Tina and Sarah observed Luke Skinner sign the sale papers with satisfaction. In the end, the negotiations to work out Luke’s sale of the duplex to Tina weren’t difficult.
 

They’d gotten almost everything they wanted in the short negotiations that ensued after Tina had made her offer, which she quickly followed up with an explanation to Luke about what she wanted to do to rehabilitate the building, including updating the duplex, but also the rehabbing exterior of the entire building as well as mounting a new door in the entrance.  For that reason, on top of reductions to the quoted sale price, already marked significantly down from the original price when the property was first listed about six months ago, she’d asked for further reductions to cover the amount Bette had estimated the rehabilitation would cost.  In the process, Sarah had also asked that the other party pay all closing costs. 

Two weeks prior, Bette and Tina had found out through research and contacts that Luke had inherited the building from his grandfather, and that it was amongst many properties that he either already owned or stood to inherit from either his mother’s side or his father’s side in Manhattan alone.  They’d guessed that he wouldn’t be motivated to negotiate as hard to squeeze out a profit from the sale of this particular property, as a result.   Besides, it had probably been one of many items sitting idle for many years in the portfolio of assets that he owned.  And since it hadn’t been rented out or leased at all by Luke or his family, and had been rarely used, the duplex was probably loss-making, as it hadn’t been occupied for many, many years. 

Confirming public records with information from contacts, they’d found out Luke’s grandfather had sold the first floor to one of his friends many years ago; and his father had sold the floor above that about twenty years ago.  Out of sentiment, his family had elected to keep the top two floors ever since it had been built over sixty five years ago, and over that time, he and his family had spent a significant amount maintaining the duplex and paying taxes. 

At first, Tina and Sarah thought there was a risk that Luke’s lawyers would try to drag the negotiations out and attempt to make things difficult for them.  Tina saw however that Luke soon grew impatient.  He was indicating that he didn’t see the point in dragging things out.  Finally, ten minutes into the back and forth between the lawyers and Sarah, following Tina’s presentation at the start of the meeting, he raised his hand up, to interrupt proceedings, and turned to his lawyers, and said, “Look, it’s not like she’s just going to slap a coat of paint on it, and call it a day .  She’s got a baby to raise, so she has every incentive to make it a good, livable place.  And she looks like she knows what she wants to do to restore it.  To be honest, it probably would have made my grandfather proud, if he were around, given all that modern, classic, design stuff that she’s planning to do.”