Downtown Open Houses - 05/03/09

Downtownster, I agree that traffic was surprisingly heavy given the crummy weather.

I saw three apartments in the East Village. The first was a 2-bedroom at Randall House. The layout was very nice and the closets were great, modified from the floorplan and using an organization system. The kitchen finishes were nice and, most importantly, functional. The ensuite mb was very large, too big for my taste, but nicely kitted out. The second bath seemed very small but again well renovated.
The one drawback that really came through was the lack of light. On such a rainy day, it was quite gloomy despite the many windows. Also there were three underage-looking kids hanging out of a window directly across from the master bedroom smoking from a bong. Depending upon one's persuasion, recurrent activity of this sort could be a serious drawback. It appears to be directly across the street from an NYU dorm or similar. Seemed priced too high to me, but there was a fair amount of traffic so who knows?
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/404416-condop-63-east-9th-street-greenwich-village-new-york

Also saw a lofty 2/3 bedroom. The space was bright and airy and in a good location (I like this block), but it was a 6th floor walkup and there was not a single right angle in the place. It needs a second bathroom and the kitchen is nothing more than a placeholder. On the other hand, you could really turn this into a nice space, if the uneven floors don't drive you crazy or indicate structural problems. I don't know anything about that so can't comment.
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/533-east-6-street-manhattan

And I saw a small one-bedroom with a garden on East 5th. Not my favorite block of E 5th but still pretty nice. Very quiet and serene and the garden was lovely, but the interior space felt small. Good storage in the form of large closets, but an awkward kitchen and no dining area. The bedroom was quite small and dark. I imagine this would make an excellent pied-a-terre, or a good space for a single person with a dog perhaps, but you can't grow into it.
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/396241-coop-513-east-5th-street-east-village-new-york

oh my. that one on east 6th brings out some sympathy in me. started at $1.2, has gone into and back out of contract twice, and is now at $849k.

evnyc, last year the Randall House unit would have been fairly priced. now I think they'll have to eat their renovation costs. maybe more.

i think going to open houses has become kind of a sport. it's cheap, provides exercise, and for a decent-sized minority, good fun.

Aboutready, I consider open houses some of the best free fun a person can have in this city. Too bad my partner isn't as enthusiastic.

The broker for the E 6th st. location seemed very nice. Apparently with one of the prior offers the buyers had to sell a previous property, and couldn't complete the deal when they were unable to sell. I do get the sense that the price negotiable, and the owners are not living there at present. Without any evidence to back it up, I would guess that the owners have been there for a long time and paid little for the space, so while they may not make out like bandits I suspect they'll still get a decent profit.

I was interested in a 1-bedroom at Randall House that isn't showing yet, so I figured I would check out the building. Is it crazy to say that I was shocked that I'm able to rent in a nicer building? I mean, the Randall is an established and respected building, is it not? I'd never looked at the $1m+ market before, so perhaps my expectations were a little out of line.

533 E 6th would be attractive if it weren't for the school zone. I mean, if you're aiming for 2 or 3 br you have children. PS 63 is quite subpar. A few blocks west would have put it in PS3/41 zone and, I guess, 300K more. The $700 maintenance make it attractive, though. It's like $0.65 psf.

the downtown market has been insane. chelsea used to be one of the cheaper neighborhoods, and all of a sudden they're charging $1400 psf for the honor of living near FIT. central village is obviously a more compelling neighborhood than the "area formerly known as flower district," but still. a post-war cookie cutter is a post-war cookie cutter.

there's still a bunch of room for prices to fall down here. back in the day (my inner-granny presenting), which was 1999ish, I would have laughed at any cookie-cutter 2/2 of around 1100 sf charging much more than $600k.

If it gets down to $600k, I'll definitely swoop in and buy. I like the Central Village, but I am very leery of being surrounded by NYU students - that 2-bedroom would never fly with me, really through no fault of its own. Trompiloco, I think that space would be wonderful for a family, if there was an elevator. I just moved out of a 5th floor walkup and I simply can't imagine doing those stairs with offspring and a stroller. And that's even before they get to school.

tromp, i don't know what's going to happen in terms of school zones down here. a few blocks north and it would be in PS 40. PS 40, i have heard, has awful overcrowding. I believe the situation is the same at 41? there are quite a few schools in the east village, the board of ed may comandeer one to accomodate the overflow.

evnyc, i wouldn't even go into a store that had two steps when my daughter was in a stroller. small elevators (we had one of those) are a real hassle, even. and I'm fairly intrepid. I knew a woman who had triplets and lived on the fifth floor of a walk up. she only went out when she absolutely needed to. crazy what new yorkers will do, she had a rent stabilized apartment and wouldn't think of giving it up.

By all that is holy, that's just insane. For me it's elevator or bust. My rear is cute enough as is; I don't need the stairmaster workout.

does horrible things to your calves, too.

downtownster, like your blog. what's your favorite speakeasy?

Attended a few open houses as I am looking to buy a two bedroom. Traffic overall was brisk at most of them.

126 WEST 11TH STREET COOPERATIVE 126 WEST 11TH STREET, Apt. 53
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/384061-coop-126-west-11th-street-greenwich-village-new-york

I walked in and right out of this aprtment it was so bad. The living room looks out into another building probably less than 20 feet away and gets bad light. The kitchen looked as if it had not been updated in about 20 years or more. The bedrooms seemed on the smaller side and the layout was rather akward. The seller has completely moved out and it is now "priced to sell." The ccop buiding seems tired and the elevator is slow, which will be annoying over time as the apartment is on a high floor. Traffic was pretty heavy--lots of couples. Apartment is not one I will be pursuing but can see a young couple just starting out going for it if there is a further price chop.

105 West 13th Street #5C
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/399695-coop-105-w-13th-st-greenwich-village-new-york
The apartment needs to be gutted and seems dramatically overpriced for what it is--a dumpy apartment in a tired coop building. The kitchen has cheap plastic countertops and are dizzying colors that seem like something out of the 1960s (which is probably the last time anything was done to the apartment) and bathrooms that are outdated. One of the bathrooms had so much kitty litter over the floor yuo could'nt go in it. if the price was cjopped to the seven/eight hundred k range might be worth considering. Not by me, but someone who relished the prospect of a gut renovation.

420 West 23rd Street #2-C
Balcony excellent. 2nd bedroom very small, master bedroom and the bathroom were nice and everything well done. A major turnoff was the kitchen. It seeems like something out a star trek movie. Wierd stainless steel design, bad colors--standing in the middle of it you just want to say beam me up scottie. All that said, it is priced appropriately (899K for a 2 bedroom condo in a very good condition Chelsea doorman/elevator building) and I have a feeling it will be sold soonish. Lots of people at the open house too. The major concern for me was the street noise factor (it faces 23rd Street and is on the second floor) and pedestrian traffic. I would prefer a less busy street.

evnyc, we've also been to the Randall House, although we saw a 1BR badly in need of a renovation:

http://downtowny.blogspot.com/2009/03/63-e-9th-street-3s-715000-805-sq-ft.html

This particular unit is on the 3rd floor and faces a bus stop, which the seller's agent actually mentioned as a positive ("you can catch a bus right outside your front door!").

We've also been to 533 east 6th street, #6:

http://downtowny.blogspot.com/2009/04/as-if-overpriced-apartment-of-week-533.html

Talk about a walk-up! Tromp, I can't even imagine having children in this apartment - we seriously needed some water when we got to the top. Although...while we were there, the buyer that "fell through" was also there and she had (I STILL can't believe it), two children, one of them in a stroller.

evnyc, we haven't gotten out to the 513 east 5th st unit yet - was the garden really 1100 sq ft? Does it add a lot of value to the unit?

-DT

http://downtowny.blogspot.com

aboutready - thanks! We were talking about Macao on Church and Walker. More of a "faux" speakeasy, but we like the vibe and hidden-door thing nonetheless.

-DT

http://downtowny.blogspot.com

lincolnramses - Good Job!!! We will forget West81 soon enough with posts like this (if you ar not him/her/it in disguise!!!)

Downtownster, the garden at 5th st. probably wasn't anywhere near 1100 s/f. It was substantial, though. This had a small deck area, sculpted garden, and a large grill. It would be great if you had kids. Problem is that there would be nowhere in the apartment to put the kids, unless they sleep in the living room. I'd say it adds value to the unit, but since the unit is fairly small and can't be rejiggered to fit changing needs, the garden's effect on the total value would be necessarily limited. Although, I am shopping from a particular standpoint.

Looks like 3S at the Randall House has taken a wee haircut down to $690k. I guess the broker was just doing his job, trying to spin flaws as potential pluses. Will be interesting to see what happens there.

We saw Penthouse B at 133 West 17th Street. The apartment has been on the market for nearly 18 months, over which time it has dropped in price from approximately 3.3 million to approximately 2.7 million. There is much to recommend the apartment. It's on a nice block with easy access to Chelsea, the village, and Union Square. It is spacious and can easily accomodate 3 bedrooms and an expansive living space. And It has a really fantastic terrace.

That said, there are problems. The building is tired and a little grungy. The apartment has an extremely strange configuration and cries out for a renovation--you are looking at a minimum 500k to realy bring it up to snuff.

But the bigger issue is that the sellers and the broker are truly delusional. I asked what seemed to me a very reasonable question: given that the apartment has been on the market for nearly 18 months, are the sellers flexible about their price. Answer: an emphatic 'NO.' Then I got an endless spiel about what a great deal the apartment is, how much of a 'concession' the sellers have made, how aggressive they have been about pricing the apartment ahead of the market, and how there have been four deals that fell through. I finally had to tell the broker to stop arguing with me: if he and the sellers think the apartment is well-priced, more power to them.

But I had to respond when he claimed that a good 'comp' for the apartment was the next-door penthouse which recently sold for over $3 million and that he insinuated is an inferior apartment. I had to point out that the purchaser of that unit had the option of buying Penthouse B for less money: that hardly qualifies as a solid comp.

In any case, expect this one to linger.

We also saw unit 3 at 19 west 9th. I had somewhat high hopes for this unit, and I was sorely disappointed. It is quite spacious, but much of the space is not particularly usable. It needs a complete gut renovation. More problematically, it has few windows, some of the windows are very small, and the views from the back and unlovely. I don't see spending $3 million for an apartment that needs $1 million of work, and after that the space is still awkward and it is still a 3rd floor walkup.

The listing for PHB @ 133 West 17th states 2,746sf in the summary section, but 2,350sf and 950sf deck in the text, so another case of conflicting data in listings.

Lincoln and Happy, thank you these are great! Let's try to keep up the good work that West81st has done for the UWS.

Has anyone seen 380 w 12th? 3D

Well, slap my a$$ and call me Judy:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/404416-condop-63-east-9th-street-greenwich-village-new-york

That overpriced Randall House 2-bedroom is in contract after just a month on the market! I'm just plain shocked. Assuming it is close to ask, which given that it went into contract so quickly is a reasonable assumption, this buyer will be paying nearly a million and a half dollars to live with bong-smoking NYU students staring into the bedroom window, and very little light. What gives?

heyyyyyy, evnyc, what's wrong with NYU bong-smoking students??????

maybe it's a recent grad who is a trust fund baby or got a great job...

Ab, nothing in particular unless they're keeping you up all night and training binocs on you and your partner doing the deed! (Everyone I've met in New York has at least one story involving binoculars and nakedness, but maybe I hang with the wrong crowd.)

Silly me for thinking that jobs for new grads and trust fund babies had both gone the way of the dinosaur:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/11867-williamsburg-re-tanks-as-trustafarians-lose-parental-income

noooo, evnyc, i have the BEST (or worst) public sex story. 1986, UWS, 250 people on a roof having a rip roaring time. couple two stories up, clearly illuminated, no shades, go at it with 250 people watching. the cheering, well, it makes the others in the building call the police. takes the police 35 minutes to show up, nothing to see then. but they broke up the party.

ok...so, were you on the roof or....?

Oh! That is the best story yet! I usually heard things along the lines of, at night, if you go on the roof and climb over the neigbor's building with a pair of binoculars, you can see the girls living in the NYU dorms walking around naked (what a thrill - why exactly did you move to New York? Because you can do that in Kansas for a lot cheaper...).

Your story is *far* better!

that is the funniest story, love it!

cc, you give me far too much credit.

but it was amazing. the activity. the chanting. the silliness. the laughter, and most of it not unkind. NYC was just STRANGE. and we expected odd things.

For while I sublet a loft on Bond St which overlooked Shinbone Alley before they gated it. It was a block away from Bar L'ui (sp?) which was a real hot spot so like every other night there was some couple doing it under my windows. the woman below me didn't appreciate it nearly as much as I did so she used to throw pots of water out onto them.

When I was at Arthur Andersen, the guys who were at Marsh and McLennan had a couple who at the same time every day used to do it with the curtains open and it became a ritual for them to watch. Apparently at some point they started making popcorn 5 minutes ahead of time.

I'm convinced that at the Christmas party for Citibank security guards they are still pulling out a 25+ old video tape of me and some girl on top of a Citibank ATM.