Left to right: Sabrina, Michele and Samantha
o the outside world, the Kleier family is a well-oiled business machine. Wife and husband Michele and Ian Kleier are the owners and co-presidents of Gumley Haft Kleier (GHK), a Manhattan residential brokerage firm launched in 1995. Their daughters, Samantha Kleier-Forbes and Sabrina Kleier-Morgenstern, are equally savvy and hold their own at the mom-and-pop firm as executive vice presidents. In addition to operating the boutique real estate firm, the family is the face of HGTV’s Selling New York, a reality show about opulent residential properties now in its second season. There also is the newly released Hot Property (Harper Collins), a juicy roman à clef about Manhattan’s must-have residences and their owners, co-written by the female trio. But spend five minutes—let alone several hours—with Michele, her immediate family and their cherished Malteses, and what emerges is a group with an incredible bond and respect for one another, who spends every possible minute together and even finishes one another’s sentences. “I can count on [my family] for anything,” explains Michele, who is sitting next to her daughters on a bed, with her two grandchildren and dogs jumping on and off the mattress. “I always said I’d rather spend time with my family than anyone else because they are the most interesting and most fun to be around and, truthfully, the most enjoyable people I know.” “[Our husbands] knew that when they married us, it was a package deal,” adds Sabrina, who is married to Robert Morgenstern and has a son, Cooper. Samantha, who is married to John Forbes and has a son, Chase, welcomed their second child, Caroline, during the summer.
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“Florida, we say in New York, is the sixth borough. We feel that it’s our other home.” —Michele Kleier
“We always wanted to work with Mom,” says Samantha. “We started in the business when I was three and [Sabrina] was a newborn in a stroller. Mom didn’t have full-time help and didn’t want it. We joke that we learned the word ‘coop’ with the ABCs. She took us to every apartment showing.” Both daughters stood on their own two feet before joining the family business. Samantha was a vice president at public relations company Susan Blond Inc. Sabrina had a career with Access Hollywood. Now, just as their mom did with them, the girls are juggling motherhood and careers. “She came to every ballet recital, every football game. She was with us constantly. She challenged us. She made us super. Nothing rattles her,” Sabrina says. The Kleiers are enjoying a brief getaway weekend in Boca Raton, a city that often rivals Manhattan for their attention. They’ve been making yearly trips to Boca Raton for more than 25 years, at first staying at Boca Raton Resort & Club and then purchasing a condo so that the entire family, including their four-legged friends, could come as well. “Florida, we say in New York, is the sixth borough. We feel that it’s our other home,” says Michele. With close ties to Boca Raton, it was only a matter of time before the Kleiers became involved with a local property. A relationship was formed with One Thousand Ocean (OTO), a sevenstory building affiliated with LXR Luxury Resorts and featured on Selling New York. Jamie Telchin, LXR’s president of development, remained in touch with the Kleiers until a strategical alliance between GHK and OTO was developed. “Since they are not licensed to sell real estate in Florida, they are only able to help refer potential clients to us, as well as in-