncement. Definitely, she said. On the Internet everyone is equal. The small agent can look as classy as the big agent. She added,Ten years ago,if you wanted your property noticed you were far better off with large brokerage firms because they were the big buyers on the print ads. Thats out the window now.

Shaun Osher,a top-producing broker at Douglas Elliman who left in 2005 to start his own firm,CORE,relies heavily on social media to get his firms name into the public eye,sometimes in subtle ways. Osher has a blog,COREtalks.com,where he sometimes muses on matters that range far afield from real estate. Last month,for example,he posted a video interview he had done with the designer Nicole Miller during New York Fashion Week.

The conversation touched only tangentially on real estate but the interview went out on Twitter to all Ms. Millers followers (as well as,of course,Mr. Oshers),and was picked up by numerous fashion blogs and other sites outside of the real estate realm.

Osher has also taken advantage of reality television,taking part in the HGTV reality show Selling New York. CORE,which started with four people,has grown to 50 agents and 16 staff members. The company focuses on new residential developments,many in downtown Manhattan.

One of the main things that any small business whether an independent bookstore,a corner toy store or a neighborhood hardware store would have customers believe is that service is better and personal attention greater at a little firm. Whether that is true in real estate depends because the company name may be ubiquitous,but the clients relationship is usually with a single person.

Nevertheless,Solomon Asser,the principal of the Tecny Group,a design-and-build firm,who would probably get a high level of service no matter where he went,said he thought there could be advantages to smaller firms like Leslie J. Garfield & Company,which currently has two of his listings,including a $26 million Upper East Side town house. Dealing with a smaller firm goes with faster answers to things,quicker resolution to things, Mr. Asser said. You dont need to get an answer from someone else to get something done.

Inexperienced players can find smaller brokers less intimidating. When Kelly Snyder and her fiancé,Darien Ward,began hunting for their first home,they had trouble reaching the Elliman broker they were dealing with in Harlem.

gIt was like pulling teeth trying to get in touch with him, Snyder recalled. She wondered if their age she is 27,he is 32 and price range had anything to do with it. She recalled thinking: Were not looking for a multimillion-dollar place. Are they slighting us because we wont fill their wallet? It was really,really frustrating, Snyder said.

Then she saw some properties posted on Craigslist by Jennifer Ferland,an agent at AC Lawrence,and contacted her. From the beginning she was a dream, Snyder said. She understood the process and how daunting it can be. She said: Lets go through this together. Im here for you. In the end,with Ferlands guidance,they found a condo in Jersey City that they loved and,at around $300,000,was in their price range. They closed last fall and have been living there happily since.

Snyder says she doesnt know if it was Ferlands personality and work ethic that made her so effective or if it was that she worked for a smaller firm,but she suspects that size did have something to do with it. I think when you have a huge corporation, she said,it just ends up being so micromanaged that you lose that sense of friendliness.