Broker Spotlight: Boris Fabrikant and Collin Bond, The Fabrikant Bond Team at Compass

Names and titles: 

Boris Fabrikant, Esq, licensed associate real estate broker, co-founder of the Fabrikant Bond Team

Collin Bond, Esq., licensed associate real estate broker, co-founder of the Fabrikant Bond Team

Experience: 20+ years combined experience

Location: New York City

Brokerage full name: Compass

Rankings: No. 5 for Large Teams in NYC 2021 by Real Trends

Team size: 16

Transaction sides: 152 in 2022

Sales volume: $223 million in 2022

How did you get your start in real estate?

Boris/Collin: We met in law school in 2005 and remained friends. Halfway through our careers as attorneys, we got our real estate licenses and worked part-time.

We heeded the age-old adage of following your passion, and you will live a happier life. After working part-time for several years, we realized that our real estate business was much more fulfilling than law. In 2015, we decided to go full time and formed a team applying the skills and methods we honed while practicing law.

What do you wish more people knew about working in real estate?

Boris/Collin: A great real estate broker does more than open doors and tour properties. To be a great real estate broker, you must have extensive market knowledge and wherewithal of current trends, property values and inventory while also understanding the macroeconomic landscape that influences demand, including the stock market, inflation and mortgage rates.

Understanding the ever-changing tax laws is important to advise clients on how current and new laws impact their wallets. Doing so will allow them to know what to ask their CPAs to purchase or sell their homes in the most tax-efficient manner.

Another understated aspect of real estate is the need for agents to be skilled negotiators with deft communication skills suited to properly advocate for clients and ensure that all parties in a transaction are working collaboratively. 

Seeing beautiful homes is a great perk of the job, but being a quality broker requires hard work, determination and a lifelong learner mentality. 

What makes a good leader?

Boris/Collin: A great leader possesses unique skills and traits that effectively guide and motivate their team toward success. They are excellent communicators, coaches and strategic thinkers with motivating attitudes, industry knowledge, organizational skills and empathy.

A leader who is an empathetic and effective communicator will be able to understand each person’s perspective and what motivates them, establish trust, build relationships and coach their team members to achieve their goals. A leader who can coach and mentor their team members effectively is better able to help them reach their full potential and ultimately drive results.

Strategic thinking and organizational skills are crucial for leading and managing a team. They are essential to establishing systems that increase productivity, facilitate the dissemination of industry knowledge, create consistency, and allow for scalability.The most effective leaders in our field create consistency in how they run their teams while allowing room to evolve as the team dynamics change.

What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?

Boris/Collin: Make sure you have 12 months of savings before going into real estate full-time. It will reduce the stress and anxiety of not getting paid for several months. It will also allow you to be patient and build relationships with your clients instead of chasing money. Some deals will require a significant investment of your time upfront with no financial return for an extended period. But this is time well spent.

What’s one thing you wish every agent knew?

Boris/Collin: Find someone you trust and respect to work with. Having a partner or colleague along the journey is vital because it can become a very lonely business. We attribute a lot of our success to the excellent partnership we have.

Brainstorming ideas with someone leads to better decisions. One of us often describes an issue we are dealing with to the other, and before even asking for advice, the solution comes to fruition.

Once you figure out a solution, getting validation from your partner builds your confidence in that decision. All this can happen in a conversation with your partner not saying a single word. It’s like therapy but only works with someone entrenched in the business. Your family, friends, and significant other will not “get it.”

Having someone to hold you accountable leads to achieving more of your goals. Letting off steam when a deal goes south, and there will be many, is also essential for your mental health.