Broker Recommendation, or How I Sold in PLG and Bought in Park Slope

Everyone I know who is looking to buy or sell in Brooklyn goes to Erin and Ari of Housebywe, so when it was time for me to upgrade to a new apartment, I approached them first. I had recently helped my mother to find an apartment in the D.C. area, so I had some experience interviewing realtors, and I could tell right away that Erin and Ari were exceptional. They were sharp, knowledgeable, and super-together. I told them that I wanted to sell my one-bedroom in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and buy a nicer one somewhere in Brooklyn or Manhattan, and this is what happened: 1) Erin came over to my apartment and told me exactly what I needed to do to stage my apartment, down to the smallest detail. It was a bit of work, but I was able to do it quite inexpensively, and Erin helped out by loaning me accessories (she even made a trip to IKEA) and hiring a cleaning person for me. 2) Erin took photos of my apartment after it was staged and made a listing. 3) She held a few open houses, and within weeks we had a solid offer that she negotiated into a larger offer that then went into contract. The sale of my apartment ended up being difficult because Hurricane Sandy had slowed down everything at the bank my buyer was using to get his mortgage, and my building had an unusually long turnaround time for applications, but Erin was on the phone with everyone every day, staying on top of them and keeping me posted. Moreover, she continued to hold open houses even though we were in contract, just in case. When my buyer’s application was finally submitted, my building held the application hostage for weeks, claiming that my movers had scratched an elevator and that I owed them thousands of dollars, but refusing to provide proof from the elevator cameras. Erin and Ari coached me through the whole ordeal, giving me good advice along the way, until we were finally able to close the deal. Simultaneously, here’s what happened on the buying side: 1) Erin and Ari regularly sent me new listings they’d gathered, conveniently collected on one website. 2) I told Erin which ones I wanted to see, and she drove me around Manhattan and Brooklyn for weeks and weeks. I started out wanting to look in Bed-Stuy, then switched to the West Village, and finally decided on Fort Greene or Park Slope. As we looked, Erin got such a strong sense of what I was looking for that I never had to feel guilty about being too picky—I felt like she really wanted me to find a place that was right for me, and automatically understood when a place wasn’t. 3) I saw a listing for a too-good-to-be-true, sunny, renovated, top-floor apartment in a Park Slope brownstone co-op two blocks from the subway. I was out of town, so Erin went to see it and told me she thought I would love it. I told her to make an offer on it, sight-unseen, and it was accepted. 4) I came back to Brooklyn, saw the apartment, and cried because it was so perfect. 5) Unlike my sale, the purchase went totally smoothly. 6) I’ve been living in my new apartment for almost a year now, and couldn’t love it any more than I do. This is what I learned about Erin (and Ari) over the course of this experience: 1) They are both notorious perfectionists who enjoy doing things right for the sake of doing things right. 2) They are totally passionate about real estate and genuinely love what they do. 3) They are both the type of smart, savvy people whom anyone would be lucky to have on their side. I can’t go so far as to say that I enjoyed the process of simultaneously selling and buying an apartment in a tough NYC housing market. But I did really love working with Erin and Ari, and I will definitely work with them if I move again. I can’t recommend them highly enough. http://www.housebywe.com/