Dottie Herman and Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate under the leadership of Dottie Herman is now the fifth largest real estate company in the United States.  With over 4,400 agents in more than 60 offices throughout the New York City metropolitan area, Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s sales volume exceeded $12 billion in 2006 and is well on to achieving over $13 billion in 2007. 

Dottie Herman started her real estate company in the heart of Long Island in the 1980s.  She grew the business exponentially both by buying other companies in key communities and by starting offices from scratch when she was unable to find a suitable operation to purchase.  After building a successful business in Nassau and Suffolk Counties she knew that there was an opportunity for further growth by expanding into the East End of Long Island – the Hamptons and North Fork.  Undaunted by the nay-sayers, Dottie opened office after office until she blanketed the area and became the formidable competitor she had envisioned against the entrenched firms already there. 

The Manhattan market beckoned Dottie once she was firmly established in the East End.  It was the perfect complement to her operations in the Hamptons and the rest of Long Island as so many of the same customers bought in all three areas.  The mansion owner on the North Shore of Nassau County had a pied-a-terre in Manhattan and a beach home in the Hamptons.  It was only a matter of time until she found the right company – the venerable Douglas Elliman, a luxury name in the residential real estate business for almost a century.  In 2004, Douglas Elliman was purchased by Dottie and her partner, Howard Lorber, along with Prudential Real Estate Affiliates.  Dottie’s vision was to create a full service company and that she did by developing a company with not only residential brokerage but also retail and commercial leasing and sales, relocation and settlement services, property management, mortgage financing and title insurance.  Since the acquisition, Dottie has doubled the sales force in the city and extended her operations into Brooklyn through both acquisitions and office openings in key communities.  Currently, the company is billing over $13 billion in revenue this year.