Lauren Balbuena recently took on the role of Senior Vice President at William Raveis Real Estate, where she will manage operations across New York City, the Hamptons, and the North Fork. The move comes as the traditional split between city living and weekend retreats continues to fade. For many buyers, Manhattan and the East End have become a single, fluid market, and real estate firms are trying to keep up by building teams that can handle both areas at once.
Balbuena has spent over a decade working in brokerage operations. She previously helped a Manhattan franchise grow by adding more than 200 agents in a few years, focusing on how offices are run and how agents are trained. Her career has involved supporting thousands of agents, and her new position is part of a larger push by William Raveis to expand its presence in New York.
The firm, which remains a family-owned business, already has a significant footprint in places like Montauk, East Hampton, and Greenport. Chris Raveis, the company’s president of residential sales, noted that Balbuena’s history of building productive offices fits the company’s long-term goals. Because they are privately held, the company tends to focus more on steady investment in technology and staff rather than short-term market shifts.
For Balbuena, the decision to join was driven by the company’s culture and its focus on supporting agents. She sees it as a chance to help run one of the larger independent firms in a region where the competition for luxury listings is constant. The appointment suggests that for these firms, success often depends as much on the people managing the offices and the technology they use as it does on the properties themselves. By bringing Balbuena on board, William Raveis is looking to bridge the gap between its city and East End offices, making it easier for agents to work across the different markets their clients frequent.