Successful Lowballs

Agree with NWT and West81st. I started this thread in 2009 for precisely the purpose West81st stated - to see examples of buyers who successfully got deals done well below asks. Whether it's because the ask was silly, or because the buyer got a great deal is a different question.

670 West End Avenue #6A: Square, flexible estate five. A failed contract proved costly here, both for the heirs and for NYS, which missed a Mansion Tax payment by $1. The apartment needs an overhaul, and it doesn't really clear the townhouses to the east because of the slope of 93rd Street (and the view in that direction is nothing special anyway). Nonetheless, ~$750/SF seems like a decent buy for five rooms in a coop that has been gradually upgrading.
05/15/2010 Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $1,295,000.
07/16/2010 Listing entered contract.
09/24/2010 Listing is no longer available.
10/15/2010 Re-listed by Brown Harris Stevens.
10/15/2010 Price decreased by 8% to $1,195,000.
11/13/2010 Listing entered contract.
02/22/2011 Sale recorded for $999,999.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/525056-coop-670-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/555663-coop-201-east-77th-street-upper-east-side-new-york

201 East 73rd St. #9EF

09/21/2010Listed by Halstead Property at $1,950,000.
11/15/2010Listing entered contract.
02/28/2011Listing sold.
02/28/2011Sale recorded for $1,675,000.

Glad the lowball is alive and well. I supppose some might argue that 14% is not enough to count as a lowball. But this is pretty close to the type of apartment we would look for, and in our price range, and I can vouch that in practical terms for a buyer, there's a very noticeable difference between $1.95MM and $1.675MM.

As an aside, the maintenance is pretty high, but this still seems like a decent buy.

29% below ask, after an earlier contract fell through: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/527620-coop-136-east-36th-street-murray-hill-new-york

05/25/2010 Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $250,000.
07/08/2010 Listing entered contract.
09/30/2010 Re-listed by Brown Harris Stevens.
11/11/2010 Listing entered contract.
02/28/2011 Sale recorded for $178,000.

333 East 91st Street #4A. New-construction 2/2; stated ft²: 1,428. Azure has a long discussion thread of its own, so I'll just note that $750/SF appears to be a new low for the building.
08/27/2008 Previously Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $1,550,000.
08/29/2008 Brown Harris Stevens Listing is no longer available.
01/09/2010 Previously Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $1,265,614.
03/08/2010 Brown Harris Stevens Listing is no longer available. Last priced at $1,266,000.
03/20/2010 Previously Listed by Prudential Elliman at $1,266,000.
03/22/2010 Prudential Elliman Listing is no longer available.
12/06/2010 Listed by Prudential Elliman at $1,266,000.
01/19/2011 Listing is no longer available.
02/09/2011 Re-listed by Prudential Elliman.
02/14/2011 Listing entered contract.
04/06/2011 Sale recorded for $1,073,608.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/571539-condop-333-east-91st-street-yorkville-new-york

333 East 91st Street (Azure again) #31CD: The Mattone Group puts its money where its prolific keyboard is... at 18% below ask.
11/02/2010 Listed in StreetEasy, but temporarily delisted, by Prudential Elliman at $4,350,000.
03/07/2011 Listing entered contract.
04/05/2011 Sale recorded for $3,578,453.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/565803-condop-333-east-91st-street-yorkville-new-york

Is there a problem with the floor plan for 4A? I see a 1bd where the bedroom is not really one since it has no separation from the kitchen. Also what's up with the corner window? Are people that stupid to pay $1M for this?
I wouldn't even rent an apt like that, the layout i see on this floor plan is TERRIBLE!

That has to be a wrong floorplan, right? It's listed as a 2/2, there is clearly only one bathroom and (maybe) one bedroom. Impressive for the broker not to bother listing a real floorplan.

As for 31CD, I am a big fan of the floorplan and the $770K discount. However, (a) the square footage seems pretty inflated, (b) there's over $6K of common charges, and (c) you may be living in a huge and very nice apartment, but it's still on 91st and 1st, across the street from the projects. I don't quite understand who has $3.5MM to spend on a family apartment and yet wants to live there.

1230 Park Avenue #16E: Sponsor six with flexible floor plan and neutral renovation. Closed 11.3% below final ask.
11/03/2010 Listed by Metro Property Group, LLC at $1,875,000.
01/06/2011 Price decreased by 5% to $1,775,000.
03/30/2011 Listing entered contract.
05/12/2011 Sale recorded for $1,575,000.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/565695-coop-1230-park-avenue-carnegie-hill-new-york

60 Sutton Place South #11CDN: Big, river-view estate combination; sold almost 19% below final ask.
09/09/2010 Listed by Corcoran at $3,450,000.
10/05/2010 Price decreased by 7% to $3,200,000.
11/19/2010 Listing entered contract.
05/31/2011 Sale recorded for $2,600,000. (Filing reflects #11CN and #11DN.)
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/551951-coop-60-sutton-place-south-sutton-place-new-york
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/closing/1945138

River-view 2/2, 12% off last ask: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/584219-coop-411-west-end-avenue-upper-west-side-new-york

02/17/2011 Listed by Owner at $1,899,000.
04/15/2011 Listing sold.
09/16/2011 Sale recorded for $1,675,000.

I would have thought this to be a much longer thread by now

They're a pain to find. You've got to pull sales for the last x days to stay under SE's 200-record limit, export to a spreadsheet, sort to remove the ones without last-ask, calculate above/below last ask, sort again, etc. Takes at least five minutes, and it's the same boring range from lowballs to bidding wars, with the median creeping around a 4% listing discount. I used to do it more often.

Falconer. It's only bc the regulators and bankers have an agreement to not push jumbos into default for the past 24 months. It's beginning to change.

Like the ladies monthlies. It cometh. Be warned x

Forgot to say, there are a lot more than anyone could post. Ditto for the ones that close above last ask. I stick to my neighborhood, buildings I like, etc.

The winner in this batch was a -22% crazy-hotel-maintenance at the Lombardy.

>>>West81st

It really comes down to your definition of a lowball. I just look at the discount off ask, because my point in posting on this thread is that buyers shouldn't be intimidated by asking prices, or by listing agents who sneer at an offer that's more than 5% below ask. In that context, it doesn't really matter whether the bid or the ask is closer to the market.

I don't know why you call this successful lowballs? You make it sound like the buyer got a good deal. It will be still be determined whether it was "good" or not. This is just further evidence of a sellers unrealistic pricing expectations in this deflating market. If the listing brokers did a better job of educating the sellers about the market, we would not see these huge price reductions. I attribute threads like this to incompetent brokers (I am not including you as one, you do seem well informed).

@Brooks2: "You make it sound like the buyer got a good deal."

Actually, there's a separate thread for those:
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/22052-ones-that-got-away-best-buys-from-the-crash?page=1

In the context of THIS discussion, the "success" of a lowball bid is unrelated to whether the closing price was good, bad or indifferent. Success just means the buyer wanted the apartment - and got it - for a price substantially below the ask.

w67,
I e-mailed you the pictures from the renovation.
Get'em?

Falco... I'm producing a xxx movie called "can't see... what is that?"... may I use that reno space for a couple of the shoots? i promise to steam clean afterwards.

VERY VERY Nice... peace brother.

Thanx,
Glad to share.
If I star in the movie, little falco gets his own billing.
It will be a little independent with a big bang.
Maybe we can get the 'opto-mom' to star....we'll call it 'a womb with a view'

300 Riverside Drive #7AC: The interesting thing about this river-view sale is that the sellers expected a premium for the combination that never materialized. The final selling price wasn't much more than #7A and #7C would have fetched separately.
05/31/2011 Listed by Corcoran at $3,995,000.
10/27/2011 Price decreased by 8% to $3,695,000.
12/14/2011 Listing entered contract.
03/28/2012 Sale recorded for $3,300,000.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/612428-coop-300-riverside-drive-upper-west-side-new-york

300 Riverside Drive #6A: Like the owners of the combination one floor up (see previous post), the heirs to this estate apartment appear to have overestimated the value of a treetop/river view.
10/25/2010 Listed by Douglas Elliman at $1,950,000.
01/19/2011 Price decreased by 4% to $1,875,000.
06/03/2011 Price decreased by 4% to $1,800,000.
09/08/2011 Price decreased by 3% to $1,750,000.
12/27/2011 Listing entered contract.
03/28/2012 Sale recorded for $1,600,000.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/563929-coop-300-riverside-drive-upper-west-side-new-york
Oddly half of the "A" line has turned over in the past three years.

230 West 136th Street in harlem, asked for $3.2 million, closed at $1.64 million

note: this is extensively renovated townhouse, high ended, one family, with tons of original detail. not a cheap rental grade flipper-upper

West81st,
Funny about the turnover in the A line. Reminds me of the adage, rodents travel vertically, bedbugs, horizontally. Disclaimer: I do not have now nor have i ever had knowledge of any kind of infestation in the said building....

gaongaon: A cluster like that sometimes suggests that there's a problem, but I don't think that's the case here. For one thing, the sellers of #2A bought #13A, so it's not as though they were fleeing the building. Several other "A" line sales were just generational turnover or family issues.

As much as this building has had more 'generational' turnover than the building next door, a far simpler explanation would be the un-emotionally attached 2nd generation just wanna take as much money off the table post an enormous bubble and beginnings of a collapse.

West 81st
-the buyers of 300 RSD #6A are those who sold #7AC
-unfortunately for #6A they had higher offers than 1.6M but they tried to squeeze more and the bidders just walked
-in the end they took what they could get
-regardless the apt in its condition was worth 1.6M

219 West 81st Street #11E: Sponsor sale of an Edwardian Five condo with open eastern views, in estate condition. Closed 18.5% below ask. Will need a lot of work, but should be beautiful when it's done.
04/10/2012 Listed by Classic Marketing at $1,595,000.
07/31/2012 Listing entered contract.
08/28/2012 Listing sold.
08/28/2012 Sale recorded for $1,300,000.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/675781-condo-219-west-81st-street-upper-west-side-new-york

It was good to have 10E and 11E both marketed/to-contract/closed at the same time, to see how the market (or those two buyers) valued a full reno and reconfiguration. About $300 per ft², which seems in line with the costs we see cited here.

W67 lowballed sprint at $2.40/share. Maybe you guys can lowball the $8mm cpw 5 for $4mm and make 100%. Wtf is w67 talking about. U need to lowball it to $2.7mm. Cause w67 is up 120% plus NO 6% stoopid tax to have a key Sherpa turn a key.

Hahahjaajjajajajjahaaahahahajahahahajjajjahahhaha. Sailing a swan 70 next week in the Caribbean. Flmaozz. Keep pumping re. I need stubborn ppl to make money off of.

I love this thread, thanks all for contributing!
I am going to share the one property that caused me to gasp in pain.

By the time I saw it, it had closed 30 min before.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/73543-coop-33-west-67th-street-lincoln-square-new-york

Look at the second picture of the 14ft windows and it still didn't do justice to seeing it in real life - magnificent space.
That was painful missing this. It started at $2M (which I would have paid), finished at $1,165,000

It was a serious low ball on all fronts and I suspect there must have been other elements at play.

chopperooo!
51 5th ave--apt 10cd
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/632497-coop-51-fifth-avenue-greenwich-village-new-york

03/28/2008
Previously Listed by Halstead Property at $2,795,000.
08/15/2008
Halstead Property Listing is no longer available. Last priced at $2,600,000.
09/07/2011
Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $2,300,000.
05/12/2012
Price decreased by 15% to $1,955,000.
08/22/2012
Listing entered contract.
11/14/2012
Listing sold.
12/12/2012
Sale recorded for $1,800,000.

test

Have there been any successful lowballs recently?

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/35398-brokersnegotiation-is-no-longer-part-of-equation

Here's one where somebody swooped in at 18% below ask, and got it: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/809733-153-east-57th-street-midtown-east-new-york

But it's generally slim pickings. E.g., 20 months ago the median listing discount for Manhattan co-ops was about 4%. Today it's 2%. (Or rather it was several months ago, when the stuff closing now went to contract.)

Another 18-percenter: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/835376-coop-100-west-94th-street-upper-west-side-new-york

03/14/2013 Listed by Charles Rutenberg at $1,100,000.
05/21/2013 Listing entered contract.
07/03/2013 Sale recorded for $900,000.