Welcome to the luxury code, where we decode the mindset, the marketing and the business approach of successful luxury brokers. Hey welcome back to the luxury code. Today, my guest michael franco, 14-year veteran new york city compass broker. One could argue luxury power broker.

Michael welcome to the show thanks thanks for having me, i'm excited to be here. Thank you so so this whole game is trying to help the people that want to get into the higher end. Understand that the nuances, the subtleties, the differences, what what makes the this business so special and then for all of our friends that are in the luxury business to learn from one another to share some best practices. So everybody in the industry gets better.

So i wrote down a bunch of questions, but the first thing i want to talk about is just new york. City has been so fiery excited crazy up and down, what's hot, what's not right now in new york city real estate, the market's high yeah, so i had the best year i've ever had in my career, and i was super psyched and super proud only to find Out that every top agent in new york also had their best, because nobody shares anything else. Oh, i thought i was the only one that had their best here give people context. What is it what is best year for you uh? We ended the year with 170 million closed and pending and we closed 135 million.

I mean that 135 transactions, no, no 135 million. Close right, i mean michael. That is, you know we. We talk a lot and we don't show that i was thinking back to stanford connecticut.

Like a million years ago, we took the train in and i was doing some funny little workshop. We first connected. You have come such a long way, and that is tremendous volume. You say that the market's hot, but but i still hear people saying not in every price range - i still hear.

There's lots of inventory in the city so so give us some context for that like where is where is the market hot? Where is it not? What's? Moving, what's not it's help us it's definitely market segment by market segment. Yes, it's like hit or miss, and i'm getting to the point now, because it's been about a year since this has been going on that i can now go into a listing presentation, and i know this is going to be a tough sale or i know like If we price this right, it's it's going to sell and maybe get multiple bids so give so unpack that, for us like how do you know without without like neighborhood, neighborhood condition right carrying charges, um a lot of locations, no doors? Does that don't matter? You know elevator no elevator concierge service no cut like just i mean what really matters it depends. I mean there's so many different market segments like new construction. New development is like super luxe amenities, always adornment, concierge everything, all the bells and whistles.

You know gyms bowling alleys, like everything you have in your building yeah. So it's like that everything new is no bowling alley, but i like no bailing now that's a good idea, um pool and all that stuff um, you know. Most of the apartments i sell are dormant buildings. Yeah most of the apartments in new york are dormant buildings.

There's some. You know higher end apartments that are loft style and soho tribeca downtown, where it's it's a loft building and there's no doorman, because it's small they're usually full floor. It doesn't really warrant a doorman, but i'm digressing off of sure what you were asking me, but it's so interesting. You know you, you look nationally and you look in many cases globally, like everyone says the market's hot, and yet new york is one of those rare places like like parts of los angeles and maybe less today, as we film this, where there's always an abundance of Inventory yeah, but it seems like in the fall of last year, right and so far this year, a lot of properties that many top clients would say were never going to sell, suddenly had two offers.

Are you seeing the same thing in manhattan? Yeah, yeah yeah? So it's funny so, if you're working with buyers and you're looking for something good, there's a lot of bad inventory. Yeah the good inventory is selling and everything is super price sensitive. I mean the market is always price sensitive, but it's i've never seen it. In my whole career, this price sensitive, like if you overprice something you're shot in the foot and you've got to adjust immediately in new york city.

Yes, if you price it right and it's in good condition or price it even a little aggressively you're going to get multiple bids, it's a risk to go low because you can't really raise the price. I always tell people that i'm a conservative listing agent - i don't go low unless i really think for sure we're going to get an auction situation, yeah um, but this is the funny thing. So you know the worst time in our market was, like you know, prior to 2020 was like 2009 2008 right and there are people right now in new york that are out of the money unless they bought like in 2011 or before 2012 and before, and then There's some people that bought in 2019 and they're going to make money on their sale so we're like past 19. We recovered because probably different from the rest of the country.

We people forget this because the pandemic year was so bad. 2019 was not a great real estate market in new york city. No, it was bad so, like everybody thinks it was not because everybody forgot, because the pandemic here was so right, awful in so many ways, so the markets rebounded. But it's definitely case by case, and i can now i can smell it.

Coming a mile away, see, that's see, that's the stuff, like i hear you say that i hear andy c say that i hear maxine gallons all these like super luxury power brokers, that, like you guys all have this like six or even seven cents of like. What's to sell and what's not, i've asked a lot of people this question, i'm just curious for you like what what is selling and what isn't and like i'll give you an example. Like timmy smith said anything four years or newer is new construction and it's gone everything five years old, something looks old and dated right and like unless you price it right, it's just going to sit. What do you see in the safe so good condition, um reasonable carrying charges and um price strike? Yeah people don't want to renovate.

If it's got, if it needs a renovation, it needs to be priced so attractively, it really does so that you get people that are willing to do it, because the memo is now out about supply chain and how the contractors are super busy. So they're gouging and they're busy, so they can charge more. They should god bless, but like renovating is tough. I mean i sold something in 2020 on the upper west side, like a rack, almost like an estate, sale and they're, just starting they're, like 10 into their renovation right now.

It's 2022. right, they're gon na move in in august. Right like two years later and that's, i think that everybody's dealing with that, even when you see like the new construction, all excited about this unit, what's gon na be done 2026. great right, exactly right and you even know they're lying.

You know it's gon na probably be summer of, if not beginning of 27., but let's go back to this. I think the the two or three questions that that everybody always asks when, like tom, ask ask these luxury brokers this question: how did you break into the high end? That's the first one. So maybe what advice would you give to someone that wants to do it? I mean i was kind of later in life when i started in this business and i used to practice law god awful business. I mean that's such a strange transition but like, but it gives you a superpower that most people don't have i'm a late, bloomer yeah.

So, like i went to law school for the wrong reasons, i actually enjoyed it. I you know i'm a late bloomer to getting into luxury real estate like it's everything has taken longer, so i'm gon na have to work longer. Yeah um! I this happened to me in connecticut when i met you, so i was. I had this amazing year of my first.

I was on a team for a year and then my second, my first full year in the business on my own. I was on a luxury team: yes, for about nine months, with a top broker in new york, city and um. I then had my first full year on my own, and i did like 28 million, which was incredible, phenomenal and then like the next year. I did 15 and then the next year i did 10.

yeah and i was like. Oh, i can't i can't take this like i've got to get off this roller coaster, yeah at least with my law practice like i knew stuff was coming in, and then i went to your conference the whether the blueprint or whatever it was called back then - and I went up to you after and i said, or on a break or something, and i said i told you like i had this amazing year i did almost 30 million everybody at the company. I was with at the time, said you're going to be a star you're going to be amazing, and i just sat back and waited for the phone to ring and watch my business go down and you said the first thing you said was, let me guess you Had one big deal that year and i'm like oh he's, actually smart he's hoping to find something wrong with him. Like the first time i met you, i remember exactly where you sat at the conference.

I'm walking right down the aisle and you're right on my left. I can't believe you hit the nail on the head so that year i did and there's there's a point to the story. That year i sold a 12 billion dollar apartment in the plaza i got referred um, a very big family who owns a big watch company in switzerland and they're all over the world. Yes, uh and i worked with them for a long time and the number kept going up.

They started about 5 million. Ultimately, i sold the 12 million apartment at the plaza and which is probably worth 18 or 19 now and um. That was it and then the numbers may be like you can't, oh, so this is the point i'm trying to make. I did nothing to leverage that sale.

Bingo, nothing i didn't know. I think i did a mail, it was, you know central park south. So i think i did a mailing on central park, south thinking, i'm gon na mail, the whole block and then i'm gon na sit back and wait for the phone's gon na rain. Everything's gon na be 12 million enough nothing.

So then you know fast forward. I started doing better in the business and i started. I was top agent at my company. We'd go on these awards trips and the top 25 agents.

Would the president of the company would take us on this trip and i was sitting with with somebody who's a partner junior partner of a major broker. I think she was number one in the country last year, she's a friend of mine yeah, and i was talking to her there's a lot of wine flowing and everything and i'm on that trip just pumping everybody for information. So that's right point number one yeah getting on that trip was amazing because i just went around to the hamptons brokers, top hamptons brokers, top palm beach and the top agents in new york city. I was like what am i doing on this trip.

I just happen to have sold a lot of maybe smaller apartments yeah and she said to me. She goes well. You know how it goes. She goes, you know you get one big sale and then everybody thinks you're and then the light clicked down in my head.

I'm like i have to leverage bingo bigger sales. So that's what i do now. I leverage bigger sales like i don't, there's, no more: promoting yeah, there's, no one, one mailer, no or there's no more social media. You know i have a social media consultant and i tell her like: don't no, no, no, no only this and up on social media at this point because and it's not smoke and mirrors - that's what excites me now.

It took me a long time to get to where i am yeah, but i don't get excited going on a pitch for a smaller apartment and so i'm not best suited for that. I'm not the best suited person. Yes, i will do it and i don't turn down any pitches, but i'm not. It doesn't excite me and you got to be excited when you go on a listing presentation.

So there's so much to unpack in that, like you had that big sale and then you waited, and now you have campaigns. It sounds like with your social media coordinator and other methodologies. I would imagine to like beat the drum like remember the book. I used to recommend, like 10 years ago, called shameless self and people hated the title, but i was like, but if you do something remarkable like one of my clients, i was talking to the garrisons the other day get this of the 89 listings that they sold 80 of them set a record price in that neighborhood wow, i'm like, but if you don't tell everybody that 91 of every property we sell sets of record price in the community, you know raising the bar for all.

Nobody knows right so give us like two things that maybe the average person in the luxury market isn't doing that you found as a way to promote that success, not in the egotistical way, but like here's, our method. This is what we do. It's the results we produce, i mean promote, promote promote, so you raise a very good point so coming from a legal background, the first thing they teach you in law school is that it's unethical to solicit or advertise. So i had a ton of shame for sure it took me years to get rid of the shame.

Yes, self-promotion, yes and i just kept beating the drum in my head: shameless self-promotion, yeah shameless self-promotion, that's where i have to get to, and now i can tell i mean i'm almost too far yeah on the other end, i'm a huge self-promoter. So give us an example, so you know like look. I just sold uh. I just sold a duplex apartment in in the building where i live and if other you know i do most of the sales in the building.

But recently you know i'm busy. So recently you know a couple: other agents have gotten listings in the building. One is best friends with the owner. They grew up together, another one others another one with a friend and you know.

Oh, i was going to say this nuts, okay, yeah yeah. You know: listen if, if there's even a low end listing like you want to get me going, it's like tell me you're interviewing other brokers. Yes, that's all. I need to hear yeah.

If i, if i find out they're interviewing other brokers, i will do it. Oh, my god yeah. I will not give up so so you sell the duplicates. I sell the duplex, which was it was it's a big sale and it's also um big for the type of apartment it is.

It needs a renovation. It's we listed for 7350. We got a really good price on it and it sold fast, and so i did a huge promotion. It's rolling out like one week to accepted, offer two weeks to contract highest price per square foot right in on the 81st street side of the building.

Yes and then the rest of the neighborhood central park west, the highest price per square foot for an eight room yeah in a really long time, like bang, bang bang. So i heard like three pieces. So so is it safe to say that's three direct mail pieces. That's three social media and one piece: okay and then so the one once we went to contract it went out on social immediately, got it yeah.

Do you think you're doing enough? No, i never feel like i'm doing enough. Yeah yeah, i don't mean you know you're, like you know, i love you. I don't want to rouse you and make you like, but like i just i get that sense that even the way you described it i felt like that was three different pieces. Three different weeks, like eileen rivera's, talked about forever, like you know, hit him eight times after uh from beginning to list to close yeah, and then everybody knows michael franco's, the man yeah.

You know i mean there's other i mean i have a whole farming program. That's yeah yeah yeah. I feel like i'm i'm doing pretty well, but i don't and i don't want to overdo it yeah and annoy people um that balance the balance. Okay, we're going to come back that, but i want to go back to um one of the things when i, when i think about you and so many of our great clients in the city and and i could go to clients around the world that are, you Know in paris or in london or in sydney um, you all have like this look.

I would just call it like market knowledge greatness. That makes you like the bell of the ball at every party, because everybody wants to know about real estate right and when you have that market knowledge like you, don't have to seek, they come to you. How does somebody get that like? Is that a learned skill like what do you do to really keep your fingers on the pulse? Can i tell you this? Is it's such a great question - and i didn't even think about this because i kind of had an idea of what we were going to talk about, obviously, but so over the last couple of years, maybe three years four years - i don't remember, but all of a Sudden, i subscribed to everything yes in men, yes, luxury every luxury report. You can get and i wake up in the morning and that's the first thing i see i see which celebrities sold in la which celebrities sold in um new york city and then i immediately click on to see who did it? God bless the real deal.

I know they could they drive some people nuts, but the real deal is phenomenal, so i have a ton of subscriptions. They all come through my phone. I have my notices on for everything, so i can pick stuff up if it's something important i'll, read it, but i'm telling you i'm picking stuff up and a friend of mine who's, a luxury broker in new york city. I i mentioned something about a about a deal, and this is a person.

That's always on top of these things and the big names yeah and he didn't know about it, and i was like. Oh my god. This is amazing. I am like that's an entrepreneur.

Yeah yeah, so so, every morning you have a routine and i it's funny because i have the same routine and i'm looking kind of nationally globally bloomberg real deal ever like everything just wan na know. What's going on around the the universe um, how do you then translate that into talking points like when someone says michael how's, the market? That's a big question for someone like you: how do you respond uh, so are you buying or selling? No, i love nothing to say yeah yeah um. How is the market the market is? I had a conversation with a client who's been thinking about selling for two years pandemic he's been waiting, yeah he's in the hamptons he's like we're. Gon na sell we're paying maintenance on this apartment's beautiful apartment um.

How is the market i said? The market is strong if your place is in good shape, which yours is it's beautifully renovated and we price it right. We're going to get multiple bids and you can get the number you want, which was in the fives yeah, i'm like we'll, definitely get in the fives, and then i start telling them about what i've sold and then comparables. Because i'm familiar with all of the inventory right, which did not happen overnight, it does not happen overnight. So unpack that how do you i mean? I would imagine if somebody called you from like way, downtown financial district and said: hey come list, our two million dollar apartment.

You would say yes absolutely, but you definitely specialize like most agents. You've got a territory, a part of town that you dominate. How do you keep your pulse on all of that because, like for the people from watching like most people, don't get new york city doesn't have an mls right, so i mean you have one, but nobody uses it. There's no listings on it right.

So, what's your daily routine, like what's your go-to for like hot sheets, what's new listings? What's just when ended, what just closed like? Where do you go for that, so we had a. We had a thing at my old company that was called the smart report, which the guy that i worked for when i first started in the business created yeah, and he told me why he created it because you can click on the smart report and and then, When i got to compass, they didn't have it and i'm like. Oh, i can't believe nobody's just like that record this corporate report from back in the day. But the smart report is this, so you click it on and it has and i do it every day, like you click on so let's say you click it on tuesday and it'll show you all the new listings.

What's in contract price reductions and what's sold, then if you click it on wednesday, it does everything from the last time you clicked it on so like you can click it on before you're going to somebody's house for cocktails or dinner, and you can say oh, this Is what just popped up in your neighborhood by the way right and then we have coming soon at compass, so we have stuff in private exclusives, which is always making you feel like you're in the know, yeah, but listen that is special yeah. I've learned other companies. Do it but like knowing what their pockets are? Oh yeah, this environment yeah, because you know everybody wants that he wants what nobody else can get out of the high-end buyers off market the um. So this is: i've lived in new york for 30 years, yeah like when i first moved to new york, for whatever reason i got obsessed with new york real estate, and i late bloomer just took me another.

You know 15 years to become a real estate broker. Um i moved to new york to practice law or to go to grad school and then practice law. So i know that the city, like the back of my hand, yeah, i mean i'm a full-on new yorker yeah, and that takes a long time. So there's people that just moved to the city or that have only been in the city for a few years, but then there's people that maybe didn't have the interest.

I've seen that with agents i mean i have an agent on my team. Who's been in new york forever and she gets it. She gets yeah and, like we know, what's going on in every different neighborhood, now there's pockets of of brooklyn that i don't really get, and i have a team in brooklyn that i work with on that. So um, but i think, like knowing the city, i can work in any neighborhood in manhattan, yeah in a lot of neighborhoods in brooklyn, but any neighborhood in manhattan.

So it sounds like time and and looking at the hot sheets or the. What do they call it again, uh now in compass they call it the the daily digest the daily daily digest right. Okay, i want to go a different direction: um 220 central park - south? Yes, 157 million. Yes, two, you know two condos or apartments put together right.

Does that just piss you off that? Wasn't yours uh, of course i'll be perfectly honest and you know my first blush on that is and that's the deal i was talking about that my friend didn't know about yeah and i know the agent well. I have a deal with her right now and she sold out the whole building yeah, and i said i texted my friend i said: do you think that she got a direct on that because she was named as the broker and i think she put the deal Together, yeah and then i said: how much do you think she got paid on because it was like an off market. I'm like what was the you know. What do you think she got paid on? I didn't she body got six.

Yes, i mean the seller got a huge number right, so um. My first instinct was of course, because i'm a human being and i'm honest that i was annoyed yeah. But then i immediately went to inspiration. It's so inspiring, there's so much money to be made in new york city in real estate.

If that's available right, there's chunks of that which i'd be happy to take on. I would challenge everybody listening right now that they should all have like a four minute mile goal for a transaction like that. What's that number that just feels so out of reach that, oh, my god, you would die if you did it. You know, like i remember you know: maxine gallanty, you know well who uh when she first did like a deal at 10 million like 20 years ago, and she was just like, oh my goodness, right - that everybody just needs to put that on their vision board right.

If you can see it, you start to realize it's hard to taste. It start to understand it, but i want to go one totally last direction with you um, you know. Mutual friend of ours in the city, uh sir hand comes out and he says 50 of all transactions in i see a world in the very near future. 50 of all transactions will be done by crypto and ever be on the blockchain.

What do you think uh? I think he's a great self-promoter. I think he stays current. I think he's got a good press machine and i think it's super relevant, and so i think, regardless of whether it's accurate or not yeah, it was a good thing yeah to say, and it got a lot of press yeah. I mean this is kind of dovetailing to some of the stuff we talked about.

We have, you know, he's not really. The president of our company, but leonard steinberg is a leader he's very amazing, yeah chief evangelist um. He puts out a daily newsletter to the company, which is it's like changed my perspective. In so many ways he gives it's like bullet points of different things that are going on in the economy, and it's a lot of it is geared towards luxury, because that's what he's done his whole career of course.

So you see something in there and it's just having these snippets is so amazing sound bites and you go on a listing presentation and he does you know he puts together his own stuff, but he also does like cnbc. He does wall street journal and he quotes it and i started taking some of it and posting it on linkedin, because it's all you know, quotable stuff and other people do that he doesn't care. Yeah he'd make him happy and but to have this information at your fingertips and that kind of ties into all the subscriptions and having all the information coming in all the time. So ryan's super busy he's got his own company now and he's i.

I can't even imagine how busy he is, but he's getting fed a lot of really great information and he's staying on it and he's staying relevant. It's a relevant percent yeah. I was talking with uh mauricio omansky and we're talking about like access to power. Like knowledge is power right absolutely and whoever has that extra nugget, like your friend with the 157 sale, like you know like hey, like did you hear about this? No, i didn't the overriding thing i get every luxury broker.

I talk to every great agent. I talk to it's how much insight that they have and knowledge they have and current information that they can just rip and it makes them the most interesting person in the room makes them the the educator. If you will right so so i'm going to go totally. Last direction, our last question: i take you tomorrow to uh aspen miami jackson, hole uh, silicon valley tomorrow and i drop you off and i say: here's your license: here's a nominal little 2 000 a month marketing budget go.

How do you rebuild your business wow? I would i thought about it. I've definitely thought about it, because the pandemic has made a lot of people think about living in other places. Right - and you know florida is appealing to me now you mean southern new york florida exactly exactly um. You know the first thing i would do.

Look at frederick who's opened up multiple offices now in dallas houston, right right. Also, miami yeah miami la yeah yeah. So i think the first thing i would do is um majorly ingratiate myself with every any and every top broker. I could get access to smart and i would you know i wouldn't do it without having a nest egg and i would pay for that by taking them to dinners taking them to lunches doing whatever they want to do.

I would you know: listen. A lot of people are really generous in this business. Like i mean like, i know that tim smith will let somebody trail him all day and like people want to help people, somebody came to new york and asked me that they wanted to hang out with me all day. I would love to do that.

I think giving and teaching is really fun and amazing, and i think that that's what i would do, that's what i would start doing. I mean you got to do it sort of like i mean i thought about. Would i join a team? Maybe i would but like they know, they know you're, not a team member team. Smart team leaders know you're a team leader yeah and that you're not going to stay forever yeah.

But you know it's all about doing what you can. What can i do to help you yeah and in the meantime, maybe i'm going to learn something yeah um? I think it's definitely possible for somebody to really relocate. I think the skills are transferable. Yeah um, i'm not doing it at this point in my career yeah, but i'm just curious, like it's, it's a fun.

You know at your level to ask anybody like how would you start over and your answer was very different from a lot of other people's, which was proximity? Okay, so the people that are doing all the deals like access to them gives you insight that others? Don't have yeah, i would start with that, and i would also start with just learning the the market inside and out learning the inventory going to every single open house going anywhere. You can to learn the inventory yeah. I didn't do enough of that at the beginning of my career and then once you get busy, you don't have time right so to like ramp up fast yeah know the market know the market, know the market and know the players in the market know the players And then get involved in the community, you got to join something you got to do something to start meeting people it's that beach head. Okay, i'm gon na get to know this group of people right, the other one i heard a bunch was uh.

I would go on linkedin to figure out who i already know that's there or who who do? I know that knows someone else who's there. So you have that like sort of access point to new relationships - or you know start because you're starting over right right, interesting, interesting, michael i'm so happy you were on this show, like you, you've been on my list for a long time of, like you know, just Getting in front of you with a camera and saying you know, let's just openly talk about your business. So, what's the goal for this year, what are you gon na do in 2022 we our goal team and i is to do 250 million in volume and that is 160 transactions. The price point: my team's price point is lower than my price point and i'm trying to build them up.

We have a small team, it's not a huge team, yeah, three agents: you have a great team, great team, yeah excellent people. 250 million - is a rarefied air. My friend it's happening, it is gon na happen. It's happening, we're all we're well on our way.

I love it. I'm proud of you thanks. Okay, so leave a comment, make sure you follow michael franco on all social channels, he's everywhere: linkedin facebook, instagram tick! Tock. Are you on tick, tock, uh, sort of i'm sure somebody's on there doing sick talk for yes, i'm on reels the competitor you're, killing unreal yeah so make sure you follow them and then, of course, if they want to reach out to you, they can just michael Franco, they're going to find you everywhere, franco at compass, franco at compass, all right, so we're out! Thank you guys.

So much for watching. Look forward to the next show you.