To all the agents in the house,
You can't accuse Ryan Serhant of playing it safe. He launched "Serhant.," his eponymous brokerage, during a pandemic. And he did so during a real low point in the Manhattan luxury market.
Since then, the top agent-turned brokerage chief has been snapping up top agents from Compass and other firms with an easy-to-understand pitch: you'll have the resources needed to take your brand to new heights at Serhant. No more groveling with your managing broker for marketing firepower.
The way he's doing it, as detailed in this excellent Curbed piece, is what caught my attention. At most brokerages, an agent who wishes to market a property with a slick video will need to cough up their own money to do it.
At Serhant., the brokerage pays the cost of guided tours of properties listed at $10 million and up. Through video production arm Serhant. Studios, the brokerage says they will produce videos for less expensive properties at "a heavily discounted cost – we estimate 90% less than market value for this level of quality production if they were to use an external vendor," the brokerage told Curbed.
Lots to unpack here. For starters, I'd love to know how much Serhant is shelling out to have a professional video production department. But more importantly, it makes me wonder if other brokerages will see an advantage in offering to cover more high-end marketing costs for agents, especially video. Consumers these days expect video content from real estate agents, and the pandemic accelerated that trend.
So let me ask you – agents, would you move to another brokerage if they offered to cover a higher percentage of your video marketing costs? How important is video to your business?
Let me know by emailing me at jkleimann@housingwire.com
James Kleimann
Managing Editor, HousingWire
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