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REAL ESTATE DEALMAKER Scott Latham knows what it takes to buy a skyscraper these days: Be quick on the draw, have a lot of cash and don't sweat the small stuff.
"The people making deals in this market aren't dotting every 1 or crossing every t, " says Mr. Latham, an executive director at Cushman & Wakefield Inc. His team brokered the $1.8 billion sale of 666 Fifth Ave. in December-the biggest commercial property sale in city history.
As it turned out, the sale price for 666 Fifth wasn't a record that would stand for long.
The $7 billion spinoff of eight of Equity Office Properties Trust's New York buildings-part of The Blackstone Group's $23 billion acquisition of the real estate investment trust-is the latest capstone in a frenzied market. However, concern is growing within the industry that in the race to submit winning bids, too many potential buyers are conducting only cursory due diligence. In addition, many successful bidders are paying far more interest on their mortgages than...