Buying in the Big Apple: Everything You Need to Know with Lisa Lippman

Welcome to Real Talk with Leigh Thomas Brown. Today I've got the big city for you, as in the Big Apple, New York City, and some information about how that really special real estate environment works with Lisa Lippman. I think you're going to enjoy the conversation as much as I did. So grab your notepad and I'll see you on the other side. So of course, you know, when you're over here on Real Talk with Leigh Thomas Brown, we have to talk about backgrounds. And Lisa, that mirror is astonishingly awesome. I guess it did not come from TJ Maxx and more.

No, it didn't. So, um, last year— uh, 2 years ago almost now, I sold an apartment for $17 million. Very good clients of mine. And when they sold it, they had already moved into their new place and they had decorated it and, you know, whatever. They were doing something different. And they asked the new buyers if they wanted it, and the buyers said no. So they were like, well, we don't know what to do with them. And I said, well, you know, I'll buy them from you because I just bought a new house and, you know, I have this huge wall and I think it would be great. And they were like, oh no, Lisa, we'll give them to you. So I took them and it was not so easy to get them out here. So that was Manhattan. And this house that I'm sitting in here is in Sag Harbor in Long Island. But it was worth it because they're really— I don't know if you can see, but do you see that there's a reflection of trees in them?

No, let me put my glasses on. I see it now.

So in front of me, I have a wall of windows, like doors that are all windows, and there's trees. So those mirrors— the wall behind me only has a couple little windows above. So these mirrors reflect the trees over there.

Oh, how pretty.

Yeah. So, you know, I'm like a kind of a Leigh decorator from having been a broker for 28 years. You kind of, you get to know what you like. You see a lot of things, right?

And you get offered a lot of things. We don't always say yes, but I think all of us would say yes to that and then figure out where to put it. Lucky you, you had a place for it.

I did. I did. I remember thinking like, wow, I actually have a good wall for that.

Not all people wanted to just go to a Goodwill or a thrift shop. They'd really like somebody they enjoy to continue enjoying it. And that's the beauty of your relationship, obviously, with your clients. They enjoyed you and wanted you to be happy with an item that they didn't use anymore. It's— it's emotional.

Years, years ago, maybe 24 years ago, I was somewhat new in the business. I had clients who I was selling their apartment downtown. They were moving to Florida, and they have this really cool kind of sort of a daybed. It was covered in like a gray wool. It was very modern. It was really cool. And they said they're not taking it to Florida.. And I thought, and they said, you know, what should we do with it? And I said, well, if you don't mind, I'll take it. Because I had just moved into a new apartment and it was like, we have this office behind the kitchen in, in New York. We call them staff rooms. And, um, it was the perfect size cuz it, if you took the back cushions off, it became a single bed, but it didn't take up a lot of space. And I, we had that in several apartments. We used it for so many years and I think I gave it to either a friend or one of my kids. So it's been passed down.

Okay. So obviously our audience is wondering where in the world there are $17 million apartments and staff rooms behind kitchens. So give them a quick thumbnail of who you are, Lisa, where you conduct real estate over these last 28 years, and where you obviously have a very interesting clientele.

Okay. So I have been a residential real estate broker for 28 years in New York City. In Manhattan, and I really only do Manhattan. I've sold a few apartments in Brooklyn, but I'm not an expert in Brooklyn. And so if somebody calls me about Brooklyn, luckily for me, in the last 5 years, my 31-year-old son has worked with me. And like all young people, he knows Brooklyn. So he does Brooklyn, but I do Manhattan. And that means Upper East, Upper West, Downtown, Tribeca, Chelsea, West Village, Village, East Village, SoHo, Gramercy. Just naming all these neighborhoods because people hear about them because of restaurants and stuff. Um, so I cover all of that. Um, I've lived in New York City since I graduated from college in 1986. Um, I moved after college to New York. I worked for a year, and then I went to law school, and then I practiced law for 5 years, and then I became a real estate broker sort of by— not by accident, but It was kind of on a whim. So I had been home with 2 little kids and not working because I had tried being a lawyer part-time. It was very hard back then to do anything part-time, especially be a lawyer. And I—

for the hours count.

Yeah, exactly. And I was frustrated just being home all, you know, not working. So I decided to try to be a real estate broker. So I walked into a Corcoran office near my apartment and I said, hey, I'm a lawyer. I want to do this part-time. They said, You're hired. And I was like, okay, awesome. So I did what was called floor duty at the time. It was a storefront office, and I sat there and people came in and I got a rental and I got a sale of a 1-bedroom. And then eventually my business grew. In 2005— that was '97. In 2005, I switched to Brown Harris Stevens, where I've been since 2005. And I never worked part-time as a broker. Originally, I thought I would, but, you know, it morphed into beyond a full-time job. But it was, I think, better for raising my boys than being a corporate lawyer where back then you had to be in the office 7 to 7, 5 days a week, a good amount of travel because I was a litigator, which is tough with kids. This allowed me to— I definitely worked I think for 20 years I worked every single weekend. So lots of Sundays, lots of Saturdays, but in exchange I could pick a child up and take him to soccer practice or something. So it, it was good. Um, and then in 2005, actually I had a third child. So I have 3 boys. Um, my oldest one works with me. My middle one does his own thing. He's 28. And my little one is going to college in the fall.

Well, and the thing about the hours in real estate is it's not somebody else's hours, it's yours. And I think that's what's unique about it. At a law firm, if you ever want to make partner, you have to turn in all the hours and all the billable things, and your kids can't be involved in it. But in real estate, if you're working 10 hours, it's entirely possible that your kid can come along if your clients say it's, of course, bring your kid. They don't mind because they're, thinking about the life transition that goes along with real estate, we get so much grace from our clients. And I just don't think we talk about that enough, that people do understand us a little differently because we all live in houses.

No, I think that's true. I mean, look, I also think that the world has changed. There's a lot of negative things people like to talk about, but one of the positive things that I like to talk about is that the world is different for working women than it was when I started my career in 1990. People understand that you might have a family. You're allowed to mention that you have a family. It used to be like, don't talk about the fact that you have kids because they used to be able to ask you if you were going to have kids.

Now people are excited when you have kids.

Exactly. There's a lot more grace, I think, given to the fact that people multitask and that, you know, there's that. And I also think that in my job, um, people like that I have kids because it means that I know about the schools, um, I know about safety, um, I know about what it's like to bring children up in different neighborhoods. It gives me that sort of added, um, element because obviously a lot of the people that I work with either have kids or may want to have kids, like, you know, that, that's good. Um, so, and then, you know, and then I'll say the positive thing that came out of COVID um, is that we can do this, right? Um, that we have Zoom, that we have these alternative ways of working and communicating and meeting with people that we didn't used to have.

Yeah, and they're terrible and they disconnect us, but it beats the alternative of never getting to to see somebody and put a face with a voice because we've conducted business over telephones for a long time, but I enjoy looking at somebody's face. If I can do a Zoom call instead of a phone call, I still think that's preferable. Plus, this thing is not getting distractions knocked in because we can actually have a personal conversation.

I actually have a great COVID story. I know you like funny stories. In, I guess, probably I'm gonna say like July or August of 2020, just as things were opening back up in New York and we were allowed to show apartments again, I was referred, um, a couple who were moving from London to New York and they wanted to be in New York by the following spring and they needed to look for an apartment, but they couldn't come from London. You know, there was no traveling. London didn't let them out. America didn't let them in. It was like a whole thing. So I started FaceTiming with them at apartments, and I did this for 6 months, and we really got to know each other well. And, um, at first I think, you know, they were like not completely trusting of me, just they weren't, you know, not like they didn't trust me, but they didn't know who I was. So they would sometimes have like a friend in New York meet to see the apartment before. Yeah. Anyway, um, by March I found them a great apartment that they loved. They bid on it. They signed a contract to buy it. We did a board package. They closed. They still were in London. They had never come to see the apartment. They finally came in June to see the apartment. I was so— I was so nervous. I was so nervous. And they love the apartment even more than they thought they were going to. And at that point, I saw these two women and I was like, oh my God, like, we're best friends. And we are best friends to this day. Like, they became like really— like, by the time I actually physically met them, we felt like we knew each other. It was so great.

But you remember too, like, all of our connections and relationships got so frayed during COVID because people were fighting with each other, then you weren't allowed to talk to each other. So the fact that y'all were able to continue communicating at a time when others were falling away does make you stronger. And what a nice perk to come out on the other side of COVID with is a wonderful new friend.

Yeah, it was. It's really— it's a— it's a good story. I have another story like that, too. One of my best friends in the whole world, I met her 25 years ago in the gym. And so I went every morning at the same time. And then you get to know the women who are like around you because it's the same people, same time, whatever. And one day I was naked on the phone for work. I'm not FaceTiming. There was no FaceTiming back then, thank God. Yeah. And when I got off the phone, this woman walks over to me who I recognized, and she said, "Hi, I think you're a real estate broker because I've heard you on the phone, and I'm looking for a big apartment and nobody can find me one." "and if you find me one, I'll be forever grateful and I'll be your best friend and I make a very good best friend." And I was like, "Okay, well, first I'm gonna get dressed, okay? And then we can talk." So anyway, her name is Esther. She is one of my closest friends. I did find her a big apartment. And we always like to tell that story 'cause that was a good story. And I actually have a few friends and clients from that locker room. But that was probably the most unique and the best story.

I mean, I love how she pitched herself as, I'll be your best friend. That is something we don't all have buyers that come to us looking for. They want 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. They don't often say, and you get a friend in the bargain. I kind of love that. Yeah. I mean, it's asking if she's bringing something to the table too.

Yeah, she's a unique woman. She's one of 8. And she has 5 sisters, and so she's got like the sisterly thing.

And you just got adopted as an extra sister then, obviously.

Exactly. Exactly. I only have 1 sister, so I felt lucky having all those sisters.

So now, since you're in New York and a lot of the viewers and listeners are in what we would call normal markets, you keep talking about very expensive apartments, but generally the public perception of an apartment is a rental. A small unit in the building, 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, small things. When you talk about a $17 million apartment that somebody purchases, give us a little bit of perspective on the difference in apartments and co-ops and flats. And if somebody were moving to New York, how would they understand your market quickly, knowing that it's a very unique real estate environment?

Sure, sure. So there's different kinds of places you can live in, in New York. So we've got apartments and we have townhouses. A townhouse is like much more— right, right. But a townhouse is a more narrow version of a house that you would have in the suburbs. They range in width from 15 wide to 25 feet wide. 25-foot-wide house in New York City is incredibly expensive, like over $20 million. So most people who, uh, live in New York City live in apartments or a piece of a townhouse, like when it's been cut up into apartments. But these townhouses originally were single-family houses, again, built anyplace from 15 feet wide to 25. Once in a while you see a 35-foot, 30-foot wide house. Those are actually limestone mansions. Um, those are all of these townhouses in general are from about turn of the century. They're all very old. Um, so if you move to New York, you're going to either rent or buy, right? You can rent an apartment in a high-rise, in a low-rise, in a brownstone townhouse. Um, if you buy, you can also buy in a high-rise, a mid-rise, or in a brownstone, or you can buy a whole townhouse brownstone. Um, and then if you purchase, we have two ways we purchase. New York is unique. I think Chicago has some too, but maybe Florida has a few. But generally we have something unique, which is called a co-op. It's, you do not buy the four walls, you buy shares in a cooperative and you get a lease that's appurtenant to your shares. So let's take the example of a building that has 20 apartments in it. You buy, you think, you say you're buying your apartment, you're actually buying the number of shares that's assigned to that apartment. In doing so, you're part of a corporation and there are rules that you have to follow. You can't finance as much as you want. You might be able to finance 50% or 60% or 70% up to 80%. There are no co-ops that allow you generally to finance more than 80%. So during downturns, we've seen less foreclosures in New York than in other places because people are not overly leveraged, which is, actually a positive of that, right? You can also buy— oh, and then beside that, then they also have the right to approve you or not approve you as an owner. So you find a co-op you like, they allow you to finance 75%, you sign a contract, you put 10% down, and then you have to do a board package, which is an application where they're going to ask generally for 2 years of tax returns, they're going to ask for most recent bank statements, statements of liability if you have a mortgage on something else, car loans, student debt.

They're also going to ask your neighbors, get to see all of your personal financial information.

Well, not all your neighbors. There's a board which are elected non-paid volunteers. The board does get to see all of this. You also have to— you also, you have to also have to get letters of recommendation from both friends and business colleagues testifying to your bona fides and your ability to be a good neighbor.

Okay, so what's the main reason they would turn somebody down? I mean, would they turn me down because I'm Southern and they said, well, you don't sound like you'd fit in up here?

No, no, no, no.

Can they turn you down for any reason at all?

Well, they can turn you down for any reason at all because they don't have to tell you. It's like joining a private club. They don't have to join, tell you. Oh, but generally the reason why people get turned down is for financial reasons. Generally. Now, recently, um, I had a board turned down where the people were passed on their financials. They had plenty of money. They went to the board interview, and after the interview, they were turned down. That almost never happens. My Thinking is that there's two reasons. They were not going to be full-time residents, and the co-op really wants people to be full-time residents. And I also not sure if maybe they didn't get along with the people at the interview, but that's a very sort of bad story that doesn't generally happen. And generally we don't have board turndowns. Generally, people going to buy an apartment, let's say for $2 million, know that they can pass the co-op board with the amount of money that they have. So generally that doesn't happen. I have a great example of very nice couple last week, two youngish lawyers who are buying something for $1.8 million. It's a 3-bedroom apartment and they submitted their co-op board application. They did a Zoom interview, they were approved, they're closing. Like, that's usually what happens.

Okay.

Now the other kind of apartment you can buy in New York City is a condo. That's the same as anyplace else. You buy the four walls, you own the unit. They're stacked, right? The only difference in New York is that when you buy a condo, there's also a board package and you still have to submit some financial information and some letters of recommendation. But the board doesn't have a right to turn you down and there's no interview.

So I just, I just can't imagine going through an interview so that I can spend my money on a building. And I didn't know that they had controls over the leverage and the loan-to-value equation there. But I can understand they want stability in the building and stability in the environment of people. I can see it on paper, but I just feel like it's easy for bad actors to sneak up in there. So do you advise your buyers to join the co-op board if they can, so they can be a voice of reason in there? How does that work?

Yeah, well, I do. I, I often will tell somebody that if they think that the building could improve in certain ways for whatever reason, like sometimes, like, we've had buildings where they only allow 50% financing, and that's a barrier to entry. It keeps the values lower because not everybody can do that. Not everybody wants to. So I will tell somebody, look, you're getting a better deal on this apartment because the building requires 50% down, which you can do. I've been telling this co-op for a while they should increase it to 65 or 70 at least. Get on the board, be the voice of reason, and try to get those changes made. And we have in the last 10 years seen some good changes with co-ops where they've allowed more financing. There were buildings on the east side that didn't allow any financing. Now they do allow some financing. Buildings that didn't allow dogs now do allow dogs. Maybe there's a weight limit, but at least allow dogs. A big thing was this concept of a pied-à-terre, which is a part-time residence. It's a French term which literally means a part-time residence. And in New York, there were a lot of co-ops that did not like pied-à-terres. And the reason is they were afraid that, you know, you live in the South and you are going to decide that you love New York City. You're going to buy yourself a 1 or 2-bedroom in New York for when you want to come visit New York because you have a a daughter who lives in New York, right? But when you're not there, you're going to let all your friends use it and your cousin and your aunt, and it's going to be kind of a revolving door apartment. And buildings don't like that. Cops don't like that.

So I guess the cops hate Airbnbs then. Are they— are they looking?

Oh, they're totally illegal in New York. Totally illegal. Totally illegal in New York City.

Um, so, and I love traveling to short-term rentals. I love living in somebody's space because it feels like part of the community. But it's just not possible in the co-op world, is it?

Definitely not. Uh, you do sometimes see it happen in condos. The problem is, is that a lot of buildings have doormen. So if you have a doorman, it's very hard to get away with even an illegal, uh, Airbnb because the doormen see who's coming and going, right? So anyway, going back to the whole pied-à-terre thing, there are a lot of co-ops that didn't allow pied-à-terres. That was their reasoning. But pied-à-terre can also mean for tax purposes that it's a part-time residence and that you are not going to be a resident of New York City for tax purposes. And that's become a big thing for wealthy people because in New York City, our tax— basically, as a resident of New York, my taxes come to about 52% of earned income.

And that's right now without the proposals from Mondani, which are even higher.

Yeah. I mean, I don't think he's going to get away with it, but that's a whole nother conversation. So, so people were, were, were saying this is a pied-à-terre, right? Like my primary residence is Florida, my primary residence is Long Island, my primary residence is Greenwich, whatever it was. And some co-ops would say, well, no, you know, no, that's not okay. But then there was this whole concept of like a lot of the people who live in the building already have also made New York City not their primary residence for tax paper. So now you're not going to let new people in for that. That's not good. Again, barrier to entry lowers the value, right? If you can't be a pied-à-terre person, because the way the world is now, two people, wealthy people, often have multiple residences, right? You know, people You know, back in the day, my dad used to tell me when you went on vacation, you always drove. Now people fly every place, right? So there's a lot more— people are just much more mobile. Everybody moves a lot more. So we do see co-ops change their rules. When I went in the business many years ago, we had about 80% co-ops and 20% condos. The condo concept, just, you know, came into being in the late '80s. So basically any build, any building that was built post-'89 was built as a condo. Co-ops tend to be older buildings because they were built before, and they're cooler too because they're in those really great sections of town. Yeah, I mean, we have condos in cool sections too, but you're right, like Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, those buildings tend to be co-ops. Those were the original buildings, and they've been ownership buildings for a long time. Nowadays we have about 60% condos, 40% co-ops. But the reason why people still like to buy co-ops is that they're less expensive. You can get a lot more for your money because of the rules. And they tend to be in often the most sought-after locations, like on a park. So, you know, that's New York. Okay.

So with everything you've just described in just a couple of minutes, I'm thinking, holy smokes, how could somebody come to the city and try to conduct real estate without a professional like you? It just feels like the amount of learning curve would be insurmountable, or you could absolutely get sideways and lose deposits by just the sheer amount of not knowing. Have you seen any change in people's reaction to using you as a representative when they're buying post all the lawsuits and all the drama around real estate? Or is there still an understanding in New York that you actually need a broker to help you figure out the differences in these kinds of setups?

So it's interesting, you know, when I first went into the business, everybody used a broker because you couldn't look up listings on your own, right? So you needed a broker to tell you what was for sale, right? Then the internet started. We still don't actually have MLS in New York City. We don't have a multiple listing service, but StreetEasy is sort of our de facto MLS. So then there was like starting probably post-2010 with StreetEasy becoming a tool for people. There was a sense, especially among younger people who were tech savvy, that they didn't need their own broker. They could just like go on StreetEasy, figure it out. I'm a lawyer, I'm an investment banker, I'm a know-it-all. I can do it on my own. They also hope that— right. They also hope that they would save some money because they thought if there's only one broker, either that broker is going to be so motivated to get it done because they're taking all the commission, or the seller is going to pay less so I can get a better price. So we had a whole thing with that. Um, I think there— I think there was a learning curve where people would sort of get screwed the first time when they did that and then be like, oh, maybe I do need a broker, right? Um, also with the change in laws nationally, for a little bit, I think there was a period where people were like, yeah, I definitely don't need a broker. Like, you see Now you can't just like, you know, automatically require a broker. And in fact, when the new law started about a year and a half ago, I had sellers say, well, why do I have to pay a buyer's broker? Tell the buyer to pay their broker. And I said, well, you can do that, but it's going to come out in the wash because number one, brokers won't bring their buyers to you, or buyers will have to pay their broker. And they'll just offer you less and you'll have less traffic. Like, it won't work. So to tell you the truth, although we were nervous that there would be sellers who didn't pay buyer's brokers, I've probably put on 30 listings since that change happened. I haven't had one seller not agree to pay a buyer's broker because they all understood that, that you would just, you know, kick yourself in the foot if you did that. That was just like a stupid move. And I actually think with the change of laws now, buyers also have to sign up with their broker. We didn't used to have that. It used to be the Wild West. You could have like 6 brokers and just be running rogue. I actually think it's been a good thing. And I think that buyers have realized now more than ever, like, they need a broker now. They need a good broker, but they need a broker who's really taking care of them. Making sure they're on top of the new stuff that's coming on, watching for prices being reduced, able to describe the market, give them advice on what you can ask for, what you should try to negotiate, what you should make sure you get in a contract. Because like lawyers, I don't like— I don't know how it is where you are, but in New York, once you agree on a price, you actually have to hire a lawyer to represent you to do the contract, and the seller has a lawyer too. And they're going to do certain legal things, but they're not really in charge of the business points. And you need a good broker to make sure that the business points are getting negotiated correctly into the contract.

Well, that is one thing that makes it painful when they move from New York to Charlotte, because there's a huge pipeline between the city and Charlotte with all the financial people. They come here to buy property and find out, no, it's one attorney for everybody at closing. All my New Yorkers are like, what? We have like 4 attorneys. I'm like, I know it's expensive up there. It's cheap here. So as soon as y'all figure it out, we'll close it. But it is just a, it's a different environment. And I love that you point out that it's important to have a good broker. And by the way, audience, that doesn't mean that they have to have as many years as Lisa and I do. A good broker could be a 3-year broker who has a mentor that's pouring into them. Because one thing that I learned early, and you probably did as well, If you have somebody that will give you good counsel along the way, you can get good much sooner than if you try to learn everything from scratch yourself all the way through. It just— what matters is understanding the schematics of the market where you're purchasing and what's the, what's the backstory on it? How is it going to work? What's changing in it? And that's a world that changes every 5 minutes, which is why you want a broker. And I just, I can't imagine buying in a simplistic market without a broker, much less going back to New York. Because, you know, I used to live in Murray Hill. I noticed you didn't mention that community because it was kind of rough when I lived there in the '90s. It's so different now that if I went back, I barely recognized where I lived at 37th and Lex. And like, I could never even imagine going down that road without somebody like you to say, look, here's what it is right now. Your past is irrelevant because things have changed, right?

Well, I'll tell you a good story about Murray Hill. You know what Murray Hill is very— who it's very popular with?

No.

Young people under 30.

Very young.

So out of college, there's a lot of, like, affordable rentals that, you know, it's a good neighborhood. You can get Upper East, you can get downtown really easily.

Very convenient.

The, the townhouses there are more reasonably priced. You can actually buy a really pretty townhouse there for $5 or $6 million, where on the Upper West or Upper East, or forget the West Village, they're going to be like $10 million plus.

That's just so funny because for $5 or $6 million here, I can get you acreage and a four-car garage and a pool and an estate.

I know, I know, we're a little crazy to live in New York. It's, it's definitely a little crazy. Sometimes I do like a a pulse check. And I think like, okay, I just told somebody that they have to spend more than $1 million for a one-bedroom apartment in that neighborhood. And it's like, what did you just say? Yeah, yeah, I know. It's nuts. It's nuts. I mean, people pay $500,000 in New York City for a parking spot.

Okay.

Like, yeah, it's, it's like weird. It's weird. I know it's weird. I'll just say that. I know it's weird.

It is. But you know, it's also, you've, you've had the chance to watch it over decades now. So looking back 28 years, what was the number in, in the price world that made you say, oh, I can't believe it costs this much? What was high back then?

Oh, like $2 million was a lot. A lot. I mean, so, you know, I bought my first apartment in 1996 with my my husband at the time, who I've been divorced from for many years. I've been remarried for almost 22. Um, and we bought an apartment, um, and we spent $790,000 and we got a really big 3-bedroom apartment in a really nice building. But I remember thinking like, no, no, no, like in that building where we bought that's kind of a— it's an okay one-bedroom in that building now. And, um, it wasn't even such an expensive apartment building. I mean, the building's gotten more expensive since. Obviously it's become a nicer building than it was back then. But, you know, I just— I remember a relative buying something on Park Avenue for $2.2 million thinking like, wow, That is a crazy amount of money. And now that same apartment is $8 million.

I mean, it's just, it's, it feels like Monopoly money. But then you realize all the Monopoly money is attached to home for people where they eat supper and spend time with their loved ones. And that's what keeps everything so grounded. And it's what we love about this business. Lisa, if somebody is thinking about a purchase anywhere in New York City and they'd like to talk to you or be introduced to your son, what's the best way for them to find you and learn from your expertise before they make the plunge?

Absolutely. So I have a really easy email address. It's Lisa at B like boy, H like Harry, S like Sam, U like under, S like Sam, A like apple.com. So it's Lisa@bhsusa.com.

And of course, Lisa's information on all of her handles will be in the show notes for this episode. So if you want to reach out, please feel free to give her a call or an email. You can reach out to her son as well, since he covers the parts of New York she doesn't have to go to anymore.

And most importantly, and his name is Max. His name is Max, and he's, he's mlippman@bhsusa.com.

There we go. Max and Lisa, mother-son team, which Yeah, as a part of the father-daughter team, nothing makes me happier than what real estate does when we get involved in the business.

Yeah, yeah.

Special place to be. Lisa, thank you so much for coming on the show and giving us a little bit more information on the, the craziness of New York City and the place that you love calling home. I know.

Well, it was a pleasure. And I love— I didn't even mention, I love your background. I love— that's your kitchen.

So this is the kitchen I got from a 1950s kitchen home show in our local TV network. And she was the first female-led syndicated show in the Southeast. Her name was Betty Feaser. And I found the set in an estate sale at a listing. And I said, my grandmother watched her show. I have to have it. And so I have Betty Feaser's set and it's just a—

I love that. And those are the best stones, those old stones, they never die, right? They're the best.

Real metal made in the USA right there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you. So thank you, Lisa.

I wish you well and I look forward to connecting in the future.

Absolutely. Have a great weekend.

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