Agent Profile: Mike Weinstock Works for Himself

I do a lot of job interviews at Nooklyn, so I get to meet a lot of people.

Some start with an easy rapport, some are a colloquium-like exchange of ideas, and some go straight to the hard numbers. I keep an open mind about first impressions of personalities, because interviews –while revealing—are not always predictive.

Mike and Trish Weinstock, real estate novices who interviewed in early March, did not leave me guessing. They were as warm and open as anyone I’ve ever met, and we ended up talking for 2 hours. I had to postpone my next appointment, and it was well worth it.

Their warmth and careful attention to detail has never wavered, and it has definitely paid off. From early April to mid-November they closed over 90 rental deals combined, with a gross commission number that put them in Nooklyn’s Top 10 for 2017 (even though they missed the first 3 months of the year). They also got scores of referrals and positive reviews.

I decided to inaugurate our Agent Profile Series by sitting down with Mike to ask more about his life and experience. (We’ll talk more with Trish in a later feature.) We chose KCBC (@KCBCbeer), a great Bushwick brewery that opened in 2016 a couple blocks from Mike’s apartment. I chose an intense IPA with a citrusy profile while Mike preferred a sour ale served in a wide goblet. We sat down on Halloween night as I was returning from trick-or-treating with my 4-year-old and Mike was wrapping up a successful apartment showing.

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Mike grew up in the 80’s in Jericho, Long Island, a child of a hard-working first-generation American mom and a native New Yorker dad. Mike’s mother’s parents, who had been in the camps, left Germany after the War. Their experience gave Mike an inherent understanding of difference, he thinks, and a love for outsider culture. He liked school, but didn’t gravitate towards the in-crowd. Rather than team sports, he and his friends biked. Mike was also into music and spent a lot of time with his guitar.

College sent Mike to Cincinnati for a year, then back to community college in Long Island. He was just having fun, “majoring in beer and girls.” Junior year he switched to Ohio State where he got his first job doing phone marketing for a mortgage company. Often times his phone was put on auto-dialer, so he would just keep going, call after call, no breaks.

After college he took a similar job with a small mortgage broker in Greenpoint in the early 2000s, trying to teach himself how to qualify clients with little training. It didn’t go well. By the time he turned 25 he decided it was time to move out of his parents’ house and make a new start.

Mike moved to an apartment in Forest Hills, Queens and got a sales job with Ruby’s Costumes that sent him traveling all over New Jersey selling Halloween and Christmas merchandise to big regional stores. He had to research each market and build loyal personal relationships. And as fate would have it, costumes eventually led him to uniforms. He started with Liberty Uniform, servicing clients across 4 states, then Forest Uniform, canvassing the city for buildings with doormen and maintenance crews, and finally Uniforms Today, dealing with transit and medical uniform accounts.

Mike was good at sales and time management, and over time he was able to build an enjoyable life on the Upper East Side. He even had enough accounts in good standing to make better money by moving to commission pay only. Since he could maintain his old client relationships easily, he had time to go looking for even more clients. Life was good.

During the economic crash of 2008, Mike’s company abruptly had all his clients re-sign their contracts, and thus cut him out of the deal. Having just come through a divorce, he decided it was time to move on, and began to put more time into tattooing. He had already been practicing at a small shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, ‘Joaquin Inks,’ named after a client who had fatally fallen face-first into a glass table. He started out by offering free or cheap tattoos over Craigslist, and eventually worked his way up to an apprenticeship at a more established shop in Williamsburg.

During this time Mike got both his hands fully tattooed. He saw those tattoos as a promise to always work for himself.

While learning to ink he also DJ’d, bartended, and began working as a bike courier.

From his first days doing bike delivery Mike knew he wanted to build his own business. So he started canvassing again, just as he had in his uniform sales days. This time the target was restaurants and stores in Williamsburg. He developed a business model where restaurants pay monthly for bike delivery and scheduling is managed externally.

For the company’s logo design, Mike Instagram-messaged graffiti artist Steiner, well known for his many murals around Bushwick. Steiner also created a t-shirt design, as did other rider-artists like Sam Nigrosh of Sun Eater Studio, each in their own style. The name for the company – Chop Chop Courier Group – was meant to be a kitchen term that signifies fast.

While setting up the company Mike met Trish, a Pratt photography graduate from Dallas who was working in one of his client restaurants, Papacitos. She joined the rider crew too, and they fell in love.

They also met Ryan McLaughlin, a manager at Roebling Sporting Club who was transitioning to agent work at Nooklyn. He encouraged them to sign up for the New York state real estate salesperson course and they did … one full year before they actually took the exam.

“We had a good thing going,” says Mike of the delay, “but we had higher goals too.”

Now, in his work at Nooklyn, Mike applies a lifetime’s worth of emotional skills that you just cannot teach. Detail-oriented customer service, loyalty, team-building, and a generally optimistic outlook keeps him going. At 43-years-old, he can easily be mistaken for much younger.

In every situation, I’ve noticed, Mike really cares that the right thing happens. He doesn’t mind going out of his way if that’s what it takes.

Mike’s clients clearly enjoy his approach, and – as for me— I’m grateful he’s brought his warm, self-starter spirit to Nooklyn. His example makes those of us around him better.

Did You Know? Mike and Trish are committed vegans. Hit them up for restaurant and recipe recommendations.

Mike Weinstock / mikew@nooklyn.com / 917-626-9838
Trish Weinstock / trish@nooklyn.com / 917-257-1044

All photos taken by Chris Setter.