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Square Feet New Tenant Lifts a Manhattan Street Even when it was occupied, mostly by stores that sold bargain merchandise, it wasn’t much of a destination. “There was never anything good there,”…... Read more >

Square Feet
New Tenant Lifts a Manhattan Street

Even when it was occupied, mostly by stores that sold bargain merchandise, it wasn’t much of a destination. “There was never anything good there,” said Jennifer Levine, who lives nearby on 90th Street. “It was always dingy and dilapidated, and it was almost an eyesore. It wasn’t particularly nice to walk by.”

Now, the plaza, next to the Lucida, a new condominium tower, will become the home of Manhattan’s third Shake Shack burger stand, which promises to bring greenery into the plaza to create a parklike atmosphere. The popular hot dog, burger and frozen custard stand, created in 2004 by Danny Meyer, the New York restaurateur, was one element that improved the atmosphere in Madison Square Park, its first location.

Some residents of East 86th Street seem to expect it to do no less for them.

“If you’re around there and want to have a bite to eat, there’s very little,” said Harriet Kaufman, a local resident and residential real estate broker. “I can’t imagine that Shake Shack won’t succeed.”

The neighborhood, once home to a German-American enclave and a Gimbel’s department store, long ago lost its luster to become a collection of unglamorous retailers and nondescript buildings. But the arrival of new residential development, like the Lucida, has attracted some national retailers to its storefronts.

While those retailers are larger, their commitment to the community can be limited, say local advocates. Merchants have started a campaign to attract smaller, more upscale retailers and restaurants that will make an investment in the neighborhood.

An association of merchants and residents, called the East 86th Street Association, has installed lamp posts along the street and plans to add landscaping next.

“One of the issues we have is, how do we bring in some upscale retailers and restaurants and get them to participate in the community?” said Elaine M. Walsh, the president of the nonprofit association.

Ms. Walsh said she would like to see 86th Street’s vacant storefronts filled, but she has mixed feelings about the Shake Shack. While the restaurant has a good reputation, and Mr. Meyer has many upscale Manhattan restaurants, Ms. Walsh said she didn’t know if East 86th Street needed another burger stand. Besides several diners and coffee shops selling burgers, there are Burger King and Papaya King.

“Do we want long lines waiting to go into Shake Shack, or do we want restaurants that can accommodate patrons with a sit-down dinner of high quality?” Ms. Walsh asked.

Shake Shack has signed a 15-year lease at 182 East 86th Street, which is between Lexington and Third Avenues at the base of the 440-unit apartment building with circular balconies known as Park Lane Tower. Neither the landlord nor the lessee would reveal the negotiated price. The company’s owners expect to open within the year in the 3,200-square-foot retail space, which is reached via the 2,750-square-foot sunken plaza.

The landlords for 182 East 86th Street, which include the Charles H. Greenthal Management Corporation, have been slowly upgrading the interiors and exteriors over the last two years, spending $2 million to sheathe it in granite, and add a handicapped access ramp and steel gate.

Shake Shack’s chief operating officer, Randy Garutti, said he spotted the space one winter’s day while out for a stroll. Heavily gated, its ramps were once used by skateboarders who frequented a bike and roller skating shop. It was also the location of a fabric store, a gift shop and a vacuum retailer.

There was interest in the space from other restaurants, but the owners say they were happy to sign Shake Shack in the space.

“We’ve just been waiting for the right deal, and we got it,” said Harold A. Bornstein, a Greenthal vice president. “We wanted someone that could use the plaza.”

 Garutti said the Shake Shack intended to make the plaza a place for patrons to have picnics. They will be able to place orders at the Shake Shack stand. There will also be seating inside, he said. Though the plaza extends through to 85th Street, it will be open only on the 86th Street side.

Across the plaza from Park Lane Tower, the 22-story Lucida on the corner of 86th Street and Lexington has the bookstore Barnes & Noble, the clothing store H & M and Sephora, the cosmetics chain.

A block east on the corner of 85th Street and Third Avenue, another new 22-story building, the Brompton, accommodates an Equinox fitness center and has 4,000 square feet — and ample basement space — with 72 feet of store frontage along 86th Street that is still available for lease.

One resident of the Park Lane Tower said she worried about smells from the new Shake Shack. The resident, who declined to give her name, has a balcony. “I live on the 10th floor — will it smell up there?”

The answer should be no, said William West, the chairman of Charles H. Greenthal, who said he went to great lengths in negotiating the lease with Shake Shack to protect neighbors from odors or nuisance.

Other residents of the area — those who do not live in Park Lane Tower — said they believed Shake Shack would be welcomed in a neighborhood that tends to appeal to young families.

“My husband is so excited,” said Ms. Levine, who has two daughters. “I think it’s certainly welcome. It’s not like a chain; it’s not another Burger King or Pizzeria Uno. I think 86th Street has become so commercialized, like a mini-mall, so it’s nice to have something more neighborly.”

Another resident, David Kachoui, who has a 2-year-old daughter, said he did not believe the Shake Shack’s lines would be any worse than those of the three cinemas in the neighborhood. “As long as they manage it, and they’re responsible and orderly about it, it should be O.K.” he said.

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Buyers’ Brokers In Demand By Candace Taylor   November 2009-- In Manhattan, buyers' brokers are a secretive bunch. When there's a high-profile sale, the listing agent's name is splashed across…... Read more >

Buyers’ Brokers In Demand
By Candace Taylor

 
November 2009-- In Manhattan, buyers' brokers are a secretive bunch. When there's a high-profile sale, the listing agent's name is splashed across the headlines: Brown Harris Stevens' Richard Wallgren, for example, closed the sale of a $37 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West in September; Paula Del Nunzio made news for her record-setting $53 million sale of the Harkness mansion in 2006.

Less well-known are the brokers who represented the buyers. The identities of buyers' brokers are a jealously guarded secret, never listed in public records and often never revealed. That's the way many brokers -- who pride themselves on their discretion -- like it, especially in a market where lavish spending is viewed with disfavor.

Ironically, brokers who represent buyers are taking on a greater significance than ever, even as they're being asked to keep increasingly quiet about their role. Well-qualified buyers are now scarce, and bringing them to the table is crucial to the transaction. Recognizing this, high-end brokers are spending more of their time representing buyers.

"I definitely have more buyers," said Wendy Maitland of Brown Harris Stevens. "If you have real buyers who are qualified, you are in a good position in terms of leverage in this market."

This month, The Real Deal did some sleuthing to find out who the city's top buyers' brokers are, and who has represented the purchasers in some of the biggest sales of the year.

The secret specialty

One reason for the secrecy is that in Manhattan, unlike other areas of the country, there is technically no such thing as a "buyers' broker." Because the seller usually pays the commission, both the listing agent and the broker representing the buyer are sellers' brokers.

Still, some agents work primarily with buyers, while others work mostly with sellers. Until recently, it was viewed as preferable to accumulate exclusive sales listings, but that has changed now that it's a buyers' market.

"I don't have a ton of exclusives right now, and I'm glad, because honestly people are showing and showing and getting lowball bids," said Elizabeth Lee Sample, a senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens. "It's a tough time to be representing a seller."

Instead, she's been focusing much of her attention on buyers, working not only with individuals, but groups looking to buy entire buildings or blocks of apartments.

"We represent a lot of billionaires," Sample said. "You [have] a lot of superwealthy people coming in and getting steals."

The change in focus has paid off. Sample and her business partner Brenda Powers reportedly represented Russian energy mogul Andrei Vavilov in his recent purchase of a $37.5 million, 8,300-square-foot penthouse at the Time Warner Center. Vavilov had previously backed out of a deal to buy a $53.5 million penthouse at the Plaza Hotel.

Like many of the brokers interviewed, Sample, who lives at the Time Warner Center, declined to talk about her transaction. High-end Manhattan brokers have long prided themselves on protecting the identities of their clients, giving movie stars, royalty or divorcées some measure of privacy when they search for a home.

Now that more buyers are trying to be increasingly discreet (see "Shh!! The art of selling quietly"), that's more important than ever.

"It's part of our duty as a broker," said Maitland. "We have official responsibilities to our clients, and one of them is discretion."

Maitland knows that firsthand. Not only has she recently been doing direct deals at luxury condo One Madison Park, where she and colleague Wilbur Gonzalez are the listing brokers, but she is known to have worked with Madonna for years, and reportedly represented the singer in her July purchase of a $32 million townhouse at 152 East 81st Street.

When asked about that, Maitland was, not surprisingly, mum.

Cagey clients

There are other challenges to working with buyers. Perhaps biggest among them is that buyers are not particularly loyal to their brokers.

"There are some loyal buyers, but you never know when a buyer might decide to call someone else," said Carrie Chiang, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, who in 2007 represented the buyers of two condos at the Plaza that closed for upward of $50 million.

Currently she is negotiating on behalf of the buyer of a $16 million condo. She's also recently done direct deals at the Chatham at 181 East 65th Street (for $6.5 million), and Trump Palace on 69th Street (for $5.2 million).

Even agents as high-profile as Chiang must earn buyers' loyalty by demonstrating that they have information buyers can't find through listings Web sites or other brokers.

"When you're being hired by the seller, all you have to do is know the building itself and the comps," Chiang said. To represent the buyer, "you have to really know about each property you're showing them, the advantage of buying one versus the other."

Sometimes, that literally means finding listings that no one else knows about.

"A talented broker will find something that's not really available on the market," said Pamela Liebman, Corcoran's CEO. "You want someone who can call potential sellers and entice them to sell."

Chiang is particularly talented at doing that, Liebman said. "I put her on a buyer recently, and she showed them six things that aren't on the market."

Chiang confirmed that she recently convinced at least one homeowner to consider selling for the right buyer.

Another broker who is skilled in that department, Liebman said, is Corcoran's Leighton Candler. Candler recently represented the buyer of 640 Park Avenue No. 11, the former home of Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld and his wife Kathleen, which had been quietly available since the spring.

"That took a lot of maneuvering, because it wasn't on the market," Liebman said of the $25.87 million deal.

Candler told The Real Deal the transaction was "wonderful for both sides," but wouldn't comment further.

Candler has some of the most important exclusives in the city, including a penthouse at 1020 Fifth Avenue listed for $39 million. But "getting to work with buyers is terrific," Candler said, "because I absolutely love looking at property. I am happy to walk into anyone's apartment at any time."

That's one reason Candler's good at sniffing out homeowners who may be persuaded to sell: she has a knack for remembering homes that were on the market years ago, but never sold, or parents who decided to put off moving until their children headed to college.

"If it's an apartment I really loved, I just don't forget it," she said.

Calm and steady

Of course, the most important element of working with buyers in the current environment is soothing their fears.

"In real estate, everybody's anxious," said Harriet Kaufman, executive managing director at Warburg Realty. As The Real Deal reported, Kaufman represented the buyer in one of the biggest deals of the year: the sale of a $30 million penthouse at 145 Hudson Street that closed in February, at the height of the post-Lehman doldrums. "I try to calm them down," she said.

Another top broker, Prudential Douglas Elliman's Dolly Lenz, advises looking at the situation from the buyer's point of view.

"You have to sit there and think, 'If I were the buyer, what would worry me about this?'" said Dolly Lenz, a vice-chairman at Prudential Douglas Elliman. "Then you can be ready with all that information."

Lenz recently represented Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Houston Rockets, in purchasing a penthouse at Robert A.M. Stern-designed Superior Ink for $25 million. Unlike many buyers who have walked away from deposits, Alexander closed on the unit in September at the same price he'd agreed to pay when the listing was negotiated more than a year ago. But as soon as he closed, Lenz put the unit back on the market for $39.5 million.

She wouldn't discuss his reasons for re-listing it, but said the sale "says so much about the health of Downtown."

Elliman's Suzanne Sealy said, as she sees it, empathy is key to working with buyers.

"I would never put anybody into an apartment that I wouldn't personally live in, or that I couldn't get them out of whole within two years," said Sealy, who once secured a dream home for a customer even though it already had an accepted offer.

Initiative helps a lot when it comes to working with buyers. Kate Meckler, a senior vice president at Sotheby's, recently represented the buyers of a 4,000-square-foot Manhattan loft for around $4 million. The sellers had been dragging their feet because they planned to move to Brooklyn but hadn't found a new place. To help speed things along, Meckler recommended a good Brooklyn broker she knew. In no time, the sellers had found a place there and the sale went through.

The other broker "just didn't think of that," Meckler said.
 

 

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Brokers who are up in a down market A few hardy agents have adopted new strategies to have their best year ever September 2009 -By Candace Taylor Sean Oakes, a vice president at Halstead Property, is…... Read more >

Brokers who are up in a down market

A few hardy agents have adopted new strategies to have their best year ever September 2009 -By Candace Taylor

Sean Oakes, a vice president at Halstead Property, is having his best year ever. So far, he's earned nearly 40 percent more than last year, and he's on track to double his 2008 take-home pay by the end of the year.

How did he accomplish this feat in the worst market in more than a decade? Simple. Oakes gets referrals from a real estate attorney, who alerts him every time her firm is handling a troubled mortgage. Another friend, a landlord in Williamsburg with extensive contacts, does the same thing.

"He'll say, 'This person is receiving threats from the bank and needs to sell, can you call her?'" Oakes said.

Most real estate agents are having an understandably difficult time in the current market, with sales and rental transactions down by half from last year. A few savvy agents, however, are doing better than ever by using the down market to their advantage. This month, The Real Deal tracked down some of them to find out how they're doing it.

Without exception, the agents said that backbreaking work, patience and a bit of luck are essential to success in this market. But they've also learned how to go where the deals are and carve out unique niches for themselves.

Oakes, for example, worked almost entirely in Brooklyn this year, though his office is in Midtown. He made the switch after realizing that foreclosures are more common there than in Manhattan. He said his "niche is people who need to sell."

Once he finds sellers – often those who have lost jobs or taken a beating in the stock market – he's very blunt about market conditions. If they don't want to hear it, he moves on to the next client.

"I just wait for the right person," he said, noting that these sellers often come back to him after realizing that other brokers don't follow through on their promises. "I don't take overpriced listings."

This crucial combination has served him well.

In May, it took Oakes six days to sell a two-bedroom condo at 100 Jay Street in Dumbo for $835,000, close to the $865,000 asking price. He also put a one-bedroom co-op at 200 Congress Street in Cobble Hill in contract after only three weeks for $400,000, down from the asking price of $450,000. The home had previously been listed with another broker at $525,000, but hadn't received an offer in a year.

"This is certainly the best year I've had since I've been doing this," said Oakes, who has been in real estate since 1998.

Other brokers are finding motivated sellers through estate sales.

Estates need cash for taxes and other expenses, so the heirs are often anxious to unload the property, explained Harriet Kaufman, an associate broker and executive managing director at Warburg Realty, who has sold three estate-owned apartments this year for prices ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million.

"These are people who are going to sell," she said.

But estate sales aren't for the faint of heart, she said, because they require navigating an emotional minefield of grieving heirs who are often dismayed to find that their deceased relative's property value has fallen in this down market.

"For the heirs, it's about expectation management," Kaufman said. "People are disappointed."

It took all her diplomatic skills to convince the heirs she worked with on her estate deals this year to price the properties correctly. "Slowly but surely, we brought the prices down to saleable levels," she said.

Kaufman also shepherded a $30 million deal to the closing table in January, at the height of the paralysis spawned by the Lehman Brothers crash. Kaufman represented the buyer of a penthouse in the Skylofts building at 145 Hudson Street in Tribeca, which set a record for the highest-priced Manhattan apartment sold below Columbus Circle.

The deal had been signed last summer, before the market turned, so it was a small miracle that it closed intact. Kaufman credits the success, in part, to her good relationships with the buyer and the selling brokers.

"I have a track record and a big referral base," she said.

S. Jean Meisel, a senior vice president and managing director at Brown Harris Stevens with more than 20 years of experience, agreed that a good reputation is now more important than ever.

She said she tries to treat every listing with the same level of service, no matter how big or small. That's proved to be beneficial in this environment, where the lower end of the market has been stronger than the high end.

Meisel's deals this year have ranged from a one-bedroom she recently sold for $655,000 to a four-bedroom, 3,478-square- foot unit, #11B, at 15 Central Park West, which closed in July for $17.5 million, according to the real estate Web site StreetEasy.

"You never know what portion of the market is going to be vibrant," Meisel said. "That's always been my attitude about diversity."

She's also not letting her multi-million-dollar exclusives stop her from doing rentals, including one Upper East Side duplex co-op, owned by an estate, that will soon go on the market for $30,000 a month.

Century 21 NY Metro's Wes Stanton is another agent doing more rentals than usual this year. Stanton, originally a rental broker, began transitioning to sales about three years ago. Then, when the sales market plummeted in the fourth quarter of 2008, he directed his six-person team to take advantage of old contacts and start focusing on rentals again.

It has paid off. In 2008, Stanton did 165 transactions and brought in $500,000 in gross commissions, but he's already surpassed that in 2009, and is on track to bring in $1 million in gross commissions by the end of the year.

Rentals give the team a steady source of income, which they use to supplement their advertising budget and help do more sales, Stanton said. That helps them snag business from competitors who have slashed their marketing budgets.

"We stood out, and took a nice little market share," Stanton said.

It helped that the team was already well-positioned to sell lower-end apartments because of their ties to the rental market.

"My business was well-suited to focus on one-bedrooms and studios," he said. "A lot of clients in the past have gone on to purchase apartments."

David Kornmeier of Brown Harris Stevens has also adapted well to the down market. An up-and-comer who joined the business seven years ago, Kornmeier is the youngest person the firm has ever named a vice president and director.

Kornmeier cut his teeth as a buyers' broker, working as an assistant to veteran BHS townhouse broker Wolf Jakubowski. When he went out on his own a few years ago, Kornmeier focused his attention mostly on exclusive listings. But when New York became a buyer's market this fall, he quickly switched gears, contacting old clients to see if they were still house-hunting.

"Now that the market has shifted, I went back to buyers," Kornmeier said. "I've been calling the guys I haven't talked to for a while."

Those contacts have come in handy. In July, Kornmeier did his biggest deal ever, representing the buyer of a 25-foot-wide townhouse at 5 East 78th Street. His client paid $15 million for the home, last listed at $18.5 million.

The buyer had been in the market for years, Kornmeier said, but today's low prices persuaded him to finally sign on the dotted line.

Kornmeier also recently did his largest direct deal (representing both the buyer and seller), at 130 East 82nd Street. He'd had the listing for a long time, but early last month, he was able to bring a buyer to the property, selling it for close to the $6.75 million asking price.

Sherry Matays, a senior vice president at Corcoran, also shifted her strategy this year, relying less on open houses as a selling tool.

This winter, "you could no longer count on people coming to open houses," she said. "You couldn't funnel people in as easily as you had been able to."

So she told the agents on her team to tailor showings to buyers' schedules, even if that meant returning to the same apartment three or four times a day and working longer hours.

"It was a shift in commitment," she said. "Our lives had to change."

Matays is also a believer in doing a diverse range of deals. This year, she said, her team has closed deals ranging from just under $600,000 to $12 million. In mid-July, Matays closed on 285 Central Park West, unit #3S. Listed at $6.995 million, it went into contract in May for $6.35 million.

"We don't forget about those smaller people," she said. "They're totally germane and important to our business."

Some brokers have an advantage because they happen to work in areas that have fared relatively well in the face of the downturn.

For the past few years, Tom Doyle, a vice president at Bond New York, has focused primarily on selling in Soho, where he lives, and nearby Noho and Greenwich Village. Once the market started to slide, he found he was doing even more of his business in the area. Moreover, he said, nervous buyers and sellers seem to trust him because of his experience in the neighborhood.

"Having a good handle on the neighborhood helps people feel more comfortable with a broker," said Doyle, who carries a stack of business cards with him when walking his dog near his home.

At the end of January, Doyle signed a contract at 95 Greene Street for $3 million from a French all-cash buyer, closing in March. In April, he sold a loft at 5 Great Jones Street in Noho – once inhabited by jazz legend Charles Mingus – for $1.85 million.

Another broker with a unique niche is Susan Singer. In addition to being a senior vice president at Corcoran, Singer is also one of only about 5,000 certified eco-brokers in the country.

Singer said she is doing better than last year in both transactions and dollar value, and that being an eco-broker has helped her as the fascination with the green movement intensifies.

"It helps me because I stand out from the pack," she said.

Still, she said, sometimes a broker's success is mostly about being in the right place at the right time.

Singer sold a penthouse at Chelsea's London Terrace in May for $4.4 million, after it had been on the market for only five weeks. She got the listing for the 20th-floor home, which has four wrap-around terraces, because she lives in the building and a friend of the seller recommended her. "It was an exceptional property," she said. "Those are the lucky breaks

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THE COOPERTOR The Sky is Falling...Prices, Too. A Market Forecast for 2009 By Greg Olear – April 2009 Article Options o               …... Read more >

THE COOPERTOR
The Sky is Falling...Prices, Too.

A Market Forecast for 2009

By Greg Olear – April 2009
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On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers investment bank went under in the largest bankruptcy of all time. The economy was already on the decline, other august companies had already foundered, and both presidential candidates were proclaiming the situation as the worst economic crisis to face the U.S. since the Great Depression.

The Lehman collapse was, among other things, the first death knell for the Manhattan real estate bull market. Thousands of potential buyers found themselves suddenly unemployed, and thousands of apartment owners became reluctant sellers.

In 2009, the real estate market will begin the slow process of surveying and adapting to the new landscape. No one expects it to be a big year for sales, but there remains a cautious optimism in the industry. There is a new president and a new consensus that bold and swift action must be taken to right the economic ship. And there is the widely held view that this is still New York City, and what is true for the real estate markets in the rest of the country has little or no truth here.

Buyers Are Out For Blood…

Time was, if you found an apartment you liked in Manhattan, you had to submit an offer immediately—usually at well above the asking price—to snag the deal. And if you borrowed money, your interest rate might be seven or eight percent.

Those days are gone—at least for the foreseeable future. The market is almost upside down from what it was just five years ago. Interest rates are low, but the inventory is high.

“As a buyer, you have a unique opportunity in the marketplace,” says Jacky Teplitzky, managing director with Prudential Douglas Elliman. “Incredibly low interest rates, and 40 percent more inventory in the market than a year ago.”

The glut of available properties affords buyers the chance to be picky.

“There’s no urgency on the part of the buyer,” says Paul Purcell, a founding partner with Charles Rutenberg Realty. “They know they have time. They know they have choices.”

They also know what they hear: the economy is bad, it will get worse before it gets better, and the buyers hold all the trump cards.

“It very much depends on who you talk to,” says Harriet Kaufman, an executive managing director with Warburg Realty. “If you talk to a buyer who wants to get a bottom-out deal, it’s going to get worse, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”

No one wants to miss out on what could be the steal of a lifetime. “I think right now, the buyer doesn’t want to be the last fool to pay high,” Teplitzky says.

The current climate is like a game of chicken between buyer and seller. They seller asks for two million dollars. The buyer offers one million. Both are waiting for the other guy to blink. While they wait, not much happens. The high inventory, coupled with the low sales volume, make it difficult for brokers to get a bead on the market.

“The volume is off by about 75 percent, meaning number of sales,” says Purcell. “It’s hard to get a fix on things when you don’t have pricing perspective.”

Another trend: multiple bidding. A buyer might look at six apartments listed at half a million dollars, and make a truly low-ball offer on all six, just to gauge a seller’s sense of desperation.

“Sellers have a lot of decisions to make,” Teplitzky says. “Sellers who don’t need to sell will take the apartment off the market. Those who can rent will rent, to make some money.”

But for the ones who have no recourse but to sell—all they can do is wait. “If they bought five years ago, they should be OK,” Teplitzky says. “Somebody who bought two years ago will definitely lose money.”

Selling in a buyer’s market is really an exercise in expectation management—and that’s part of the broker’s job in this climate. “You have to be realistic,” says Kaufman. “We will make deals. Not at last year’s prices, but we will make deals.”

…But They Are Out There…

Teplitzky, Kaufman, and Purcell agree that there are plenty of buyers out there. There just aren’t enough buyers making legitimate offers to get the engine running.

“Buyers are timid to pull the trigger,” Purcell says, “but there are a lot of them in the market.” He expects sales to pick up during the year. “I watch open houses. I see how busy I am. I sense that people will have the courage to step forward and do something.”

Buyers are waiting for prices to fall—and well they should. A recent report by Goldman Sachs on the Manhattan real estate market concluded that prices were inflated 19 to 44 percent. Will they drop that much? No one knows, but it’s safe to say that the days of flipping a condo for a quick profit have gone the way of the dodo.

Purcell, for one, views this development in a glass-half-full kind of way. “I don’t think any of this is bad,” he says. “I think it’s painful, but I don’t think it’s bad.”

Escalating apartment prices over the last few years have effectively barred most of humanity from owning a place in Manhattan. And this lack of diversity—even if it’s only economic diversity—has its price. Furthermore, most of the apartments in Manhattan are not to be confused with, say, beachfront property in the Hamptons, where topography is of paramount importance.

“I know we’re on the island of Manhattan and the membership fee is expensive,” he says, “but these are boxes in the sky.”

And the boxes in the sky are, for the moment, overpriced.

“Everybody has to realize, we’re going back to pricing in 2005, 2006,” says Teplitzky. “The sooner everybody does that, the better off we’ll be. We’ll get out of this freeze, in which nothing is happening.”

Not all sectors of the market are in the doldrums. Apartments that cost less than a million dollars are still moving, mostly because the people that are buying them—first-time homeowners—were never dependent on Wall Street bonuses, and thus not as affected by the sluggish economy.

When the prices go into the seven figures, however, many first-time buyers are priced out. They don’t have sufficient savings to plop twenty percent or more down, as required by most co-ops, which limits the number of places they could purchase. “It’s a huge problem, the one to two million dollar apartments,” Teplitzky says.

Another group that is more active than others is what Teplitzky calls “the upgraders”—people who now live in two-bedroom units but want three. “Three bedrooms are coming down drastically in price,” she says. “It’s a unique opportunity for upgrading.”

New York is Still New York

The mood of the market is far from euphoric. But real estate brokers tend to be among the bulliest of the bullish, and this slowdown has not dampened a cautious optimism. All told, 2009 may not be a banner year, but if all goes well, it could make 2010 better.

“Best case scenario is, if we get rid of some of the inventory at reasonably attractive prices,” says Kaufman. “Ten to fifteen percent off the asking price, anything in that range.” And the worst-case scenario? “That we don’t. We can’t get rid of the inventory.”

One thing that will help unload inventory is the precipitous drop-off in new development, Teplitzky says.

Then there is the matter of New York being New York.

“We have elements others don’t have,” Teplitzky says. “Foreign buyers, empty nesters, second homes, pied a terre people. Other areas are affected by families—we’re not so dependent only on that segment.”

Kaufman agrees. “New York is different than the rest of the country. It’s not as dire as in Florida, California, or Long Island, even.”

Still, it’s hard to really know what will happen. There are too many unknown variables. Will there be more government bailouts? Will the existing bailouts free up credit, as was the hope? Will the Obama administration have an immediate impact on something as intangible as a buyer’s desire to buy?

“Apartments are not like stocks,” says Purcell. “They don’t move together in unison on any day, in any month. There are 9,000 different individuals with 9,000 different stories out there. It’s not a commodity—every property is different, every buyer is different.”

“We’re in uncharted water,” he continues. “We know we’re in over our heads, but we don’t know if the bottom is two inches below us, or twenty feet below us.”

Kaufman sums up best the ability of anyone to adequately forecast the year ahead: “I’ve lost my crystal ball.”

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  BIG DEAL A Glass Box Shatters a Record A NEW duplex penthouse built on top of a converted loft building in TriBeCa has sold for $30 million, setting a record for the highest-priced Manhattan apartment…... Read more >

 
BIG DEAL
A Glass Box Shatters a Record

A NEW duplex penthouse built on top of a converted loft building in TriBeCa has sold for $30 million, setting a record for the highest-priced Manhattan apartment sold to date south of Columbus Circle.

The apartment, a two-story glass box with views of the Hudson and Lower Manhattan, is perched on a 14-story Art Deco loft building that dates to the 1920s at 145 Hudson Street, near Hubert Street. The building, known as the Skylofts, has been in the midst of a conversion to residential and commercial condominiums for several years.

Sean Murphy Turner, a vice president at Stribling Marketing Associates, said that the four-bedroom penthouse went into contract last August before a wave of failures on Wall Street soured the real estate market.

The apartment has nearly 8,000 square feet of space, spread over two floors connected by an elliptical glass-and-steel staircase. There is a 4,500-square-foot terrace as well.

While many recent deals in Manhattan have been renegotiated, the penthouse closed at the full contract price, or 13 percent below the asking price of $34.5 million.

Ms. Turner would not identify the buyer, except to say that he already lived in the neighborhood and was not an investment banker or the manager of a hedge fund.

“It is a remarkable home that will probably never come along again,” she said.

At the Skylofts, the first six floors were converted to commercial condominiums, and the 11th through 14th floors were sold as loft apartments. Another 12 lofts on the 7th through 10th floors are scheduled to go on the market later this year.

Until now, brokers said, the highest price paid for a downtown apartment was $24.675 million, paid in 2005 by Elie Tahari, the fashion designer, for a 9,300-square-foot triplex apartment at 141 Prince Street. The seller was Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul.

That’s just a bit more than the $24 million paid by Jon Bon Jovi, the singer, for an apartment at 158 Mercer Street in 2007.

The highest price to date for any downtown residence was for a town house on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village, which sold in 2007 for $33.15 million.

 

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THE EASTERN BLOCK UPPER EAST SIDERS, BRACE YOURSELVES - IT'S ABOUT TO GET CROWDED By KATHERINE DYKSTRA March 8, 2007 -- IF you live on the Upper East Side, particularly in the area close to 86th Street,…... Read more >

THE EASTERN BLOCK
UPPER EAST SIDERS, BRACE YOURSELVES - IT'S ABOUT TO GET CROWDED

By KATHERINE DYKSTRA

March 8, 2007 -- IF you live on the Upper East Side, particularly in the area close to 86th Street, you are well aware that the neighborhood is in the midst of a major transformation. You’ve watched small business after small business (cellphone stores, bodegas, doughnut shops) hang “We’re Moving” signs in their windows and then shutter their doors. You’ve woken up to half-city-blocks seemingly razed overnight.

You’ve seen the scaffolding go up and the construction vehicles roll in. But what exactly is happening? Essentially, with the introduction of a half dozen shiny new residential buildings, the area east of Lexington Avenue and south of 86th Street is poised to go ultra-modern luxury condo, big-box retail and more shoulder-to-shoulder than the 6 train at rush hour. And all this by 2008.

"These big condos that are being built on Lexington and Third are going to change the nature of the neighborhood," says Harriet Kaufman of Warburg Realty Partnership, who's lived and worked in the area for years.

The cornerstone of all this development, given its proximity to the subway, its size and the retail it will offer, is Extell Development's half-city-block behemoth, the Lucida. The limestone-based, glass-curtain-walled building will encompass the area from 85th Street to 86th Street on Lexington and is the UES's first LEED-certified residential green construction. Its 18 stories will contain 110 condos, an H&M, a Barnes & Noble, a Sephora and a Bank of America.

One block east, at Third Avenue, is the massive crater that will be the Brompton, a 206-unit condo building developed by the Related Companies. And one avenue over from that, on Second Avenue, three five-story tenement buildings are about to be torn down to make way for a 20-story condo building. (The L-shaped parcel contains 105,000 square feet of buildable space and is coveted by "proven New York City developers," says Alan Miller, a senior director and principal at Eastern Consolidated, the company selling the piece of land.)

To put their proximity in perspective, if you stand on the north side of 86th Street midway between Second and Third avenues, all three sites will be visible once they're under construction.
And there's more.

Head south two blocks on Third Avenue to 84th Street, and on the northeast corner is the Legacy, a glass-walled, seven-unit boutique project designed inside and out by Costas Kondylis. One block south of that is the New Yorker, the conversion of a 1982 condo building's 17 floors into 31 units. Another two blocks south is Maison East, also a conversion, this one of a rental building into 127 condos. Go over to Second Avenue and down one more block to 79th Street, and you'll find 300 East 79th Street, a glassy new 40-unit building under construction.

Add the Lucida's retail into the mix, and you'll find a neighborhood that's drastically changing.
With Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret, Best Buy, Steve Madden and more already in existence along 86th Street (the Upper East Side's veritable hub), the area is no stranger to big retail. But consider three of the other places in Manhattan where H&Ms have opened shop: lower Fifth Avenue, 59th Street and Herald Square - all major shopping destinations.

Says Kaufman, "There were lots of little mom-and-pop stores on Lexington, those are all gone ... we are going to have megastores."

And with more than 500 new condo units, there will be swarms of people to support them. In many ways, this residential development is merely the next phase in an expansion of the luxury residences that have always been available for purchase west of Lexington, closer to the park. The trend began about five years ago with the construction of the Seville and the Impala, on First and Second avenues respectively, and continued with 170 East End Avenue, a luxury high-rise on York and 88th Street, among others.

And with the increase in quality came an increase in price point: 170 East End Avenue is fetching an average of $2,000 a square foot and more than two-thirds of its 93 units have sold.
When sales start in mid-March, the Legacy's two ground-floor townhouses, three floor-through apartments and two duplex penthouses, which range from 3,300 to 5,200 square feet (not counting outdoor space) will be priced from $5.6 million to $7.7 million. That's an average of $1,480 to nearly $1,700 a square foot.

The twist, though, is that this latest incarnation of buildings won't all carry such hefty price tags. Some are actually adding relative affordability to the area.
While some units will run about $1,700 a square foot, Wine estimates that the Brompton will start at $1,100 a square foot when sales begin in earnest "two to three months" from now. (Presales should begin in about a month.)

At 300 East 79th Street, an 850-square-foot apartment is $1 million, or $1,176 per square foot. (The penthouse, though, will go for just under $2,000 a square foot.) The Lucida's units will start at just under $2 million, making their smallest, at 1,445 square feet, not quite $1,350 per square foot.
"We saw the market in that area for customers who have children and who are looking to move out of the city because new buildings were $1,500 or $1,600 a square foot," says Hy Chalme of Broad Street Development, the firm responsible for Maison East, where the units range from $1,200 to $1,250 a square foot. "They figured they couldn't afford the city."

And the lower pricing strategy is working.

"Maison East is doing quite well; they're selling," says Kaufman, who explains that the influx of condos has opened up the neighborhood to people with good incomes but lack the net worth to buy a co-op, which usually requires a 20 percent down payment compared to the 10 percent down payment new condos will accept. Many of these buyers are young marrieds, drawn to the area by its private schools as well as one of the city's very best public schools, P.S. 6.

"We could find a phenomenal private school, but they're not necessarily going to accept us," says Gregory Olsen, who bought a three-bedroom at Maison East with his wife, Deirdre. The Olsens' children are 4 and 2. "P.S. 6 gives us the option to say we feel very comfortable sending our kids to public school."

Given the draw of the schools, many developers are favoring larger family-friendly residences over studios or one-bedrooms.

"We've decided to go between two and five bedrooms," says Young of Lucida's units. "There is the largest concentration of private schools in that neighborhood."

But not everyone has jumped on that bandwagon.

"Many of the new buildings only offer large apartments," says Wine. "But we know there is demand for new luxury condos of all sizes... Our understanding of the marketplace is that the Upper East Side is one of the most stable neighborhoods for value in New York."
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PARTNER WITH YOUR BROKER TO MAKE A GREAT SALE If handled wisely, you will sell your apartment quickly at a favorable price.  But handled unwisely, you may not only sell for a lower price but take…... Read more >

PARTNER WITH YOUR BROKER TO MAKE A GREAT SALE

If handled wisely, you will sell your apartment quickly at a favorable price.  But handled unwisely, you may not only sell for a lower price but take longer doing so.

What spells the difference?

Almost always, it’s a good client-broker partnership.  Her are tips for creating a winning partnership:

One of the first matters to discuss can be touchy: pricing.  If one broker says your apartment can fetch substantially more than the figures suggested by other brokers, it’s tempting to sign your exclusive with the high expectations broker.  So keep this in mind: You don’t get to decide for how much your apartment will sell – and neither does your broker.  The market decides.

Indeed, experienced brokers say that apartments priced higher than comparable properties operate at a disadvantage.  “Buyers won’t come to see over-priced properties – and rarely attend their open houses,” says Halstead’s Ann Bialek.  “In time, negative perceptions might occur.  Because they stay on the market much longer, people begin to suspect there’s something wrong with the apartments.  In the end, it’s usually necessary to drop their prices even lower than market.”

Brokers generally seek to price properties right at market or a tad below.  This attracts would-be buyers to see them, to attend their open houses.  Apartments get a buzz and often realize higher selling prices.  Case in point: Because one of Bialek’s sellers needed a quick sale, she marketed the apartment at a lower price point.  Result?  “We had nine offers after our first open house – every one above the asking price of $1,149,000,” she says.

Bear in mind that your broker is a knowledgeable professional with extensive experience in an area in which you are a neophyte.  After all, you might be involved in four to five property sales over your entire lifetime.  By contrast, your broker may have sold four to five apartments within the past two months alone – not to mention the hundreds of transactions over the course of a career.  Thanks to the experience of talking to literally thousands of would-be and actual buyers, your broker has well-honed ideas about how to make a good sale as quickly as possible.

Here’s advice: take the advice.

If your broker suggests decorating changes, make them.  “Many buyers lack the imagination to see what an apartment can look like,” says Halstead’s Judith Saunders.  “They can be derailed by the current décor, sometimes even by the current color of paint.”  This is why sometimes even small changes – moving furniture, even getting rid of some of it – improves the look of an apartment and makes it more saleable.  Ditto painting one or more of the rooms or clearing mantles, shelves, and end tables to create a clear, uncluttered look.  “Our suggestions to clients don’t reflect judgments about their lifestyles or decorating ideas,” says Saunders.  “We merely want to ensure that an apartment appeals to the greatest range of possible buyers.”

Another matter: Be responsive to your broker’s needs on your behalf.  Halstead’s John Parsegian reports that a critical factor in making it possible for him to sell a 16-foot East 60’s townhouse was that not only was the owner responsive to every suggestion he made, his seller also gave him complete freedom in the marketing and showing of the property.  The confidence paid off.  Parsegian sold the townhouse for a record-breaking $8.5 million within 10 months.

There is a hard truth to accept: You might lose your best offer because it came in first.  The natural temptation?  To wait for a bigger and better offer.  Be careful.  “There’s a reason why first offers are often the best,” says Warburg Realty Partnership’s Harriet Kaufman.

Once you sign an exclusive contract, word goes out to the entire real estate brokerage community about your apartment.  But the flood of new listings represents a “keeping up” challenge to brokers.  “Well-connected brokers contact other brokers that they know are likely to have buyers interested in your type of apartment.  In effect, your apartment is specially flagged for particular buyers,” says Kaufman.  “Typically, these buyers have been looking for quite a while so the minute they walk into your apartment, they say, ‘This is it!’ – and it is.”

Having looked for so long, the buyers don’t want to lose the apartment and make very good offers.  Experienced brokers understand this, and often urge you to accept.

Will you?

If you have developed a sound, trusting partnership with your broker, who knows how to qualify the buyer, you will.

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Why Some People  Love Their Brokers Corcoran’s Stuart Moss remembers the call. Knowing his background was in finance, a referral telephoned to discuss diversifying into real…... Read more >

Why Some People 
Love Their Brokers

Corcoran’s Stuart Moss remembers the call. Knowing his background was in finance, a referral telephoned to discuss diversifying into real estate – and did. Ultimately, Moss’s caller bought three condos in Worldwide Plaza on Eighth Avenue. His son would live in one; the other two would be income-producing rentals.

The purchases were made in early 2004. Oops! Bad timing. Within days the Iraqi war broke out; the market sagged so badly that the condos didn’t rent. Then astonishingly, barely three months later, the market soared, leaving everyone open-mouthed.

Time to look for renters? Hardly. Instead, Moss offered his client an unexpected recommendation: Sell. “I worked the numbers,” he said. “After commissions and closing costs, he would make over 40% by selling the two rentals.”

The investor-client could not believe the figures. After investigating, he realized Moss was right. Another bonus: he could protect his gains by using a 1031 Exchange which allows the tax-free rollover of profits from the sale of one property into another.

The client went for it, using the proceeds to buy yet another apartment, which Moss promptly rented for $12,500 monthly. In the end, Moss guided his investor-client through seven transactions. The first five netted a 46% profit on the two sales; the apartment, purchased for $2.5 million, is now worth over $3.2. Total elapsed time for all transactions? Eight months.

It is not just investors who benefit from working with a savvy broker. Corcoran’s Deanna Kory remembers a client trying to sell her late parent’s three-bedroom CPW apartment in 2000. “My client wanted at least $1.3 million,” Kory remembers. When not a single offer came in over $1.25 million, Kory gave the co-op a clear-eyed appraisal. The empty apartment felt cold and unwelcoming. Kory went to her client with a startling proposition” Would she invest $10,000 to furnish the co-op?

“She was nervous,” Kory recalls, “but she also trusted my judgment.” Good thing! Once Kory arranged for, and placed, the rented furniture, the apartment came to life – and promptly sold for $1.5 million.

Sometimes it’s a broker’s wisdom, judgment and experience that make all the difference. One couple’s saga began after the birth of a second child when they needed to sell their (smallish) condo and buy a bigger apartment. Halstead’s Robin Foxx got several offers on their home, from an investor. This is the offer she urged her clients to accept. “They could rent back the apartment, continue looking, and avoid the cost and hassle of moving twice,” she explained.

Then the wife conceived again, this time with…triplets! Now the family really needed a bigger apartment. But Foxx’s challenge grew bigger too: the new-home budget didn’t-couldn’t!-budge.

After a relentless search, Foxx found a suitable, affordable apartment. But when the contract came back, Foxx grew uneasy: A Receiver/Trustee was listed as seller.

Concerned about this unexpected twist, Foxx insisted on a contract “escape clause” so that if title didn’t transfer by a designated time, the deal could be cancelled without penalty.

Then a new surprise: the Owner/Occupant declared bankruptcy, miring the condo in bankruptcy proceedings. This news was followed by another jolt: the Bankruptcy Trustee wanted to “shop” the apartment anew. This would have raised the family stakes and kept them in limbo indefinitely, all the time squeezed into their (now excruciatingly small) rental…except for one thing: Foxx’s canny “escape clause” allowed them to withdraw penalty-free from the contract.

Other ups and downs followed, but the saga ended happily when Foxx found a wonderful sponsored co-op that not only exceeded the couple’s requirements and met their budget, it didn’t require Board approval.

Sometimes it’s a calm, cool-headed broker that makes the day. After a very complicated, difficult process, a family was finally approved by a Board with one stipulation: that their dog be muzzled in the elevators. The problem? The buyers consider muzzling a near form of animal torture.

“I knew the Board wouldn’t back down,” says Warburg Realty’s Harriet Kaufman.” But neither would the buyers.” Both sides took to their corners.

Instead of adding to the heat, Kaufman went to a pet store where she learned something useful: soft, cloth muzzles exist. She bought one and in quiet, one-on-one discussions, showed it to each side. Would this do? She asked each. Both sides agreed that it would. Whew. The family, with their cloth-muzzled dog, moved in.

Can you see why some people absolutely love their brokers? And can you blame them?

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Can We Talk? Questions to Ask Your Broker They say there’s no such thing as a bad question-and when it comes to buying or selling a condo or co-op, asking the right questions of your broker, both before…... Read more >

Can We Talk?
Questions to Ask Your Broker

They say there’s no such thing as a bad question-and when it comes to buying or selling a condo or co-op, asking the right questions of your broker, both before you choose one and afterwards, can help make the process run a whole lot smoother.

Asking the right questions can help insure that relationship with your broker will be a productive one and that you’ll find the best apartment to suit your needs. So here are some questions and answers that real estate professionals throughout the city advice prospective buyers and sellers to ask their chosen brokers.

Can I work with you?
Ok, maybe you don’t want to be this blunt, but a buyer-broker relationship is an important one and you need to know the broker will work well with you.

“You have to have a sense of comfort and trust with the broker,” says Dottie Herman, chief executive officer of Prudential Douglas Elliman, one of the biggest brokerages in the city. “I don’t think all brokers are the same. You should interview a few…you can always ask their background and where they’ve sold, but just as important is how you feel with them.”

And it’s not necessarily a matter of a broker being good or bad at their jobs. A broker who worked superbly with one buyer may not click with you. “Someone could be a great broker and they have a very strong personality,” says Herman . “Some people like that, and some don’t. Some specialize in certain areas. You shouldn’t think everything is the same and that every broker is the same, because that’s not true at all.”

Will I be working with you or an assistant?
It’s easier to forge that all-important broker-client relationship when you know you’ll be working closely with that specific person. Just about any broker has assistants and co-workers who all help each other out, but some rely on help more than others. That may be fine with you, but you should find out what the situation will be before omitting to the arrangement.

“Everybody has these teams now,” says Judy Maysles, a salesperson with Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, who works in Manhattan. “I understand that in this market, there are times where you have to get somebody out there, and I do have people, and we all cover for each other. But I think it’s really important to have that one person you can trust and call.”

Is the building financially stable?
Before going forth with a purchase, you obviously want to find out if the building has any significant assessments planned or if there’s any potential for one in the near future-and that’s partly your broker’s job. If there are large projects in the works, this could result in an assessment on top of the maintenance fee.

“You need to ask if there’s any huge work to be done, and if there is, what is the time schedule, and what will be the cost in addition to maintenance fees?” says Deborah Gimelson of Coldwell Banker. Sometimes, prospective buyers find out about something just before closing and that can result in complications, so ask early. “And just because the building is due for a project doesn’t mean a buyer shouldn’t buy,” Says Gimelson. “Every building is going to need work eventually. It’s a matter of being able to afford it, and whether or not it’s worth the investment.”

How should I prioritize my wants?
All buyers come into the purchasing process with lists of what they want in an apartment, but it’s a list that has to be flexible. Ultimately you may have to choose a few key desires in a home and sacrifice others.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re paying $300,000, $3 million or $30 million; you’re not going to get everything you want,” says Harriet Kaufman, a managing director at Warburg Realty Partnership.

“Everything usually shows itself during the process, because the client may not get the view, but if the apartment has good light, that will suffice. Or if they want huge rooms, they’ll give up some light. It’s a process. You have to look around, and that helps people prioritize what they really want.”

“I tell people to start with a list of everything they want,” says Maysles. “Then the first time I take a buyer out, I show them different architecture: Postwar, prewar, a Victorian building, a building with bathrooms in the bedroom, and apartment with lots of light, one with no light. Then you start to focus on what their real list is.”

What do I need to be board worthy?
There’s a lot to know when it comes to boards, and a good broker should be able to give you an idea of how easy or difficult the board is in a specific building you’re interested in buying into. Since boards can change, there are no guarantees; today’s easygoing board could become difficult after you’ve bought your apartment and it’s too late to change your mind. But just to get into the building, you have to satisfy the board’s financial requirements.

“A good broker should have a very good sense of what the building wants,” says Kaufman. The broker should also be able to provide input on how to balance your income and liquidity based on what the building wants. If you have a high income for example, you want to finance as much as possible in order to keep as many assets as possible because boards require not only a down payment, but also money left over.

“The idea is that these are shares of a private corporation and if someone can’t meet his or her obligation and loses a job, then those obligations fall upon the other shareholders,” Kaufman says. “So they want to make sure you’re liquid enough in case your income stream stops so that you can support the apartment.”

It’s also good to get an idea s to whether or not you’re a good fit for the board. “You have to know the boards by reputation,” Kaufman says. “Except for the nitty-gritty of the board package, a managing agent can only tell you what the board requires in terms of paperwork and documentation of assets. You really need a broker to tell you if this or that board is receptive to young families, or it’s a very social board or it’s not social at all.”

All of this is particularly important in today’s very strong market, because boards can afford to be picky.

“They don’t have to worry so much about finding a shareholder,” says Gimelson. “They figure, ‘If we don’t like this person and turn him down, there are about five people waiting.’ That’s not always the case, but it is more that case now because the market is so strong and boards feel they’re in a position to be picky.”

And it isn’t just out of snobbishness, says Kaufman. “Boards want to make sure owners can meet financial obligations, especially with memories of people losing their savings in retirement because of the stock market crash a few years back and scandals like Enron.”

Wise Words for Sellers
Buyers have lots of concerns, like getting an apartment they like at a price they can afford in a neighborhood they love. Sellers, by contrast, really only have one concern: getting the price they want from a qualified buyer. However, there are some questions a seller can ask a broker to make the sale of a home as painless as possible.

Can we work together?
This is really something you have to figure out for yourself, but after interviewing a few brokers, you should be confident that you could work with him or her during what is certain to be a very intense process. People selling an apartment are in constant contact with their brokers, getting calls about interested buyers who want to see the apartment, updates on how interested prospective buyers are, and what offers are on the table.

“Moving is one of the top 10 stressors, so you have to ask yourself a few things when interviewing brokers,” Maysles says. “Is this a person I wan tot be getting phone calls from? Am I going to feel comfortable calling this person? Do I think I can have a relationship and a rapport with this person? In the end, we all do the same thing. It’s about style; we’re all on the websites, we all market; we do everything. The real question that the seller has to ask themselves is, ‘is this the person I wan tot work with for the next 10 weeks?”

What is your Internet access like?
Fewer and fewer people are looking through their newspapers for leads on properties. The Web allows people to search for a home, specifying criteria such as number of rooms, amenities and pricing. You can even get a virtual tour of a home, and that’s something a few inches of type in a paper just can’t offer.

“Sellers should make sure their broker has incredible access to the Web,” says Gimelson. “Literally, 70 to 75 percent of our business starts with the Web.”

You wan tot know that your property will be listed on major sites, like Realtor.com. You should be leery of questionable sites, though. Gimelson says that hasn’t been a major issue in the industry so far. “We haven’t had too many problems along that line yet. Realtor.com is really the most recognized national website.”

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Homes of the Hamptons Profiles In the real estate business there are many challenges, including husbands and wives who cannot agree on the kind of apartment they want; occasionally…... Read more >

Homes of the Hamptons Profiles

In the real estate business there are many challenges, including husbands and wives who cannot agree on the kind of apartment they want; occasionally obstreperous co-op boards (new rules about animals is a special headache); paperwork that doesn’t arrive in good order – or sometimes does not arrive at all. Harriet Kaufman has seen it all; none of it fazes her.

A top producing New York City broker since 1979, Kaufman brings determination and skill to solving the many problems that crop up in almost any real estate transaction – the reason Warburg Realty Partnership was so keen to have her join the firm in 1997 as a Managing Director. And because customers and clients keep calling, Kaufman scores year after year as one of the firm’s top ten brokers.

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The New York Times June 6, 2004 YES, YOU CAN FIND BARGAINS IN MANHATTAN By Tracie Rozhon Apartment hunters scanning the classified ads last weekend might have come     across a studio…... Read more >

The New York Times

June 6, 2004

YES, YOU CAN FIND
BARGAINS IN MANHATTAN

By Tracie Rozhon

Apartment hunters scanning the classified ads last weekend might have come     across a studio apartment in Greenwich Village offered for $695,000. The little condominium was described as being in triple mint condition, with three closets. A few inches away, another ad trumpeted a one-bedroom loft in the East Village for $1.25 million. In SoHo, on Wooster Street, an "extraordinary penthouse" could be had for $8.5 million.

Even with sticker-shock prices and the accompanying buy-it-now-before-the-mortgage-rates-go-up sales pitches, the prices realized for Manhattan's apartments keep inching up. Over the last several years, industry experts had predicted an imminent burst to the bubble, yet the ticket on the average apartment — within the triangle from Battery Park to West 116th Street to East 96th Street — just hit $998,905. Statisticians say record prices keep sailing in.

So are there any bargains left in Manhattan? "There aren't any cheap apartments, if that's what you mean," said Jean Kingman, who owns her own real estate business in Chelsea. "But there are bargains, yes. The trick is to recognize them."

At the Corcoran Group, Pamela Liebman, the chief executive, pointed to a parlor-floor one-bedroom in the best part of the Upper West Side, for $320,000. The co-op, which has a wood-burning fireplace and a bay window overlooking West End Avenue near 90th Street, went on the market last week. "Five years ago, this apartment would have been significantly cheaper — maybe half the price — but now it's a great deal," Ms. Liebman said. In general, "a savvy buyer can find something when others won't: a wreck, a lower floor or a back apartment in a top building can be great opportunities," she added.

In today's market, bargains are relative, said Frederick W. Peters, the president of Warburg Realty Partnership. "In the current Manhattan environment, a 12-room apartment for $3.9 million is a bargain — and you have to agree that's kind of funny! But that's reality in this environment. That's a bargain." And while a bargain is clearly in the eye (and pocketbook) of the bargainer, visits to dozens of intriguingly priced apartments did manage to turn up some real deals — most of them, surprisingly, outside the "pioneering" neighborhoods. Much of Harlem seems overpriced; a promising-sounding town house at the corner of Manhattan Avenue and East 116th Street currently for sale at $875,000 needed at least that much in renovations. Forget Avenue A; some of the Lower East Side prices are almost as high as Park Avenue. And in the Castle Village complex in Washington Heights, a two-bedroom just sold for more than $800,000 in a bidding war.

While deals are scattered throughout the city, the desperate apartment shopper should probably head first for the famously tony Upper East Side and, yes, even Sutton Place. Sometimes, the apartments for sale are gorgeous, with caterer friendly kitchens equipped with Aga and Sub-Zero appliances. But they cost less than they otherwise might because they are a little farther east than is chic for family-sized living quarters right now. Or the apartments need work. Or the owner has been transferred to Rome. Or a host of other things.

Right now, there is a 1,600-square-foot first floor maisonette for sale in one of Manhattan's fanciest buildings at 131 East 66th — Blaine and Robert Trump own an apartment here, shoulder-to-shoulder with a tenant roster right out of the Social Register. The apartment is $875,000.
Incredible? Impossible?

Yet there are two major problems with this rambling co-op — both of them surmountable by the right person. First, the place is a total wreck; once a doctor's office, the space is a rabbit warren of little rooms that will not be cheap to organize into a coherent living space. Second — and perhaps most significantly — the co-op board is likely to be demanding of the buyers. For an apartment like this one, the board might want to see significant liquid assets — and references from only the nicest people. Now if you had that much money and that many connections, why would you want to live on the first floor, and fix up a wreck?

Because it's a bargain! And it has its own entrance, a pilastered front door on Lexington Avenue — how many of those are there? And you can always send your guests past the uniformed doorman in the discreetly huge lobby where the elevators have the most beautiful wrought iron, saving the street entrance for your family. [For more about the building, see the Streetscapes column, page 10.]

Many of the apartments touted as bargains had just come back on the market, after a co-op board's turndown, and while the East Side boards are thought to be tougher, rejections can happen anywhere. If the owners of an apartment, like several of those seen last week, have gone through several board turndowns, they may be open to negotiation. It sounds a bit cutthroat, but find out if the seller has already bought another home, or has had any recent financial setbacks.

The owner of a big, 1,400-square-foot two-bedroom co-op at 36 Sutton Place — which sounded like a bargain at $750,000 — was too disgusted by two board turndowns to show it to a reporter, explained Lucy Fielding, the Warburg agent with the listing. "But maybe tomorrow he'll feel differently," she said brightly. (He didn't.)

As a substitute, Ms. Fielding showed a Classic Six — formal dining room, two bedrooms and a maid's room, plus living room and kitchen — in Astor Court, a 1915 apartment house at 205 West 89th Street, listed at $1.695 million. (Why don't people just say $1.7 million?) The owners want to stay in the same building, but are downsizing to a one-bedroom and have priced the apartment — which, to be honest, needs freshening up — several hundred thousand dollars less than similar apartments, the agent said.

One of the most beautiful apartments seen last week was at 447 East 57th Street, near Sutton Place, a building designed by Rosario Candela, whom many consider the quintessential 1920's apartment house architect. The 12-room apartment took up a whole floor of the elegant prewar doorman building; the 27-foot living room with the sumptuous down-filled couches and antique rugs had a fireplace; so did the corner study. Behind the huge kitchen — where a cook in her crisp white apron scrubbed the counters — were three maid's rooms, each as large as a studio apartment. There are five bathrooms, scattered among the 4,000-square-foot co-op.

Apartment seekers can grab it for $3.995 million. If that sounds a trifle pricey, Harriet Kaufman, a Warburg agent, convincingly pointed to five others, several smaller with less perfect layouts up in Carnegie Hill and along Park Avenue that went for at least $1 million more, because of their location. Then there is the huge "handyman special" duplex at 860 United Nations Plaza. Since the 1970's, agents have been using the word "duplex" indiscriminately; it seems any bad town-house conversion, with a rickety metal spiral staircase and a tiny bedroom above, is called a duplex. But this is a real duplex: 3,000 square feet on two floors with truly Trumpian views from a sea of glass overlooking the Queensboro Bridge. (No, it is not a Trump building.)

In some people's view, this is not a real wreck; it is just in "estate condition" — it's probably the same exact kitchen that came with the place when the building was built in the 60's. A few might restore it, though most would rip it out. But this is a duplex with a regular wooden staircase — and its own little elevator — all for $2.8 million. If it were in newly restored condition, the agent argued, it would be $3.9 million, like a similar one a few floors up.

All these high prices should not dissuade first-time apartment buyers. Brown Harris Stevens, the whitest of white glove agencies, is selling a spacious fourth floor apartment overlooking the East River at 530 East 90th Street for $449,000.

What was once a formal dining room has been converted to a second bedroom and an entrance foyer 9 feet 6 inches by 11 feet that could be used as a dining foyer, with room for a handful of small round tables for a party. In today's market, that kind of space, in a prewar doorman building overlooking the river, next door to a health club, could easily be considered a bargain.

Sometimes an apartment is in good condition, but the sellers' belongings make it difficult for buyers to envision their own possessions inside. In another one-bedroom on East 85th Street, offered for $379,000, the owner asked if there was anything she could do to make it sell faster. "Take out some of the clutter," the agent replied, gesturing toward the paintings and plaques on the walls, and all the pillows on the couches. "No," she replied. "I don't want to do that — these are my things. Where would I put them?" The agent shrugged.

Another rule for finding bargains: the farther east you go, the better the chances. As lovely as Carl Schurz Park and Gracie Mansion are, apartments near them don't fetch as much — they're a long walk to the subway, and the crosstown buses never seem to arrive. Bargains can also be found down on Grand Street, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, in a complex at the river.

The best deals, however, aren't all near the East River. A two-bedroom condominium on West 16th between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Chelsea was priced at $549,000. Why so cheap? The agent said the owner, a lawyer who is moving out of the country, insisted on keeping the price below market for a fast deal. (It worked — the apartment went into contract 10 days ago.) Another deal was for a one-bedroom loft with even higher ceilings in Midtown, a half block from the Sixth Avenue subway, with one of the most spectacular views of all, for only $355,000 — a steal these days.

This one-bedroom loft, at 32 West 40th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, has huge picture windows looking down over Bryant Park and its wonderfully faded red umbrellas and greenery, and, to anchor it all, the small but elaborate stone maintenance building at the lower right of the window frame. Part of the charm is the lobby; a doorman presides over what the agent, Timothy Scott of Corcoran, calls "our Gone with the Wind" staircase, a twisting marble concoction. Visitors take the elevator, or the stairs, to the second floor.

Mr. Scott said there was a board turndown; a few weeks ago he seemed nervous about the way the loft showed. It had been used last for an office, although it is strictly a residential space, and a few desks sat cater-corner in the large sunken living room, with telephone books piled next to computer screens. Just a few days ago, the owner refinished the floors and painted the walls white. But the kitchen and bathroom are small, and still look dreary; the bedroom has ample closets — so ample it would be tempting to rip them out and enlarge the room by about five feet. (After all, there is storage in the basement.) For more of a loft feeling, the buyer might want to cut a big door through the long wall between bedroom and living room, to make the 600-square-foot space seem even bigger.

Then there are those apartments that, even taking into consideration the location and the condition, appear to be plain good deals, like the three-bedroom apartment for $239,000 in the heart of Washington Heights, on 180th Street near Broadway. (Take the A Train to 181st Street.)

The owner, Kent Gubrud, 45, a lawyer, just wants to get rid of the place. He and his wife, LaVina Gubrud, an opera singer, have bought a house in Pennsylvania, where they want to raise their son, Devon, 2. The owner likes the new door moldings in natural finish; others might not, but why argue? The monthly maintenance is only $459.

But before you pick up your cell phones and whip out your checkbooks, this bargain, too, has a catch. More than half the tenants in the building are renters, so Mr. Gubrud said it will be hard, if not impossible, to obtain a mortgage.

In other words, this is what real estate agents call an All Cash Deal.

Copyright 2004  The New York Times Company

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