| Laurence Rosenberg - President
Prior to founding RDNY.com, Laurence Rosenberg was a principal in the boutique residential brokerage firm of Swift & Watson Realty, Inc. located in Greenwich Village, NYC.
Laurence was approached by Ralph Barocas and Louis Wenger to be the third partner in RDNY.com because of his extensive Manhattan real estate experience. He also brought the first substantial financial investment in RDNY.com, a testament to his belief that the traditional way of renting apartments in New York was about to be changed with his and Ralph's ideas and energy.
First licensed in 1981, Laurence worked as a rental agent for the dominant rental firm, Rodman Realty. In November 1984, Laurence switched to the booming coop sales market by switching to the Greenwich Village carriage-trade firm of Kanelba & Robilotti.
Further opportunity to expand his real estate experience occurred in January 1986 with a switch to one of the most active coop conversion firms, Time Equities Inc. As Regional Sales Manager, Laurence was responsible for sales in about-to-be and recently converted apartment coop buildings in part of Manhattan, all of Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey; 56 buildings in all.
The 1989 collapse of the sales market for new coop conversions again presented an opportunity. Swift & Watson Realty was founded in 1990 by Laurence Rosenberg and a partner with the goal of becoming the most highly respected rental firm in Greenwich Village. This goal was achieved when Swift & Watson was the first rental firm admitted to the Downtown Brokers Association, the premier broker association of sales firms in Manhattan at that time. This association resulted in numerous referrals and co-brokes with top NY realty firms such as The Corcoran Group, The Halstead Property Co., Ambrose-Mar Elia, Wells & Gay, etc. In 1993, Swift & Watson added a coop sales department to complement its rental dept.
With this extensive background in residential rentals and sales, Laurence realized the vast changes in technology in the last 15 years would surely impact that tradition-bound way of real estate brokerage. The change would surely be greater than merely the addition of PCs to real estate offices. The inevitable drive for efficiency in a more competitive marketplace would mandate a change in the way real estate rentals reach the public.
Laurence believes this is a market-driven, mass-information, business. No longer would a trip to the real estate office be necessary for an interview; no longer would brokers be the guardians of secret information provided stealthily by reclusive landlords; the closed, secretive, high-commission, traditional model is now being assailed by RDNY.com.
Ralph Barocas - Vice-President
Ralph Barocas is a graduate from SUNY Oneonta with a BS degree in Theater and Film. In 1984 he helped to create and build BrokerNet, Manhattan's first attempt at creating a computerized Multiple Listing Service. Real estate brokerage companies would have the ability to organize their own listings with a unique in-house software program and at the same time give them the ability to network exclusive or open listings on a secure level for co-brokerage. BrokerNet had the right idea, but was ahead of its time. During the 80's very few brokerage houses needed or wanted to share their inventory with anyone else.
After the company closed in 1986, Ralph went onto work with Manhattan Apartments, first as a successful rental agent, then as its head of listings.
In 1988, Ralph joined formed Preferred Systems Inc.(PSI) and its subsidiary Brochures Plus, a one-stop graphic design service, combining photography, desktop publishing, and in-house color printing. Brochures Plus was one of the first companies in the country to utilize the Canon Laser Copier to create low-cost, low-run color brochures for companies like The Corcoran Group, Douglas Elliman, Stribling & Co, Coldwell Banker, and many others.
From 1992 to November 1995, Ralph worked with various Manhattan rental agencies as their sales manager and/or listings coordinator.
During the time from August 1995 to October 1995 Ralph created the prototype for a Visual No-Fee rental agency, combining all the experience and knowledge he had in real estate, computers, desktop publishing, and photography. He took his ideas and designs to Laurence Rosenberg who joined as a initial investor. From there, Ralph went to two other investors for the remaining initial start-up capital investment to start Apartments Illustrated, or as we know it today, RDNY.com |
