Sometimes, a reporter pens a piece that justifies, in one glorious tangle of words, all of those torturous years you spent learning to read. Today is that sometime, and Bloomberg's Kathleen M. Howley is that reporter. Her feature on Manhattan real estate brokers, specifically Sharon Baum, Patricia Burnham, and Michael Shvo, is so bubblicious, we wish could read it aloud to each and every one of you. Alas, your phones are busy. For now, some snippets, and a link:
1) [Baum] says she used to hire Lincoln Town Cars, the standard New York car-service ride, until a shabby one showed up one morning. "Sharon, is this really the best you can do?'' Baum remembers her client saying. Baum promptly bought her first Rolls Royce. Seven years later, she's on her third.
2) A few miles downtown, near the New York Stock Exchange, Shvo is donning his version of construction boots: $400 black Prada loafers. He keeps the pair in the back of his Mercedes so his $700 Louis Vuittons don't get scuffed when he walks through building sites.
3) Burnham muffles the phone handset against the shoulder of her black Yves St. Laurent suit. "I'm on a warpath,'' she whispers and turns back to the phone. "Do we have a deal or don't we?'' Burnham says. "I've got to know by 5 tonight.'' And with that, she snaps the phone shut.
Read it today, because tomorrow we will all burn in hell.
· New York's RE Stars Reap Millions Amid Record Prices [Bloomberg]