The estate in Southhampton

A 4.3-acre Southampton estate that was the first oceanfront property to hit the market following Hurricane Sandy has found a buyer within three months, Curbed reported. The five-bedroom home had been listed for $30 million with Harald Grant of Sotheby’s International Realty. The quick turnaround is even more surprising, considering the damage that Sandy wreaked on the Hamptons waterfront, and that oceanfront homes made up so few of the priciest deals on the East End last year…. [more]

From left: John de Neufville and the interior of 81 Horatio Street

A High Line-adjacent townhome belonging to a financial services executive has sold for $17.6 million to William Randolph Hearst’s grandson, a television producer, the Wall Street Journal reported. The five-story pad, at 81 Horatio Street, belonged to John de Neufville, managing director of G2 Investment Group, an investment management advisory. The 7,174-square-foot home — which dates to the 1870s — has six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a roof deck with hot tub, a gym, a wine-tasting room and six wood-burning fireplaces. [more]

From left: 12 East 82nd Street and Janna Bullock

If you’ve ever wanted to own a life-sized dollhouse, you may have missed your chance. Property flipper Janna Bullock has found a buyer willing to pay close to her $19 million asking price for a gutted Upper East Side townhouse missing its rear wall, the New York Observer reported. Nikki Field and Patricia Wheatley, both of Sotheby’s International Realty, listed the home, at 12 East 82nd Street. The property was first listed for $15 million in November, but the asking price was increased, amidst a reported overwhelming interest in it. [more]

The exterior of 740 Park and shots of the unit

Jonathan Sobel, an investor and former partner at Goldman Sachs, has purchased a home inside the exclusive white-glove co-op at 740 Park Avenue. The combined unit, #4/5C sold for $19.25 million, though the New York Times, which first reported the sale, said it traded for a higher price. [more]

Roger Erickson

The state is investigating claims that Sotheby’s International Realty star broker Roger Erickson acted as an undisclosed dual agent in the sale of an apartment at 812 Fifth Avenue, sources told The Real Deal.

Erickson, consistently one of Sotheby’s top-ranking brokers during his career at the firm, is alleged to have misled his client Harvey Schuyler into believing he was acting as Schuyler’s exclusive representative in the 2009 sale of the Fifth Avenue residence, when in fact he was also working with a prospective purchaser, Turkish businesswoman Demet Sabanci Cetindogan. Schuyler filed suit against Erickson and Sotheby’s in Supreme Court earlier this year. A decision on the case is still pending. [more]

Juliette Janssens and Allison Koffman

Broker and real estate heiress Allison Bandier Koffman has moved to Prudential Douglas Elliman from Sotheby’s International Realty with her business partner, Juliette Janssens.

Koffman is the granddaughter of late developer Samuel LeFrak and the daughter of author and longtime Sotheby’s broker Denise LeFrak. In 2009, her mother penned the book “High Rise Low Down: Who’s Who and What’s What in New York’s Most Coveted Apartment Houses,” which gave an inside look at some of New York’s most historic real estate transactions, including the battle over who would successfully win the bid for Laurence Rockefeller’s three-story penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue. [more]

Nikki Field

As Asiatic wealth and influence grows throughout New York’s real estate industry, brokers are increasingly mastering Mandarin, according to the New York Times. Nikki Field and Kevin Brown of Sotheby’s International Realty now travel to mainland China four times a year in order to court rich investors looking to store millions in New York properties.

Chinese buyers are spending large sums of money on exclusive properties like Time Warner Center, 15 Central Park West and One57. [more]

Images of Belden Island on the left, and Jepson Island on the right

A woman who owns about a dozen private islands in Long Island Sound off the Branford, Conn. coast has put two of them on the market for a combined $6 million, the Associated Press reported. Christine Svennigsen, the widow of “party-goods magnate” John Svenningsen, is asking $3.95 million for Belden Island, which is more than an acre large and has a 2,100-square-foot colonial house, and $2 million for Jepson Island, which is about one-quarter of an acre and has a 1,100-square-foot house. [more]

From left: Serena Boardman, the exterior and interior of 26 East 73rd Street and Meredyth Smith (both of Sotheby’s)

An Upper East Side townhouse owned by a noted Dutch writer has sold for $21 million, after being listed last at $23 million, city records and Streeteasy.com show. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion at 26 East 73rd Street hit the market about two years ago, and was at one pointed being scoped by none other than Jerry Seinfeld, according to previous reporting from Curbed.com.

Kees van Beijnum, the seller, is a Dutch novelist whose books have been made into films in the Netherlands. He bought the apartment for $18 million in 2007, according to city records. The buyer was identified only as East 73rd Street LLC. [more]

Harald Grant

From the August issue: Top Hamptons broker Harald Grant joined the Southampton office of Sotheby’s International Realty in 1987. Since then, Grant has sold more than $1 billion in real estate, working with cultural and business titans such as Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Blackstone Group cofounder Peter Peterson.

Last year, Grant was the No. 1 Hamptons broker and the No. 4 broker in the country, according to a Wall Street Journal and Real Trends ranking based on closed transaction volume. He currently has almost $338 million in sales listings, including a $32 million oceanfront beach house in Southampton. [more]