“It was a huge shock to us,” Marina Bernstein told Inman.
The woman, who works at the Brown Harris Stevens luxury goods agency in Manhattan, made the comment as she recalled how last year, at age 40, her gynecologist told her she was pregnant with twins. No one in her family had ever given birth to twins before.
So Bernstein found herself juggling a high-risk pregnancy while also juggling important deals at 80 Clarkson, an up-and-coming luxury development company.
Even under the best of circumstances, becoming a successful real estate agent is not easy. Fluctuations in mortgage rates, inventory shortages, economic uncertainty, fickle customers, and other factors keep agents on their toes.
But as 2025 proved, Bernstein is no ordinary agent. Despite experiencing an unprecedented personal upheaval, she was able to achieve record sales of approximately $85 million. Here’s how she does it:
medical challenges
Marina Bernstein | Brown Harris Stevens
When Bernstein found out she was pregnant with twins, she quickly realized it would be a difficult journey because doctors deemed it a high-risk pregnancy due to her age.
Bernstein’s doctors recognized early on that her identical twins received unequal blood flow, which often manifests in a rare condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). This condition can cause life-threatening complications for each baby.
Because of this, Bernstein had to go to the hospital three times a week during her pregnancy to make sure her twin girls were stable. Baby B (who became Margot) occasionally had an abnormal heartbeat and had less blood flow than Baby A (who became Valentina), but continued to develop normally. This is not the case for twins with TTTS.
When Bernstein was 26 weeks pregnant, doctors received urgent test results.
“I was literally rushed into labor,” Bernstein said. “But then they continued to monitor me and the baby became stable after that.”
The pregnancy went well, and Bernstein gave birth to a baby girl at 34 weeks. They weighed 5.5 pounds each.
“You think of 100,000,000 possibilities of what could go wrong. Either they both work out, or one of them works out. If both of them did work out, what would their lives be like?” Bernstein recalled. “So many things were going through my head and I was just praying a lot. It would have been really hard to go through it without my husband.”
get distracted in passion
Frequent medical check-ups made it impossible for Bernstein to forget the precariousness of his situation. But she has always been dedicated to her work, which she credits to her background as a professional tennis player, training 12 hours a day, and found that focusing on work was a useful distraction.
“I just kept going,” Bernstein said. “Work was the only thing that kept me sane throughout my pregnancy.”
Through her partnership with Brown Harris Stevens and her own connections, Bernstein was able to secure a $33 million unit in the highly anticipated 80 Clarkson development for one of her clients. This is the first unit to be purchased in this building. The project is a closely guarded secret, and many prospective buyers are finding it difficult to even make an appointment with a sales office. That makes it one of the hottest developments in New York this year.
Brothers Arthur and William Zeckendorf are co-chairmen of Brown Harris Stevens and its parent company, Terra Holdings, LLC. They also co-founded Zeckendorf Development, which developed 80 Clarkson with Atlas Capital Group and Baupost Group.
“We had a very qualified buyer, so we basically reached out to them.” [the Zeckendorf brothers] When I contacted them directly, they accommodated me and I was very grateful,” Bernstein said. [and I] My client was the first to come to the showroom and look at the floor plan before making a purchase. He purchased one of the nicest units in the building. ”
Meanwhile, Bernstein is also working on a challenging commercial deal, her first major commercial sale, and is actually still working out the final details of the negotiations. But focusing on this complex deal also helped Bernstein channel some of his nervous energy elsewhere. That includes when Bernstein hopped into a FaceTime meeting with a major developer in New York City the day after giving birth to her daughters.
“I didn’t want to miss the meeting because I was representing the buyer and seller and was kind of the glue of the deal,” Bernstein said. “There are so many pieces that have to fall into place to do something like this.”
“Obviously I was in pain,” Bernstein added. “But I just picked myself up. I’m very professional in that regard. I put on makeup to look right. After that, I was very professional and focused on the transaction. The call took 45 minutes. Then I went right back to the NICU and was with my girls 24 hours a day. My husband and I often took turns.”
Emphasize flexibility
Having the flexibility to work around a real estate agent’s schedule was very important to Bernstein as she went through a pregnancy and became a new mother.
“I’m an independent contractor, so I don’t put a gun to my head,” Bernstein said. “I get to be home with my kids longer. I don’t have to work eight hours a day, but I can always be super productive.” [is a break]”
Bernstein said that in retrospect, he may have been a little too dedicated to his job. Because right after the girls were born, she would sometimes run out to give screenings while she was napping at home with her live-in nurse.
“When I look back on it now, I’m like, ‘Why did I do that? That’s crazy,'” Bernstein said with a laugh. “But with clients, I always want to accommodate them. It doesn’t matter how many great assistants you have working for you. You’re still a business, you’re still the face of your own business, and many of them just want to do business with you.”
Bernstein said she also sometimes changes her schedule to work late into the night after her daughters go to bed so she can spend time with them while they’re awake.
“If a customer in Europe calls me in the middle of the night, I answer because that’s how I work,” Bernstein added. “It’s not for everyone, but it comes naturally to me. I’m not trying extra hard to prove anything or pushing myself to the limit. I love my job very much. For me, working is like going on vacation.”
Bernstein added that he has built a loyal customer base over the years and counts many of his customers as friends. For other agents just starting out in their careers, balancing work and childcare can be much more difficult, she says.
“This industry is all about trust and people. People hire you, including the world’s biggest CEOs and the most successful people, because they trust you and know you will advise them in their best interest,” Bernstein said. “And it takes a long time to build that.”
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Email Lillian Dickerson
