A top NYC broker who has sold over $1 billion of real estate in the past 4 years says there's a critical component to her business that lets her show as many as 10 homes a day
ShutterstockHaving a personal driver can be crucial for real-estate brokers.
- Lisa K. Lippman has sold over $1 billion worth of real estate in the past four years.
- She represents multimillion-dollar clients across Manhattan.
- Lippman recently told Business Insider that a key to her success is having a personal driver.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A lot of juggling goes into being a successful real-estate agent.
Top Manhattan broker Lisa K. Lippman told Business Insider that her day-to-day success is largely due to one crucial component: having a personal driver.
Lippman is a broker at the luxury real-estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, where she was the No. 1 broker in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In the past four years, she has sold over $1 billion worth of real estate and was named the No.4 broker in Manhattan by The Wall Street Journal in 2016.
Lippman is constantly on the go and can show up to 10 apartments a day all over the city. She says she's able to manage it all with the help of a personal driver, who has been with her for the past 12 years.
Read more: 13 luxury real-estate agents reveal what it's really like working with millionaire and billionaire clients
Hiring a personal driver is an investment in your business, Lippman told Business Insider. Lippman explained that, in between showings and meetings, she is returning phone calls and writing emails - things she wouldn't be able to do if she were looking at driving directions, hailing cabs, or going in and out subway stations.
Lippman's driver picks her up at around 8 a.m. and drops her off back at home at around 7 p.m. And she says it's not only getting around that's more efficient: Details like being able to eat lunch on the go, put makeup on in the car, and leave bags and papers behind all make having a driver worth the cost. Plus, it gives her the ability to pick up clients.
"I just can't imagine calling an Uber, hailing a taxi, or going in and out of the subway all day. I can show up to 10 apartments a day and in between I have to return phone calls and write emails. If I was constantly grabbing my papers and bags, constantly getting in and out of cabs, and waiting in the rain, I would be a lot less efficient," Lippman told Business Insider.
Along with Lippman, top real-estate agents across the country have distinct strategies to their success.
Just consider Ben Caballero, the top real-estate broker in the US, who told Business Insider that he owes his success to one thing: specialization. Caballero only sells new-construction residential properties in Texas. He was the first real-estate agent in the US to sell over $1 billion in home sales in a single market. In 2016, he was recognized by Guinness World Records for selling 3,556 homes in a year and broke his own record in 2017 by selling an average of 92 homes a week.