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Many clients may prioritize emotional connections when hunting for resale homes, but Harrison Polsky of The Polsky Porpino Team at Douglas Elliman takes a deliberate, data-driven approach, focusing his team’s efforts on newly-built properties. This approach is one that few have caught on to, and Polsky uses that to his advantage.
As principal of Douglas Elliman’s leading team in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex, Polsky leverages his commercial real estate background and residential expertise to provide innovative solutions and top-tier service, fostering long-term client trust.
In a recent conversation with Inman, Polsky shared insights on his sales approach, artificial intelligence (AI), the upcoming election and his plans for Inman Connect Austin in October.
Below is the conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Inman: Inman Connect Austin is just over a month away. Do you know what you will be focusing on? Is there anything that you are looking forward to?
Polsky: The topic of my panel is Channeling Market and Economic Forecasts to Attract More Clients. It’s a very broad topic that can go in 20 different directions. A couple of other colleagues of mine will be speaking as well, so I’ll be going into some other panels.
Over half of The Polsky Porpino Team’s sales are from newly constructed homes. Could you share the reasons behind your team’s emphasis on new builds?
I come from a commercial background and work for some of the largest developers in Texas, so I understand that process better than I do resale clients. When I started growing the team, I was looking for agents in that space or people who worked for larger corporations, like Toll Brothers or Lennar, that were salespeople for them because that’s what they understand as well.
There has not been a team that I know of in Texas that has geared towards that one side of the business, and I saw an opportunity there to capitalize on that. I thought, if I can gather a group of individuals who understand that space, I can train them down the road and have a team that holds market share on new construction, which is what we do.
It’s closer to 95 percent of our sales, so of our $140 million that we do a year — next year, we’re slated for $225 million — 95 percent of that is new construction. That’s the service that we offer to builders, which gives us a competitive advantage against other agents because we have so much insight into the market space.
With the influx of people moving within your market leading to a tight inventory supply, is there hope that the market will find balance, and how does that happen?
There are two answers here that need to be understood about balance. DFW is a major metroplex. The data is pooled together in a way that I don’t find to be legitimate, and it skews things in all sorts of different directions.
For example: Dallas proper — Highland Park, Preston Hollow are about 40 minutes from Frisco, 40 minutes from Fort Worth, 30 minutes from South Lake. When we talk about relocation, it’s not all these people relocating to Dallas proper. Yes, Goldman is moving downtown and feeder companies, complementary companies to Goldman are moving near, bringing high-level executives. However, many others are moving up north to Frisco.
When you pull this data together with DFW looped into one data pool, it’s similar to taking Bronx, Queens, Yonkers, New Jersey and Connecticut, and saying that’s one market. There are still a lot of people moving here, but not as many as you think.
The second part of that conversation is the high-end luxury market where most of these people are moving to, whether it’s in Frisco or Dallas proper. For inventory to be released up, rates must drop to 4 percent. For people to sell their house, they must be able to afford a new one. The problem is that these pockets are so small that most of the people who have been here and bought a house, in say, University Park, for $1.7 million, are not going to sell that house today for $3.4 million, then go buy the same house they just sold. They have to jump up to a different price point, which is going to be $6 million plus.
To do that, you would need to see “the golden handcuff rule” disappear. They’re not only tied into their low interest rate; they have to be able to go up in purchase price. That’s most likely impossible to see both those happen. However, if more private schools open up, let’s say in Frisco, people might be willing to leave Dallas proper and go north.
AI has been adopted across various industries. Can you detail any AI tools or technologies that you currently employ, and tell me how those tools improve the client experience during your transactions?
I’ve never used AI to interface with my clients to help a transaction. If I’m in the car or on a run and I need to write an email, I’ll say, ‘Hey, ChatGPT this. Copy and paste this email. I need a response and this is the tone I’m looking for,’ which frees up about two hours. That way, when I get to the office, I’m ready to focus on something else.
When I’m trying to articulate to designers, architects or clients what a house is going to look like, there are multiple AI tools where I can say, ‘I need a modern, neoclassical house,’ and they’ll find around 40 different images for inspiration.
Are there any specific policies or proposals from [this year’s presidential] candidates that you believe could influence property values or demand?
We’re real estate people, so this capital gains tax, as proposed by Harris, is disastrous. It’s not going to get passed, so I’m not really worried about it. There have been multiple other California Democrats that have also agreed on that topic, that it would be disastrous to the economy and to entrepreneurs alike.
I don’t believe politics affects anything in our state. We are a pretty red state. We are pretty bullish on real estate, and we’re pretty good [on] taxes here.
Do you anticipate a slowdown or surge in real estate activity leading up to or following the election?
It’s always slow in every election a couple months before. It’s pretty standard after, depending on where you live. That will be geographically specific, but Dallas has always been a really strong economy, no matter who’s in the White House.
Austin seems to have a little bit more ebb and flow depending on that. Austin is heavy tech. Houston depends on that because of Houston’s oil-based economy. Dallas is not so dependent on one industry. If your tech guys are winning and your oil guys are losing, those people are buying and selling.
Have your clients expressed any concerns about the election’s impact on the housing market?
Everyone’s concerned when it comes to an election; that’s why there’s an election. Every four years, people are concerned about one thing or another.
When we talk real estate, we talk data and we talk numbers, and we keep there. Numbers don’t lie, emotions do, so, therefore, that’s what I stay focused on. We work with projections, we look at models, and that’s what we make decisions based on. I don’t make decisions based on which way the wind’s blowing and how I feel today about what someone said on CNBC or CNN or Fox News. I don’t think that’s smart.
