Meet the Rock ‘n’ Roll Real Estate Agent
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Linda Stein keeps on rocking.
“It’s called having fun,” the star broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman said yesterday. “I’ve had a lifetime of it.”
That lifetime has included teaching fifth grade in Riverdale after obtaining a master’s degree in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. It has included hanging out in Paris for six months.
After the birth of her daughters, Mandy and Samantha, she joined the music business of then husband Seymour Stein, who launched Madonna’s music career at Sire Records.
Ms. Stein’s lifetime of fun has also included managing rock ‘n’ roll bands such as the Ramones, the quartet she handled along with the legendary Danny Fields. She also managed Steve Forbert, as well as the Deal. She traversed the world, ensuring her singers showed up at concerts and that the local impresarios fully paid her bands’ share of the box office.
After long years of enforcing order and fiscal discipline in a notoriously rowdy business, the Manhattan-born Ms. Stein – one of two daughters of Ira and Mabel Adler, who ran a kosher catering enterprise – decided to segue into another industry. She turned to real estate.
Why real estate?
“Doesn’t everyone think there’s money to be made in real estate?” Ms. Stein said.
The money, at first, wasn’t nearly what it was talked up to be.
Re-enter Madonna, this time in need of an apartment in Manhattan.
“She didn’t want to spend more than a million dollars,” Ms. Stein said. “So I found her an attractive apartment on Central Park West. She still lives there.”
Whether it was through Madonna or others in the entertainment industry, word spread quickly that Linda Stein was the real estate agent to the stars.
Celebrities sought her services. There was Sting and his wife Trudy. There was Billy Joel. There was Steven Spielberg. There was Michael Douglas. There was Calvin Klein. Not long ago, there was Angelina Jolie.
There was also Damon Dash, the hip-hop mogul.
“Thanks to the accident of birth, I speak English,” Ms. Stein said. “Thanks to my time in Paris, I speak French. And thanks to Damon Dash, I speak hip-hop.” Thanks to the buzz about her, she even got to be in the movies.
Well, sort of.
The real estate agent who in the film “Wall Street” shows a fancy apartment to the financial hustler played by Charlie Sheen was reportedly based on Ms. Stein’s persona.
Showing fancy apartments is precisely what Ms. Stein does virtually every day of the year.
“I’m at it all the time,” she said.”Any time that I feel tired, I look around – and there’s Dottie Herman and Howard Lorber working relentlessly. So I buck up and get back into the fray. Dottie and Howard are wonderful examples for everyone in the real estate business, whether you’re a novice or a veteran.”
She is referring to the co-chairmen of Prudential Douglas Elliman Realty Company, who she said coaxed her into joining their company.
“I made the decision six years ago, and I haven’t ever regretted it,” she said. “Working with a large company gives you the advantage of having an infrastructure.”
The infrastructure is useful in getting technical work done on deals, but Ms. Stein is the only one to show her apartments.
“If a potential client wants to see a property for the 42nd time – well, I’ll personally show it for the 42nd time,” Ms. Stein said. “I’m always focused on good service – and on the sale.”
Typically, she sells 20 or 30 properties annually. Last year, the smallest deal that she closed was worth $2.5 million; the biggest was for $30 million.
She doesn’t advertise such properties – indeed, Ms. Stein seldom advertises any of her exclusive listings.
Those listings include apartments in Manhattan and properties in East Hampton, Sagaponack,and other places on Long Island where celebrities prefer their second or third or fourth homes.
The listings also include foreign locations.
“I know Rome, I know Paris, I know London,” Ms. Stein said. “And I prefer dealing only in properties that are on good streets – like the Via Appian Antica [the Appian Way] in Rome.That road has been around for more than a thousand years, and will be around for thousands more. Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue are like that, too – Manhattan’s Appian Way, streets that are eternal, streets where everybody wants to stay.”
Not long ago, the singer Sting decided he wanted a property in Italy, so he called Ms. Stein.
“I nurture and maintain all my relationships,” Ms. Stein said. “I want people to come back to me. Sting and Trudy came back to me. I want my clients to be part of my life.”
One celebrity who became part of her life was Sir Elton John, the British singer. He’s the godfather of Ms. Stein’s younger daughter, Mandy, who makes documentary films. A few days ago, Ms. Stein was among the select guests in Britain at Sir Elton’s civil ceremony marking his personal partnership with David Furnish, a Canadian film producer who’s been his companion for the last 11 years.
Jetting to Britain for a couple of days and then taking off for yet another business destination might exact its toll on anyone, but Ms. Stein seems spry and possessed of boundless energy.
This is especially noteworthy in view of the fact that she was twice diagnosed with breast cancer. When her illness was first detected, Ms. Stein volunteered for what was then an experiment involving dose-dense chemotherapy. The chemotherapy is administered every two weeks rather than the traditional three weeks and is reportedly able to accelerate the destruction of cancer cells.
When news of her illness traveled through New York’s real-estate community, rivals started circulating rumors that the Linda Stein era had ended.
“The rock ‘n’ roll business is mild compared to the real estate industry,” Ms. Stein said. “If you think you’ve experienced the most vicious competition, think again. But hey, I’m still here. I’m still rockin’.”