In this week’s episode of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” our three heroes each must place their egos aside – at least for a little while – to deal with some rather difficult demands their clients throw at them. Ryan and Fredrik come out victorious. Luis, not so much (at least for now).
Ryan
After winning his bid to sell the mammoth townhouse at 38 West 87th Street last week, Ryan now has to contend with the equally mammoth list of renovations a potential buyer wants done before making an offer. The developer, Ward, tells Ryan that after spending $5.5 million on fixing the townhouse, he absolutely will not pay for these changes (which total about $25,000). So Ryan decides that he will pay for them himself with his commission because “I will have lost $25,000, but that’s OK. I’ll just dry my tears with the other half a million dollars.”
While he’s waiting for the offer to come through, he makes a pit stop in Chatham, NJ where he plays awkwardly with his college buddy’s baby. It’s soon back to business, though, when Sebastian, the head of Ryan’s LA office and broker for the buyer, calls him with an offer for the house – of $15.5 million. It’s a lot lower than the $18 million asking price, but Ryan knows that the house is toxic because it has lingered on the market for three and a half years. Ward is predictably not pleased with the offer, but eventually meets the buyer in the middle at $16.25 million. The deal is done: Ryan flails his arms in joy.
Luis
Luis, being a “persistent Puerto Rican,” managed to be the first broker in the door at 111 Murray, a brand new condo tower in Tribeca co-developed by Steve Witkoff, Howard Lorber and Fisher Brothers. He decides the buyer most worthy of seeing it first is Dennis, a stockbroker who represents big buyers. Dennis manages to move things around in his oh-so-busy schedule to pay a visit to the 111 Murray sales office, where he reveals the delightful news that his buyer can spend up to $13.5 million on an apartment in the building. The bad news is that the Schedule A price of the unit he wants is $13.75 million – and Dennis refuses to go that high.
Though Luis begs him to raise his offer, Dennis holds strong and so Luis must put in the low offer of $13.5 million. Not only is this offer rejected, but the developers have started showing off the place to other buyers, and now want 5 percent more than the Schedule A price at $14.437 million. Poor Luis brings the bad news to Dennis, whose clients are now willing to pay the Schedule A price – a little too late. Luis decides his only course of action is to beg the big man himself, Howard Lorber, to give him the unit at $13.75 million.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t go so well either, and Howard tells him “You didn’t do the right thing for anyone in this transaction.” Luis now knows what it feels like “when the person you respect the most tells you that you are an idiot.” Yikes.
Howard Lorber isn’t pleased.
Fredrik
Mona, the developer of a Williamsburg conversion project who last week told Fredrik she wanted to hold back some units in the building after he had already sold them, now calls our Swedish star again with an interesting challenge: if he can sell 50 percent of the units in the building in the next two weeks, she will make him the building’s exclusive broker.
It’s a big ask, and for anyone but the Eklund himself, probably an impossible one. But he accepts, humbly noting that he probably won’t succeed, but will try his hardest to anyway. Fredrik pulls no stops on his mission to bring as many people in the door as possible, even resorting to placing “scary” digital marketing ads. Despite some complaints that the penthouse is not yet finished and that there is noise from the neighboring bridge, he manages to close 17 out of the 18 units in six days. The last takes a little bit of extra time, but he closes the last deal in the end. And how does he tell Mona the good news? By skipping down the Brooklyn Bridge holding a bouquet of bright red balloons. Would you expect anything less?