Open House Report: 440 West End Avenue #6A

Wow! Great example of mid-century decorating. That LR rug has to be unique: like a vastly overscaled chenille bedspread.

I just returned from a week with my own aged parents, and would bet this is an estate sale where the kids picked off the odds and ends they wanted, then gave up in despair at the rest.

Diggin' it. I like it when something is what it is and hasn't been staged to hide anything.

Um, a visit to chez moi on a random day will also yield cluttered counters, dirty trays in oven, and hand-labelled jars (vestiges of a label-making machine fetish).

right, 10023, if your place was on the market that would not be true. which i think you indicated in an earlier thread was one of the major reasons you wouldn't want to put your place on the market. (and i definitely sympathize, with children particularly keeping a place pristine and in show-ready condition is quite a bit of work).

but with an estate, it really helps a savvy buyer to have a messy disaster. because as west81st points out, it costs the same to gut a messy apartment (generally) as it does one that presents a bit better.

Right, cubed. But good bit of nostalgia to visit an O/H (haven't been to this one) where things haven't been sanitized beyond belief. Y'know, like the good old days.

that was a great read! apartments like this put a smile on my face. the foyer freaks me out a little but i wouldn't mind gettin' my hands on that dining room hutch or the armchairs in the LR.

10023, true. even the estates are generally cleaned up these days. you used to see far more really stinky glorious wrecks.

I'm always amazed when brokers rely on crappy, decades-old floor plans photocopied and pasted into their listings. It is the ultimate in lazy and sloppy.

And, in the case of this estate-condition apartment--come on--lose the threadbare rugs, strip the tired wallpaper and for godsakes slap on a coat of paint so buyers don't have to encounter the ghostly shadows of long-gone artwork and mirrors that once bedecked the walls.

Creepy never shows well.

I'd rather see the old original plans. Almost always more accurate. They can be sloppy when modified to show layout changes, but usually not as sloppy as the hack-job new plans you get now.

E.g., this new one for another 440WEA A-line: http://img.streeteasy.com/nyc/image/92/17848492.gif. Huge nonexistent windows in LR, misplaced doors between LR and DR, general cheesy look. They should've just modified the original to show closet/pantry/kitchen changes, as with 6A: http://img.streeteasy.com/nyc/image/65/18834965.gif.

It's a lot easier to clean up an old scanned plan with any graphics program than to hire some hack to draw new.

"It's a lot easier to clean up an old scanned plan with any graphics program than to hire some hack to draw new."

what a strange and completely untrue thing to say

Easier if you care about how it looks. Cheaper, too.

a cleaned up scan will always be messy, a new vector based image (hopefully one that is accurate) will always look cleaner and be a smaller file.

here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

If there is any hint of life in the market--and there is--this will be snapped up fast. Expect a bidding war. I agree that it makes no sense to show an apartment in this state of disarray, but it matters a whole lot less when the place is an obvious total gut. This is actually a great classic six layout with that center foyer, very large bedrooms, usable maids room (even if flipped with kitchen) in a great west end location.

Happyrenter: it just misses being a truly great "family" friendly 6 with the service elevator blocking passage between one flank of the apt and the other.

10023: You're tough. Not many sixes offer direct access from the pantry to the bedroom wing. Crossing through the foyer isn't bad at all. In weaker sixes, you have to go through the dining room - sometimes also through the LR.

NWT: You might be right about an estate sale; the outlines on the LR walls (mentioned by bramstar above) point in that direction. I was just trying to give the brokers the benefit of the doubt: with no living occupant, this level of disarray makes very little sense. Would it be so hard to dump the contents of drawers, closets and cabinets (and oven) into boxes and bribe the Super to store it for the day?

I hate to defend any listing broker who uses the word "Classix" -- but floor plans are a rock and a hard place kind of problem. If you throw the old plan from the database up, people say you're not up-to-date; if you have a new plan drawn, you either have to wait to put the listing up (which probably takes you past the REBNY time period and makes other brokers accuse you of having a "pocket" listing) or you have to put the listing up without any floor plan at all for a couple of days, which makes direct customers, who you potentially want to capture, accuse you of being a lousy marketer.

There's just no way to win that one.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty
646-322-6150

I'm with happyrenter. Light, view, and ceiling height not special, but workhorse classic 6 just shy of 2000 sq ft in top UWS location asking $700 a sq ft. Likely candidate is "value" family thinking they can get it renovated for $250K and 6 months. Truth will be $400K and 12 months. I'll go with $1.41M for final price, in contract by month-end.

Any one else care to place a wager?

Ali - Simple solution: post the listing with the original layout, and note in the text, "Apartment varies slightly from the floor plan shown; updated plan to follow by [date]."

The apartment is already in contract. It was clearly a great deal!!

OK, I win the "closest to contract date" prize by virtue of being the only player. Now, let's get some calls on price. I wanna see if you UWS diehards are any better than casual observers like me. No insider information please: violators will be sent to SE prison.

even simpler solution, learn illustrator! it's a very straight forward and easy program to master, and if you're just doing floorplans you don't have to come anywhere near mastering it. it takes 10-15 mintes. 30 minuts while you're still getting the hang of it. serious question, brokers pay people to do this? i always thought you did it yourselves in a more primitive graphic program.

EAO: Have you spoken to the brokers? SE, Elliman and the broker feed still show #6A as active.

They told me that they had a contract out and were not showing the apartment any further. I think it will close for about $1.4M.

Lucille, I will draw floorplans myself just to get something in. They do look hand-drawn, and I'm pretty used to getting ribbed about it. Hiring someone doesn't cost that much (75 or 80 bucks, something like that) but it can take a week to get outsider plans done and in the system.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

$1.2mm all cash deal. No way I'd bid above ask with 9A lurking. And btw, 9A better hurry bf 10-1-11 and this pos comp.... Oooops. Too late.

$700psf. -> $600psf -> $????? flmaozzzz. We ain't even in the final capitulation phase. We just started playing spin the bottle....

Btw, who says board will accept? Especially if the higher unit got some pull? Ah, the joys of coops. Force field on. -snort- best buys of 2011, anyone?

Ok, so now I know lucille/Kathleen is a borker. You Fking learn illustrator.

You think the lemmings would allow a $1.2M all-cash bid to sit? If so, I've got a bridge to sell you.

who says board will accept? Especially if the higher unit got some pull?

excellent point.

Closed for $1.505MM, 11.5% above ask. Apparently, at least two bidders were able to see past the disarray.

Don't completely understand buyer psychology on the UWS this fall. Things are SO uncertain going forward with the economy.

"If there is any hint of life in the market--and there is--this will be snapped up fast. Expect a bidding war."

And....the winner is Happyrenter!

Even at $1.505M that apartment is a steal! 440 is a great building, and the layout of the apartment and the room sizes are terrific. Anyone who knows anything about prewar apartments will see that the bones are great. And the "old" floorplans are better than the new ones.