Blog
44.5 Hours
Kelly Robinson
Kelly Robinson
Why I Stayed Up
A Story About Relationships, Loyalty, and One Extremely Stubborn Chelsea Townhouse
By Kelly Robinson
Earlier this month, I stayed awake for 44 hours and 27 minutes straight. No sleep. No power nap. No “I just closed my eyes for a second.” Just me, Dubai time, New York chaos, and a deal that had more personalities involved than a Bravo reunion episode.
People assume you stay up like that because a deal is high-stakes. Or because you’re afraid something will fall apart. Or because you’re Type A with a splash of masochism.
Cute theories.
The truth is simpler.
I stayed up because the relationship mattered more than anything happening on that deal sheet.
This whole saga begins with a little brick warehouse-looking thing that once sat on a 25 × 80 lot in Chelsea. A one-story building sold for $4M in 2012. Humble. Unremarkable. Nothing that screamed future modern masterpiece.
A developer bought it, tore it down, and started building what would become a 25-foot-wide, 9,000+ square foot, 6-bed, 7.5-bath single-family home with a private garage.
Pause here.
A private garage in Manhattan isn’t a feature. It’s a unicorn doing Pilates on a rainbow. Parking spaces alone can go for over $1M. A garage attached to your single-family townhouse is basically Manhattan saying, “Fine. You win.”
The finishes? High end.
The architecture? Gallery-esque.
The scale? Rare.
And then the developer ran out of money.
Construction stalled.
Inspections paused.
By 2020 the project was in financial free fall.
In 2022, the lender took over as the seller. They finished the build, listed the home for $17.5M, and came to market without a Certificate of Occupancy.
Eventually, after endless price drops, agent changes, and failed deals, they finally received a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO).
For non–NYC people:
C of O: You can legally live here.
TCO: You can almost legally live here, but finish the city’s required list first. And unless you are buying in a multi-unit new development, closing with just this is tricky.
So, the house sat at $12.995M. Buyers love shiny new things; just not shiny new things with paperwork problems.
Most buyers hear “no C of O” and run. Because buying without one means:
hiring your own expeditor
coordinating with the seller’s (in this case, the bank’s) expeditor
dealing with multiple inspections
dealing with inspector personalities ranging from “reasonable adult” to “I’d like my own scripted reality TV show”
getting a lender comfortable
convincing a money-losing seller to fix what the city requires
embracing risk and unknowns
No wonder deals kept falling apart.
But my buyers were different.
This matters because relationships don’t appear out of thin air.
I’ve known the wife since ZTA in college. One of my favorite sorority sisters. Over the past five years, I’ve also come to know her husband; smart, grounded, funny, reasonable. They’re a power couple; successful, and upstanding.
During their five-year search:
I rented them multiple apartments at the last minute
I rented out their previous apartment twice
They lost a place when a developer sent two contracts simultaneously
They got strung along on another overpriced property I refused to let them overpay for
They stayed loyal
They referred business
They trusted me
And when they walked into this Chelsea unicorn, they didn’t see risk like most.
They saw opportunity.
On the second showing, before we even talked next steps, we brought in John Rusk and Ralph Beiran, NYC’s premiere contractor–architect duo.
These buyers have a great eye for design and saw some things they wanted to change. So, of course, we went with the best.
John and Ralph evaluated the build, examined the systems, assessed the finishes, and gave a strong approval.
Their early thumbs-up gave my buyers confidence that the bones were solid, the construction quality was high, and that the “paperwork issues” were worth crawling through the mud for.
And before they signed, I flew to New York myself to walk the property with them, because my friends’ investment was too important to evaluate through photos, video tours, and FaceTime alone.
We moved forward.
We negotiated.
And just as contracts were about to be signed, another buyer magically appeared with a $12.5M offer.
Classic wrench in the deal (pun 100% intended).
But the listing agent and I knew a truth born from scars:
Complicated deals don’t go to the highest bidder.
They go to the bird-in-hand; a buyer who will actually close.
We pushed back with logic and reality.
The bank agreed.
My buyers got the property for $11.6M.
Two days before closing, a major rainstorm hit Manhattan.
My buyers were inside, with their insurance provider, when two major leaks revealed themselves. Not hypothetical leaks. Not “maybe the window sweated.”
Actual, committed, enthusiastic leaks.
Perfect timing. Truly.
But again, they stayed the course.
Let me say this tactfully.
The attorneys despised each other.
The seller’s attorney was one of those knock-down, drag-out, slippery, trench-fighting types who probably thrives on scaring puppies.
Our attorney, who I genuinely like, is meticulous, occasionally overprotective, and prepared to debate absolutely anything, including things no one cares about. But he is smart, thorough, and my buyers are reasonable enough to decide what’s worth fighting over and what isn’t.
Thank God the closing was virtual. In 20+ years, I’ve only seen one punch thrown at a closing table… and this easily could’ve been number two.
It wasn’t because I thought the deal would fall apart.
It wasn’t because of the time zone difference.
It wasn’t because things were being fixed in the home right up until moments after the closing had already started.
And it definitely wasn’t because I didn’t trust my boots-on-the-ground teammate, Wil Parkerson, who has nearly two decades of experience and is meticulous to the point of artistry.
I stayed up because:
The relationship mattered more than any document, any leak, any attorney meltdown, any new bidder, any inspection, and any city-required list.
Because my friends were making the biggest investment of their lives.
Because I wasn’t going to disappear, not even for a few hours, during the final stretch.
Because loyalty deserves loyalty.
And because I wanted to be there for every call, every update, every fire drill, and every calm-the-crowd moment.
I was on the phone with:
the buyers
the listing agent
the attorneys
Wil
My mental health professional (kidding)
pretty much nonstop, from their first waking moment to their last.
You don’t abandon people who’ve trusted you for five years.
You show up.
All the way through.
Three days after we closed, I realized I hadn’t really spoken to them since the morning after. Something felt strangely empty.
Maybe my circadian rhythm was still a disaster.
Maybe it was emotional whiplash.
Maybe I just missed them.
But when my buyer thanked me for being her “real estate couch therapist,” I meant it when I told her she was worth the 44.5 hours.
I also reminded her that it wasn’t even the longest I’ve stayed awake because of her.
That honor goes to ZTA Hell Week, about 25 years ago…
Five days of no sleep in a cold basement in December, separating peanuts from peanut butter, writing our entire creed in rainbow sprinkles at 3AM, and riding a horse-on-a-stick to perform song and dance for a fraternity. Sisters attending classes with us to make sure we stayed awake...
She was a sister.
I was a pledge.
She was absolutely involved.
It’s not for brownie points.
It’s not to martyr myself.
And it’s definitely not to brag about the hours, trust me, no one should aspire to function like a Navy SEAL during a real estate transaction.
I’m telling you because this is what real relationships in this business look like.
Not the Instagram version.
Not the “just sold” victory lap.
Not the chest-thumping “I closed a tough deal” highlight reel. I’m not jonesing to brag on socials.
This was five years of trust.
Five years of showing up.
Five years of doing the right thing even when it meant advising against a sale.
Five years of weathering losses, bad actors, overvalued listings, and near misses.
Five years of loyalty going both directions.
And when people show up for you over and over again, you show up for them the same way, even if it costs you 44.5 hours of sleep.
Especially then.
Because deals don’t define your reputation.
Relationships do.
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