If you want to do this in Hebrew, we can. Karen and Aharon Behfar both speak it, and roughly a third of our Midwood and Madison clients run their whole transaction in Hebrew, from the first showing to the closing table. We are not a Hebrew-only firm. We are a Midwood firm where Hebrew happens to be one of the five languages we work in. There’s a difference, and the difference matters when you are signing a contract you have to live with.
What “Hebrew-speaking” actually means in a Brooklyn transaction
You’re not just looking for someone who can chat in Hebrew at the kitchen table. You want an agent who can read your contract back to you in Hebrew, explain the New York-specific clauses, walk through the closing disclosure, and field a panicked Friday-afternoon call from your aunt who wants to know if the buyer’s mortgage commitment is real. We do that work every week. It’s not a marketing line.
An Israeli buyer who relocated to Marine Park last fall told us afterwards that what made it workable was that he could ask the same question three different ways, in the language he thinks in, without feeling stupid. That is the actual job.
Where we do this
Our office sits at 1524 East 23rd Street in Midwood, and most of our Hebrew-language transactions are clustered in Midwood, Madison, Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay, and parts of Flatbush. We’ve also worked Hebrew-speaking clients into and out of Brooklyn from Kew Gardens Hills, Lakewood, and a couple of out-of-state moves to Boca and the Five Towns. The neighborhoods we know best are the southern Brooklyn cluster, because that’s where we live and that’s where the bulk of the community sits.
What the process actually looks like
The intake is bilingual from the first call. If you’d rather speak Hebrew, we do. If you’d rather mix, we mix. We don’t make you pick. The listing agreement we use is in English because that’s the legal version, but we go through it line by line in Hebrew before you sign, and we leave you with a marked-up copy. Same for the offer, the contract of sale, the closing disclosure.
Negotiation calls are tougher to translate in real time, and we’ll usually do them in English with the buyer’s agent and then call you afterwards in Hebrew to walk through what was said and what you want to push back on. We’ve found that’s faster than three-way translation and it gives you time to think.
Closing day, the attorney is usually English-speaking. We’ll sit next to you and translate as needed. We’ve done this enough times that the attorneys we work with know to slow down when we’re at the table.
What sets this apart from a Hebrew-only firm
A Hebrew-speaking agent who only works in the Israeli-Brooklyn community is sometimes the right choice and sometimes a limitation. If your buyer is American and not Hebrew-speaking, your agent needs to handle that conversation in English without it feeling like a translation exercise. We do that. Karen also runs the day-to-day in English with the broader Midwood and Madison buyer pool, so when an English-speaking buyer writes the best offer on your house, that conversation moves smoothly.
The other piece is paperwork. New York real estate has a lot of disclosures, lead paint forms, post-NAR buyer agreements, and a Hebrew-only operation sometimes lags on the English-side documentation that the closing attorney needs. We don’t, because we sit on both sides every day.
What we don’t do
We don’t pretend to be Israeli when we aren’t. Karen is American with a Master’s in Psychology. Aharon grew up in the community. The Hebrew is real, the cultural fluency is real, and we’re not going to dress it up as something it isn’t. If you want a deeply Israeli-only experience, we will refer you to someone we trust. If you want a Brooklyn agent who can run your transaction in Hebrew without losing the New York-side rigor, that’s us.
If you want to start
Call or text 347-988-2526. Karen or Aharon will pick up. The first conversation is usually in whatever language is easier for you, and we’ll figure out the rest from there. If you’d rather email, Karen@thebehfarteam.com works. If you want a sense of what your home is worth before you call, the home-valuation tool below is the fastest path.
Meet The Behfar Team » · Free home valuation · See our 2026 Brooklyn agents guide
About The Behfar Team
Karen Behfar (lead agent, Master’s in Psychology) and Aharon Behfar lead The Behfar Team from 1524 East 23rd Street in Midwood, Brooklyn. The team focuses on sellers in Midwood, Madison, and Marine Park and serves clients in English, Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Farsi. Recent listings in those neighborhoods have been averaging roughly 38 days on market when priced from comparable closed sales. Meet the team · Free home valuation · (347) 988-2526.
This guide is for general informational purposes and reflects The Behfar Team’s professional observations as of May 2026. Real estate decisions should be made in consultation with a licensed New York State real estate professional and, where relevant, a tax or legal advisor. Equal Housing Opportunity.
