When Greenthal broker Audrey Nevitsky went to meet the sellers of this big one-bedroom loft at 130 Barrow Street, she got stuck in traffic and was 45 minutes late. "They didn't want to give me the exclusive," she says. "They said, 'Can we trust you?' " Eventually, she persuaded them to stick with her, promising to be prompt in the future -- and then raced back to her office to place a Sunday Times ad before the deadline. The sellers' faith paid off: Less than 24 hours later, she had two offers. The buyer, an NYU professor represented by Corcoran's Sara Settembrini, ended up paying $770,000 (just below the asking price of $779,000). Not bad, considering that the sellers had paid "something in the low-to-mid-sixes" earlier this year.

Related:

• Archive: “Gotham”
• Articles by Christopher Bonanos
• Table of Contents: Nov 4, 2002 issue of New York | Subscribe!