How much below ask are ppl bidding these days?

Bid 10% below ask, feel good when it closes 7% below ask.

Your broker should be helping you with this, but lately they seem to be particularly useless.

10% at least

I'm not sure you can really get a quantifiable answer on this.

If you've seen a dozen 2-bedroom 2-bath pre-wars, all in the same general location, you've got to figure so has everybody else who's in that market. And one or two will shine above the others, because they have the best combination of price, condition, view, space, and whatever else your hot spots might be. If you bid 10% below on the best one, you'll likely find yourself missing out, or engaging in a bidding war.

To give a blanket answer like "bid 10% below ask" is a little ridiculous if you don't even know how long the apartment has been on the market, and what "niche" it's in.

What Isle_of_Lucy said.

Looking at the last 50 one-bedroom UWS co-ops to close, the mean listing discount is 3%. That mean is of no use, though, for lots of reasons. The corresponding contracts are months old, and the range runs from -19% to several percent above asking. The seller of the former would've been joyous had somebody offered -10%, and at the other end your offer would've been in competition with above-asking offers and been rejected out of hand.

>>I'm not sure you can really get a quantifiable answer on this

True- some apts are massively overpriced, some just overpriced. Do not listen to brokers quoting cost per squ foot. That is BS. The best way is to go by building comps. The New York Times RE section on line has this for free as does SE most of the time. Condition and location(in building- ie floor, view etc) of the apartment obviously has to be factored in. This is not difficult. Use your own judgement or get advise from and honest broker... but be careful of oxymorons...

It is ridiculous to try to price in potential future value drops. Look at it this way: If you thought prices would rise in the near future, would you "account" for that by bidding higher? Of course not. You would offer what the property is worth NOW.

If you are buying in today's market you are buying at today's prices. If you are truly concerned about values falling in the future then don't purchase today. Wait til prices drop.

lee, it depends on how the listing is priced. We recently bought and for some apartment we bid over the ask and did not get it as the pricing was very good. The one bought was 7% below ask. I have seen closings 15% below ask for apartments which were overpriced. If you see that open house is full (went to some with a line to get-in), it is likely to go for ask and higher. That is where a good honest broker can help. Try Keith Burkhardt.

If you see that open house is full....it is likely to go for ask and higher.

This is simple not true

That was my experience early this year. I checked the closing price which were at or above ask for the apartments with mobbed open houses. Anyway, there is no guarantee that this happens but open house attendence clearly is an indication of interest at the listing price.

""price per square feet is at the 2009 level...which is generally consider the bottom-est since the RE crash, right? ""

No. Bottom was late 2008.

Thanks very much for your opinions. I think most of you have very good points. It really depends on whether the ask is at or near market prices.

Regarding comps, should I be comparing only within the subject building, or should I be comparing against other nearby buildings? But what is consider "nearby" really? 5 blocks? 10 blocks? I mean, to me a 5 minutes walk to the subway is very close, but if the other building is only like 2 minute away and 2 blocks from the park, are they really comparables?

And what about maintenance fees? How do I account that when I am doing comps? Obviously an apartment with lower maintenance fee will be able to demand a higher price, whereas one with higher fee will have to be discounted to reflect the several extra hundred dollar that one would have to folk over very month.

Thanks.

Oh, and one poster comment not to use the "price per square" as an indicator. How about the "price per share" then? Of course, this will only be meaningful within the same building. But is that commonly used? Thanks.

Stick to the general neighborhood (5-10 blocks) and type of building (don't mix pre and post-war, condos and coops, walkups with doormen buildings).

I'd avoid "price per share" as it is an odd indicator, imho, because it all depends on the how the shares were originally allocated by the sponsor. Unless I am mistaken, there's no regulated methodology. Typically, there's a fixed allocation per apt, with an additional allocation per square foot, more allocations per floor, and potential other additions depending on view (NSWE, courtyard, exterior), outdoor space, # of windows, ability to also use as commercial space etc... Additionally, the original sponsor may have retained specific units and rigged the methodology to minimize the share allocation for their units. My point is that the methodology that made sense then may no longer apply today.

Thanks. I've always thought that the "price per share" method would be pretty safe. Because I assume that units getting more shares usually mean that they are better all around. Since every value added aspect (ie.higher floor, better view..etc.) commands a premium. But it never occur to me that sometimes these shares can be unfairly allocated when they got converted.

If there is no one bidding on the apartment, do you guys feel that it automatically means it is not priced reasonably? I mean, if it is priced right, would there be people fighting over it? Can I induce it this way?

You mentioned several factors - poor job market, financial instability etc - as reasons to be cautious not to overbid. I heartily concur.

In fact, I believe we have currently entered into a recession and we will have tangible proof of it by Q4 when the GDP number prints negative.

So, I am asking - what would be the harm in delaying your purchase? Surely, one-bedroom apts on UWS are not a scarce commodity. Unless this one is priced so tantalizingly low I would wait for the recession to become common knowledge.

At that point, go for 18-20 per cent off.

The coming recession will be worse than 2008 because the FED is out of ammo and the political system is stymied by jockeying in advance of the election.

Lee, re the comps, look at your building first, then look at similar buildings in that neighborhood next. If you give us more info about the apt or better the address and the asking price we will be better able to advise. Forget about the price per share. If no one is bidding on it AND it has been on the market for more than 90 days then it might be overpriced although yo have to take other factors in to consideration as well; e.g, where is the building, does it have views, what is the condition of the apt.

>>If there is no one bidding on the apartment, do you guys feel that it automatically means it is not priced reasonably? I mean, if it is priced right, would there be people fighting over it? Can I induce it this way? <<

In real estate there is no such thing as "automatically". How do you know no one is submitting offers? Bids can be rejected for a variety of reasons. I think your best bet is to do some comp research as described by Buster above and determine in your own mind where you believe the apartment should be valued. Then submit your offer based on that. Relying on pat formulas (a certain set percentage off ask, etc) is the wrong approach and does not suggest a very well-informed buyer.

Go in armed with knowledge and you will do far better in your negotiations.

A buyer at all times must be rational, thoughtful and sincere in a bid. Especially when 99.999% of sellers asks for 99.99% of the bubble paper profits that the landed gentry must and always get.

'I want $300 per share for my pets.com!!!!!!! My cusip is special'

Flmaozzzzz