Douglas Elliman’s Scott Durkin on His Life, Career and Resi Brokerage – California News Times

SThe cott Durkin may play the second (or third) fiddle.

The· President and COO One in New York Largest securities company You won’t get his title. Instead, he operates with a light touch and favors delegation and obedience. Darkin acknowledges his outlook on his upbringing in the countryside of northern New York. From a gorgeous white sofa perch on the $ 44 million list overlooking Central Park in Manhattan’s Millionaires line, I always think, “Thank God. I’m a country boy.”

Darkin chooses his words carefully and skillfully to avoid conflict and controversy — it’s bad for the business, he explained. (When asked about Newsday Research After the tester worked with agents from 12 companies, including Eliman, he refused to comment directly as evidence of systematic racial prejudice was found in the Long Island housing market. )

After working at the Pierre Hotel, Darkin joined the Corcoran Group as an agent in the early 90’s and then moved to management to work with Barbara Corcoran. He became the COO temporarily after Realogy acquired the company. In 2016, he joined Eliman and led the company’s nationwide expansion. Within a year he was appointed president. This is a new position in the company that has led to speculation that it has been groomed to replace Eliman’s CEO. Dotty Herman (Darkin reported directly to Eliman’s chairman, but as he does now, denied it. Howard Rover).

At Eliman, Darkin oversaw a Los Angeles-based acquisition Teles propertyExtension to Texas And other domestic markets and a review of a company’s digital (and physical) presence. He has also begun to embark on New York politics, starting a coalition with two rivals and persuading lawmakers to waive additional taxes on luxury homes.

birth: April 6, 1962
alive: London Terrace Garden, Chelsea
Birthplace: Salem, NY
family:married

What was your childhood like?

I was the son of a sheriff — [both my] My parents were police officers. We lived in a house stuck in a local county prison. On the other side of the street was a dairy farm where I was working to pay for the horses. At that time, hay was a veil of 40 cents.

Did you own a horse when you were a kid?

I broke my arm in my second year with a horse. He threw me on the hillside. I was 14 years old. I never rode a horse again until I was 45 years old.

You compete in dressage. What appeals to you in this sport?

It’s like figure skating. If you can let a 1,200-pound animal do something without anyone seeing what you’re doing, you can communicate with the horse with a little pull of your finger. The discipline is very good. It pulls back how you deal with humans. Its subtleties and nuances, and you don’t have to scream or scream.

You moved to Long Island for college at the age of 17.

It was a shock from an area that was completely lacking in diversity. I couldn’t see anything until I came here. I hadn’t flown by plane until I was 19 years old. It was really a bus suitcase.

You came to the city on a modern dance scholarship.

In 1980, many men did not start dancing. So if you can dance as a man, you will get a scholarship. So I wasn’t Baryshnikov. It was like Mickey Rooney.

I auditioned for the Faculty of Drama at Adelphi University, but I couldn’t enter. So I stepped into the dance club and said, “Can I audition to be a dancer? I didn’t participate in the acting program.” And they said, “Of course.” It was based on exactly this — a need I used immediately. I was ready to go, so I would have done anything to leave my country life.

How would you describe last year?

I was forced to change the way I run my business, and I was able to accomplish things I wouldn’t normally be able to do. I must say it was rewarded. Digitized the entire industry. We had a captive audience. Often the agent was at home and couldn’t show or go anywhere.

How do you handle more than 7,000 agents?

Every region has a regional CEO. They are of utmost importance to me and to the management of the company. You need to have a great local leader for it to succeed. I couldn’t tell them what to do at 30,000 feet. When you find them, they are like gold.

How do you find them?

I’m always trying to find someone who I think can replace me. I have always learned that your chances of success are much higher, as if they were the same or better than you.

You are hiring a CEO of New York City. what are you looking for?

People usually say, “I want someone with 20 years of experience in the real estate industry,” but now it’s a different landscape. Many people who come to our industry are college graduates.now [being an agent] This is the first carrier — not a backup. So I think leadership is coming in a different way now. I think you have to be right in the mix of it and in the mosh pit. You need to be mobile and you need to have a great personality.

2017 you Alliance I used StreetEasy to build an agent portal. This was a shocking move a few months after the portal began charging for rental properties. The partnership was later clarified.

It didn’t work because each of us had different expectations. They needed something to reach the real estate community much faster than we did, so what we thought we were getting wasn’t what they were delivering, and it collapsed there. They threw away all the bath water and probably kept a bar of soap, and that didn’t work for us. The products they delivered were not what we expected. It was a very simplified version of what we were used to. There was no big battle. They were moving in a much faster way than we were. Thinking back, after Covid, we’ve seen how everyone can retrain. Tell people how you have to do something, and when you have no choice, they do it. We are in a better place now. I don’t think even StreetEasy cares about me, but they seem to be working together now. [Though] I don’t think you should charge for a rental property — I think it’s horrifying and terrible.

Do you think it’s important for New York to have a transparent MLS?

Twenty years ago I would have said that was all. Now I think the restore aggregator and the website of our own company is where everyone goes. I don’t think it’s blocking anything.

What does the future of a securities company look like to Eliman?

Technology drives everything we do. But the relationship between being an advisor and becoming a specialist is much more important. Consumers now have to assume that they have more technology than agents. They will be informed in their minds about what they want and what they see, but they still need an adviser there. Today’s realtors are proud to have a lot of them and advise their family offices about where their New York homes are. Where are their Palm Beach homes? Their aspen ski house. Their Hamptons Beach House. Now it’s a very different role. It’s not a transaction, as it was. It’s a much higher position.

Have you ever discussed successor development at your company?

This is probably the most difficult conversation for any company. There is no conversation.

Is the real estate industry obliged to do more to eliminate housing discrimination?

I think people have enough. Douglas Elliman has donated to all of these organizations, the anti-Asian hatred group Black Lives Matter. This is important because there is a very diverse agent pool. It’s important that we support it and be right behind it. We definitely come from a residential mantra for everyone. So I was a victim of discrimination. My boyfriend and I wanted to see a riverside drive apartment. It was a sponsored apartment, not a board approval, and the agent did not sell it to us. This is 1991. They were like, “Well, the sponsor doesn’t want a gay couple in the building.” So when it happens to you, it’s pretty powerful.

You are one of the few openly gay executives to lead a nationwide brokerage firm. Is that what you are thinking?

It’s important because it doesn’t get in the way. It reminds me that something has happened.I have been discriminated against by myself [then-]Company — It stuck to me. I was in favor of Crain’s “40 Under 40”, but of the two being considered, my nomination was not proposed. They said, “Well, why don’t you just wait for gay stuff?” Time has changed. [Durkin declined to specify the date of the incident or where he worked at the time.]

What is your favorite food?

Cherry pie. I’ll eat all the pies. It was made in the prison kitchen where we lived.The cook made me a cherry pie, and at that time they made [it] With Crisco. It’s an ultra-slice.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

“There is a reason why the rearview mirror is small.” If you make a mistake, let it go.