BWW Exclusive: Kristin's Korner with Special Guest Joel Dommel

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Kristen's Corner

I'm Kristen Huffman, and this is a show where I'm interviewing experts in the entertainment

industry and people who are related to the entertainment industry, and we're discussing

trends and changes in our business so that we can all be better prepared

So today's guest, I'm speaking with Joel Dommel. He's the managing director with the Corcoran Group who are licensed real estate brokers in New York City

The reason I know him is because he graduated from the Hart School with a BFA in musical theater 2012

And you guessed it, he was one of my singers. He was in my vocal studio

He was a finalist in Nymph's Next Broadway Sensation as well as new paradigm theater companies So You Want to Be a Broadway Star

So you know he's talented. He performed briefly in regional productions before entering real estate industry in 2013

So during his seven years of selling luxury homes, y'all, Joel was one of the top 100 sales teams in the country

And now he's the managing director of Midtown Manhattan's office at one of New York's largest real estate firms

So, Joel, welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I know that you're super busy

So I'll jump right to it. I asked you to do this interview because we have so many actors coming and going from New York, people moving in, people moving out, especially now

And I wanted to talk to you about challenges and changes in your business, but also how it relates to performers

So first of all, how do you handle your real estate career amidst COVID

And after that, what would you advise young performers moving to the city to think about in terms of where to live and how to do this

Yeah. And thanks, Christopher, for having me. This is a lot of fun, especially, you know, we have such a rich history of working together

This is a lot of fun to kind of get together and have this conversation. But yeah, kind of looking at how I handle changes in this industry

It's a funny thing because I think real estate, like, you know, the performing world, it's

constantly changing. So the most important thing is to keep learning and growing with it

You can never predict and you can never control everything 100%. So what you have to do is, and the way that I look at this is, I have big goals, but I

focus on these small habits that'll move me forward each day. And it's the idea of the process, which I still hold on to, I still work through

And then just focusing on showing up consistently to make a change, you know, for myself, for

my family, but also for the people that I work with and I want to grow their business. With the market being the way it is now, it's more of a buyer's market

There's more leverage for tenants in a lot of scenarios because the prices have come

down in both of those segments. You're really looking for value. So you may find yourself on the Upper East Side in a place you didn't expect where you found a great value

Or it could be downtown where there's a great value. It really just depends

But that's something that's changed over the last few years, but especially now has been all about value and where to go

I hear a lot of young performers who are getting ready to graduate from college saying

I'm excited to go to New York because I think, or come back to New York, like some people have left and come back

because I think I'm going to get a great deal on my rent. And that's kind of what you're saying, isn't it

Yeah, there are deals to be had. It's funny because everyone's like, I'm going to walk in, I'm going to get 20% off on whatever

it is. That's not really how it works. So let me slow you down a little bit. But over the last few years prices have come down because just historically looking back we had a 10 year seller run you know seller market so to speak where just prices just kept going up about 15 16 it reached its peak and

then started to come down a little bit. So you went to New York you were thinking oh I'm going

to be a performer and then you started to step into real estate first how did that like how did

that happen and then what kind of qualities you know we educators know exactly what you can gain

from an arts background. Like I know, can you talk to us about what made what you had learned

at the Hart School, what made that right for what you're doing now

Yeah, for sure. And honestly, I always tell people the best training I had

was really from my acting career. Well, yes, you naturally, of course. You know

that goes without saying. But what I would say is this is that, no, my best training for my career

was the listening and responding, the dealing in like the improv information, right? The improv

classes. But that listening and responding, being conscious of, you know, the person on the other

side of the table, so to speak, has made the biggest difference in terms of working with people

and, you know, being successful in this career. Is there anything when you were at college that

you would have done differently in terms of, oh, I wish I had taken that class as well as the arts

class? Anything that would have been? Business. I would have taken business courses. I would have

taken, you know, financial courses. Those are things, you know, for better or for worse, I had

to learn on the fly. I feel like if I would have focused more on acting as a business, I loved the

craft, but I didn't think of it like a business. It's funny because you've always preached that

but you don't really grasp it or put it to practice until you feel it, right? And that's

the hard thing is I really wish I would have done that sooner. I always say this like talent

although valuable, uh, is overrated. Uh, and that skill is acquirable, right? So you can learn the

finance. You can learn the business. Thankfully I was put in a position to do that with the people

that I had around me that taught it to me. Um, but it took a lot longer in terms of like budgeting

for rent or for like, where are the best places for a newbie to focus, to look for a place they

can actually afford. New York's requirements for landlords, they want you to make 40 times the

monthly rent to be able to qualify in terms of income. And if you have a guarantor, they want 80

times the monthly rent. You're also going to have to pay maybe a broker's fee. You're finding more

things that are no fee that owners are actually paying the fees. No fee doesn't mean that it's

free, but owners are paying the broker's fees in some cases. You're going to have to put down your

first month's rent. You're going to have to put down one month's security, which is, that's the

that's the New York state law now is those, you know, those two things on one month security and

first month's rent. But, you know, and then you're gonna have to have money to live on

So you have to look at that as well. But then you want to have at least, you know, three, four

maybe five months of expenses in the bank for that to be credible. And then of course, you have the

guarantor that you're going to be working with that hopefully has their own set of assets that

you can lean on in that case when you're coming out of college. Plus, we want to have good credit

So anything above 700 is a huge thing for landlords here. Most landlords require a credit score of at least 700

to qualify for their units. Can you give me a definition for those of us in Connecticut

what a guarantor is? Yes, it's someone who essentially steps in and takes the

you know who signs on with you to take responsibility for your lease So if there was damage or you weren paying or something like that there someone else who has been qualified that has the income and meets the

requirements that the landlord set that they can essentially have on the hook along with you

Is that often parent? Yes, it usually is. Yeah, it really is. And you know what? And if you're

in a situation where you don't have parents that can do that, that make these 80-time requirements

There are companies like Insurance and others that are companies that can step in and you can pay them a fee to guarantee a lease

Not all landlords take it, but it's something to consider if you're kind of in that new stage of transition to the city and you need a guarantor, but don't have it within the family

Tell me, like, where do you go to learn all of this? We just need to read it and figure it out before we jump headlong into the city

Yeah, to find actual properties and things like that, I always recommend Corcoran.com

because we have not only our exclusive listings that are held by the company, but we also work

with landlords and work with someone who really knows the market. That to me is the most important because all information is not equal

You can see things and you can essentially translate it yourself and try to decipher

certain things. But being with someone who knows the market, especially when a lot of landlords are paying

these OPs for you in some cases, you have a lot more leverage in working with someone who knows

the market. What advice do you have for people now that they don't necessarily always have to live

right in the city? For you and I, that was both a choice. It's tough because I currently

work in the city five days a week. I'm there all the time. I take the train. I commute every day

Metro North. I'm in Stanford, Connecticut. It's about 55 minutes. It's pretty easy

But there are also places like Jersey City that's even a little bit closer

That's also, you know, there's consideration of making that a sixth borough of New York City because a lot of people have gone there for values and things as well if they're not quite ready to be in Manhattan

So I think those are good options. They allow short commutes. For us, I would say that in Stanford, we're renting a two-bedroom apartment, 1,400 square feet for the same price we were paying for something downtown, you know, at 800 square feet, one bedroom

Right. So it's that made sense for us to go, hey, let's, you know, let's what did we need during the time of COVID for our for our mental health

And, you know, for our ability then to, you know, to thrive. And we love Manhattan. We will go back. But we just needed space

And what we thought of as freedom, the ability to go someplace is having fresh air, not being surrounded by so many people

That's already changing because people are coming back to the city every day. and we're seeing the market reflect that

where we're seeing activity up and all of that. All good signs for the city. So big ideas for 2021

What are your goals? Every year, it's kind of the same thing. I always think out, where do I want to be in five years

And that question kind of then sets the tone for, okay, what's the one thing I can do this year

that's going to get me closer to that? And what I actually end up coming up with is three personal goals, three business goals

on an annual basis, and then kind of work backwards on, okay, what do I have to do each month to get to that annual goal

What do I have to do each week to get to the monthly goal? And then what are the small things I have to do each day that are going to help me get there each week and kind of move on from there

So my goals, I won't be as specific because I always like to be really specific on them

but they focus around three things which is growing my leadership brand by implementing three new coaching and business development initiatives That a big focus I have I really want to roll out a number of different discussion groups things similar to this interview style or round table style

where we can connect entrepreneurs and creatives. Number two really is I want to connect with more people

not just meeting more people, but connecting more deeply with them. And really just, you know, that's more of a personal thing too

It helps business too, but to just kind of grow as a person. How do we be a triple threat in business? How do we be a triple threat in life, so to speak? Had to use the play on words. It's drawing from so many other influences than just the one thing we're focused on

You know, and so number three then really is to create more content

I, especially this year, have kind of connected my acting career and my business career together better than I ever have, I think, because I was reading a Seth Godin book that I probably should have read when you recommended it like 10 years ago

This is Marketing Changed the Way that I Talk with Consumers, the understanding of how marketing works, how an idea spreads

But then a new book that just came out that Seth Godin wrote was called The Practice

Talks about the art of creating and shipping creative work, right? And what we do every day, whether we're acting or whether in real estate or in so many ways

And we're talking about the art, that art is really the ability to create change, right

The generous act of creating change. So how can I do more of that where I'm at

And that's creating more, putting more things out, learning how to juggle, so to speak, throwing as much out as I possibly can, and eventually learning how to catch and getting consistent in that

And we did a book club on attracting perfect customers. You told me earlier that you have your team read that

It reframes the mindset of sales and connecting with people, right? And how do you attract

How do you really, again, start this idea of connecting with others? That's what I always liked about you

even when you were at the university, you weren't just one of those me, me, me people

You were always, even then, you know, people looked to you as a leader, but you also worked

in groups, in tandems, in teams already before you left the university, you know? So you were

going to be a leader no matter what, if you stayed in performing or if you went into, obviously

you're just soaring with what you're doing now. So that's great. Fabulous. Yeah, I appreciate that. And the big thing for me was, I think all leaders should also be following someone else. So it's this idea of if you're following a leader who isn't following someone else, then be careful

Something I always tell people when they come out of the business is, or into the real world, the professional world, is find a mentor

For me, it started with Tony Robbins and then merged to Seth Godin, and then it became a Simon Sinek thing, talking about organizations and leadership's role in creating this environment where people can thrive

You know, and that's what this show is all about. We want to be mentors for the people who are watching this

So you already are and people can find you on, is it Corcoran.com

Correct. Yes. Corcoran.com. You can Google my name. I'm sure I'll pop up

But yeah, Corcoran.com is where you can find me for sure. That's great. And we want you to be better prepared for this industry before you step out of your own little corner

So I hope that you'll tune in next time for more trends and tips and awesome mentoring from Kristen's Corner