Seven brokers in seven years, and this three-bedroom duplex would not sell. The listing had gone stale in a way New York buyers could feel. The eighth agent brought us in to stage it, and after just 16 days it went into contract.

The apartment sits on the first two floors of a former Gilded Age mansion on Prospect Park West. The bones were the same ones that had sat for seven years. What changed was the presentation: we layered in furniture, art, and greenery until the grandeur read the way it was built to. We showcased rooms that felt collected, not decorated, helping buyers finally picture a life inside them.

The apartment had been remarkable the whole time. It just took the right presentation for anyone to see it.