The day that Town Residential announced it was ceasing its re-sale and leasing operations, top agent and Million Dollar Listing New York star Steve Gold called Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman, and the two met that night. A week later, Corcoran announced Gold would be bringing his listings and his team to the luxury real estate firm.
Gold’s initial reaction to Town Residential’s announcement was mixed with a bit of shock, but he could tell the writing was on the wall.
Steve Gold | Photo courtesy The Corcoran Group
“It was pretty clear there was some cash flow issues and the agents were having some difficulty getting payment in a timely manner,” Gold said, declining to comment further on any issues the firm was having.
In the year leading up to the announcement, many high-profile agents fled the Andrew Heiberger-founded Town Residential. At one point, the agency boasted over 600 agents, but by the end, that number was around 450. The most high-profile departure was Wendy Maitland, Town Residential’s former head of sales. Despite that, Gold stuck with the firm until the end.
“My entire career, I haven’t gotten where I’ve gotten by following people,” Gold said. “I had been at two other brokerages before I was at Town Residential so I know what it’s like. Town Residential and Andrew Heiberger provided me with an incredible platform to grow my business, which I did substantially over my five years there.”
“I think people always feel sometimes in brokerages that [the] grass is always greener, but I felt that loyalty speaks more volumes in the long term,” he added. “When things are going bad, you can weather a storm rather than just jump ship. The kind of person I am — I’m extremely loyal, and Andrew was good to me for many years. And I chose to stick by and hope that they made it through.”
Gold contacted all of his clients after Town Residential’s decision and let them know that ultimately, they were going to be in a better place with his move Corcoran.
“Obviously, at Town, the resources were beginning to expire, and if Andrew kept it open, we wouldn’t have been able to provide the level of service that we were known for,” he said. “Corcoran will do a huge new marketing push. In the end, [my clients] are getting almost a relaunch with a brand new brand.”
Gold admitted he met with three firms including Corcoran before making his decision — but declined to name the other two. He believed Corcoran would be the best fit.
“The platform Corcoran provides, they’re the best in class,” Gold said. “I was very impressed by the upper-level executives and management. The office space is class A. That was something at Town Residential I really liked — the fact that the offices were an environment I really wanted to work out of, and it made me more productive. I thought I would only be going down in terms of office space, but Corcoran is a step above.”
As a loyal agent, he said he sees Corcoran as a place he can be long term and where he can continue to grow.
