amusing...the hard sell in Brooklyn

Put. That coffee. Down.

Coffee's for closers only.

Always Be Closing. ABC baby.

Thanks for the laugh GG. Btw, cafe pedlar has the best coffee on court street.

Who drinks decaff in Brooklyn?

Maybe they were rehearsing Brewster's Millions.

Funny. And yet I see so much of this example happening in Brooklyn:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/406640-condo-55-poplar-street-brooklyn-heights-brooklyn

First listed in November '08 for $895k. They probably thought this was quite reasonable. It didn't move. Listing "refreshed" after five months without a sale. Six months later, they simultaneously do an eensy price drop of 3% and then, as though they can't bear the shame, immediately take it off the market. Anyone want to bet it shows up again in the next couple of weeks without a haircut?

Hope the coffee woke your would-be buyer up, GG.

evnyc, that's a good one at 55 Poplar.

Here's one that just bugged the heck out of me: a sale that closed 2 weeks ago at 38 Livingston in Bklyn Heights.

This is a 700 sf one-bed apt that sold in 2005 -- ie the TOP OF THE MARKET -- for $450k, and yet this month some crazy person came along and paid $505k.

What kind of rational person would do that? They paid $720 per square foot! They paid a ten percent premium to the top of the market!!?!

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/412539-coop-38-livingston-street-brooklyn-heights-brooklyn

All I can conclude is that there are a certain number of irrational buyers out there and until they clear the market, they're going to make it hard to see where true values are going.

GG - I totally agree. Allow me to also present Exhibit B of Insane Buyers Paying a Premium in this Market:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/416945-coop-175-adams-street-downtown-brooklyn-brooklyn

No word yet on the final sale price, but the listing alone was AT LEAST $100k higher than the highest prices paid at the very top of the bubble. Who are these people?

Also: tada:
http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/406640-condo-55-poplar-street-brooklyn-heights-brooklyn

At least they stuck with their eensy price cut, but they now have competition from 3B one floor down, which looks like it's been very nicely renovated and is priced $15k lower. Brooklyn Heights sellers are really just unbelievably clueless about this market.

Saw a reasonably priced building on Wed. on the UES. Total gut reno. As for investment purposes, much would have to be done to covert it to useable, valuable RE. I don't have any idea what it would take, $$$ & pain and suffering, to unleash it's potential. While I was there I met a lawyer/REdeveloper. We struck up a conversation and exchanged cards. A telphone conversation later (to determine if we could be of use to each other) reviels that even though this is not exactly 'development times' there are people out there with $ plus access to $$$ that have happy memories of making $$$$ in RE and there only attitude is, hey baby the property is cheap, there are a ton of out of work contractors and tons of illegal help. The right deal can still easily be put together. Nothing comes on line for at least 2 years and your goona make some coin. That's how it's done...buy when nobody buys, fix when nobody fixes, keep your projects small and you never lose.
You have got to admire the balls on these guys.

Absolutely no argument, Falco, but I do think we're talking about two separate issues. GraffitiGramarian and I have been marveling over unspectacular apartments selling at prices so far above even top bubble pricing that the logic of these purchases escapes us. I myself am still kicking myself for not insisting on dragging my SO out to a very cheap and very badly in need of renovation place that went into contract quickly; I'm sure those people will do fine, because it was a genuine deal. It's the people ones who are paying 20% above 2007 and 2008 prices that make me shake my head in disbelief. A Concord Village 2-bedroom, and not even top floor, nor spectacularly renovated, going for $650k? Unbelievable when $550k was what they sold for at the very tippy-top. Hats off to the broker, I suppose, for finding such a sucker.

I think the guy falco ran into might actually is/has been one of my partners. We're still looking at deals (although haven't pulled the trigger on any because we haven't found any that were quite good enough) and will buy properties if they make sense. We are being more conservative than we used to be (i.e. we're not doing deals that are "close to the line", only "no way we lose money on this"), but for certain small properties, it's still doable: if we find a building where we can deliver 550SF "spiffy" renovated (my job to make sure we can do that at the right numbers) for $500K in good areas, we'll do it because I think that market is still there.

One thing to remember about RE is that either there is everybody looking to buy anything at too high prices, or no one wants anything. lots of guys who spent the ;last 10 years outbidding us on properties are out of the game now because they are hip deep in properties they got too close to the bone and there's no meat for them to unload them, and most of these guys are just as bad as "regular" sellers when it comes to wanting every last dollar on their sales and are overpriced an not moving.

I will say hat for small project, I've got access to PLENTY of $ as long as I can personally guarantee it(not in the legal sense; in the sense of people know I've never - not once - lost a nickel of an investor's money so if I tell someone we've got a project where we're going to make money, they know I'm not bullshitting. Of course this means we've done MANY fewer deals than an awful lot of our competitors because they bet on prices rising and won, and we never did so were never willing to pay the prices they did and they beat us out of many, many properties). There are a ton of doctors, lawyers, etc who I have no problem getting somewhere in the 6 figures each out of for a percentage piece of the action because they don't want to play the stock or bond market and their return on money sitting in the bank is close to zero. And I'm surely not the only person in that position. Some if there's some lower 7 figure deal where we can pull out some money, there's plenty of ability to do it.

But as falco might have noticed, the properties pretty much have to be distressed in one way or another, and in a condition where they really can't generate much for the current owner. Historically these become doable deals when the are estate sales where the decedent was a "Real Estate" person, and the estate/heirs aren't and really don't have a clue what to do with a property. A few years ago, these would have been snapped up by people looking to spend lots of $ and ,make them single family, but those people are not puling the triger at nearly the rate they used to be.