Writing the Next Chapter: The BHS Agent Spotlight on Casey Soloff

Casey Soloff brings a fresh perspective to New York City real estate, blending a background in creative writing at some of the country’s most prestigious advertising agencies with hands-on industry involvement as a REBNY co-chair. Drawn to Brown Harris Stevens by the firm’s reputation and the caliber of its agents, Casey joins BHS for the next chapter of his real estate career. In this week’s BHS Agent Spotlight, Casey shares his outlook for the New York City market, the industry issues demanding attention, advice for writing a memorable property description, and much more.

Why did you choose Brown Harris Stevens for the next chapter of your career?

I feel like my career has turned a bit of a corner recently—my understanding of the work has deepened, and it’s showing up where it counts: signed listings. And that’s really why I’m here. The reputation Brown Harris Stevens carries in this city, and the impression its agents have made on me whenever our paths have crossed, matches the standard at which I see myself operating.

With your hands-on approach to being a co-chair for REBNY, what do you think is the most important industry issue that needs to be solved/rectified? 

I think it’s twofold. The first is the pace of policy this industry has to constantly absorb from people who aren’t on the ground. A year into the FARE Act and rents are reaching record highs. The new pied-à-terre tax is already chilling ultra-luxury contracts. The entire profession saw it coming and was ignored, with predictable results. The second is the fight over private listings—firms holding exclusives in-house and calling it “seller choice,” when most sellers have no idea what exposure they gave up. It hurts sellers, and it hurts buyers who never see the home. I think we need to defend cooperation as an industry—broad exposure as the default, privacy as the documented exception.

Where do you see the NYC Real Estate Market going in the second half of the year?

My call for the second half is simple: prices keep climbing, and rates won’t have much to do with it. Look at what the spring told us—rates were near seven percent, and buyers showed up anyway; contracts hit multi-year highs in Manhattan and Brooklyn. So buyers have made their peace with the new normal. Sellers haven’t. Most of them are sitting on cheap mortgages from a few years back, and rather than give those up, they wait, which is why Manhattan just had its thinnest spring in eight years. Brooklyn actually got more inventory this year, and it didn’t matter—homes sold at the fastest spring pace in a decade and the median price set a record anyway. That’s the whole market right now: one side has accepted reality, and the other side hasn’t, and the gap between them is what’s pushing prices up. I don’t see that breaking until rates genuinely come down and sellers come off the sidelines, and nobody serious is forecasting that this year. So both boroughs grind higher, on scarcity alone.

With a background in creative writing at some of the most prestigious ad agencies, what is a helpful hint you can provide on writing the perfect property description?

There’s not a single “sun-drenched oasis” in all of New York City, so stop describing every 4^th-floor walk-up studio that way just because the windows face south.

Favorite Dining Spot in Manhattan or Brooklyn? What are you ordering? 

Red Hook Tavern. It may not be the “best” restaurant I’ve been to, but I love the atmosphere, and their dry-aged burger is pretty darn perfect. I always look forward to a meal there.

Share a photo in your camera roll that means a lot to you and tell us why.

It’s not easy to find one that isn’t of my 3- and 5-year-old kids. But here’s one I took at Costco recently that made a deep and lasting impression on me, for obvious reasons.

Share something that few know about you.

I was a boxing referee in Boston 25 years ago. I would regularly come home from bouts with blood splattered all over my shirt.

Connect with Casey at csoloff@bhsusa.com.