open house traffic

I was at Devonshire House at on 10th and University. It was busy. To my (non-broker) eye, there seemed to be a number of serious viewers. The apartments are lovely; the models are on the 4th floor, so it was difficult to know if higher floors would have better light and outlooks. It struck me as an absolutely wonderful place to live.

buyer -- last two weekends brownstone open houses in harlem were packed
v surprising
buyer

Licensed agent and potential buyer.

Traffic has been all over the map. FWIW, I don't think heavy open house traffic is strongly correlated with quick sales. Recently, I have seen a number of properties draw a lot of people to an initial open house, then sit and grow stale. Part of the problem might be that they are drawing the wrong buyers. For example, a property that's really a wreck gets listed as in "good original condition" and draws a horde of buyers who don't want to do major reno. They leave disappointed, and nothing happens.

On the other hand, I attended a fairly high-end, by-appointment open house where I stood and chatted with the listing agent for a half hour because he had a big hole in his schedule. Within ten days, three offers had come in, and a contract had gone out. Halstead may not have drawn a crowd for that one, but they reached the right buyers.

Which is why I feel re marketers (brokers and developers) should be paying more attention to both the authenticity of their messaging and how, where and to whom the message is delivered. So far no takers...but if anyone wants to talk....

I was at an OH in the FiDi last weekend, tumbleweeds, another one on the UWS--had a lot of people--buyer

I went to some in the Financial District two weeks ago. Not packed but a steady flow of people.

buyer---Have been to many, if not all, open houses on the UWS in the last 4 weeks, as well as several in Soho, and Chelsea, NoChe (previously known as Clinton, pre-previously known as Hell's Kitchen) and Flatiron. Traffic at open houses is unpredictable; seems to be more related to weather/day of the week/time of day than to serious buyers. Many apartments we've looked at are either still on the market or have become "unavailable." Two exceptions-- one we were interested in went into contract before we were ready to bid and one bid we made was not accepted and the apartment went into contract with a another offer. I noticed a severe drop off in open houses this week. Didn't see any I wanted to go to.

buyer: Have spent several recent Sundays on the UWS - tried as many as six on an afternoon (carefully planned w/ maps, etc.). Observations - the number of open houses available vary greatly week to week, weather plays a key role in overall foot traffic, units in more "desirable" buildings/locations get higher traffic, a lot of "in and out" buyers, very few buyers w/ brokers, units that were reasonably priced and were "desirable" were in contract within two weeks. Another general observation - most realtors sponsoring the open house seemed unprepared, disinterested, and often did not know important facts - pied a terres allowed, bike / storage room available and at what cost, price of health club membership / parking, etc. Just do not understand this lack of preparation. About half the units seemed unprepared as well - broken lights, not very neat, etc.

Potential buyer: concur with West81st and Lizyank. Went to an open house recently that was very well atended; price dropped by 3% a week later. Open houses that have not been well-attended have often featured desperate brokers concentrating less on selling the place than on expanding their rolodexes. I am watching those properties closely; several have recently exited the market (past 2-3 weeks). One has reappeared.

slgslc - what are you possibly looking for that you attend every OH on the UWS??? Could you qualify what size/spend?

Yeah, sorry, that would be phenomenal/impossible! I meant every one that we were interested in. Even still, not an unimpressive total, but definitely not studios, 1 bedrooms, small 2 bedrooms, or townhouses. We are in 1200 sf now and looking for some room to roam (but not the relentless responsibility of a townhouse) and someplace we both really love (read it will be an estate sale when we're done with it.) We have looked at most UWS apartments claiming 1500 sf and over, even those outside our price range because 1. prices seem to be all over the place and 2. it's hard to get consistent answers on square footage in order to do price per square foot analysis and 3. some asking prices of 6 months or a year ago are now in our price range (and our reasoning is that maybe newer expensive listings will also have impending price declines.)