The Anderson-Ehrmann Staff: A Profile in Partnership

True partnership is a uncommon factor. Whereas the time period tends to get tossed round to explain all the pieces from a enterprise enterprise to a wedding to a co-hosted brunch, few collaborative endeavors exhibit the mutual respect, shared values, implicit belief and express fairness discovered between true companions.

Andrew Anderson and Bruce Ehrmann ought to know. Since assembly and establishing the New York Metropolis-based Anderson-Ehrmann Team at Douglas Elliman in 2012, the 2 have constructed a still-flourishing enterprise partnership based on an uncommonly shut skilled and private bond. In a latest interview with Elliman Insider, Anderson and Ehrmann mirrored on what introduced them collectively, their shared ardour for the intricacies of latest developments and why Douglas Elliman makes a great house for partnerships.

Elliman Insider: How did you grow to be companions?

Bruce Ehrmann: Going from a comparatively small company to what I perceived to be a bigger, extra generalist company, I felt I would get a bit misplaced, so I made a decision to search for a accomplice. Such an association didn’t exist at my outdated company; it did at Elliman. I approached two or three folks—Howard Lorber, Elliman’s govt chairman, had some solutions—however nothing appeared fairly proper.

Sooner or later, somebody advised I communicate to Andrew, who had an excellent enterprise at Elliman and didn’t seem to want a accomplice. However, as completely different as we had been, we actually hit it off. We each had fast contributions to carry to a partnership, so we stated, let’s give it a go. After a yr or two, it was simply evident that it was the precise factor to do, that we labored very nicely collectively and that the entire was greater than the sum of the elements.

Andrew Anderson: I wasn’t actually in search of a partnership. I had a longtime crew, and after we met and began speaking about it, I feel we each realized fairly shortly that we had complementary abilities and viewpoints. After we structured our first deal as a 50-50 partnership, we determined to method all the pieces that approach going ahead— while you succeed, I succeed, and vice versa. And it’s labored out very nicely for occurring 12 years.

Ehrmann: Moreover, Andrew introduced with him a terrific dealer, Andrew Yeh, who had labored for him for a few years prior, and I introduced with me an excellent younger dealer, Christopher Morales, who labored with me prior. And all these years later, the 4 of us are nonetheless the core of the Anderson-Ehrmann Staff. That stability means rather a lot. And I feel it comes from the truth that our core enterprise values are the identical. Andrew and I are very completely different: bodily, age-wise, typically we get into political debates. However when it comes to how we conduct our enterprise, we’re interchangeable.

Elliman Insider: What are these frequent core values? How do they outline the Anderson-Ehrmann Staff model?

Anderson: Integrity. A really sturdy ethical compass. Honesty. Generosity. Empathy. And professionalism—lots of people in actual property deal with it as a pastime or just as a way to become profitable, and so they don’t essentially maintain themselves to a typical of professionalism or a fundamental stage of decency that you’d anticipate in virtually some other business.

We don’t inform our shoppers what they need to hear—our job is to inform them the info, lay all the pieces out after which provide you with an answer to attain their objectives. Lots of people don’t method it that approach as a result of they’re fearful that they received’t get the itemizing or that they’ll are available in with a worth that’s too low. You want to be very clear, very upfront and really truthful with regards to setting your shoppers’ expectations.

Ehrmann: I feel that Andrew and I’ve managed to navigate with integrity what could be a treacherous enterprise. And this will sound trite, however it’s inconceivable to overstate how vital belief is in actual property—not simply between a dealer and a shopper, but additionally throughout the crew. I’ve by no means skilled in a enterprise relationship the type of belief I’ve with Andrew and our crew. It’s implicit. It’s simply automated. It’s wonderful.

Elliman Insider: New developments are additionally an enormous a part of your model. What do you particularly get pleasure from about these initiatives?

Ehrmann: Doing developments efficiently includes a extremely particular, granular set of data. Having the ability to take a look at 150 items on a flooring plan and see what’s working, what isn’t working, what needs to be modified, that this heating system doesn’t work for that constructing. You’ve got stacking lists, launch lists, managing the builders—they’re a really particular subset of guidelines, particularly in New York, and so they must be dealt with. Many brokers need to do growth however don’t notice how lengthy it takes, how a lot work it’s and the way a lot talent is concerned. And albeit, we’re superb at it.

And right here once more, Andrew and I carry completely different skills to the desk. However they mix.

Anderson: I began in actual property in late 2003, and my first growth was in 2005, so my studying curve was very steep. I assumed it was vital to know all the stuff behind the partitions and all the pieces that occurs behind the scenes. So, on my second growth challenge, I requested the developer if I might I sit in on the architects’ conferences, the commerce conferences with the plumber and the HVAC man and this and that.

Bruce has carried out the identical factor, and it offers us a way more in-depth understanding of the product, which permits us to speak that to the possible purchasers and brokers differently than a number of brokers can. Additionally, Bruce and I’ve invested in and developed actual property on our personal, so we perceive how a principal appears on the course of and might add a perspective that they may not have thought of.

Ehrmann: Really, our popularity appears to have reached different markets. We’re engaged on a big new growth challenge in Detroit proper now that’s particularly thrilling—not solely as a result of we’re very concerned with the idea and advertising,  but additionally due to the challenge’s scale, which might assist rework a serious American metropolis.

Elliman Insider: You talked about the core values you share regardless of your variations. In what methods are you completely different—and the way do these variations serve the partnership?

Ehrmann: I feel it’s uncommon when enterprise companions who aren’t associated are capable of preserve a enterprise relationship for so long as we now have. And we’ve managed to take action for all the explanations that we’ve described. Andrew had issues that I couldn’t ship, I had issues Andrew couldn’t ship, and it didn’t take lengthy earlier than we turned that into an automated course of.

One thing else that’s uncommon about our enterprise partnership: as Andrew talked about, from day one, we break up all the pieces. We don’t get into who introduced this in, who introduced that in, who deserves extra. It’s all the time been 50-50.

Anderson: I deserve extra.

Ehrmann: He does deserve extra! As a result of he’s younger and has extra power.

Elliman Insider: You’re like Lennon and McCartney—earlier than they broke up, after all.

Ehrmann: Andrew’s McCartney and I’m Lennon in that analogy. Alternatively, everybody loves Andrew. I want I might say the identical for me.

Anderson: Effectively, you’re older, and with age comes grumpiness typically.

Ehrmann: It’s as a result of I’m going to die sooner, most likely.

Anderson: Not when you began doing all of the well being and wellness stuff that I’m doing.

Ehrmann: I’m significantly eager about getting that chilly plunge you advisable!

Elliman Insider: You talked about that the type of enterprise association you fashioned right here wasn’t doable at your earlier agency. How else has Elliman enabled this distinctive partnership?

Ehrmann: Not solely has Elliman given us all of the instruments to keep up our success, however they’re additionally immediately engaged in our success. Again and again, we will attain out—even to Howard—and get the help we’d like.

Anderson: I feel that’s it in a nutshell. Elliman is a extremely giant firm with a extremely broad attain. However for us, it’s like a mom-and-pop enterprise. As Bruce stated, we will have conversations with executives on the highest stage and anyplace in between—Howard Lorber, Scott Durkin, Susan de França, Karen Mansour, Bryan Cohen, on and on and on. They’ve given us the flexibility to function autonomously, take dangers, succeed and fail, and so they’ve given us all of the assist we’d like.