- Start early, and hire a team that's just as passionate as you are and willing to follow your lead.
- Plans will fall through throughout the process, have a backup plan, and be ready to rearrange the pieces to make it work.
- Remind yourself what's to gain out of all this, and also remember the potential losses. Do what is necessary, even if it means work during your only short vacation you had for the year.
Throwing a listing event is an excellent way to get your name out there and connect with potential new clients. It’s also a stellar opportunity to expose possible buyers to the community, especially if the physical building isn’t build yet.
That happened to be the case for the Serhant Team as we readied to sell a new luxury condominium development in Brooklyn. We threw a carnival to get to know the neighborhood. The following advice and Q&A is a result of our labor.
5 tips on how to throw a legendary listing shindig
- Make sure you are passionate about it and every decision you make.
- Start early — and hire a team that’s just as passionate as you are and willing to follow your lead.
- Don’t take on many other responsibilities so the event can be your entire focus.
- Act like your life depends on it.
- Trust that everything will work out for the best as it should.
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A behind-the-scenes look at a Team Serhant event
What’s the story with the units you are trying to sell?
Well, for one, the Gibraltar is one of the first brand new luxury condominiums to pioneer the new landscape of the Greenpoint Waterfront, which means the cheapest pricing for brand-new construction.
They are all modern, sleek apartments with 12-foot ceilings, balcony space, access to private parking and a ginormous public roof deck barbecue and entertaining set up with views of the East River.
How did you come up with the concept for the event?
For obvious reasons: There’s no site, and it’s our first project in Brooklyn like it, so we wanted to befriend the community and make an enormous impact. Having a carnival was a great way for parents to feel like they weren’t going to a real estate event but a family outing.
What goes into pulling off an event of that magnitude?
Honestly, your physical and mental health. A lot of resilience is necessary. Plans fell through week by week, and we always needed a backup plan to make sure the show was still on. It was a lot of rearranging puzzle pieces that needed to fit together.
What kind of help did you enlist to pull off the event?
We had a logistics planner help tie all the vendors and scheduling. We used her for the first time, but her reputation of knowing the community nonprofits and also local officials for city permitting was stellar. And she lived up to that the entire time we worked with her.
You have been known to make bets with your team; is that how you ended up in the dunk tank?
Brad, on my team — who’s quite a comedian — suggested we have a dunk tank. No bets were made. I just wanted to entertain the guests and keep them happy.
What advice would you give to people who are trying to pull off an event like that?
Focus and commit to the vision. Remind yourself what’s to gain out of all this, and also remember the potential losses. Do what is necessary, even if it means work during your only short vacation you had for the year.
Don’t stop the creative juices flowing, and don’t drop the ball. Put some heart and soul into it, and watch your visions come to fruition.
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Ryan Serhant is a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker at Nest Seekers International. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
