HGTV's Selling New York: Episode 4

HGTV's "Selling New York" Episode 4:

Cooking Up a Real Estate Deal

What lengths will top NYC Realtors go to in order to to sell homes to their rich clients? Apparently, the length of the Saw Mill River Parkway. In this episode of the HGTV series "Selling New York" (airdate Thursday April 8), the Kleiers of Gumley Haft Kleier hit the road and drive to (gasp!) Connecticut.

There's a house with outbuildings, and a pool and a pond, but honestly, not what I tuned into a show called "Selling New York" for. So let's spend a little time with Core Group, or as I like to call 'em, "Team Downtown."

Now my disclaimer in many of these reviews/essays/drinking games is that I work in New York City where I'm a real estate agent and I know many of the people on the show. Actually, in this episode, I have to do a double disclaimer; I used to be the neighbor of Core's Tom Postilio. When he was a renter. Yep, I knew him when.

So I'm not going to take it personally or anything that Tom emailed me "be kind." It's fairly easy, for one, because Postilio has a background as a stage performer (he does a mean Sinatra) so he looks comfortable in front of the camera in a way that many real estate agents in other shows we'll leave unnamed do not.

Tom's dilemma here is that he has to talk his clients Gary and Sal out of overpricing their listing, and for one's sense of drama, they just aren't crazy enough. For one thing, they listen to their agent as he educates them about the state of the market. (This isn't the case with every episode of Selling New York; props to reader Aleks S for nicknaming last week's client "Mogadishu.")

What else? There are some listings, a nice midtown-y terrace-y one that looks like it's The Link, and some pretty great houses in Connecticut.

The real estate lesson of this episode comes from Tom: "If you sell a little bit lower, you can turn around and buy a little bit lower."

That's my take, what do other viewers think? Feel free to post comments below.

Coming Next Week: Episode 5 -- airs 9 p.m. ET Thursday, April 15
Read more:

• "Selling New York" Debuts on HGTV
• "Selling New York" on HGTV: Episode Two
• "Selling New York" on HGTV: Episode Three
• Luxury Real-Estate Tips from Million-Dollar Listing's Madison Hildebrand
• Conan O'Brien's Apartment: Price Chop of 16 Percent