Luxury buyers aren’t just buying square footage or finishes, writes the agency’s Michael Birilla. They are buying scarcity, identity, and recognition.
When 123 East 35th Street came to us, the property had already been listed for sale multiple times by multiple agents, including some of the most well-known names in the industry. All attempts had the same outcome. Deals have fallen through, days on market have increased, and real estate has become all too familiar to the brokerage industry.
Less than a week after our relaunch, the property went under contract for $15.9 million, the highest townhouse sale in the neighborhood in over 20 years.
What’s interesting is that I didn’t change my house. We changed the location, the timing, and the story about it.
Along the way, I kept coming back to some questions that I think every agent looking to reposition a listing that doesn’t have a buyer attached should ask.
Does the property need an off-market reset period? Is the home being compared to the wrong set of competitors? Has the market changed enough to create a new pricing discussion? Are you marketing distinctiveness or scarcity? Did you build anticipation before the reboot?
In this case, those questions changed everything.
The first strategy was to wait
The first thing I told the seller was not a marketing plan. This was to keep real estate off the market.
When we delisted in December 2025, I advised them to be delisted for at least 3-5 months. A reset period is required for properties that are sold frequently. Markets need time to forget old stories before introducing new ones.
Many relisting strategies focus on surface-level changes like new photos or updated copy, but if you think buyers and agents already understand the property, relisting right away usually won’t change the outcome.
We discovered new possibilities in the market
Initially, my instinct was to wait until spring 2026 to relist, but as I was closely following the Miller Samuel report, the timing started to make sense sooner.
Wall Street bonuses were strong, liquidity returned to the market, and the conversation about price per square foot in Manhattan changed dramatically. While new development condos were trading for $3,000 to $4,000 per square foot, this property was trading for less than $1,400 per square foot.
That gap created an opportunity. The buyers had the capital and were actively looking for unique assets that seemed affordable compared to the rest of the luxury market.
One of the biggest mistakes agents make with older properties is assuming the market is exactly the same as it was six months ago. In some cases, the market around the property may change even though the property remains the same.
Positioning changed everything
Previous marketing campaigns positioned the home as a townhouse. Technically that was accurate, but strategically I think it limited the conversation. As soon as buyers hear the word “townhouse,” they start comparing it to all the other townhouses on the market. But the property could never compare to a typical Manhattan townhouse.
This is a 33-foot-wide limestone facade mansion, nearly twice the width of a standard brownstone, and the home has only had two owners since it was built. So we stopped advertising it as a townhouse and repositioned it for what it really is: a rare Manhattan mansion that rarely comes on the market.
This change immediately changed buyer psychology. Buyers stopped comparing it to other townhouses and started looking at it as a truly rare asset.
I think one of the most important questions for agents repositioning a property is whether the property is configured correctly in the first place. Sometimes the problem isn’t price. It’s a category.
There was a sense of urgency even before the release.
While this property was not yet on the market, I went directly to the city’s top brokers with ultra-high-net-worth clients in search of a unique opportunity. I told them what was going to happen, why it was important, and where we were going to set the prices. By the time the listing officially launched, qualifying interest had already been built around scarcity and early access.
In luxury real estate, buyers act quickly when they decide something is really difficult to recreate. That was the key here.
Too many agents wait until launch day to start building momentum. In reality, the relaunch begins long before the listing officially enters the market.
Luxury buyers buy stories
Luxury buyers aren’t just buying square footage or finishes. They are buying scarcity, identity, and recognition.
Every property has a story. Our job was to shift the narrative from when this property was previously on the market and focus on what was no longer possible to recreate: its scale, limestone façade, width, and value relative to where the rest of the luxury market trades.
It’s the same property. different framing. And framing is important in this market.
Michael Biryla is a senior agent at The Agency New York. Connect with us on Instagram.
