Stories
Stories
Fixer Upper
Real estate broker Sharon Enloe Baum (MBA ’65) cruises the streets of Manhattan in a chauffeured black Rolls-Royce that sports the license plate SOLD 1. Actually, in terms of co-ops and houses, she’s sold a lot more than one during her eighteen-year career. But in terms of dollars, it’s true that she’s “sold 1” — as in $1 billion in sales.
Baum is senior vice president and “Director of the Exclusive Properties Division” at the Corcoran Group, the top-selling residential real estate firm in a city where the average sale price for an apartment hit $1 million in 2004. Previously, she spent almost two decades in marketing at Chemical Bank, before quitting to try her hand at real estate in 1987. Then came that year’s stock market crash, which precipitated a six-year tumble in housing prices as well. “I decided if I could make it in a market that was going down, down, down, then certainly I would be able to enjoy the good times,” Baum told Bloomberg Markets (July 7, 2005), explaining why she stuck with it.
What’s her secret to success? “It’s all about the relationships,” said Baum, whose happiest one began at HBS, where she met her husband, Stephen Baum (MBA ’65), and has grown to include sons Ben (Harvard Law School ’98) and Sam (Harvard ’98).
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 01 Mar 2024
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
In My Humble Opinion: Role Model
Re: Salma Qarnain (MBA 2002); By: Julia Hanna -
- 01 Dec 2023
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
The Imposter Among Us
Re: Edgar Wallner (PMD 22); Dick Egan (PMD 22); Mika Nishimura (MBA 1989); Clifford Maxwell (MBA 2021); Sumit Ganguli (OPM 52); Ellie Luce (PMD 30); Mike Voevodsky (MBA 1992); Sam Burman (MBA 1993); Francis Nedvidek (TGMP 4); Wendy Perben (MBA 2002); Hugh Taylor (MBA 1992); Greg Brown (MBA 1992); John Dixon (MBA 1982) -
- 22 Nov 2023
- Skydeck
So You Want to Join a Startup
Re: Gustavo Bessalel (MBA 1988) -
- 01 Mar 2023
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Research Brief: Great Expectations
Re: Jon M. Jachimowicz (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); By: Jill Radsken