007 - How Louise Phillips Forbes stays competitive in NYC Real Estate

If you’re searching for Louise Phillips Forbes, one of Manhattan’s most respected real estate agents, this conversation gives you an inside look at what has made her one of the top performers in New York City real estate for decades. On Episode 7 of the Loan Daddy Podcast, Scott Nadler breaks down his biggest takeaways after sitting down with Louise Phillips Forbes to discuss luxury real estate, client relationships, market expertise, and what separates elite Manhattan Realtors from everyone else.

With more than $6 billion in career sales, Louise Phillips Forbes has built a reputation as one of the most trusted names in Manhattan real estate. In this episode, Scott shares the lessons that stood out most from their interview—from mastering market knowledge and understanding buyers at a deeper level to building lifelong client relationships and leading every transaction with confidence.

If you’re a Manhattan Realtor, real estate agent, mortgage professional, or simply interested in New York City luxury real estate, this episode offers practical insights that apply to every market.

In this episode you’ll learn:

* Why Louise Phillips Forbes believes knowledge is the ultimate competitive advantage
* How top Manhattan real estate agents build trust with buyers and sellers
* The importance of relationships over transactions
* Why authentic personal branding wins in luxury real estate
* How elite agents create lifelong clients instead of one-time sales
* Lessons every Realtor can apply to grow their business

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:40 Meeting Louise Phillips Forbes
01:40 Why Louise Phillips Forbes became a Manhattan real estate legend
03:21 Knowledge is the ultimate competitive advantage
04:36 Behind the scenes of top luxury real estate success
05:02 Why relationships matter more than transactions
06:19 Authenticity creates lasting client connections
09:16 Final thoughts & biggest takeaways

🎙️ Watch the full interview with Louise Phillips Forbes to hear her perspective on Manhattan real estate, luxury home sales, client service, and what it takes to succeed in one of the world’s most competitive real estate markets.

WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/3cVnANoU8nM

👇 We’d love to hear from you:
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from working in real estate? Leave a comment below.

#LouisePhillipsForbes #ManhattanRealEstate #NYCRealEstate

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This agent was amazed at how Wheezy was able to answer their questions and just she knew everything. Welcome to the Lone Daddy Podcast, episode seven. My name is Scott Nadler. If you're watching this, you see I'm rocking the Lone Daddy hat today. That's right. We have merch now, and I've given a lot of presentations at offices before and I've handed out hats and seen people wear them. It's really great. And look, a lot of the feedback that I've gotten is it's such a good conversation starter. It just stops people in their tracks. They're like squinting their eyes to make sure they see that they're reading this correctly. So if you want one, let's set up a time to meet for coffee. Uh bring me into your office and I will throw out hats into the crowd. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Luis Phillips Forbes. If you work in New York City Real Estate, this is a name that you know, or at least you've heard of before. She is one of the top agents in Manhattan and has been one of the top agents for many, many, many, many years. When I first got into the industry, I would look at a list from the real deal who would list just the top real estate agents in New York City, and she was always on top of that list, and I would cold call that list. And more often than not, people would hang up on me or say that they don't work with lenders, they only work with all cash buyers, which is something just kind of a throwaway line, or they're already set, they have a lender that they work with. But every so often you would get someone who was engaging and would want to meet with you. I would say something that would catch their attention. Luis was always someone who was so friendly and so engaging and always looking for information. So I've been in the industry now for 16 years, probably known her for close to 13 of those years. And we sat down recently and had a conversation about her business and what she sees in the market and what separates her from other agents. To say she's she's one of the top agents, I mean, you could look at the numbers. You know, in her career, she's closed north of six billion dollars worth of business. I mean, that's an insane number for a real estate agent to produce. And she's still going. She's still going very strong. She's very active, she's very energetic, and you can see that from the interview, which we're going to link here. It was a great conversation. And I think my three biggest takeaways from this, I'll start with her knowledge is her competitive advantage.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Our knowledge is the power of our success. It isn't your high heels, and although I wear some good high heels. Um, it it is really the knowledge behind it and the confidence of conveying it. And if you don't know it, you don't need to make it up. Just like, you know what, I know where to get that. Let me get let me get back to you. And and the preparation we demand of our sellers, you know, I always say the presentation, the preparation, and the pricing. Well, I demand of myself the preparation for their home. They owe that. We they are owed that by the entrusting us with their process. So if they don't know it, then we have to get it. And that is the partnership that you start the minute you walk through the door to be considered as a pitch. And that is also if you can't get it from the owner, you get it from the managing agent, can't get it from the manager agent, you get it from your colleagues. And those are the people that you've done hundreds of deals with who remember what a pleasure it was to deal with you. They go, sure, Weez, let me, what can I get you?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So it it does come around.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

She really knows her product and she really understands the buyers that she works with. She knows what is going to work for the husband but will not work for the wife. She really understands them very, very, very well. And when she's selling a property, she knows her product. I referenced this in the interview, but there's an agent who I do a lot of business with who brought her buyers to one of Luis's listings. By the way, she goes by Wheezy. So this agent brought her buyers to one of Wheezy's listings, and it was one of these buildings that has some issues. You know, there's some financial issues in the building, local 11 issues, which is not out of the ordinary right now. And the buyers had some questions. So this agent got Wheezy on the phone. This agent was amazed at how Wheezy was able to answer their questions. And just she knew everything right there on the spot about what was happening, knew how to communicate it effectively to these buyers. And ultimately, it it made the buyers feel very comfortable about the building. They ended up moving forward. So it just speaks to her knowing what's happening in the market, understanding the properties that she's selling, understanding the buyers that she's working with. That was my first takeaway from her. She did say that the powers and the knowledge behind the scenes, you know, not the high heels. So you see her, she's very active on social media, she does a lot of TV interviews, so she's she's out there. But it's the work that she's doing when she's in the office and she's speaking to her clients about, you know, what they need to know. So that behind the scenes of work is really what separates her. The second big takeaway for me was that relationships compound more than transactions.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I was just on the phone with one of the board members of a big management company, develop a multi-generational real estate family, and I'm like, wait a minute, you're on the board of that building as an employee. And I was like, Oh, well, can I get this, this, this, this, this? Could you make an introduction to the managing agent? Because they don't return phone calls. And so it's leveraging your relationships in every way of a tentacle that can be successful. That's why it matters how you treat people.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So she is very relationship-driven. She calls buyers directly to answer their questions. She doesn't rely on email. She really wants to get people on the phone and talk to them so they can really understand it. I think a lot of people hide behind email. Things can take a lot longer when you're doing that, and she likes to get people on the phone immediately, and that develops a much closer relationship. She stays close with her clients long after closing. So she gets invited to weddings, to the birth of clients' kids. So she stays very close with her clients, and she does a really good job of quarterbacking the transaction itself. She wants to match up the client with the right attorney, with the right lender. If they need a CPA, she could do that as well. And I think that that's another area that really stuck out to me. And lastly, she's authentically her.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Do the things that are important, which is be authentic, be exactly who I am at all times, both professionally. And look, I'm not everybody's cup of tea, I am a lot. And and you know, there are sellers that are like she's not my husband's not gonna jive with that. And that's okay. There is enough abundance in our world that there's a shoe that'll fit all people. And if I'm just exactly who I am at all times in social media, in my appointments, in my conversations, you know, I just won this amazing uh listing on Fifth Avenue competing with some of the top, top agents in our industry and nationwide. And you know, I it was several twenty something million dollars. Um but but I was exactly who I am. And and that is the you don't have to be a chameleon, you just be yourself. And I, you know, so I guess that's what I would say from my brand that it starts from being, you know, imperfect, you know, I'm dyslexic, I'm I'm sober 35 years, I talk about all of these things in my everyday life with my clients because that's who I am. It's probably why I have like 15 godchildren because these were clients that I worked with just could never get rid of me because I become a part of the fabric of their life and therefore they're clients for life. But they're not really clients, they're they're friends. I mean, I was today unable to because I was with you to be with a client who had sold her apartment 28 years ago, and you know, I had to send her to an apartment without me. And I called the broker just to make sure it was okay. I am one of these people that I love. My favorite part is the people part. So I don't want to send my customers and then you know, wait for a broker to call me. I've already talked to that broker and the buyer while she was in the apartment. You know, it's it's because I care, and that doesn't change. That translates unconditionally because it's not about the deal, it's about the process, and that is, I guess, part of my brand.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

She admitted in the interview that we did, she's not for everyone. She's not everyone's cup of tea, and she's okay with that. But at the end of the day, she'll end up working with more people because she cuts through all of the BS. You know, she is authentically her. She's dyslexic, she's open about that. She's forgotten how many years, but like 35 years sober. She's open about that. So she develops such a close connection with a lot of these buyers and sellers, which make them fall in love with her because they find that they they really get to know her very, very well. Her goal is not to attract everyone. Her goal is to align with people who understand her and get her. I think so many people are trying to be everything for everyone. You don't want to be fake, right? And I think she comes across as just being authentically her. And that was another one of my big takeaways. So, again, we're gonna link the interview into this episode so you'll be able to watch the whole entire thing in its entirety. There are a lot of other takeaways that you might find. I'm curious as to what you think about this. So feel free to put them into the comments. Feel free to message me about them. I will see you on the next episode. Thanks, everyone. Bye.