NY Wiki: South Fork, Hamptons estate agents

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July 17, 2005

South Fork, Hamptons estate agents

House prices keep leaping upward, especially on the South Fork,
where the median price in the first quarter of 2005 surpassed
$700,000, according to Long Island Profiles, a Bay Shore company
that tracks the real estate market. The supply of properties for
sale for $1 million or more seems to be expanding exponentially.

And so is the number of people on a quest for the Holy Grail: the
sales commission on a multimillion-dollar house.

The math is seductive: The ordinary commission, 6 percent of the sale
price, amounts to $60,000 on a $1 million house. Sell just five of
those a year as exclusive listings, and you are talking $300,000 in
gross income. Close a deal on a single $12 million estate - there are
several on the market at the moment - and the potential payoff is a
dizzying $720,000.

That's why the South Fork - one of the country's hottest real estate
markets, with prices rising at double-digit rates every year - now has
more agents and brokers than ever before. Large companies like the
Corcoran Group, Prudential Douglas Elliman and Sotheby's have added
scores of sales people in the Hamptons over the last five years, and
locally owned offices are merging and expanding to compete with the
big names.

Although the rest of Long Island has also seen double-digit growth,
the first-quarter median house price for Nassau and Suffolk was
$447,700, much less than the $700,000-plus on the South Fork.

[NYT]

Posted by omor at July 17, 2005 07:48 PM