“The struggle to create housing that is affordable for people across the entire spectrum of income will be the defining civic issue for this generation of leaders in the Hudson Valley,” Pattern CEO Adam Bosch said.
Data shows that from 1996-2021, the Hudson Valley region lost a net total of 146,763 people to out migration, which calculates out to 5% of the Hudson Valley’s population.
Elected officials, seeking to appease vocal constituents, frequently uphold restrictive zoning laws that favor single-family residences over more diverse housing options.
Bradley Brammer, associate broker with Julia B. Sotheby’s in Larchmont and Stamford, CT, never pictured himself selling local real estate. Years ago, he was perfectly happy traveling the world as a successful international tax advisor. In fact, he has visited or lived in more than 25 countries, including a seven-year stint in England.
Brammer grew up in Portland, OR, graduating from Portland State University with a dual major in accounting and finance. After starting his career at one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, Brammer got the opportunity to work in their London office providing international tax advisory services.
“It was exciting, and I found it to be much more relaxed there,” he recalled. “There’s a real sense of balance between work and vacation. Your time off was your time off. Here in the U.S., people seem to have a harder time letting go of work when they’re away. It was just a different perspective.”
After spending seven years there, Brammer and his family, which then included four children, came back to New York. He took a position with a tax advisory firm in New York City, but still found himself traveling extensively to Europe, Asia and Africa. “I just loved the traveling,” he said.
However, after spending some 13 years in this business, he started to think about transitioning his “side business” to a full time one. “I had always purchased, renovated and built real estate on the side, so it was kind of a natural fit for me,” said Brammer. The opportunity to dive into real estate as his main business presented itself in 2003 when the tax advisory businesses began to downsize.
So, armed with his new real estate license, Brammer joined Coldwell Banker in Larchmont and the rest is history. “It was challenging at first,” he admitted. “I did have the numbers background, I had been an advisor for many years, and I had my own experience with my personal real estate transactions.”
As it turns out, his former career did prove to be quite an asset. In his first year, Brammer earned the Rookie of The Year Award for Westchester County and Connecticut. After receiving his associate broker’s license, he managed Coldwell Banker’s White Plains office. Later, he joined Keller Williams in White Plains, as a manger and spent the next four years there. He also began to expand his role into coaching and training for agents, and then last summer, joined Julia B. Fee in Larchmont and Stamford, CT.
Licensed in both New York and Connecticut, Brammer concentrates on Fairfield and Westchester County, while also continuing to coach new agents. Putting his international experience to work, he’s also involved with domestic and international relocations. “There are a lot of executives from the western part of the U.S., as well as England and Brazil coming to live and work here in New York,” he said. After 17 years in the real estate business, Brammer finds about 60% of his business is relocation referrals.
For the first time this year, he is serving on HGAR’s Education Council as its co-chair. With previous experience sitting on the association’s Finance and Professional Standards committees, Brammer said he felt the need to share his background on education.
“I think our School of Real Estate did a great job transitioning all of its classes to online courses during the pandemic, and I really do see a lot of virtual classes continuing even after its all over,” he said. “It’s much more comfortable for people to do, and we seem to be getting a great response. Of course, I can also see a smattering of live classes eventually returning.”
Today, his family has grown to seven children, whom he and his partner are raising in their Larchmont home. Needless to say, one of his favorite pastimes is traveling, although he also enjoys cooking, reading and spending time with his family.
Contrary to popular belief, there are some places he has yet to visit and included on that list are Peru, Chile, Argentina, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. “People don’t ask me where I’ve been—they always ask me where I haven’t been,” he added.
Today, she is affiliated with Coldwell Banker in Katonah as an Associate Broker and is an Independent Certified Coach.
The Anne Freyvogel Hanna Legacy Award is named after Anne F. Hanna, who co-founded Howard Hanna Real Estate Services with Howard Hanna Jr. in 1957.
Real estate coach Brian Buffini provided practical advice on how agents can thrive in challenging conditions and use change as a lever for growth, drawing on his extensive experience in training over three million professionals in 37 countries.
Swarthout is one of 111 leaders across the United States, and the third in New York State, who have devoted their careers to the land title industry and earned their designation.
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