5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T SEE ON THIS WEEK’S ‘SELLING NEW YORK’

HGTV’s “Selling New York” follows CORE agents as they navigate the country’s most competitive—and compelling—real estate market. Here’s our behind-the-scenes look at Episode #509, which first aired on March 22, 2012. For more SNY recaps, click here.

In “Strategic Marketing,” CORE Managing Director Vickey Barron was faced with the challenge of listing a Fifth Avenue penthouse that two brokers had previously failed to sell. With her seller stressing the importance of getting the $6.995 million penthouse into contract quickly to facilitate his move to Florida, and with a fairly strict building policy of no public or broker open houses, Vickey had to get her creative juices flowing. In order to come up with new ideas on how to market and sell her new listing at The Brevoort in Greenwich Village, Vickey decided to enlist the help of her fellow CORE brokers by hosting a friendly marketing competition. The two teams of two toured the penthouse and partnered up with architects and designers to create a new marketing strategy.

After a few weeks, both teams regrouped and presented their marketing strategies to a group of colleagues, potential buyers and the competition’s judges – Vickey, CORE CEO Shaun Osher and The Brevoort’s board President, Diane Nardone. Each team presented a variety of marketing strategies that ranged from architectural renderings of possible renovations to historic information on the building and surrounding neighborhood. After much debate the judges picked a winning team, and just three weeks later, Vickey had an accepted offer on the penthouse and a very happy seller. Keep on reading for some exclusive behind-the-scenes information about what didn’t make it into last night’s episode of “Selling New York” and what happened after the cameras stopped rolling!

1) A golden oldie goes green. One scene that didn’t make it into the episode was a building tour that Vickey and the teams took with the co-op board president, Diane Nardone. Diane explained that The Breevort, located at 11 Fifth Avenue and built in the 1950s, is one of the most progressive apartment buildings in NYC. In the past 3 years, the building has spent approximately $8 million on environmentally friendly upgraes such as a co-generation plant that generates 80% of the building’s electrical needs, converting to natural gas, installing “green lungs” on the roof to help purify the building’s air and water, and installing 2,200 high efficiency windows and 110 terrace doors to save energy.

2) Katz’s is a destination…even for New Yorkers. The episode opened with Vickey and her client, Ivan Schneider, meeting at Katz’s Deli, where they discussed the apartment and Ivan’s urgency to move to Florida. Vickey told us that Ivan was in town for a very short period of time and she had to meet with him wherever he was going to be that day. A business meeting at the pastrami mecca of Katz’s was a first for Vickey, but Ivan said that he’s been going to the famous Lower East Side deli since he was a little boy and had to make a stop there before heading out of town.

3) Vickey had to reign in the competitors’ imaginations. Throughout the episode, Vickey stressed the importance of coming up with a realistic marketing strategy. Why? The Brevoort, as with many co-op buildings, has to approve each and every renovation that owners want to make to their homes. Vickey said that although the architectural renderings were beautiful, both showed a renovation to the penthouse where the deck’s materials were changed. She said that those changes would never be approved by the co-op board.

4) The penthouse could easily double as a museum. Vickey joked that some days she would think, “Should I go to the MoMa, or should I go to Penthouse L?” Although viewers were given a brief tour of the penthouse, Vickey mentioned that walking into the property was no different than walking into a museum with fine art on every wall.

5) A friendly competition is still a competition. Tony Sargent, a member of the winning Team 1, admitted that competing against your colleagues doesn’t make one any less competitive. In the episode, Tony’s presentation included a 3D architectural rendering and an informational fact sheet on The Brevoort and its neighborhood. Some facts that Tony presented:

-The Brevoort was originally a hotel that was demolished in 1955 to make way for the co-op, which was built in 1958.
-The Brevoort Hotel sat next to Mark Twain’s original townhouse.
-The Brevoort Hotel was the location where Charles Lindbergh received the $25,000 Orteig Prize for his first flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Orteig was also the Brevoort’s owner.
-Buddy Holly, ranked among Rolling Stones “50 Greatest Artists of All Time,” was a resident of The Brevoort.

Clearly Tony’s mention of Buddy Holly and Charles Lindbergh weren’t the only pieces of information that helped his team, but he said that they spent endless hours researching in hopes of winning the marketing competition.