47: Integrity, Passion and Hard Work with Arthur Mirante

Welcome. This is Real Estate Investing Live from New York with James Nelson, the principal and head of Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group. In this program you'll learn about the world of commercial real estate and find out why it is one of the largest investment opportunities in New York and around the world. Now here is your host, James Nelson.

Welcome to show number 47 of real estate Investing Live from New York. This is your host, James Nelson and want to start off as always by thanking each and every one of you for listening. I so appreciate all your support. Sharing this with your friends, posting your comments, your ratings, that's what helps us spread the word. And we are quickly getting to 100,000 downloads which I'm really hoping we are going to achieve by our 50th show. So it's going to be a race to the finish there. So please continuing to spread the word. Also I want to let you all know if you have not connected with Traded New York on Instagram, please do that because they just debuted a new weekly series that I'm doing with them called the Traded Top three where you're going to see me on location talking about the three most talked about sales in New York with some really helpful behind the scenes information. So make sure and go to Instagram Traded New York and I will repost that on my page as well. You could find me at James Nelson NYC on Twitter and LinkedIn. So enough of the announcements and want to get on to the show. We have with us today a real legend in the business, Arthur Moranti, who I am so proud to be with him and alongside him, Ed Avison Young. He is someone who really distills the title of this show, integrity, passion, hard work. And I think you will learn a tremendous amount by his story. He's a real inspiration with our group. We're again so lucky to have him at Avis and Young to be a power of example. So we're going to have a brief word from our sponsors and we will get right into that interview with Arthur.

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And now for our spotlight. Today we have with us my good friend Arthur Moranti who I have had the privilege of working alongside with for now almost three years, but I've known him for much longer. Arthur was one of the first leaders on board at Avis and Young in New York where he helped us ramp up our New York office in 2012. He has an incredibly accomplished and respected career in the industry. He he's also on the Avis and Young Board of Directors. He serves as the principal and the Tri State President. Prior to joining Avis and Young, Arthur worked at Cushman Wakefield for more than 40 years where he was most recently the President of Global Client Development. He was the firm's CEO for 20 years and during his tenure he increased the revenue from 100 million to a billion. Wow. And they expanded their offices from 60 US offices to 173. So he knows all about expansion and global networks. Throughout his career, Arthur has participated in some of the most largest, most prolific transactions including the sale of the World Trade center, the headquarters relocation of MasterCard, Guardian Life, and the record $1.72 billion sale of 200 Park Avenue to MetLife, as well as the $1.8 billion acquisition of 666 Fifth Avenue as well as the long term lease of 75 Rock Plaza. So we're going to have a lot of fun today talking about some of these incredible transactions over the years. He also has an incredible Rolodex and client list and I know having worked alongside him that it is always certainly client first. But I think what on a personal note, what is so admirable about having the chance to work alongside Arthur is what an incredible presence he is in the office and especially for our younger people and also just does so many incredible things for the industry. Certainly his work for John Jay College of Criminal justice, the Alvin Ailey Dance foundation and HELP usa. So Arthur, thank you so much for joining us today.

Well, thank you James. It's a privilege. I appreciate the invite and thanks for the good words. It shows that if you can survive long enough, you can get some things done.

There you go. Absolutely. Well, yes, I definitely aspire to have your longevity and certainly your energy having been decades in the business, so. Really meant what I said in the introduction. So tell us where it all started. Where did you grow up?

Oh, I grew up in Hudson County, N.J. right across the river, Hoboken, North Bergen.

That's the hot part of town now. That's the real Gold Coast. You were. Well, it was all.

When I grew up there, it was wall to wall bars and saloons, but I really. I'm a city kid, basically.

And what did your parents do?

My father was a refrigeration mechanic and an inventor. Unfortunately, he, you know, he never was a successful inventor, but he loved it. That was his passion. And my mother was a registered nurse. Great.

Wonderful. And growing up, were you a good student? Did you have odd jobs? How did you stay busy?

No, I was a C student. I had a hundred jobs, including loading trucks. And I was a rigger at the Todd shipyards in Hoboken.

Rigger at the ship. So what age was this? And what does that actually involve? I'm having visions of you, you know, pulling heavy.

Yeah, well, you set up rigging. You know, when the ships come in for repair, they go into a dry DOCK and they're 30, 40 stories high. And you hang the rigging for the welders to sit on while they repair the damage to the ships, which was a challenge for me because I was afraid of heights.

Wow. So hard work, fair to say, was instilled with you at an early age. Is that fair to say? Yeah.

And I worked for the department of probation too, in Fort Apache when I went to law school after college, so.

Got it now. Did you play football growing up because you played at Holy Cross, correct?

Yeah, I was pretty fortunate in getting an athletic scholarship to Holy Cross College, A great school. In those days it was 1800 students and all men, which was kind of weird, especially when you look back on it in these days.

Yeah. What position did you play?

I was a running back.

Wow. Okay. And you still remember your stats or do you have any, you know, record games that you remember where they carried you out? I remember.

I choose not to remember my stats because I played most of the time on defense. I did score one touchdown against Brown. Okay, you heard it here.

Real estate investing live from New York.

But in those days, we played the powerhouses. We played Syracuse and Penn State, and they were pretty good football teams in those days. Yeah.

And their schools were probably 25 to 50 times larger than yours. That's pretty impressive.

The students. Students were three times as big as we were as well.

So. Yeah, maybe. That certainly prepared you for going on with that hard work theme and also resilience, I would imagine, I'm sure, that you're no stranger to taking on adversity. So in school, did you think that you wanted to become an attorney or how did you find your way to law school?

No, these were the Vietnam draft days. James and I got married after my first year, first year in law school. But when I graduated, that was Vietnam protest time in 19. 1965. And I did decide to go to law school. Frankly, that allowed me to be deferred from the draft. And by the time I was in my second year in college, my girlfriend got pregnant and we got married. And that also became a deferment at that time. So I kind of avoided military service. Not intentionally, but just by fate. And I practiced law for about three years before I knew that that's, you know, that was not going to be a passion of mine. And I was drawn to Cushman and Wakefield after three years of trying to be a trial lawyer and understanding that that wasn't for me.

So how did you make the leap from law to real estate? How did you get connected? I mean, because Cushman, Wakefield, I mean, was really, you know, has always been kind of a gold standard. And even back then, you know, without having a real estate background or kind of having the connections, I mean, how did you manage to find your way in there?

Well, you're right. I had no connections and I just applied for a job. I had always been attracted to real estate, even when I was being trained as a trial lawyer. So I applied for a job. I was told there were no positions. And then five months after I had applied, I got a call from the general counsel who said, come on in. And of course, his first comments to me were, you know, you look like a hippie, you have long hair, you have a Fu Manchu mustache, you have a maroon Pierre Cardin suit.

He said, I hope you have a picture of that. I gotta see this. And for your promo picture for this show, I think we need to use that photo or maybe like the side by side.

I mean, I don't think you could give me enough money to show you that photo.

Back then there wasn't social media, otherwise your friends would have never let you down. Wow, maroon suit, the Fu Manchu and the line. Okay.

But they still. So what? They say, I'm not sure you're ready for the business world, young man. And I said, well, I work very hard, I'm a good lawyer, and I promise I won't let you down and he took a gamble on me. And this was a guy who was considered to be one of the finest real estate lawyers in Manhattan and who had joined Cushman and Wakefield from Dewey Valentine.

You know, a lot of our listeners this show are either looking to transition and become an investor or to break into real estate. So we have a lot of people, maybe they're coming from another profession. And especially, you know, today these are challenging times. There's been layoffs and, you know, just thinking about your story and how you were able to break into this business where it is tough without those connections. So I gotta imagine, you know, in those five minute more months that you didn't hear from them, you know, there had to be some more follow up. I mean, can I really believe that they had your resume and it was sitting in a desk drawer and they pulled it out five months later?

Yeah, they ran a pretty frugal operation in those days. And there was just the general counsel and then the younger colleague associate who did all the work. And the younger colleague decided to leave and go somewhere else. So they just happened to be an opening.

Wow.

And I had never even had an interview, James, so it really was fortuitous.

Yeah, you know, I will say that that hard work element. And I remember I was interviewing someone when I joined our team when I first came over to Avis and Young and you know, and I always, you know, first of all, and this goes back to my Massey Nakal days where our founders, they always love to hire athletes, you know, they said, look, these are people who know you, you know, hard work, teamwork and, you know, whatever it takes to get done. But also someone who's willing to, you know, grind and work hard. And I remember I was, I was doing some interviews and I was telling, you know, my partners in the business, Jim Kinsey and Erica Dean, I said, look, I want to find someone who, during the summer they were waiting tables and washing dishes. And I swear, the next person who came in and interviewed, I said, well, what did you do during the summer? He said, well, you know, I was trying to pay my way through school and I was washing dishes and I, you know, I was, I had to burst out laughing. So, you know, there's something to be said for the person who knows how to, you know, roll up their sleeves and do hard work.

So again, you know, James, when you're a, when you're a C student, I kind of figured out early on that I had to outwork people. I wasn't going to be able to out Think a lot of people, especially, you know, with the brain power we have in the real estate business and even in the legal industry. So my secret was work. Just to work harder than the next person and to prepare more and, you know, because that's the way I was going to succeed or fail.

You know, Arthur, I want to give you a really big compliment and, you know, let everyone know, listening, that this is not, you know, this is not something that was just part of your DNA when you got into the business. I mean, it has stuck with you and, you know, one of the first people in the office, you know, around late, always available. And even now in these difficult times, the return to office, I mean, you've been one of the biggest, you know, cheerleaders for getting back in. So, yeah, really, really attest that. That that has been something that has been consistent throughout your career, which is amazing to see. So you come in under the general counsel. I mean, so are you working with other brokers in the office? Are you starting to hear what's going on on the other side of the floor?

Oh, it really wasn't the other side of the floor. My cubby was right in the middle of the. The commercial brokerage division. And frankly, in those days, Cushman and Wakefield was number one in the market in leasing brokerage and had some really brilliant men and women in the business. And my job was to do that. Commission agreements, and I'm sure they were.

Very patient and polite to you. I mean, I've heard some of the story. I mean, this was back in the day, legends. I mean, I heard of one of these power brokers who would fly, you know, take his helicopter in from Greenwich every day. I mean, I'm sure they were very patient with you as they were waiting for you to get their listing agreement signed. Right?

It was the opposite. But I will tell you, our CEO in those days was a very famous man named Leon Peters. Peters was short for Mastro Pietro. He had to shorten his name because of the anti Italian prejudice that existed in the 50s in New York City. And he used to walk the office with a baseball bat in his white shirt and tie, with his sleeves rolled up. And every once in a while he would slam that baseball bat off the metal cabinets to remind everyone that they had to get to work and get to work harder. So it was. It was a great environment with a great deal of intensity. Yeah, you know, there was. And they took the business very, very seriously.

Was it kind of a work hard, play hard? Was it really a 247 type environment.

Yeah, but that, that client first mentality that we still believe in and preach as a pillar at Avis and Young, in those days, it was client first and it was integrity first. And always zero tolerance for exaggeration, for not telling the truth to your peers, or for coming anywhere close to letting a client down. If you didn't return a phone call on the day that you got it, that was considered a breach of integrity. So the standards were very high. And that came from the leadership of the firm at that point in time. And that's the mentoring, the blessing I had of mentoring and learning the importance of doing things the right way and as you said, working hard.

So did you find yourself attracted to the brokerage side of the business? Did you start thinking, you know, a couple years in that you wanted to make this shift, or what did you do next?

No, I was the almost the antithesis of our brokers. I mean, I was the guy who had to negotiate the agreements with the different landlords, had to make sure we got paid on options, had to make sure we got 100% of our commission on the closing of title. And I dealt with a really large number of very smart owner and landlord attorneys.

And.

The opportunities to learn and grow were unbelievable. In my first year at Cushman and Wakefield, I was asked to go to Chicago because one of our brokers in New York was negotiating the assemblage of the site upon which the Sears Tower was built. And we were working for Sears. They assembled that site for that building for their own occupancy, and we represented them as agent for an undisclosed principle. So we were buying the sites for the assemblage, and we couldn't let anyone know who we were representing. And when it got down to the last three or four sites, obviously everyone in the marketplace was guessing. They didn't know whether it was a developer or whether it was a user. And that kind of a tense environment, you tend to really learn a lot. And then our firm became the project manager to build that biggest building in the world at the time and to build it on time and on budget.

Amazing.

Wow.

You know, I know we've talked a lot about the challenges of having to work remotely and the need to get back. And I mean, I've got to imagine that learning on the job that you're talking about. I mean, if you were dialing it in on the phone, I doubt you would have learned what you did by sitting alongside, you know, all these brilliant minds.

Yeah, James. And, you know, it reminds me of what we're constant preaching to our young people about how to learn and grow in our business. You have to put in the hours and hopefully, you know, I tell our young professionals, they have to put themselves in a position with people they're going to learn from and not just, you know, not just be in a position where they're going to get coffee or work on one building for three or four years of their lives, because they're not going to grow and develop if that's the kind of position they're in. I mean, I was given the architectural agreement to negotiate with Skidmore, Owens and Maryland. I had been out of, you know, I had been in the real estate business for a year and a half.

Right. And I'm sure that agreement was probably like a phone book. Right? I mean.

Oh, it's unbelievable.

Wow. So what happened from. I mean, you end up being the global CEO, and obviously this is over a course of time. And the fact that, you know, 40 years, I mean, that's a remarkable time. And, you know, we had Rick Clark on early on with our show and he was someone else who basically grew with the company and up through the ranks. And so you have a very, you know.

Can I interrupt you for a minute?

Yes.

You know, Brookfield bought the site that Manhattan west now sits on about 35, 40 years ago. And most people, even in Manhattan don't know that they held on to that.

I didn't know that.

You know, empty site with, you know, low class buildings for all of that. And do you know who the financial analyst was when they bought that site?

Rick Clark.

Rick Clark.

Wow.

And that was a kind of a well kept secret and I loved it because again, you talk about work ethic. He was one of the most intense, hardworking people and he started at the very bottom of Brookfield and worked his way up.

Amazing and incredibly humble, too. He didn't even fess up to that.

Sorry to interrupt our discussion.

So. So we know where your story leads you to a Cushman. But how did you rise to the ranks? What other positions did you hold while you were there?

That wonderful general counsel that hired me had a stroke and really became disabled as a result of it. And the day after he had the stroke, I got a call from the then CEO, that same fellow, Leon Peters, that I told you about. And he said, I have bad news and good news for you. And the bad news was, of course, telling me that my boss had had this debilitating heart attack. And the second news was that he knew I wasn't ready for this. But he had no choice. So he was going to make me acting general counsel. And what that meant was he said, and where do you live, kid? I said, well, I live in Rosslyn Heights. He says, well, he says, that'll work out. Well, I live in Manhasset. He said, I come to work between 5:30 and 6am every morning and I go home between 7 and 8 at night. He said, I'm going to pick you up. I'm going to have my car, my limo pick you up at 5:30 every morning so you can come in to work with me and we can begin to work and get a head start on the day. And then he said, and by the way, you can't go home until I bring you home at night. He said, that way we can catch up on whatever we need to at the end of the day. Now, I had a wife and two children, so this was the good news part of that story. And that went on for about a year, a year and a half.

And how old were you at the time?

Pardon?

How old were you at the time?

Oh, gee whiz, I was about 34, 35.

General counsel of, you know, one of the biggest. Wow.

Yeah. And very, very unprepared and ill equipped.

Wow.

I mean, I really learned on the job and, you know, it was pretty hard and pretty challenging.

Well, I'm sure all that time that you spent going back and forth, I mean, certainly prepared you to eventually get into management. So was that the next step?

No. More importantly, it taught me all the Yiddish tests because Leon's best friends were. Many of them were Jewish. And he spoke, you know, he spoke fluent Yiddish. And I would sit in the car and listen to him. Between the Yiddish and the foul language, it was quite an education for me.

Wow. Wow. Unbelievable. Okay, so at some point you do end up becoming appointed to the global. Was it the global client relationship that came first or then global CEO? How did that. When did that happen?

No, I succeeded Steve Siegel as CEO of the firm. Steve decided after a couple of years, very successful years, but it wasn't for him. He missed the transactions, he missed the brokerage action, and I was chosen to succeed him and he became chairman. And we had a great run of working together even before he became CEO and certainly afterwards and then succeeding him. He was a tremendous amount of help to me. And he stayed at the firm as CEO for a number of years after that. So that was a CEO thing. And the global client development thing was, frankly, you know, after 20 years of traveling around the world, I was, I was pretty burned out. And frankly, James, I always had a philosophy that, and I don't know where I heard this from. I heard it from and then I adopted it and I believed it. But after 10 years as being CEO, you should really think about moving on because there's a very well defined and identified, like what happens when you're CEO. The first three or four years, you're fired up, you innovate, you do new things. The next three or four years, you become philanthropic, you expand your horizons. And those next three or four years, those last three or four years, unless something happens, you know, you kind of get stale and you need new leadership. But after 10 years at Cushman and Wakefield, we began a global expansion outside the United States. And frankly, that got me really fired up and I focused on that. I appointed Bruce Mosler to be our President of the US and that freed me to build our global platform.

So you increased the number of offices there from 60 under your tenure to 173, with 100 being outside the country.

Right.

Those are staggering numbers. I mean, were you actually visiting all of these, you know, offices? I mean, you must have.

Oh yeah, I was on the plane. We at our old firm were very paranoid that one of these relationships in Asia, in Europe or in Latin America could destroy the reputation of our 80 year old firm at the time. And I was paranoid about that because, you know, in those days, especially the corruption issues, the real estate business around the world were really scary. I remember almost buying a project management firm in China. And we hired the firm, McCrol and Associates to do the due diligence before the acquisition. The deal was done, the contracts were done and they came back with corrupt business practices of paying off businesses in China to accelerate the project management process. So I called the CEO and I said, how do you explain this? It's illegal. He said, why do you think we do so well in serving our clients? We get things done. That's why our clients, including the biggest corporations in America, love us so much. We build things on time and on budget and frankly, unless you pay people in government to accelerate the process, it's not going to happen. So we had to pull a plug and not acquire that company.

Wow. Amazing. Well, that's. Could not agree with you more. The importance of culture. And I know that's one, that's certainly one of the foundation that Avis and Young has been built on as well. And I want to talk about your gamble at the time, making the move over to Avis. And young, when it was a very small company, if you will, at least here in the US but before we do, I want to talk about some of these mega transactions. So you were involved in the sale of the World Trade Center, 200 Park Avenue for MetLife. I mean, these are billion dollar transactions. The acquisition of 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion. So how did you end up getting these assignments? How did you get them done? I mean, how complicated are these billion dollar deals compared to, you know, the bread and butter everyday transactions that we see out there?

I don't want to exaggerate this, but I think each one of those transactions could fill the time of one of your sessions on the show. They all involved very well established relationships and clients at the time. Frankly, James, I'll return one of the compliments you paid to me. Whatever success I have had in my career in this business, aside from hard work and dedication to my clients. Right. Has been the result of surrounding myself almost throughout my entire career with competent people. And I'm really happy to be working with you as well because you're clearly one of those people that helps make me and whatever firm I'm working with look good. And frankly, I assembled teams for each of those projects. In hindsight, when I look back on them, that added incredible value in specific areas of making a difference to each of those projects. So when we undertook the sale of the Trade center and we had a joint venture partner of JPMorgan Chase who had to deal with the bond offerings that were the underpinning capital stack, if you will, of the project at the time. But I brought in my property management people to do an audit of the operating expenses, which at the time for the Trade center were close to 15, $16 a foot. And we went back to the state, our client at the time, and we said, we want to do a pro forma and we think we can get away with it, that says to the marketplace, if run by a private owner developer in this city, that building should be operated or those towers should be operated for no more than 12 or $13 a foot. And if you compare that to the $18 a foot you're spending and capitalize that number, you're going to add $400 million to the price of this asset. And you know what? That's exactly what we did. And at the time when we won the assignment, I never thought that the property management audit of the operating expenses would make such a difference between the perceived value of eight or nine hundred million at the time and A million, three or four, which we ultimately achieved. But it did more than anything else, more than any of the other financial geniuses involved. It was a very basic property management guys who were saying, you know, the state is spending five or six dollars a foot more than they should in operating these buildings.

Wow, that's tremendous value added there. And I think the lesson for our listeners is whether it's a bank transaction.

Or a million, in each of those other transactions there was a like value add either from the financial structuring tax people or from the appraisal members of team or the investment sales brokerage professionals on the team, setting up a competitive process. So there was always that key to unlocking maximized value.

Really getting under the hood and not taking what's given to you at face value, which I think is a great lesson for investors. So I mean, amazing. You could have just retired, ended up on a beach there. You've been involved in some of the biggest landmark sales. You expanded, you know, one of the top companies, real estate firms all over the world. And then yet in 2012 you decide to make a move to, I would imagine a little known Canadian company that I think had only been in the US at this point for a couple years in Chicago and D.C. and you were higher number. Was it two or three?

Three.

So that was it. There were three people in New York, Right. And this was Ava Sinyoung. So what possessed you to do that?

Well, it was an opportunity to build again. You know, I was in a client service role as president of client development for Cushman and Wakefield. I was enjoying it, I was doing pretty well. But I missed working with younger people. I miss building, I missed the process. I didn't miss the management and the operational side of being CEO at all. And I was just ready for something different. The culture of Cushman and Wakefield at the time was shifting. Maybe for the better, maybe for worse, but not shifting in a way that made me happy. And along came this startup opportunity. How would you like to help build something in the tri State area? And the culture which was we're all about partnership, we're all about collaboration. That really fit with what I mentioned to you before. About my greatest successes were putting teams together and going after challenges and then achieving goals right with and through other people, really talented, smart people. Because remember, I'm the C guy and I love putting really smart people next to me and helping, you know, helping succeed for a client. So that kind of collaborative culture versus what in hindsight was, you know, one of the three Biggest global companies in the world with silo departments as opposed to easy, free flowing collaboration. I guess I was ready for a change and a new challenge, if you will. And it was very exciting. So I remember going home telling my wife, hey, Liz, I'm sorry, James. I remember going home and telling my wife, hey honey, remember that small company that was interested in me joining them, Avis and Young? She said, yeah, you didn't even know, you didn't even know the name of the company when they said it to you? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, well, I'm resigning tomorrow from Cushman and Wakefield and I'm going to go to work for that company. And she said, well, okay. She says, it's your career, you know what you're doing. She says, how many people work for them in New York? I said, well, two. Right now you increase the workforce by 50%. And then she said, no offence, but she said, you know, I've listened to some of your presentations about the depth of talent at Cushman and Wakefield and the global scope. She said, who is gonna hire you? And that, that just destroyed me. And I remember saying to her, well, thanks, look, you know, our marriage is a partnership and I just want to let you know about that, but I'm gonna go watch the rest of the football game. And I walked away in a huff and I didn't sleep all night because I kept saying to myself, who would hire us? There's three of us and two of us are managers. Like, who's gonna. That was, it was a pretty scary proposition in hindsight.

So fast forward to today, eight years later now Avis and Young has 120 offices around the world. I mean, did you have any notion that this was gonna catch? I mean, clearly you saw this, I mean, you're calling it a startup, but they did have, you know, they were a dominant player in Canada. You had to have a feeling that they were onto something and that there was huge growth potential. I mean, I gotta imagine in all years at Cushman you saw the landscape around the world and I'm sure you would not have made this move if you didn't think there was more room or another option for clients.

I did and I saw what was happening. You know, the. I'm not sure a real estate services firm should be public. I'm going to probably get in trouble with this with all of our peers because they're all very successful companies. But frankly, I think a perfect model for a real estate service organization is a McKinsey model or it's a law firm, a successful law firm partnership model, and that's the company I was joining. And I did have a feeling that this was going to succeed because the service to clients was going to be better, incrementally better, because the partnership model would help drive harder work, keeping clients first, caring more about succeeding, and caring more about cherishing relationships. So therein, I guess, was the gamble. And, yeah, it really has paid off. I mean, I. I will tell you, I took most of the stock that I had the privilege to own in my former company, and I reinvested most of it in this startup company, Ava Cinyah. And that company, Cushman and Wakefield's, continued to do very well, but our company has done very well as well. But I've been very happy here, and that's the difference.

Wonderful.

I was beginning to get to work in the morning and not be as excited and not be happy. And maybe part of that was who I was and maybe that was my fault more than my former companies. But, you know, so it worked well for me.

In hindsight, we are certainly lucky to have you and your leadership. And I know you, you have taken on several accounts. You've been kind enough to speak to our investment sale group. And we only have a couple minutes left. So for our listeners out there, especially the younger ones, and I know you're very passionate about that training, what advice would you give for someone who's looking into getting into the business, especially maybe on the investment side or just in general getting into the real estate business? What advice would you give somebody?

Well, nothing is more important to me than integrity because I think it's the foundation of how you build trust in clients. And it's just not in business either, you know, so developing good business habits, developing your writing skills, focusing on that old Japanese mantra of continuous improvement by continuing education in our business, to me, it takes a balance between technical competence and personality traits of persistence and hard work and drive. We're in a very tough business, James, as you know. But, you know, if you focus on delivering a really good service and recognize that you're really helping clients when you serve them and serve them well, as opposed to just, I want to get this deal and make money and move on because that's my survival and I got to take care of my family. Well, if you focus on the fact that you really have something of value to give and to do for your clients, your perspective changes. And it's funny that if that is your mission, to work hard and help your clients more Often than not, that is rewarded by those clients or those prospects with business number one, because they trust you and they know you can rely on you and they know that if they tell you to keep something in confidence, you're going to keep it in confidence. And number two, the only way guys like us survive, frankly, is doing for clients what they can't do for themselves. So if a client has leasing people and their leasing in house people are as good as we are, well, they really don't need us. And if they've got really smart investment professionals, well, you know, the days are coming. Thank you. To technology where clients don't need us just to point that product and identify product at the they can find on any one of a number of databases. They need our advice, our expertise and our knowledge and our talent in helping them negotiate the best possible deal. So work hard, have a passion about wanting to be really good about, you know, what you can do and the service you can deliver and recognize that you got to be better. If the young people who are working for the owners have the same talent set as you said, maybe you should join them because you're not going to make it in the intermediary business. You're not going to have much value to add.

Amazing. Wow, that was powerful. Awesome. Arthur, thank you so much for joining us today. You've got such an incredible story and you really, the way you give back not just to our office, but the industry, the community is incredibly admirable. And I'm going to make a book recommendation for everyone because shortly after I arrived at Avis and Young, you handed out copies of Give and Take by Adam Grant, which is one of my favorites. And let's be clear, this is not about quid pro quo. This is about, you know, if you've seen, you know, heard that the pay it forward mantra. But it's definitely you embody it. And so we really appreciate you being with us here today, James.

It's my pleasure and good luck with the rest of your shows and thank you for inviting me. It was good to be with you today. Perfect.

This is James Nelson, your host of Real Estate Investing Live from New York.

A different approach to putting our clients first. Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group sells multifamily office, retail development and specialty sales throughout the New York metro area. As experienced thought leaders in their industry. Our 35 member group is available to help you make informed investment decisions by advising you on your current holdings or identifying new opportunities in the marketplace. Our one unified team is built on an industry unique platform which promotes unparalleled collaboration and teamwork. We share core values of hard work, integrity and expertise. We put our clients first providing tailor made strategies to achieve superior results. Please Visit us at aytristateinvestmentsales.com and and follow us on Twitter LinkedIn and Instagram amesnelsonnyc to learn more.

Thank you for tuning in this week to Real Estate Investing live from New York. Please join your host, James Nelson for another program next Tuesday at 7pm in New York, 4pm Pacific Time on the Voice America Business Channel. All shows are rebroadcast Wednesday mornings at 7:00am each Eastern Time, 4:00pm Pacific Time, as well as Always on Demand. We'll talk again next week.