The Astor Collective is the size it is on purpose. These are the four principles that hold the practice together when growth, attention, or a particularly rich quarter would otherwise pull it apart.
We cap our annual case load at twenty-eight transactions, distributed across three broker-advisors. Volume creates conflicts of attention. Restraint creates outcomes. When we are full — and we have been full each of the last three years — we say so plainly and refer the conversation to a colleague we trust.
A 2,400-square-foot condo in Lincoln Park is not the same investment as a 2,400-square-foot condo in Lakeview East, even at the same price per foot. We sell neighborhoods first and square footage second, and we will tell you when the neighborhood you've chosen is the wrong one for what you're trying to do.
Roughly half of what we close each year is sold pre-market — to a neighbor, a long-standing client, or a buyer we already represent. We list publicly only when the seller specifically wants the public attention. Most don't. The price tells you whether we did our job; the absence of a sign in the yard tells you how.
We retain you for the next decade, not the next ninety days. Property management referrals, contractor introductions, the quarterly market report, the call about the apartment for your daughter — included. The transaction is the easy part of the relationship. We're more interested in the rest.
“The point of a boutique firm is not that it is smaller. It is that the conversations are longer.”
Boutique works only when there are other boutiques to refer to. We keep a short list of colleagues across the city — in Hyde Park, Beverly, the western suburbs — and we will introduce you to them gladly when your search lives outside our lanes.