Million Dollar Listing New York Episode 5

Million Dollar Listing – NY By Jeff Crisalli

Once again my sincere thanks goes out to all of the readers of my blog.  The feedback has been amazing and I am truly appreciative of all the love and support from everyone.

I had a typical week. Meetings with potential clients, a closing and as usual, trying to structure various deals.I not only deal in the luxury residential field, I also provide a large client base with real estateinvestment opportunities. I am always working a few deals at a time and sometimes the clients,the property and I are all in different states!! I love it.

This week, I had the chance to spend some time with Million Dollar Listing New York’s favorite guy, Michael Lorber. Michael and I met to discuss various business opportunities for us as individuals and also to explore opportunities for our companies to work together on various deals. I can say with firsthandknowledge, Michael is truly a class act. He is in real life, as he appears to us in the show, smart, classy, soft-spoken, engaging and just a nice guy. And true to form, he dressed in his own style. A few other people popped into our meeting to say hello and we all spent a few minutes chatting about his “shoes” that everyone but Michael felt were “slippers”. He looked good regardless. The professionals at his firm, Prudential Douglas Elliman are a great group and I will be honored to commence a long lasting relationship with them. 

I have to say tonight’s episode was uneventful. The best part for me was the end when Ryan, as always, closed the rental deal. I love watching the negotiations and the close. Even though I am involved in negotiations on a daily basis, there are always things to learn. I do not want to see Ryan kissing himself in the mirror or drooling over every girl in NYC. It comes as NO surprise to anyone who watches MDL-NY that Ryan would need to live in a building with a doorman and leave explicit instructions about unannounced visitors. He should probably have someone taste his food and start his car for him!  As always, there were some good things my former “go-to” guy did tonight. When Ryan first met his client with the Chelsea space, he asked what pricing expectations he had. As a general rule, I do not come out with my pricing opinion until I hear from a client. You have to manage expectations and Ryan does it well. He also does a great job of appealing to his clients. He told us last night that you need to know your client and he is right. We got to see a good depiction of the way he interacts with each client differently and he is a chameleon. I also think he was right on target with the concept of the model’s in the marketing of the space. I do think that we saw too much of the picture shooting and of course too much of Ryan’s terrible dating manners. Need I say more! Another positive for Ryan was the fact that he came into the open house and starting cleaning the apartment. Although, he should never have been in that situation. If he has the staff in place, someone should have been there earlier to make sure there were no issues. I am sure this was not the first time he arrived and things needed to be done so maybe a course in learning lessons is in Mr. Serhant’s future. I find Ryan so much more charming when he is doing real estate business as opposed to the “monkey” business we unfortunately get to see time and time again.

I am so torn with Fredrik. We saw so many things tonight that on the surface seemed so unprofessional and unappealing. I have spoken to a few people that know him on a personal level and they all tell me, with the exception of one, that he is a nice guy. If you follow him on Twitter, you will get to see a very different side. His is a guy that cares about his husband, loves his dogs and is definitely proud of his family. Sometimes we are different in business than we are in our personal lives so let’s not crucify our friend Fredrik for the errors of his ways but hope that his kindness transcends a little into his business. Leaving Michael’s name off the invitation and then not even offering to correct it was a bad move. Fredrik should have shared the proof of the invitations prior to having them printed. Or is that just something I will do when Michael and I have an open house together? It’s just not right to take shots at Michael in front of his father or anyone for that matter. They work for the same firm and the spirt of teamwork is something Fredrik should do instead of just talk about. I think the most ironic part of tonight’s episode was when we saw Ryan soliciting clients at the open house. Fredrik must have a short memory because if we all recall, wasn’t that something Fredrik did in a previous episode? I guess what’s good for the “gas” (goose in Swedish) is not good for the “gaskarlen” (gander). Fredrik is very creative, enthusiastic and a forward thinker. All great traits for a successful person, whatever their career choice. The Mexican party theme was unique, maybe not appropriate for Park Ave. but certainly memorable. They say nice guys finish last, if that’s the case, Michael is headed for the bottom. I would like to be right next to Michael and nowhere near Mr. Eklund! One final comment about Fredrik. He hit the nail on the head when he talked about dressing for success. I wrote a blog about success that can be found @ jcrisalli.blogspot.com and it seems he said almost the same thing that I wrote.. hmmmmmmmmmm


Michael is my man.. Not just because we are establishing a working relationship but also because he is becoming the guy we all hoped he would be. When he first arrived at the meeting for the developer/client and Fredrik was there, he was poised and professional. I will say that the developer had the right idea. There is no harm in brining in another broker to aid in the sales of units. At the end of that day, the client has a lot of money at stake and needs to have closings. I often seek out other brokers that I know can help solicit a sale. As brokers, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients and not our bank accounts. I have no problem sharing a commission with a colleague when it results in a positive outcome for my clients. It was a great plan when Fredrik and Michael personally called people to invite them to the open house. That is a rarity because most of the time it is done by email or fax. The fact that Michael had a 2-page list and Fredrik had a 100-page list means nothing. Maybe Michael had a short list of heavy hitters instead of a long list of strike out artists! I loved when Michael told us that he treats people like he wants to be treated. It is a genuine character trait he posses. I also enjoyed the moments when Michael spoke his mind and challenged Fredrik. I hope we see more of that. Fredrik is a shark, albeit, a successful shark, and you cannot argue with success. But remember, the fall from grace never has a cushion! At the end of the episode tonight, we are lead to believe that Michael stormed out of the open house. Editing is done time and time again during the creation process. I highly doubt that we saw what truly happened.. Maybe I will find out for us.. Stay tuned!


In closing, I had numerous conversations with Lori Zaslow aka Love Broker, this week. She is a straight talking, tell it like it is, genuinely nice person. Speaking with her and having numerous conversationswith my very intelligent and analytical wife, made me think about interpersonal relationships and the importance of them. Surround yourself with people who contribute to your life and not contaminate it. Friends come and go but relationships last a lifetime. It is rare to find people who you can truly connect with and share life experiences, both good and bad.  Do not have a hidden agenda with people you care about. Take a real interest in what someone’s day was like. Be generous. Be authentic.  Life is filled with hurdles and triumphs, curve balls and home runs. Make people around you feel more important than you and you will be loved out of respect and admiration. When you go to sleep at night, instead of counting sheep, count how many times you made someone smile.. I guarantee, you will have a great night’s rest!!!!