Every Deal Here Was Sourced the Same Way.

The Market

Middle market free market mixed-use buildings in Brooklyn, on prime retail corridors.

The Problem

New York City runs at a one to two percent annual turnover rate. It's a legacy market where owners hold for thirty years or more, so sale velocity is extremely low. And we were going after the most in-demand asset class in the most competitive investment sales landscape in the country.

The list can't just be owners. It has to be owners who are actually likely to sell.

The Approach

The Result

Two buildings, 9,000 square feet, sold at a blended $516 per square foot and a 4.1% day one cap rate, with a number of open violations.

Why It Worked

In a market with holding periods this long, volume alone gets you nowhere. Fifteen years of ownership, a free market asset and an absentee owner are three independent signals that someone is closer to selling than the market average. Stacking them turns a one percent turnover rate into a list worth working.

That's high probability prospecting, and in a legacy market it's the only kind that produces deals.

The Market

Free market mixed-use on Prospect Park West, on the border of Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. Two apartments over one store, directly on Prospect Park and one of the best blocks in Brooklyn.

The Problem

New York City runs at a one to two percent annual turnover rate, with owners holding for thirty years or more. On a block like this one it's lower still, because there's no reason to ever sell.

The list can't just be owners. It has to be owners who are actually likely to sell.

The Approach

The Result

3,300 square feet on one of the strongest blocks in Brooklyn, sold at $863 per square foot.

Why It Worked

The better the block, the less reason anyone has to sell, so the usual approach of working a farm and waiting produces nothing. Twenty-five years of ownership and an out-of-borough owner are two signals that someone is closer to a decision than the market average, and on a block this tightly held those are the only owners worth contacting.

That's high probability prospecting, and in a legacy market it's the only kind that produces deals.

The Market

Free market mixed-use on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Two apartments over one store, on a prime retail corridor.

The Problem

Two problems, and the second one was harder. New York City runs at a one to two percent annual turnover rate, so finding a seller at all is the first job.

Then the building itself. Sixteen feet wide. Buyers don't want narrow buildings, they're difficult to sell at any price, and this owner wanted an aggressive number. A building like that doesn't find its buyer through a listing and a waiting list. The buyer has to be identified and gone after directly.

The Approach

The Approach · Engineering the Buyer

The Result

$1,750,000 at $729 per square foot on a sixteen-foot-wide building, a price most brokers wouldn't have put on it.

Why It Worked

The narrow building wasn't a problem to be priced around, it was a problem to be matched. For a general buyer, sixteen feet is a discount. For a 1031 buyer on a deadline who needs a prime, low-management asset, it's a rounding error against the tax bill they avoid by closing on time.

The same method found both sides. Most brokers prospect for one.

The Market

Single story retail in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The Problem

New York City runs at a one to two percent annual turnover rate, with owners holding for thirty years or more. Sale velocity is extremely low and most owners have no reason to pick up the phone.

The list can't just be owners. It has to be owners who are actually likely to sell.

The Approach

The Result

2,375 square feet of single story retail at $958 per square foot, sold during the pandemic in one of the worst retail markets in decades.

Why It Worked

The building was vacant and carrying a large tax bill, with no income against it. Re-leasing meant putting serious money into a build-out during COVID, when retail leasing had effectively stopped, for a rent that wouldn't have justified it, if a tenant could be found at all.

So the owners weren't sitting on an asset. They were funding one. That's a completely different conversation than the one every other broker was having with them.

That's high probability prospecting. The signal isn't who owns the building, it's what's about to change about owning it.