11/20/08

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Corcoran: Small brokerages will triumph

Despite her founding role in what is now the biggest residential brokerage in Manhattan, Barbara Corcoran is putting her stock in the little guy.

The founder and chairman of The Corcoran Group, which says it has 2,000 agents in New York, the Hamptons and Palm Beach, told Business Week Online last month that the future of residential real estate belongs to small brokers who are able to be more responsive to changing markets.

"I think the future belongs to small brokers, and I'm one of the [few] people to say that," Corcoran said. "The big guy clearly has the corner on the money, and that's the downside to being little. But the little guy has the corner on creativity."

Corcoran, who sold her company to conglomerate NRT in 2001 for $70 million but retains the post of chairman, also weighed in on the prospect of a housing bubble.

"Of course there's no bubble," she said. "I think the bubble theory is nothing more than an intellectual expression of people's typical worry that good times can't last forever. When your marriage is going well, you worry there's a problem on the horizon. I think it's more psychological than fact."