On Friday night, Michael Shvo was profiled in [The Real Estate Assassin of New York City [ABC News Nightline]](http://www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=1601227&page=1) with the tag line _Michael Shvo Became the Most Successful Broker in the Big Apple – and Generated a Flood of Controversy Along the Way_
>_Lets Shvo_
Shvo’s marketing slogan, has become a _verb_ associated with real estate but cannot be said without sarcasm by many in the real estate community.
In a high density housing market like Manhattan, the competition is fierce and quite often, contrarian marketers will float to the top. This is no guarantee that they will be successful in the long run. Here were or are some of the best:
* [Barabara Corcoran](http://www.barbaracorcoran.com) — One of the pioneers of real estate marketing who did go the distance was Barbara Corcoran. She formed the [Corcoran Group](http://www.corcoran.com) real estate brokerage firm in the early 1980’s and brought new marketing concepts to a pretty boring marketing environment. She was seen as a marketer first and a real estate expert second. She had a reputation for saying anything to get attention for her firm and drove many crazy with the things that she said. She has since sold her firm to NRT and moved on to television but her influence remains.
* [Louise Sunshine](http://www.nrtinc.com/execs/lsunshine.html) — who (has literally one of the best last names in marketing) sold her firm to NRT as well, has been one of the most creative marketing minds in the real estate marketing business. She was able to understand the intricacies between the development process and the marketing process of luxury residences in many different markets. [She is not without controversy as noted in this recent article [NYT]](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/realestate/12deal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print). I remember once being on a real estate panel with her, hosted by New York University and the New York Times and she arrived about 5 minutes late and left 5 minutes before the panel ended because she was working on several deals. She walks to the beat of her own drum and maybe that’s the point.
* [Donald Trump](http://www.trump.com/) — There is no one like him and no one in New York real estate that is an international household name. He has created a brand that attracts international buyers of New York real estate and has expanded his brand into many other venues. His style is brash and comes from the school that _if you say something positive often enough, people will believe it_. He has developed a following unmatched by anyone in the business as evidenced the success of his television reality series [The Apprentice](http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_4/) and his recent appearance and deal with the [Learning Annex](http://www.learningannex.com/).
There have been and are many other successful real estate marketers in Manhattan and now there is [Michael Shvo](http://www.shvo.com/). He has made many enemies with his brashness. With three blackberries and two cell phones, love or hate him, the man can sell.
_Our first-hand impression_
However, my appraisal firm was assigned to appraise a unit in one of the projects he is currently marketing. The sales representative was unbelievably rude and abrasive…over – the – top. The Shvo agent was not busy yet seemed to thrive on this type of behavior and would _not show my appraiser the unit_ even though we had made an appointment well in advance. During this interaction, a potential buyer came in who was trying to get information and the sales staff would not help him. The potential buyer eventually gave up. My appraiser finally had to find a construction foreman who provided access to the unit.
To be fair, this was the first and only time that we have inspected this particular project, although I suspect we will be returning soon as the units that are sold get set to close. Hopefully this incident could be the fault of a few poorly trained agents, but thats the rub. The brashness of Shvo doesn’t allow him to be given slack by the real estate community. And to his own admission, he could care less about what anyone thinks. Perhaps thats the key to his success as a salesman.
In a market with limited supply, rapid marketing times and eager buyers, this type of behavior probably doesn’t really matter. Many brokers were order takers until recently. As we enter a market where there is more balance between supply and demand and new developments are the primary source of new supply, I have my doubts about the long-term staying power of _in your face_ selling.
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interesting bit on the first hand impression. let’s see how this plays out in the next few years.
My only experience with the Schvo triumvirate was when I was showing an exclusive to one of his agents and his buyers. He was actually polite but there was definitely a strong scent of arrogance.
When I noticed that he had a car service awaiting for his buyers he made a comment “Some day when your succesful you can have a car of your own.”
Actually, another of my staff, after reading this post, relayed a similar story to me about another assignment in another building that is being marketed by them. She described it as over-the-top, a first time experience to that extreme. Rude, would not provide information, difficult in trying to access the apartment, etc. Perhaps this is why I am not a broker. I don’t see how this strategy or style, intentional or unintentional, is good for your client.
i sold an apt at one of their new developments which was surprising since they don’t like to co-broke at all if they can avoid it and many agents don’t show anything Shvo but my customer had wanted to see it. the deal was a nightmare all the way through, they are very sneaky with everything. then at the closing they didn’t want to pay the cobroke and we had to bring in our firm’s counsel and fish out the signed agreement that thank god we had somewhere in the office to get paid, worst closing of my life.
i’m a convert..i don’t show any SHVO exclusives anymore. his reputation is well deserved.
Hubris, thy name is Shvo.It was conventional wisdom when he was at his last company, (from which he was bounced), that other brokers only saw a property once he’d exhausted all his direct customer possibilities. He also once appeared before salespeople who were in training at that company.In a thick Israeli accent he said, “I’m a whore. I’ll rent to anyone. I don’t care who you are, I’ll take your money!” Charming.
Maybe the end justifies the means….we are talking about him. And sometimes bad press is better than none. But yes, the whole company seems to have an arrogant culture…which starts from the top down.
shvo is an excellent salesman and his development 20 pine is the next big thing. we should all learn from him and stop being jealous.
I think that if you’re doing business with Michael Shvo, then he may chew you up; but if you’re on non-business terms with him, like I am, then you may find him to be someone you can look up to and learn a lot from. It’s not Shvo, it’s the whole real estate brokerage industry (and sales in general) with people fighting for a slice of a commission that makes many brokers act rude and abrasive towards each other. It’s basic business survival. Only the strongest win in the end, and he happens to follow that mentality. The best thing about him, he doesn’t just talk, he delivers.
You should know how hard he works and how smart he is before writing or reading negative articles about Shvo. Think about it, he came to NY from Israel and has established such a big business by himself within a decade. Who else can make it? We should give him a credit for his success and there are a lot to learn from him as well.