West Village 5th floor walk up for $1000/sf?

750k

What, they don't think 750k is high enough?!

700k!

It's not 2006 anymore.

$495K tops.

i wonder if ten years from now people will be laughing at the crazies who paid $750k for a 5th floor walk-up..

No ... they'll market it as a "piedapenthouse" and all the old grannies will outbid one another to buy it.

Yes, to all of the above.

750k is high. For 700k,the seller should pay for your movers, closing costs...

It's a 5th floor walk-up. Are you single, married, thinking of kids in the nearish future?
Either way, you'll be walking up those 5 flights at least once a day.

A fireplace isn't an all-year-round plus.

What do you think is great about the apartment?
The reno? New appliances? The floors? New windows? How much could all of that have added in value to the apartment?
Somebody will probably post a comp comment on this soon.

Calling KyleWest!

i've lived on a fifth floor walk-up and no matter how nice it's renovated it's horrible after a while..

Lived on the fourth floor and after leaving the building, if you forgot anything upstairs you either did without it or bought another one.

julia and Bill: That's right.

How long has the apartment been on the market?
How soon do you NEED to buy?

If you post a comment detailing the reno specs, Primer will tell you what those items/labor cost the seller.

You may very well find another 5th fl. walk-up in the West Village (if that's where you want/must live)
for far less asking price and can reno it the way you want/need. Primer can do that for you.

550-600k --tops! Unrenovated.

What -- the seller doesn't think 550k is high enough for you to offer?!

500k, AND NOT A DOLLAR MORE!!!

The seller should have loved you for 700k. And should have come down the chimney every year with presents at Xmas, included. And included yearly chimney sweeps/cleaners (another cost for you as an owner).

That's how it's done,tangel.

Good luck to you.

Take out 100 sq ft for the hallway. For 800 sq ft, I see it hard to pay anything over 750 per sq ft if the apartment is renovated well. Upside is if the fourth place ever comes up for sale and you can afford to buy and combine the apartments. It is definitely an apt only a couple of single guys will share.

This is the exact dilemma that chased us out of the Village and up to 157th St. Truth hit it perfectly. We LOVED Bank St. Loved it. Tried every possible way to rationalize the cost/small size. We even had one child (we had just a 3rd fl walk up) and after a year of lugging stroller, baby, groceries, and paying an enormous amount for mortgage/maint. the "well the schools will be better" rationalization cratered and we had to sell.

That's not to say you need to move uptown-just saying I relate entirely to the dilemma and even went further than you and actually purchased a walk up. Bottom line, unless you're insanely in love with the area, don't foresee marriage/kids/job relocation/layoff/etc. do yourself a favor and don't do it. You will one day regret paying close to 1,000,000 to walk up five floors to a relatively small apartment.

>>i've lived on a fifth floor walk-up and no matter how nice it's renovated it's horrible after a while..<<

Agreed, Julia! The apartment itself could be shangri la but if you have to slog up five stories to get there... not so much. Also, keep in mind future needs--if you plan to start a family, a walk-up will be a pain. Ditto if you expect to 'grow old' in this place. The daily hike might be fine for your current lifestyle, but what about the future?

Plus the crime.

Alan, don't do it. Don't do the crime unless you can do the time.

And the perp walk.

i don't usually agree with alanhart but when I did live on the 5th floor it was the only time i was robbed. They came through the roof down the fire escape..since i was on the top floor i guess it was easy..nothing much to steal.

My big problem is it's a 5th floor walk up. As a broker I would advise my own client to stay away; unless the price, location and level of renovation/unique features were triple AAA. I have lived in Europe where walk ups are more common place and purchased without much hesitation. Here in NYC a 5th floor walk up is acceptable as a rental, but most buyers will pass, this will severely limit the future buyer pool. The only exception to this I have seen in 21 years in this business was 2006-2008 where buyers disregard such things (along with many other negative factors).

If you love it and will live there for 10 years, perhaps. Just my 2 cents.

Keith Burkhardt
The Burkhardt Group

Thanks all, this definitely puts things into perspective. FYI, here she is:
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=2198772&ohDat=6/12/2011%2012:00:00%20AM;
The apartment is turnkey, but the fact that the owner paid $687,500 in 2005, and in today's market is asking $212,500 more (for renovating the kitchen) seems pretty outrageous. The place has been on the market for just over 30 days.

"76 steps to heaven" ... that's the equivalent of six and a third 12-step programs, which sounds much more like repeated trips to the other place.

If you have to go through daily purgatory to get to 'heaven' it's probably not worth it... ;-)

Tange--in general I don't see a $200K increase from 2005 to be 'outrageous', especially if there's been a reno. I DO think, though, that in THIS particular situation the owners bought this unit at the high end of the spectrum and need to understand that walk-ups are simply not universally desirable. They will need to price accordingly.

You need to get the 'today's market' mentality out of your head. Yes, the future is still uncertain, but there has been upward movement in NYC real estate since the 'bottom'. That, of course, doesn't mean things won't take another tumble, but as of today, things have stabilized to the point that you're just not going to find the same kind of fire-sale deals that were prevalent a couple of years ago.

i live on the 4th floor of a brownstoner walkup......doesnt bother me in the slightest, we have a dog so twice a day for her minimum and then normal comings and goings (eg at least 3 to 4 times a day).

if you cant walk up for 4 flights of stairs without heavy breathing then you have bigger issues than weather you can afford an elevator building.

btw that apartment is overpriced....too much wasted space, only room for a 2 seater couch and no dining table etc....pass.

deanc, I don't think it has anything to do with "bigger issues". I think it's nothing more than a much smaller market pool to tap into, plain & simple. You're eliminating empty nesters (who are thinking of the future when they won't want to deal with stairs), you're eliminating couples with small children, you're eliminating couples with children on the way, and you're eliminating couples who are just *thinking* of having children at some point.

That leaves people who will never have children, or young kids who can't afford it. Yep, much smaller pool. I think this think would already be sold at close to asking, *if* it had an elevator.

And anybody who travels and doesn't like lugging his steamer trunk up and down four narrow flights of stairs.

^ LOL, I forgot to add that faction to the list. :)

pretty in the pics, overpriced. the climb gets old pretty quick, regardless of how fit you are.

I'd be more concerned about the weird floorplan than the 5th floor walkup.

In normal circumstances, I'd take a 5th floor "penthouse" over a 4th or maybe even 3rd floor apartment in the same building because you have no neighbors above you and tend to get better light. In this instance, though, if the building's roof deck is above your apartment, you may end up negating most of the advantages.

This is the West Village for you, though. Beautiful apartment, beautiful neighborhood, some really f*cked up tradeoffs.

OK, just took another look at the pictures.

There's no living room!

Oh wait ... unless you call that breakfast nook off the kitchen a "living room" ...

It's a seriously gorgeous apartment that is in no way worth anywhere near $900K. Again, half-mil tops.

You know, when your number and the seller's number are really far apart, I kinda think you are better off trying to negotiate, at least at first, with words instead of numbers.

Because if his number is $900k and your number is say $650k, and you put that number on the table, it gives him license to storm off in anger. If you are too far off he is free to simply ignore you and your offer as "not serious."

But if you seriously love the apartment, maybe you're better off to say to the broker, look, I don't want to put in an offer, because I can tell that my view of the market is really different from your client's view. I think there shouldn't be any premium to top-of-the-cycle prices, so your client has to get back down to the vicnity of the last selling price for me to be able to seriously make a bid.

I think this accomplished a couple things: one, it tells the broker that you are a serious buyer, at a less aggresive price. Two, it tells the broker that his deal is mis-priced, which is information that he or she needs to take back to the client.

I think you accomplish more this way than by throwing a number that you know is going to be ignored.

good luck. GG

My WV walk-up rentals (30 apartments sample size) are up 20-30% from 2006, FYI

"76 steps to heaven." You want to know what it's like living there? Look at it this way...either the broker or seller were so miserable with the slog up to the apartment that they actually counted the steps...

Like others have said, it's not worth it.

rentals are fine for walk-ups; i would think long and hard buying one.

I wouldn't call this place seriously gorgeous... This is the kind of apt that should have a very simple cove crown moulding if any at all - the current choice makes it look like the den in a suburban tract mansion. It looks like they installed a sub zero and then glued in an ikea kitchen as an afterthought. The bedroom is a cramped 8x10. And why no photos of the bathroom? If this place is 906 square feet (why such a specific estimate for a co-op?), at least 400 of it is wasted. On the positive side, the walk-up is a great substitute for a stair-master, and you can work a nice power-walk commuting from the living room/breakfast nook to the bedroom. Given the closing prices of other pure crap walk-ups in the village, I'd price this realistically at $600-$700k.

tangel: Looks purty small to me.

15 years ago my friend moved to East 17th St. right off Irving Place, from L.A.
It was a good size 5th floor walk-up.

One summer day he was sick at home and called to ask me to go shopping for him.
One large shopping bag carried up those stairs in the heat. I ran out of steam on the 4th floor.

He was up by his door calling down to me to just do one more flight.
I was shvitzing and plotzing.

I told him : "I'm leaving the bag here -- when you get hungry enough you'll walk down one flight and pick it up."

A couple of months later he broke his ankle playing basketball. He was in a cast and on crutches.
He stayed at my place for a couple of months.

He was renting and when he got back on his feet he moved out.
Cost him a lot for movers.

And this is before we both were middle-age.

"How much tip do I need to give you before you will hand over my food delivery?!"
"Mom and Dad, the Marriott at Time Square isn't that bad."
"F*ck. I don't really need an umbrella that bad."

BillyRes, that last one was my specialty when I did my 5th-floor-walkup time on the UWS.

an umbrella bought on the street costs a few bucks or buy one at duane reade. it may not last long but it is better than going back up five flights of stairs.

See bill's comment.

""How much tip do I need to give you before you will hand over my food delivery?!"

$10 for Fresh Direct, $5 minimum for a meal.

***

"Mom and Dad, the Marriott at Time Square isn't that bad."

Don't be cheap. Put them up at the W.

***

"F*ck. I don't really need an umbrella that bad."

You don't stick your head out the window before leaving the apartment?? And in this place, with your own lanai, there's really no excuse not to, since that's where you'll presumably be noshing on your breakfast coffee and seasonal fruit over the New York Times.

Matt: When it's "cloudy with a chance of showers/thunderstorms", I take an umbrella with me.

The saying in London goes that only tourists carry brollies.

For 900K can't you get an elevator one-brm in the same area?

"For 900K can't you get an elevator one-brm in the same area?"

Of course you can. AND a washer and dryer to boot!

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/583267-coop-211-west-10th-street-west-village-new-york

NYCMatt, 211 West 10th is a walk-up.

211 West 10th sold for $642k in 2009. Delusional seller...

buster, zip me up!

Hmmmm, lucillebluth - if you use 3A and 5A as comps, I guess the asking price is not entirely absurd... Looks like the seller got a decent "deal" in 2009. It really surprises me what people will pay at the low end of the west village market.

have you been eating cheese?

Chiss?

had to google that. totally missed that in the movies! buster, no more juice for you!

prices are worse than I thought - coops under $900K in West Village I could only find two studios and the following, and the following "needs TLC" http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/620438-coop-165-christopher-street-west-village-new-york

my prediction is that all of you will be as right about this as these other market savvy folks were:

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/24133-sale-at-155-hudson-street-2s

>http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/24133-sale-at-155-hudson-street-2s

Is there really only 1 bathroom in that place?