Juggling multiple sales and negotiating among five countries helped snag these top REBNY resi deal awards

It took the sale of three other apartments — plus finding a rental — for Halstead Real Estate’s Sanjya Tidke to close a deal for the home her client wanted. Navigating that web snagged the broker and her team the top spot at the Real Estate Board of New York’s 30th annual residential awards ceremony.

Sanjya Tidke (Credit: Twitter)

Tidke, along with co-broker Mary Dunne of Warburg Realty, were tasked with helping a couple relocate to a residence closer to their children’s school and activities. But the move depended on whether the couple could sell their Upper East Side co-op units — a three-bedroom and one-bedroom.

Tidke sold the three-bedroom, but the brokers had to get creative for the other: The couple’s next-door neighbor was recently retired and moving soon, so the brokers put the two adjacent units on the market and found a buyer who wanted to combine them. Tidke’s maneuvering got the couple into the home they wanted — but the deal didn’t end there. A list of necessary repairs in the couple’s new home meant they had to bide time in a rental first.

“Just to have one house we had to get through multiple deals,” Tidke said. “And none of them were easy.”

The second-place deal, which Douglas Elliman’s Tristan Harper co-brokered with Brown Harris Stevens’ Caroline Guthrie, had just as many moving parts. And spanned five countries. The brokers were dealing with a pre-war co-op that was owned by a former communist country and later belonged to the governments of the five successor countries. The buyer insisted on a “time of essence” clause that gave them 30 days to pull the transaction together with approval from all five governments. The brokers closed the deal right under the wire, with representatives for the five nations in one room signing documents that required each to sign 155 times.

Elliman agents took home several awards at the REBNY event, which was held at the Plaza Hotel. Ann Cutbill Lenane won for residential brokerage agent of the year. Meanwhile, Derek Koch, with co-broker Corey Wecler of City Connections, won for the best rental deal. Warburg’s Steven Goldschmidt received the Henry Forster Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Dressed in gowns and suits, brokers and other attendees mingled over cocktails afterward. The night ended with dinner, dancing and live music. Proceeds from the event went toward REBNY’s Member in Need Fund, which provides grants to residential brokerage members who are dealing with financial hardship.