A Site to Behold
By Marring an age-old industry with modern technology, Michael Bruno brought “The Most Beautiful Things on Earth” to the web.
Michael Bruno is his own best customer. A self-confessed “non-techie” who loves “great old houses and the things in them,” he has spent a decade building
1stdibs, the world’s premier online marketplace for antiques and design. But before assembling 1,200 of the globe’s finest dealers in one remarkably easy-to-search place, before the expansion to other luxury categories (estate & fine jewelry; vintage couture & designer fashion; fine art), before millions of design aficionados flocked to the site, there was his first passion: real estate.
In the ‘90s, Bruno was a young San Francisco real estate broker, squiring Internet millionaires to the best properties in town. Driven by a desire to share in the boom, he bought the domain name 1stdibs.com in 1998, then sold the Pacific Heights home he’d lovingly restored and moved to Paris in search of his Internet inspiration. His first week there, he discovered the legendary Paris Flea Market, and decided to bring it to the world online. (He later moved back to New York in establishing the company.)
The idea was simple: apply a multiple listing service model to the high-end antiques category, making the finest inventory of pieces from the best dealers available to all online. That notion transformed the business by changing the way the design trade — and design-loving civilians — shopped for antiques. In 2010, 1stdibs dealers reported upwards of $500 million in sales.
The story comes full circle this Fall, as 1stdibs launches the latest addition to its portfolio: a search for fine homes. We caught up with the always-in-motion web pioneer
and talked to him about his real estate addiction, his affinity for antiques and why his past, present and future are so intertwined
“…whether one of our beautiful pieces sells to a serious collector or a consumer who simply falls in love with it, we see it as a chance to preserve an object of beauty for generations to come.”
How did you get your start in real estate?
I discovered the joys of selling real estate when I was 19. I was going to school at San Diego State, and working as part of a clean-up crew at a construction site in Rancho Santa Fe one summer. I would watch a fabulous car pull up, and an attractive woman would show the house to her glamorous clients. I found out how much those agents made and thought, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ So I quit school and got my real estate license and became the youngest person to ever sell real estate in La Jolla. I eventually moved to San Francisco, because I wanted a bigger pond.
Where did this love of real estate — and particularly “great old houses,” as you call them — come from?
I grew up in an English Tudor in Larchmont, New York, where there is a large stock of graceful old homes, so I’ve always loved old houses. I was a swimmer in high school and while swimming laps I would obsessively think about floor plans, and how I wanted my house to look when I was older.
Is it true you once sold your house with all its contents–down to the flatware?
The buyers were a lovely couple moving from London. They bought my San Francisco home furnished, and said to err on the side of leaving things. I walked out with just a rolling suitcase.
What do you love more–selling houses or buying them? Or is it buying, renovating, and then selling them?
I’m a serial renovator; my friends say I’m happiest when under the chaos of construction. By age 30, I’d renovated and sold six houses. I follow real estate obsessively and am always in the market. Last month, the day after completing an overhaul of the entire second floor in my country house, I found out my bid on another property nearby was accepted. So here we go again. 1stdibs sells about 6,000 one-of-a-kind items a month.
What’s special about owning a vintage piece?
For me, what’s most special is that whether one of our beautiful pieces sells to a serious collector or a consumer who simply falls in love with it, we see it as a chance to preserve an object of beauty for generations to come. To me, that’s 1stdibs’ greatest contribution: to foster this sense of stewardship. 1stdibs’ new search for fine homes launches this Fall.
Considering your background, is this something you’d always had in mind?
Yes; it fits the lifestyle that our audience leads. Our audience buys big-ticket items on a regular basis, and cares about having a beautiful home. One of the most exciting aspects of the new search is we’re asking top designers and architects (who are all real estate junkies like me) to make “property picks”…to tell us what houses on the market catch their eye and why.
Do you collect anything yourself?
I was once asked this question in an interview with W magazine. I took a look around my house and realized I’d been collecting all sorts of animal-themed objects for years. Doesn’t it make you wonder —what are you collecting without knowing?
As a real-estate-broker-turned-webpioneer, what real estate skills still come in handy to this day?
I don’t know how handy it is, but I can instantly calculate six percent of anything!
[...] A Site to Behold By marrying an age-old industry with modern technology, Michael Bruno brought “The Most Beautiful Things on Earth” to the web. [...]