Leslie O’Shea stepped in where another broker had failed and completed her first deal as an agent in January.
The Stribling broker, who started as an agent in mid-September, had interested buyers lining up in droves after she got her first exclusive, a one-bedroom co-op apartment at 417 East 90th Street.
The apartment, overlooking Eli Zabar’s greenhouses and bakery, had been handled by a previous broker who had sat on it, trying for months unsuccessfully to bring in an inside person to buy it.
But the first buyer O’Shea showed the $250,000 apartment to jumped at it, and within a week O’Shea had a signed contract for the 500 square foot pad with river views and the regular aroma of fresh baked bread.
The Real Deal has tracked O’Shea and two other agents (Margaret Maile of Corcoran and Richard McDonough of Douglas Elliman) as they got their start in real estate as part of a monthly series which ends with this installment. The series set out to follow the agents until each got their first signed contract.
“I’m really thrilled,” said O’Shea, who the month before had been spending most of her efforts on a dozen buyers, many of whom weren’t close to buying.
The listing came thanks to Cornelia Zagat Eland, a broker at Stribling, who passed on the deal to the new agent.
When O’Shea met with the seller, a woman who lives in the suburbs and rents the place out, she learned the previous broker had done a bad job.
“For a few months, it may not have even been listed,” said O’Shea. “So we were starting with a person who was a little sensitive about the whole process.” Making assurances the same wouldn’t happen again, O’Shea got the listing during her first meeting with the woman, who works in debt restructuring.
Things then moved fast. The first client O’Shea showed the apartment to, a real estate developer whose wife works in casting, made an offer right away. But the cost of mortgage and maintenance would have been 39 percent of his gross income, and his parents could not sign on as guarantors because they live out-of-state, which is against the board’s rules.
After several other offers, a young woman came in with a strong bid, a high six-figure salary and lots of liquidity, and the seller accepted.
The deal developed another wrinkle after an open house produced three more offers, one of which was substantially above the asking price.
O’Shea was still working out how to handle the situation at the time of her interview with The Real Deal. “The critical thing here is that I need to get my client the best deal possible, and be fair and ethical in my treatment of the prospective buyers and their brokers,” she said.
Meanwhile, O’Shea continues to work with several buyers, and recently got a call that she said was especially pleasing, considering the 36-year-old hopes some of her clients will consist of people she knows.
“A friend of mine called looking for a $5 million apartment,” she said.
“It’s someone I’m very close with and we’re practically sisters in a way. It was a nice affirming thing.”
O’Shea also continued her work in partnership with Jeffrey Stockwell, a senior vice president at Stribling, pitching several exclusives throughout Manhattan.
Back in September, only two days on the job, O’Shea had said she was confident about switching gears, leaving a career in marketing for one in real estate. “I have a strong sense of confidence that I can build up a serious business,” she said at the time. “Though I don’t have any idea how long it will take.”
Now that she is on her way, she said, she enjoys the independence of the job and the team backing her up at Stribling. “I’ve never been so professionally happy in my life,” she said. “I’m having a blast.”