Helping New Yorkers — And Rescue Dogs — Find Their Forever Homes

“Real estate and dog rescue are my passions,” confided Brown Harris Stevens real estate broker Barbara Fox. It shows. Upon entering her Midtown Manhattan office, the space is filled with photos of her own rescues, along with others she helped save. At a glance, more than 25 well-cared-for animals could be counted.

Fox is the founder of Woof Rescue, a nonprofit that takes dogs and cats out of the city’s kill shelters and places them in foster homes. Woof Rescue provides for the dogs’ and cats’ medical care and resocialization, then finds them forever homes.

Apart from finding homes for dogs and cats, Fox is best known for finding homes for humans. Prior to joining Brown, Harris, Stevens, she ran her own real estate firm for 37 years, Fox Residential Group. A top boutique brokerage firm, the company focused on the purchase and sale of cooperative and condominium apartments and townhouses mainly on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.

“I never get tired of the business. I love it — every day is different — I thrive on the excitement. Any new challenge inspires me,” Fox said.

Many real estate agents enter the profession as a second or third career or after they have retired. For Fox, real estate has been her only career. She began just after college and persists to this day.

Of those early days, she said, “I knew I had fire in my belly to work hard and make something of myself. I didn’t like the idea of anyone else controlling my ability to earn a living. It was a perfect fit.”

In the late ‘90s, Fox was selected to receive the Henry Forster Lifetime Achievement Award in residential real estate, selected by residential leaders in the industry. In 2015, the full REBNY trade organization awarded her the Kenneth Gerrity Humanitarian Award for service to the industry and the community.

After thirty-seven years of running her own firm, Fox brought her team to Brown, Harris, Stevens earlier this year. She has also been deeply involved with the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the industry’s trade organization.

Years back, she helped found REBNY’s Residential Division. “A lot of good things came from it,” Fox said. “Number one, there are a lot of terrific people in this business, and at that time, we didn’t know each other. REBNY became a place where we were meeting each other on friendly terms while trying to improve the rules and ethics of the industry. And it really made for great camaraderie.”

Each year, the Residential Division holds the Deal of the Year/Member In Need Charity and Awards Gala. It’s one of those good things for the industry. Fox has served on the gala committee for 37 years and co-chaired the event for fifteen years. The springtime fête raises money for REBNY residential members who have fallen upon hard times from a personal or family illness or other catastrophe.

In response to the question of what she does in her free time, Fox quipped, “What free time?” Between her career, husband, family, and five rescue dogs, she does not have much room for downtime.

But if you have free time and a good heart, Woof Rescue is always in search of more foster pet parents.