By Erin Chambers

For increasing numbers of Manhattanites weary of the big-city hustle and bustle, the quiet, tree-lined streets of Brooklyn have become a welcome alternative. The Flatbush neighborhood brownstones that set the backdrop for The Cosby Show -- the actual home in the show's title sequence can still be seen at 10 Leroy Street -- remain a much-sought destination for families in search of space and value. What's changing, however, is the way local real estate agents and much larger newcomers are competing for the district's business.

With the new year comes a whole new way of doing business. On Jan. 3, the big Manhattan brokerages that have increasingly staked their claim across the East River instituted MLS, a computerized database that allows them to share listings. For brokers who subscribe, it means access to thousands more listings -- that's the upside. But it also means co-brokering those sales, which halves commissions -- a fundamental change that represents a disproportionate blow to smaller firms moving fewer properties.

LOCATION, LOCATION...REPUTATION.  In this storied section of New York City, most brokerages operate with exclusive listings, with a single agent having sole rights to represent an individual seller for a specified time. That means one commission for the agent, and often more personalized service for the seller. But because those agents don't share listings, it can also mean a lot more legwork for buyers, since no single broker has access to all potential properties in any given area. It's not uncommon for prospective homeowners to work with half a dozen agents before deals close.

Critics say the old system was inconvenient for customers. Its defenders argue that a neighborhood benefits from a mosaic of small brokers who know it best. "That's how we've been doing business for almost 20 years," says Ali Young, a sales agent with Cobble Heights Realty, which also operates Heights Berkeley Realty, each with about 10 agents per office. "We have great locations, an established office, and a word-of-mouth reputation within the community."

Now a seismic shift is in store for these old-style brokers, who share a unique, small-business culture in one of the last surviving enclaves of independent real-estate brokering in the U.S. Young calls it, "a small, genuine, little brownstone community." These firms are having to adjust as bigger kids move onto the block. Large outfits like Corcoran and Brown Harris Stevens (owned by Terra Holdings) have made a strong push into Brooklyn over the past several years, as the spillover from Manhattan has increased. In the face of takeovers and stepped-up competition, the David-and-Goliath metaphor has become popular in Brooklyn real estate circles.

CUSTOMER FIRST.  The corporate firms say they are simply providing potential buyers with more, easier-at-hand choices, and sellers with a deeper pool of potential customers. "The advantages are not for the brokerage firms -- the advantages are for the consumer," says Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of Corcoran, which has operated in Brooklyn since 1998 and now boasts 144 agents there. "The seller wants to expose his home to the widest audience possible, and the best way to do that is to co-broke. And if you're a customer looking for a place in Brooklyn, you might find it very frustrating to see four or five different brokers."

Rather than subscribe to the new listing service and take significant cuts in commission, many smaller firms are ready -- and in some cases, eager -- to defend their niche with personalized service, which they say the heavy hitters have trouble matching.

As with many small businesses facing bigger competitors, the customer-driven method has thrived in Brooklyn, with its unique, high-end properties and "upscale bohemian" residents and would-be residents, says Laurie Bleier, owner and president of local portal HelloBrooklyn.com. For potential buyers, small agencies with exclusive listings can mean more traipsing from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking for just the right fit, but independent shops like Cobble Heights say their reputation and long-standing relationships with the community overcome that disadvantage, making for happier buyers and sellers in the end.

"If you walk down Carlton Street in Prospect Heights, the perception of older people, the real neighborhood people, is that these larger agencies are opportunists," says Young, who has lived in Brooklyn for years and won't be subscribing to the shared-listing database. "I'm certainly not worried."

Continued on next page>>  | 1 | 2