Matthew Gulker Marks 20 Years as a “Go-To” Agent at Douglas Elliman
by David Hay
May 2025
For someone celebrating a successful 20 years (and counting!) as a New York City residential real estate agent for Douglas Elliman, Matt Gulker is remarkably unassuming. That isn’t to say he’s overly self-effacing about a career with total sales approaching $1 billion. Rather, his apparent ease stems, I think, from the comfort he feels and the satisfaction he takes in being a vital and longstanding player on the field of the city he calls home.
“It doesn’t feel like such a hard job,” he says. “You have to show up every day and be consistent.”
A Westchester native, Gulker isn’t just a constant presence in the city—he’s also a far-reaching one whose years of experience span multiple zip codes across Manhattan.
For a long time it was the Flatiron District, where he once lived and sold many high-priced apartments over the years, most notably at the Madison House. One of the newest apartment buildings in highly fashionable NoMad, the 62-story tower is also one of the tallest at over 800 feet tall.
Gulker was part of the sales team responsible for selling 140 residences in barely two years. And not just any two years—it was 2020 and 2021, the height of Covid.
“We started selling units from our sales gallery while the building was being built,” he recalls. “Eventually we were able to do some hard-hat tours, but the demand was always there, which made it exciting.”
The first closings took place in 2022, and three years later, the tower is almost sold out. The key selling point?
“It’s new—people love new,” Gulker says of the property developed by JD Carlisle Development and Fosun International Limited and designed by Handel Architects. “It’s an exciting project. Every apartment has at least 11-foot ceilings, there’s a great pool, and the views are breath-taking, from the Empire State just to the north all the way down to the World Trade Center.”
Then there’s the Upper West Side, where Gulker moved with his wife and children and has since enjoyed brisk business.
“I get a lot of referrals and introductions from parents at their schools,” he says. “All of which seems to come about quite spontaneously.”
Being a family man in the city suits him.
"I often thought about having a house with a yard for my kids, but I realized working six days a week, 10-12 hour days, I would hardly see my kids if we lived in the suburbs," he says. "Living in the city allows me to work hard, but more importantly drop my kids off at school and have dinner with my family every night. I feel really blessed to do that."
Finally, there’s the Upper East Side, where, at the time of our interview, his team had six listings with two more on the way.
“It’s bigger so there is always opportunity here,” he says of the relative abundance of inventory. “The Upper East is the gift that keep on giving.”
Gulker’s latest listing is a four-bedroom apartment at 525 East 80th Street for $2.995 million. It had gone on the market the morning of our interview. He had already had two requests for a viewing.
He had already sold eight units in the building, earning him a status as the “go-to-agent” for 525 East 80th—a strategy he’s often replicated since it proved so successful more than a decade ago at 30 West 63rd street.
He first stumbled across the building when it was attempting to go condo. However, given that Lehman Brothers had just collapse and the Great Recession was cresting, the timing for such a move was unpropitious, to say the least.
Gulker, who had been dating his future wife for barely a week, snapped up one of the apartments at a “good price.” He has since sold 30 apartments at 30 West 63rd.
“I’m well known there,” he says. “Even since we moved out, my reputation apparently lives on.”
Though Gulker offers this last observation with wry understatement, it gets to heart of his straightforward, show-up-every-day approach to being an agent. For him, it’s about establishing a foundation of implicit trust and comfort.
“I become friends with most of my clients,” he says. “I love that about my job—I wouldn’t want that to change.”
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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