The Corcoran Group held its annual awards ceremony and company party on February 1, 2006. Below are the Corcoran Group’s 2006 East End award winners:

# Meg Salem – East End Rookie of the Year, East Hampton Office
# Salespeople of the year: Deirdre Jowers – Amagansett; Gene Stilwell – Bridgehampton; Susan Breitenbach – Bridgehampton, Diane Saatchi – East Hampton; Gary DePersia – East Hampton; Joan Hegner – Montauk; Patricia Gleason – North Fork; Jane Holden – Sag Harbor; Cee Brown – Sag Harbor; Penny Moore – Shelter Island; Geoffrey Hull – Southampton; and Connie Walsh – Westhampton & Hampton Bays.
# Jill Mangone – Deal of the Year
# And in the onsite sales team category there is: Nancy Reese – On-Site Sales Team; Debra Kavaler; Reid Price; Don Schiraldo.

And from Prudential Douglas Elliman:
# Number one on Long Island: Lori Barbaria, Bridgehampton Office, (for three years running.) Vince Horcasitas was second on all of Long Island.
# The Bridgehampton Office was number one out of 52 PDE offices; Southampton coming in second.

Congratulations! And on to the next.

“Real Estate is a different game than it was 20 years ago,” said Tom MacNiven Manager/broker of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s (PDE) East Hampton offices over lunch. “The Technology is huge.” Laura Scott, PDE CEO Dottie Herman’s right hand person who handles cyberspace, broker space and other real estate domains, was there as well. Before describing the technology boom, however, Tom explained to me corporate pigeon holing (mine) and how Prudential is different from, oh, let’s say the other giant real estate operation out here, The Corcoran Group.

“The main corporate distinction,” Tom pointed out, “is that Prudential Elliman is individually owned, therefore, it is not beholden to shareholders, only to clients and customers. As far as accessibility, everyone has Dottie Herman’s cell phone number.”

I guess the way it works is that if an office manager or Laura Scott cannot get a quick response back to an agent, they can go right to the band leader, so to speak. (The procedure raised some questions, but we are not going to go there.)

A week earlier we lunched with The Corcoran Group’s regional director Rick Hoffman and their media relations director – both consummate professionals. I raised the rumor mentioned on these pages - “internal that’s my customer” problems at the mega-firm, problems exacerbated by takeovers that The Corcoran Group has done on the East End.

They explained problem happened rarely, that it could be worked out, and when and if push came to shove, the customer’s choice was the operating principle. (I choose not to go there, either.) Both Prudential and Corcoran explained the new technology their respective offices provided for their sales associates. Said I in the form of a question, “Why does there seem to be an inverse relationship between advanced technology and the quality of new brokers?”
#

Property listed with Prudential Douglas Elliman.
(Yes, I know, what a pain in the butt, I can be.)

Prudential did say their sales teaching program emphasizes “high tech/high touch” covering both components. (High touch as in touchy-feely people skills.)

The way I would train new agents? Whatever the changes, I believe that selling real estate has been and will always be about service, broad knowledge, honesty, and how to drive in traffic. Except for guidance on the latter (it has been said I was successful selling because people couldn’t wait to get out of the car when I was driving), sometime soon I’ll suggest how I might train newcomers - not only to give professional service to clients and customers, but this is a scary business to walk into cold, and confidence has to start somewhere.

Asked around about rentals, has that game changed?

Gioia diPaolo, The Corcoran Group, Sag Harbor wrote, “Of course the Hamptons are still a destination! What better place for a Manhattanite to spend the summer? I don't think they're going to the Jersey "shore" and they're not holing up in their Manhattan condos. Our rental market is driven by the desire to live a certain lifestyle and that lifestyle is here - in all price ranges.”

And west of the Canal, Dee Kerrigan Perfido, principal broker at Kerrigan Country Realty says, “Things have been quite active in the last month or so, especially waterfront rentals and sales! Sales $6M and up - Rentals $60k - $150k.”

Specializing in rentals as well as sales is the new firm established by Jan Robinson and Barbara Weinman, the former managing broker of the former Harold Shepherd Real Estate Office. “Hampton Homes, is a boutique real estate agency that will give personal service.” writes Ms. Weinman. “We are off to a running start, in both rentals and sales. Jan had Hampton Homes for 12 years and built over 100 houses in the East Hampton area. As a smaller enterprise, attention to our clients is our top priority.”

Lastly, a belated Valentine to all the real estate dames, 21 over achievers mentioned above, those mentioned before, and to the ones from the beginning - Tina Fredericks, Gina Beadle, Boots Lamb, Margot Horne, Norma Reynolds, Sheila Devlin, Fran Byrnes, Marion Sanger, Kim Hovey, Judi Desiderio, Melanie Ross – who represent excellence in this very strange East End business.

(The bottom line of this column is that I do do lunches.)