This is all mildly amusing to me as someone who has owned 3 apts in JH since most of the names are newer brokers in JH -- just as an aside, for many years, almost all sales in the historic district of JH were handled by Maire Breen and Mercedes Langan and they listed in NY Times sunday only (never online) ... we bought two apts through Mercedes Langan. She was very kind and was trusted by the coop boards. I have not seen anything listed by her recently. I think the internet did her in as an agent. read this article & weep over the prices . . .
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E4DE1F3DF932A35751C1A960958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink When we were selling, we tried selling through Ms. Langan, had trouble around 9/11 and ended up selling ourselves. The second apt we sold ourselves also, but were about to sign with Virgil Cannatella, a broker with Douglas Elliman who lives in Hawthorne Court and is really great. One thing to consider if you are selling is what the advertisements for your apt will be and who will pay -- a broker may not have to pay the costs out of his/her commission if he/she works for a large agency. An agent for a smaller company may not want to spend a ton on advertising out of their own budget. As I recall, Elliman was going to pay for a set amount of NYTimes ads.
I have never met him, but Michael Carfagna is selling an apt upstairs from me and he seems good for sellers -- he prices things aggressively high but also shows the apt often and does tons of open houses.
We bought our newest apt through someone who just happened to have the listing but is not based in JH.
