It’s hard to imagine coping with the loss of a teenage child, but Halstead Property associate broker Rena Goldstein dealt with that and other tragedies since her son’s death in 1988.
Her son Scott Goldstein was diagnosed at age 4 with incurable central nervous system disease, a neurological problem
affecting his brain, and was given six months to live. Instead, he lived until age 15 but faced numerous hospitalizations, operations, partial paralysis and intermittent blindness.
(This reporter went to school with Scott, but the two were not close friends and the reporter did not know his mother at the time.)
As if that wasn’t the worst one could possibly imagine, Goldstein’s other son was developmentally delayed and her husband also became ill, prompting her to enter the real estate industry after 30 years as a homemaker, with a small side business designing jewelry. Goldstein went from not knowing how to turn on a computer to being a successful associate broker with a $14 million listing at the Plaza.
Among Halstead’s top producers, Goldstein was one of the first 30 brokers to receive the New York Residential Specialist designation from the Real Estate Board of New York. The 30-hour continuing education course is open only to associate brokers who have done at least 30 deals in New York City totaling at least $30 million in sales or $12 million in rentals. She sits on the credentials committee that oversees the program.
Picking up the pieces
A year after Scott died, Goldstein and her husband, David, a successful litigation lawyer, had another child, Brett. When he was two years old, the couple learned that he was severely learning disabled and speech impaired. He is 18 now and attends a special education school in New Jersey.
About seven years ago, David became afflicted with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder that affects short-term memory and the ability to walk.
“He was beginning to resemble someone with Alzheimer’s [disease],” Goldstein said. “The saddest thing in our relationship was when my husband looked at
me and said, ‘I don’t understand what you are saying because I can’t remember any of the words.'”
David was unable to work, so about six years ago, Goldstein had to get a job to support the family.
It took until late 2004 to identify what was wrong with David, and in January 2005, he had a shunt implanted in his head. Since then it’s been a rocky road for David, with terrible relapses along the way. Goldstein has had to take care of him in between real estate appointments and fielding calls. The couple has been together for 37 years.
With so much going on at home, how does she focus at work?
“I leave my troubles at the [Halstead] door,” she said.
“Nobody knows quite how she can do it,” said long-time friend Betty Schaffer, who lives in Goldstein’s building. “She is able to deal with all these awful things.”
Goldstein explained: “I think by nature I’m just a very optimistic person. You have to play the hand you’re dealt with as much grace, dignity and good humor as you can muster.”
When she started out in real estate, she did not know how to turn on a computer and didn’t ask anyone for a week for fear they would report her to her manager.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. [But] I was determined. Everybody was counting on me. Failure wasn’t an option,” she said. “I turned out to be pretty good at it.”
Climbing to the top
Being relatively new to the real estate business has not affected her track record.
“From very early on, people thought I had been in the business forever,” said Goldstein, who declined to reveal her age.
Goldstein is a senior vice president at Halstead’s East Side office. The majority of her deals have been co-ops on the Upper East Side.
She and Halstead’s Felicia De Chabris were marketing a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath condo at the Plaza Hotel for $14 million or as a $39,000-a-month rental. Goldstein also had a $360,000 studio in east Midtown on the market as well as a $1.7 million three-bedroom, two-bath unit in Long Island City.
Goldstein’s manager and the executive director of sales for the East Side, Charles Urstadt, said Goldstein “always has a smile on her face.”
Susan Kennedy, an associate broker at Halstead who has sat next to Goldstein for four years, had a similar assessment of Goldstein’s work ethic.
“She’s probably the hardest-working broker I know,” Kennedy said. “She does what she has to do and just never complains.”
Goldstein has helped Kennedy with her people skills.
“She’s just a master at working relationships,” Kennedy said. “I’ve learned from her just listening to how she speaks to customers and potential customers.”
Kennedy said she has helped Goldstein on the financial side of the business.
Goldstein is not exactly new to the business world, but was never responsible for bringing home the bacon.
Goldstein’s first job after graduating from New York University was as a probation officer in Manhattan. She and her partner handled the cases of drug addicts. Despite the grim work, “I loved my job,” she said. She gave it up when her son Scott was born in 1972.
About 13 years later, Schaffer, her long-time friend, and Goldstein started a jewelry-making business that they kept running for eight to 10 years. It was a “labor of love,” Goldstein said, since the business was never a money-maker.
“It never bought me a cup of coffee,” she said.
They did ornate beaded work using semi-precious stones as well as sterling silver and gold-plated jewelry. They sold their wares privately and in a showroom and ultimately at Nordstrom department stores.
“She happens to be a born salesperson,” Schaffer said. “Put her anywhere, and she can sell it.”
Five years ago, Goldstein worked with a couple who insisted that they had to live in Carnegie Hill. Goldstein convinced them to buy a home farther east on the Upper East Side instead. They did. This year, she showed the same couple an apartment in Carnegie Hill, but they wanted to stick with the neighborhood she introduced them to. Last month, the couple bought a $4.3 million townhouse on East 84th Street.
Despite everything, Goldstein said she doesn’t feel sorry for herself. “It’s wasting energy,” she said. “I don’t find it productive or useful.”
When asked how he feels about her accomplishments as an associate broker, Goldstein’s husband looked at her adoringly and said: “I’m very proud of her.”