It's an annual end-of-the-year tradition by wrapping up the 2024 year in business & real estate with our guest Sean Mcpeak of the Empire Collective Team at Serhant.  Sean had a productive year with his business partner being featured in the hit Netflix TV show Owning Manhattan, building up his team, and, of course, coming on my pod with his zingers, one-liners, trivia skills, and real estate knowledge to top it off.  

Sean & I met at Compass in June of 2014 and worked together for 3 years before moving to Halstead, eventually moving to Serhant as one of the founding agents.

Please give Sean & his team a follow on IG @sean_mcpeak & @empirecollective_ 

I welcome my friend Will Hardy to the Real Takk Podcast, where we discuss real estate, the state of the brokerage business, the hardships we face as real estate agents and brokers, the NAR Settlement, brokers going into politics, his story about biking across America through Georga to California, and what's working under the hood from business leadership. We also discuss the direction our industry is headed in 2025 and what markets we may open up in.  Please give him a follow at @williamaugustus & his LinkedIn here. 

I'm jumping on to quickly discuss my thoughts on the FARE Act, AKA the Fairness in Apartment Rentals Act. Who does it help? How does the bill affect the overall market? How does this impact mom-and-pop shop landlords? Does this bill positively impact the tenant community overall? Or just a small segment of renters?  

According to the bill's sponsor, the New York City Council is poised to pass a law that would allow most tenants to avoid paying thousands of dollars in broker fees when renting a home.

The proposed measure, which the Council could vote on as soon as Nov. 13, would shift broker fees to the party that hires the broker, which is nearly always the landlord. The Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses, or FARE, Act now has 33 sponsors, seven more than the majority needed to pass in the 51-member Legislature. 

Recording from our HQ on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida, I welcome Elizabeth De Woody of Compass Palm Beach!  Born in Miami and raised in Central Florida, Elizabeth has called West Palm Beach home for the past 25 years.  She was hand-picked to represent our office in Palm Beach Island as the founding agent, with top producing figures of closing over half a billion dollars in sales volume in the last two years.  Elizabeth ranks #127 in the USA, #22 in Florida, and #5 on the Island of Palm Beach, ranked by the Wall Street Journal, Real Trends 2024 individual sales volume.

Before real estate, Elizabeth spent 15 years in the corporate world with P&G & J&J in sales, marketing, and sales management.  We discuss all things Palm Beach, the history, Elizabeth's transition from corporate to real estate, and more.  

Please follow her on IG at @elizabeth_dewoody

One of our founding agents at Compass Miami, Levi Meyer, is back on the pod to give us the latest on the Miami market, updates on developments in Brickell, and new HOA and Condominium Board regulations.

A few fun facts about Levi: He’s a fifth-generation Floridian and a longtime Coral Gables resident. He’s one of 9 siblings, an Israeli military vet, and he grew up attending Rabbinate school. Before he was selling Miami’s most prestigious homes, Levi was in the business of selling arms and ammunition (yes, you read that right).

Levi is also deeply involved in his community. He serves on the boards of several charities, including United Hatzalah and The Friendship Circle of Greater Miami, and he’s the President and Chairman of the Chabad of Coconut Grove. He lives in Coral Gables with his amazing wife Lauren and their two beautiful kids, Benjamin and Charlotte.

While Levi’s real estate achievements are impressive—he’s ranked in the top 1% in our industry—what’s even more special is our friendship. He’s one of my oldest friends at Compass, he officiated my wedding, and I’m lucky to have a guy like Levi in my life.

Be sure to follow him on Instagram @TheMeyerGroupRE and his personal account @levimeyerre 

I'm thrilled to have my good friend and industry colleague Maggie Wu on the Real Takk Pod! Maggie, the youngest of three, was raised in Hong Kong before moving to the US to attend the prestigious Peddie School in Hightstown, NJ. She then majored in Economics and Business at NYU.

Upon graduation, Maggie made a brief foray into VC before joining the real estate business. She quickly rose to the top of our industry, with successful tenures at Corcoran, Compass, Serhant, and then back to Compass. (Welcome back!)

Maggie founded her own team, The W Team, almost a year ago and has since been featured in esteemed publications such as Business Insider’s 30 Under 35 (2022), The Hollywood Reporter’s New York Power Brokers (2022), The Real Deal, Inman, HousingWire, The Wall Street Journal, and RealTrends. Maggie has been honored as one of the top 0.5% of agents nationally in The Wall Street Journal's The Thousand 2024, ranked among Compass's Top Ten Small Teams, and achieved #17 in NYC and #27 in NY State small teams by volume in The Wall Street Journal/Real Trends 2024. While her professional accomplishments are astonishing, she is just as accomplished and impressive as a person!

I'm proud to have her as a friend and colleague. Danielle Stout (co-host) and I had such a fun time recording this episode. Please give it a listen!

Follow Maggie on IG: 

@mag_wu 

@thewteamny

Pleased to have my friend & industry colleague Jon Capobianco, one of the newest additions to Ellimans De Niro  Team on the Real Takk Pod. Did you know? Jon used to bike over the Queens Bridge everyday on his single-speed steel bike to his Corcoran office in the Upper East Side from Brooklyn?  Did you know? Jon's an avid surfer, snowboarder, fisherman, and Phish-er men?  

With a career rooted in real estate since his time at the Corcoran Group, Jon’s passion and expertise have grown exponentially. He brings a wealth of experience in creative, targeted marketing, catering to diverse clientele, including foreign governments, Wall Street executives, and entertainment luminaries seeking luxury homes, townhouses, and lofts.

A University of Rhode Island graduate, Jon made the move to Manhattan in 1991, you know that Jon is packed full of amazing stories of NYC, his clients, & life in general.  

This was a really fun episode to record.  Please give Jon a follow on IG at @joncapobianco where he actively posts his life as a real estate broker, New Yorker, a sufer, fisherman, & a dad! 

Ryan Garson of Compass joins the pod to discuss all things social media, our business, his early beginnings, successes, failures, what it's like having Rob Reffkins' mother on his team, and more. 

Ryan is an influential real estate agent covering Manhattan and Brooklyn, he’s contracted over $400 million in sales and brokered more than 1,000 client success stories in the past 8 years. Ryan is known in the industry for his creative, out-of-the-box approach to marketing, including his online influencer personality @theverysocialbroker on instagram. Ryan’s videos are funny as he pairs up with comedians & other known influencers in the social media landscape to market his team, listings, & other players in the real estate world.  He’s a great story teller, salesman, and his passion for the business translates through the screen. 

Please give him a follow @theverysocial broker on IG! 

https://www.instagram.com/verysocialbroker/

Some Topics Covered Include: One Word Answers

1. NYC Residential Real Estate 

General & NYC Real Estate & NYC Trivia

General Trivia: 

Question: Who was the youngest U.S. President? 

NYC Trivia:

Question: What was the initial name for New York City?

NYC Real Estate Trivia: 

Question: What is the largest private landowner in NYC? 

LIght Questions:

1. If you could leave in any city outside of NYC and sell, where & why?

Hot Takes (answer them fast & short!)

1. Best Social Media in the biz (outside of you)