The Real Deal

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Hall wins REBNY lifetime achievement award; Glick and Kurtin win deal of the year for Bailey Mansion

October 22, 2009 12:30PM By Candace Taylor

This year's REBNY Residential Deal of the Year Awards event was enlivened by tales of biting fleas, wild dogs and cremated remains, with Stribling's Lori Huler Glick and Cindy Kurtin winning first place for selling the Bailey Mansion in Harlem. The Real Estate Board of New York presented its top awards at the annual event, held this year at 230 Fifth Penthouse Lounge. Gala committee members regaled a (not particularly quiet, as usual) crowd of 500 with details of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles this year's winners overcame to make deals.

Lori Huler Glick and Cindy Kurtin from Stribling & Associates were awarded residential deal of the year for selling the Bailey Mansion at 10 St. Nicholas Place in Harlem, which traded for $1.4 million in cash in  August after originally being listed for $10 million in 2008. The agents faced quite a challenge because the supposedly haunted mansion needed extensive work after having been used as a funeral home and overrun by a pack of wild dogs, according to Ruth McCoy, an executive vice president from Brown Harris Stevens, who presented the award. Water damage had filled the house with a pungent smell, and the agents said they paid neighborhood homeless people to empty buckets of water from the leaking roof during the rain storms this summer. Throughout the process, Consolidated Edison threatened to turn off the electricity and the property faced numerous other violations. Once a buyer had been found, liens had to be paid and the cremated remains of former customers had to be carefully stored before the house could change hands, McCoy continued. Finally, the agents reported that on the buyers' final walk-through they were attacked by biting fleas in the house's garden. Surprisingly, they closed nonetheless.

Senad Ahmetovic of Halstead Property was given the residential deal of the year award for rentals. Ahmetovic worked with a client who was relocating to New York after working for UNICEF in Senegal. Ahmetovic found the family a short-term rental in a co-op after arranging a board interview via Skype, according to Jeff Rothstein from Prudential Douglas Elliman, who presented the award. Then, he set about finding them a long-term rental. After the client lost one apartment after not showing up for a lease-signing, he finally found them a rental in a high-rise and they've sent him several referrals since.

Following is a roundup of the rest of the night's winners:

• Residential Deal of the Year, second place: Sonia Stock, Prudential Douglas Elliman and Janet Weiner, Halstead Property
• Residential Deal of the Year, third place: Sandra Lauer, Halstead Property
• Residential Deal of the Year, rentals, second place: Thomas McNichols, Citi Habitats
• The Henry Forster Award, for outstanding achievement in residential real estate market and outstanding ethical conduct: Tresa Hall, the Corcoran Group
• The 2009 Residential Most Promising Rookie Salesperson of the Year: Renee Fishman, Halstead Property

Tags: Corcoran REBNY bailey mansion cindy kurtin citi habitats halstead janet weiner lori huler glick prudential douglas elliman rebny residential deal of the year awards renee fishman sandra lauer senad ahmetovic sonia stock stribling thomas mcnichols tresa hall

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