The Success Behind Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty

For nearly a century, Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty has grown and evolved into one of the region's preeminent real estate brokerage firms. By serving local economies and more recently exploring the "new development arena," James P. Retz, senior vice president of marketing and technology believes the company is ensuring consistent success in this unique and exciting segment of the market.

Learn more about the expanding company that always strives to "do what is right," as well as their new development marketing strategy, which is helping to create luxury condominiums and impressive waterfront development in the Long Island area:

Patch: How would you describe the company’s success?

Retz: Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty has grown and evolved over almost 100 years to be the region’s preeminent residential real estate firm. With 28 offices spanning Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Queens, the North Fork and Westhampton Beach, we have 950 individuals fully committed to use their skills, intelligence, expertise and influence to create perfect possibilities for real estate consumers.

Patch: What new opportunities has the company begun to explore?

Retz: I’ve been with Daniel Gale Sotheby’s for over 12 years and certainly feel like we’re always in "motion." This includes expanding the footprint of a highly successful organization through strategic acquisitions and organic growth. We recently opened our own Education & Training Center, opened a new office in Smithtown a few days ago and have Great Neck in the queue, but perhaps even more important is our emphasis on making sure our sales professionals have all of the tools, systems, and support to provide unrivaled service to the buyers and sellers they work with.

Patch: What unique challenges do developers face today?

Retz: Creating the right product at the right price in the right location is pretty obvious. However, I believe many of the markets we service have a scarcity of available land for practical consideration. The approvals process required by local communities and the state exist for a purpose, but this region often creates hurdles that are almost insurmountable. The larger developments are highly complex. We’re in an environment where there’s strong demand for new, high-quality construction, but very few companies can maneuver through a five- to 10-year approval process before construction can even begin.

Patch: What efforts have you put into place in order to help them achieve success?

Retz: Daniel Gale Sotheby’s has always been a company of people that promise to "do what is right," meaning we want to do the best possible job. We’ve developed a model that includes new development sales and new development marketing, each with separate responsibilities and quite frankly, separate teams. This ensures that we can vet the best possible people for the onsite sales team based on the scale of the project and location. Interestingly enough we have individuals within our corporate marketing and technology team dedicated purely to new development marketing so that we can leverage internal and external resources while delivering consistent expertise.

Patch: Can you give us an example of a specific situation where your business model has achieved impressive results?

Retz: I’d like to use our relationship with RXR Realty to illustrate this. And I can attribute much of the success to the vision and efforts of the incredibly talented people at RXR we’ve had the privilege to work with. We started working with them on The Ritz-Carlton Residences, North Hills, over three years ago. We’ve worked side-by-side since with weekly meetings for both sales and marketing. There has been a high level of accountability on all sides, and the relationship has taken us through almost a complete sell-out of Phase 1 (124 luxury condominiums), well into sales at Phase 2 (120 luxury condominiums), and we’re also working closely with RXR Realty on The Beacon (167 condominiums) at Garvies Point, a very impressive waterfront development in Glen Cove that’s the first of its kind for the entire North Shore of Long Island.

Image Credit: Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty

This Patch article is sponsored by Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty