I Lost the Listing.
My Buyer Made $300,000!
Choose Your Fiduciaries Wisely.
08/17/2026 | 9:00PMby: m.kahler I believe if you're going to land in someone's mailbox, you'd better be worth keeping. No Trash. No Spam. It must be “Fridge-Worthy”. That's my mission behind my direct mail pieces. Make it beautiful, make it art, make it unmistakably me. So when my phone rang with a family in the middle of the worst kind of clean-out, that's exactly where they'd seen my name. On the fridge.
An Emotional Listing Presentation
A son had passed suddenly. His mother and her family (lovely people, out of towners, in from Chicago and knowing next to nothing about how a New York City co-op actually works) were left clearing out his apartment and trying to figure out what came next. They'd seen my mailer on his fridge. They called about a selling strategy and a pricing analysis.
I did what I always do: I leaned into the data. This particular co-op sat in a Clinton Hill building I knew intimately. I'd closed a record-setting sale there just a month earlier. I knew the comps, I knew the line, I knew exactly what kind of buyer demand existed for a high-floor unit with open western exposures and unobstructed sky. Renovated kitchen, great light, top floor, no work needed. My number came in around $1.15 to $1.2 million, priced a touch conservative (on purpose).
The Price Scared Them
The meeting started out great. We sat in the dining room. We talked Jazz. We talked life. But by the end something felt a bit off. I'd walked in with a number, not a question, and I hadn't asked what they wanted. What their vision was. Turns out they were picturing something closer to $890,000. A grieving mother, unfamiliar with the Brooklyn market heard, "$1.1 to $1.2 million" and it landed like a threat, not good news. I learned something that day I still carry into every seller meeting now: lead with "what number are you picturing?" before I say mine. It wouldn't have changed my analysis, the data doesn't move because someone's scared of it, but it would have let me build the context instead of blindsiding a family that was already in a highly emotional state.
We went back and forth for months while they worked through the estate: texts, calls, helping them find their footing with the paperwork, stockholder docs, estate planning, the whole hornet's nest that comes with sorting out an estate sale. Then they called and they had gone with someone else. Another broker who I imagined low-balled them to get the listing. I won't lie, I was angry.
Watching, Waiting, Preparing!
Sad, frustrated, and just curious, I knew this apartment was coming to market, so I watched. I had buyers who would've loved this place, buyers I'd already mentioned to the seller, but, que sera. So I just waited on my new listing alerts.
Midweek, late morning, it hit: listed at $890,000, with an agent I didn't recognize, not a Brooklyn specialist. I called him immediately. Told him I had a motivated, all-cash buyer who'd just missed something nearly identical. We were prepared to offer cash, sight unseen. So we did.
My client had been looking for years. Patient, methodical, exactly the kind of discerning buyer who doesn't rush, which is a tough way to shop in a building where units routinely go at or above ask inside of 7 days. This one was listed at almost $300,000 under what I knew it was worth. We didn't hesitate: all-cash offer, above asking at $925,000, expedited due diligence because I'd just closed on a nearby unit so my attorney was familiar with the building, financials, and all critical information. No inspection needed. Signing inside three days.
Knowing How to Play It
The listing broker didn’t feel comfortable with us proceeding without seeing the unit so we quickly got access to the unit that day. I prepped my client to “keep it calm and composed, let’s not let him know how excited we are.” Standing in the apartment, my client's eyes lit up and we walked to the back room together. “Wow, you were not lying,” my client whispered. We headed back to the living room and the listing agent mentioned he'd be hosting an open house that weekend, already fielding a wave of inquiries, probably heading to best and final.
That's the moment I arrived. I told him our offer was good for only 24 hours. No open house. Any subsequent offers were for backup only. We'd sign inside three days, but the number only held for one day. Have your client decide. And that conversation is what sealed the deal.
The right buyers. The right building. The right opportunity. Handled in a deft way. That's the whole game.
What This Story Is Really About?
This isn't a story about pricing strategy. It's a story about fiduciary duty, it’s about who's looking out for you versus who just wants the listing.
A grieving family decided to pass on me. They chose someone else, and I don't know what that agent told them to win the listing, but I know the number they landed on left $300,000 on the table. My buyer did the opposite. She worked with me, trusted the process, stayed patient and when the time came, she secured a home with $300,000 in built-in equity on day one.
That's the difference. You can work with anyone. Or you can work with a professional who's on top of it, monitoring, watching the market, ready to move the second an opportunity opens up. Someone who cares.
Losing that listing hurt. I got angry, and I let myself feel it. But this business isn't emotional, it's professional. You're allowed to feel the frustration, you're not allowed to let it take you out of the game. “Hanging around the hoop”, staying ready, turning a lost opportunity into the next one, that's the job.
*Based on my pricing analysis of $1.15 to $1.2M for the unit against the $925,000 purchase price. Actual value is a matter of appraisal and market conditions, not a guarantee.