Broker Spotlight: Eric L. Zollinger, Elegran | Forbes Global Properties
Name: Eric L Zollinger
Title: Principal
Experience: Licensed in 1999 at 25, Zollinger worked for two top Corcoran agents at 660 Madison in the same office as Barbara Corcoran. Since then, he has been in virtually every type of role in resales and new development, including his own residential firm.
Location: Manhattan, New York for 22 years; 2020 to Jan. 2023 in Chicago and Houston.
Brokerage name: Elegran | Forbes Global Properties
Sales volume: Over $2+ Billion
Awards: Exhibit Awards: Best Brand, East Coast Winner (2022) and Inman: Most Innovative Brokerage Firm Winner (2017)
How did you get your start in real estate?
As a project lead for a high-end interior design firm, Donald Hill Interiors, I expressed my desire to get licensed. Donald Hill paid for my class at NYU continuing education.
When a high-profile client was looking for a new prewar residence on Central Park, I was introduced to a “famous broker” (who I will not name). This broker expressed interest in hiring me to join his team in 1999. However, after going to a psychic, he informed him he couldn’t hire me because the psychic said I would take clients away.
After hearing that news, I got word that Barbara Corcoran was filling a new position and called her office; that’s when the late Emilie O’Sullivan and Kathy Slattery hired me as their new assistant. Years later, a few clients of that “famous broker” ended up hiring me over him to both rent and ultimately sell their downtown homes at The Caledonia.
What do you wish more people knew about working in real estate?
That Million Dollar Listing is a television show for entertainment, and that it doesn’t correctly portray the life of a real estate agent.
Tell us about a high point in your brokerage career.
When I had my own brokerage, Zollinger & Associates, I wanted to create out-of-the-box video content. In 2012, I had the first real estate multimedia advertisement in The New York Post on Page Six that showcased property videos. Another high point was getting to produce a web series in 2012 called Our New York, which is still on YouTube.
What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?
I would suggest that freshly licensed brokers should see as many properties as possible to learn layouts, past trends, neighborhoods and the local market.
What makes a good leader?
A good leader inspires, motivates, teaches, listens and challenges those around them.
Know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Broker Spotlight? Nominations, please, to brokeredge@inman.com.
Christy Murdock is a Realtor, freelance writer, coach and consultant and the owner of Writing Real Estate. She is also the creator of the online course Crafting the Property Description: The Step-by-Step Formula for Reluctant Real Estate Writers. Follow Writing Real Estate on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.