Those light fixtures really tie the room together.
That’s what buyers from a foreign government told Compass’ Sofia Falleroni when they discovered the seller’s exclusion would leave the property they wanted a little dimmer than they imagined. It was a total deal breaker, they said.
Falleroni, who had shown them 40 properties, was determined to get a deal done with the co-broker, Corcoran’s David Mayer. Together, they persuaded the sellers, who had already agreed to a lower sale price, to reconsider.
“[It’s] really important that the brokers got along very well, so we worked together to make it happen,” said Mayer.
After confirming the lights would be in tow, the brokers had to navigate New York’s mansion tax and an international snag with funds for the down payment. But their persistence paid off: They won first place in the Real Estate Board of New York’s residential deal awards in front of roughly 400 colleagues at City Winery on Pier 57.
Falleroni and Mayer were two of the six brokers recognized with the annual honors for deals that threw more than their fair share of curveballs.
While the top spot was earned despite the pain of government bureaucracy, Corcoran’s Rodolfo Lucchese won second place for working an open house with a serious injury from changing a light bulb. Andrew Gordon of Compass, who represented one of the buyers that helped complete the assignment, also received the second-place honor.
“I didn’t even realize I broke my shoulder,” Lucchese said of only realizing the extent of his injuries after his X-rays. “I couldn’t shake hands with anybody… I did the whole open house, I shut it all down. I could barely get in my car.”
The pain didn’t end there: Lucchese was left with no offers for the four condos he was charged with selling shortly before the onset of the pandemic.
The broker, who was in a sling for several months, eventually lined up another set of buyers for the condos. But the pandemic delayed the requisite approvals from the Department of Buildings and three of those four deals fell through, before finally entering contract two years after listing.
Boris Fabrikant, Collin Bond and Sangmi Park, all with Compass, landed third place for sticking it through their sale, but could probably sell the story as a new installment of “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
The brokers, who expected an easy deal from the condo listing, couldn’t stage the unit because the peculiar keys used at the property couldn’t be duplicated. After more than 30 trips to the unit to get it staged, the brokers had to climb a 15-foot ladder to shut off a noisy, broken exhaust fan before each showing and were met with a broken elevator before a set of second showings.
A deal was eventually negotiated and a contract went out, only for due diligence to discover the building was involved in an active lawsuit with a neighboring property. The buyer’s attorney found a $100,000 to $300,000 assessment from the buyer was necessary to repair the facade.
Eight weeks later the contract was signed, but Fabrikant and company weren’t out of the woods yet. They were asked to pack and move 50 of the seller’s terrace planters to the curb — only to be hit with a steep fine for overweight bags — remove a 200-pound safe bolted into the floor — inaccessible without the safe’s password — and carry the pieces of a deconstructed couch down 10 flights of stairs.
Douglas Elliman’s Tristan Harper won the Residential Agent of the Year award and Frederick Warburg Peters of Coldwell Banker Warburg was given the Eileen Spinola Award for Distinguished Service.
Coldwell Banker Warburg’s Bonnie Chajet won the Henry Forster Memorial Award, given to a broker for outstanding achievement and conduct. The Rookie of the Year Award was given to Joseph Conley of Brown Harris Stevens and Spencer Clouse of Bohemia Realty Group.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to include Andrew Gordon also being honored at the ceremony.
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