What excites you most about this business?

Deborah Gutoff is senior director and principal at Eastern Consolidated. She has received the following awards/recognition: Real Estate Weekly 2009 Top Dealmakers, Eastern Consolidated Broker of the Year (three times), Real Estate Weekly 50th Anniversary Top Dealmaker. Some of her career achievements include: Closed over $1 billion in building sales during tenure at Eastern Consolidated. Over the past ten years, she has focused her attention on the sales of elevatored multifamily apartment buildings, properties with strong retail components, and bulk packages of sponsor-owned cooperative and condominium apartments. She has been involved with numerous institutions and universities in their on-going quest for student housing. A recent major achievement for her was procuring one of the investors who partnered in the $110 million acquisition of Devonshire House, 28 East 10th St., a 145,000 s/f residential and retail 12-story building that recently was converted into condominiums. She graduated cum laude from Cornell University and received her Juris Doctor degree from Hofstra University School of Law. Gutoff is affiliated with REBNY Sales Brokers Committee, and is a member of the New York Bar (20 years). What excites you most about this business? I love the access that you're afforded. You don't have to be in business for years to reach the top buyers, and you don't even have to play golf with them! I sold one of my first major deals to Lloyd Goldman in the early 1990s. If you have a good deal, investors will listen. Putting together any deal, in good markets or bad, is always a unique experience. For me, that's what makes it so challenging in that you're always solving new problems and looking for ways to overcome unforeseen obstacles. And when you manage to finally close a transaction, it's always thrilling. Deborah Gutoff is senior director and principal at Eastern Consolidated, New York, N.Y.