High Ballers

From peak to shining peak. Closing at the virtual peak of housing costs!
30 East 65th Street #12D
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/637933-coop-30-east-65th-street-lenox-hill-new-york
07/12/2007 Previous Sale recorded for $1,225,000.
09/30/2011 Listed by Corcoran at $1,495,000.
That would be an increase of $270.000.
22% inccrease above peak pricing!

Thank you High Ballers at Corcoran, Joan McLaughlin and Leland Smith (this time it took the power of two)

515 East 72nd Street #27H
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/363210-condo-515-east-72nd-street-upper-east-side-new-york
01/31/2008 Previous Sale recorded for $1,541,462.
The Stock Market Crash in October of 2008 must have signaled an increase in value.
At least an increase of $143,538. That's about 9.3% increase during some interesting times.
11/06/2008 Listed by Warburg at $1,685,000.
03/27/2009 Price decreased by 11% to $1,495,000.
08/20/2009 Listing is no longer available.
09/09/2009 Re-listed by Warburg.
09/15/2009 Price decreased by 10% to $1,345,000.
12/08/2009 Price decreased by 5% to $1,283,750.
07/28/2010 Listing is no longer available.
10/09/2010 Re-listed by Warburg.
03/04/2011 Listing sold.
04/15/2011 Sale recorded for $1,234,000.

Thank you High Ballers at Warburg, Annie Cion Gruenberger

What's your point falcogold? The buyer bought for $1.54MM in Jan 2008, plus they likely paid the developer's costs.
Then they change their mind, just 10 months later. You think they were going to hire someone who said that it would go for $250K less in that short a period of time just because of Bear Stearns and Lehman?
I don't know the seller's financial situation, but this seems more about price discovery than a sinister plot.
But given we are playing a game, what price should it have been listed at in November 2008 so that it sold within a few percentage points of asking within a 2-3 month period of time ... how would you have priced it?

love this thread

Craz,
How about a high baller entry of your own finding
Come on brother...contribute!

Your 'discovery' is not new news to anyone who has been around this biz for any time at all. Furthermore, you are not identifying any pattern of who the 'highballers' are by using single examples from brokers. You are also lacking a control variable for comparison's sake. Let me know what other comps were priced and closed for in the same time frames before you make any conclusions....

what if a buyer's got a distressed property or an inside deal the first time and turned around and priced it based on comp? When you sell a property, are you going to ask for the same amount you paid for regardless of transaction cost? price it by closing price of the comps or add some for the negotiating factor? The OP does not make any sense although I predict that by the end of the day there will be 65 entries. People here love this kind of populist attack on brokers...(or anyone else for that matter)

it is always known that some sellers want to sell for crazy prices and any qualified and honorable broker would not take the listing. then you get the garbage coming in and saying, "hell, you are asking for too little, how about adding another 1/2 mil to the price." then they sit and sit.... i made a point of this a year or so ago and noah defended this position.

any qualified, knowledgeable broker will only take listing that they can sell within a reasonable timeframe. others just want to have their names out there on anything and have plenty of time to waste. they are not paying for adds and their time is worthless. to fix this situation, the seller's brokers should be on the hood for ad costs. there will be less of these high fliers then.

What if Santa claus is real.

Sounds like you don't have a clue

When you sell a property, are you going to ask for the same amount you paid for regardless of transaction cost?

Just because someone overpaid for apartment does not mean it should be priced higher when they want to sell.

most brokers are dishonest Sc#$%bags that will lie through their teeth to get a listing or sell a property.

Here's another one:

Here is an honest broker. This apartment was reduce $150K in June, but go to Halstead website, it will say 9/30!!!

SE is not wrong here.

1175 York ave. REDUCED TODAY BY $150K !!!!!!!!
Price History
9/30/11$995,000
4/28/11$1,049,000

12/02/2010
Listed by Halstead Property at $1,195,000.
01/23/2011
Price decreased by 8% to $1,095,000.
04/29/2011
Price decreased by 4% to $1,049,000.
05/31/2011
Listing is no longer available.
06/01/2011
Price decreased by 5% to $995,000.
06/14/2011
Re-listed by Halstead Property.

Why does it matter when the property was reduced in priced?

To me, the date of the reduction, or that there was any reduction, is irrelevant. The price is relevant, and the price relative to comps and the market is relevant. That's it.

I guess if you like to bash brokers as a sport then the date of the reduction is important. I don't have any family members or close friends who are brokers, nor do I have any real life brokers as enemies, so I guess I am just not connected enough to get why that is fun.

There are a lot of good brokers out there. I am not the only one that thinks most(broker) are incompetent or unethical. Calling the bad ones out will hopefully weed them out. Especially in this new era of more transparency. I do have brokers that are friends and I actually have a very good, intelligent, broker. I know you don't believe me. I would not either after a statement like that.

SE rankings of sell-side brokers are interesting. For Upper West Side co-ops in the last year, fewer than 200 had more than one closing. 431 had one. The rest had none.

As anyone who has to make a living knows, some potential clients are entirely unable to accept truth, so telling them the shit they want to hear is the only option. Rejecting the business isn't an option.

There is a correlation, though, between listing discount and listing/dollar volume. Brokers who both know the market and have the persuasive powers to put it across to clients do much better.

>Calling the bad ones out will hopefully weed them out.

Really?

>As anyone who has to make a living knows, some potential clients are entirely unable to accept truth, so telling them the shit they want to hear is the only option. Rejecting the business isn't an option.

And how many strategies involve - ok, lets put it on the market for X price which is high and above the last sale, etc. for a few weeks. If we don't have enough traffic at the open house or if there isn't sufficient positive feedback or an offer within X period of time, then we'll drop it by X to a more reasonable level. But we should first see if there might be someone who really likes this place and will bid for it because ...

Exactly. After all, it doesn't hurt to try.

Except that that can add to average time on market and add to average listing discount. Now that SE's come out with those stats, more potential clients will be looking at those numbers.

I'd always go with underpricing, ahead of the market, just to get the thing done and reduce the number of annoying phone calls with the seller.

>>>I'd always go with underpricing, ahead of the market, just to get the thing done and reduce the number of annoying phone calls with the seller

In this market, I'd say that's a smart strategy. Especially in this more transparent market.

Well, it looks like Brooks2 is throwing his hat in the ring to be a broker after all. He's got the strategy down pat, and the sales shtick to go along with it.

Thread Hijacked....thanx

For the record, as stated above, I am not a judge of the actions of others or a broker basher. I understand the job of the broker. It is that of a real estate sales person. The job is the facilitation of real estate sales. They need not be experts in the detailed science of real estate. They need not be held to the standards of the obsessed. The job does not call for it. In any profession you find experts that are above and beyond, the avarge which are 'good enough' and the sucky. There is a notion that any idiot can sell re. So, lots of idiots try. They just don't last.
'Sales' is harder than it looks.

I nominate Marguerite De La Poer for high-balling, but without many changes to price:

1. 955 Lexington, #7C has been on the market for 295 days and is still listed at $1.895mm. This compares to the mint condition #9C, which sold for $1.75mm in 2007. (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/556670-coop-955-lexington-avenue-lenox-hill-new-york)

2. 925 Park Avenue, #11D, which has been on the market for 159 days with no change in price. (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/603278-coop-925-park-avenue-upper-east-side-new-york)

3. 125 E. 74th Street, #5B has been on the market for 436 days with no price cut from $1.495. Ever.

I'm not sure that I understand her sales strategy, but it seems aggressive.

falco--love the thread--sorry no time to contribute

brooksie--nice work with the clean bust of the "price cut today" listing--very entertaning--reminds me of the shops of 5th ave that sell art, electronics, oriental rugs etc to sucker-tourists

jsw--ya gotta respect marguerite's strong belief in herself, tenacity, durability idn the face of pressure

Please allow me....

Marguerite De La Poer's Mantra: COMPS, COMPS, I DON'T NEED NO STINKING COMPS! (said in a spaghetti western's south of the boarder accent)

The High Ballers Club welcomes it's newest member!
301 East 69th Street #18B

12/01/2006 Previous Sale recorded for $1,195,000.
Want to call 12/01/2006 essentially the market peak?
08/11/2011 Listed by Prudential Douglas Elliman at $1,450,000.

Thank you High Ballers at Prudential Elliman, Mark Hirsh and Tracy Goldberg!
(Just for the record, I've never not known a Mark Hirsh and Tracy Goldberg, Good Luck Kids!)

thought that names sounded famila-- this High Baller on 50 Sutton is also his -- 3AB!!!

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/28547-sale-at-50-sutton-place-south-3ab

Falcon: I think that the owners at 301 E. 69 did a substantial amount of work on the apt. (e.g., bathrooms, kitchen, LR bar). Compare the pictures of the kitchens in both listings. Also, note that the listing specifies that many items were recently renovated.

I think that these owners are just trying to recoup their investment--it's not a price bump for no reason.

Investments can down. And it looks like this one has. good luck recouping this one!!!

jsw,
the 2006 listing includes info about a new kitchen/2bath reno
think the reno'ed again?

RE can go down just like stocks and bonds.. They should face reality. The will not resoip their investment

Easy to blame the brokers, but there are sellers out there who are eager to go with the agent that gives them the highest price, regardless of comps and solid data. I have lost a few exclusives this year because the seller decided to go with the highest quoted price. When I confronted said seller with solid data (in one case her same apartment line had sold two floors above and one floor below in the past six months), I always hear the same line - "my apartment is different and Broker X agrees." Where did you get your data? What comps did that broker use to support the price?

The problem seems to lie in brokers who are too eager to inflate the price to get a listing and the sellers who turn a blind eye to the REAL DATA in the hopes that theirs will be a different sale...

CAE

The problem seems to lie in brokers who are too eager to inflate the price to get a listing and the sellers who turn a blind eye to the REAL DATA in the hopes that theirs will be a different sale...

I can see that.

If they hope to make money. maybe they should play lotto

a broker who takes a listing that they no will not sell or comp (10% or higher then comps), is just taking the listing to get the 6 months exclusive. some agents do that just to get enough points to become a broker.

too much broker bashing.

this is supposed to be fun!

find properties that are priced way beyond reality and post them so that we might all chuckle. Look for funny patterns. That's all, no attacks, no judgements except maybe the size of the balls.

Falcon--It may not have been a good idea for them to reno again, but they did it. Check out the pics from the original listing vs. the new listing. The owners did a gut of the kitchen (which wasn't in bad shape), and I'd assume that they tacked other parts of the apt. as well given their comments about renovation.

So, I think the broker and owner is being optimistic--am not sure the price is so ridiculous under the circumstances.

>>>-am not sure the price is so ridiculous under the circumstances.

Huh? It's a box. squ ft remains the same. Put all the money into it you want. The next owner will have to paint it again too.

Under what circumstance?
The market is lower! It does not deem a higher price just because they put more money into it! Good luck

Welcome High Ballers.
We have Kellee Buhler and Ivana Tagliamonte at Halstead Property.
264 Lexington Avenue #11BC
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/588276-coop-264-lexington-avenue-murray-hill-new-york

StreetEasy History
04/11/2008 Previous Sale recorded for $1,675,000.
03/05/2011 Listed by Halstead Property at $1,800,000.
06/07/2011 Price decreased by 4% to $1,725,000.
08/25/2011 Listing is no longer available.
09/01/2011 Currently Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $1,695,000.

Now a same building comp of #9BC: sold for $1,425,000 on 08/01/2006.

If we use 2006comp as a mechanism for value assesment we see a $375K jump by March 2011. Heck of an up charge for 2 floors considering the current re climate. Things must be heating up over at Halstead and we just didn't get the memo yet.

Over at Brown Harris Stevens, Thomas Hemann and Cherie Butler might not qualify as High Ballers but I love their optimism! The sky's the limit! It only takes one.

I can't even look at this one without hearing the 'Rocky I' theme music.

330 East 38th Street #52DE
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/626391-condo-330-east-38th-street-murray-hill-new-york
07/01/2006 Previously Listed by CBHK at $3,600,000.
02/16/2008 CBHK Listing is no longer available. Last priced at $3,800,000.
08/01/2011 Listed by Prudential Elliman at $3,900,000.

Horay for Prudential Douglas Elliman's Tamir Shadian

Go Tamir!!! EYE OF THE TIGER

2 oz blended whiskey
carbonated water
1 twist lemon peel
Pour blended whiskey into a highball glass over ice cubes. Fill with carbonated water and stir. Add the twist of lemon peel and serve.
Share with your favorite broker

Whiskey Highball recipe http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink4991.html#ixzz1anIw5iKS

The High baller club welcomes a true seasoned High baller
Welcome Liana Megre of Halstead Property

300 East 62nd Street
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/513904-condo-300-east-62nd-street-lenox-hill-new-york

02/22/2000 Previous Sale recorded for $780,000.
08/01/2003 Previous Sale recorded for $1,095,000.
04/03/2008 Previously Listed by Halstead Property at $2,685,000.
03/05/2009 Delisted by Halstead Property. Last priced at $2,499,000.
04/14/2010 Listed by Halstead Property at $2,350,000.
10/08/2010 Listing is no longer available.
01/25/2011 Re-listed by Halstead Property.
05/31/2011 Price decreased by 2% to $2,300,000.
07/11/2011 Price decreased by 4% to $2,200,000.

Beautiful work Liana
I'm going to make you a double!

lovely apartment

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/641187-coop-133-west-17th-street-chelsea-new-york

StreetEasy History
09/22/2008Previously Listed by Prudential Elliman at $3,350,000.
12/17/2008Prudential Elliman Listing sold.
12/17/2008Previous Sale recorded for $(insiders only) $3,075,000.

02/02/2011Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $3,995,000.
04/08/2011Off market temporarily.
07/05/2011Price increased by 13% to $4,495,000.
10/17/2011Currently Listed by Brown Harris Stevens at $4,650,000.

The one good thing about a bidding war with yourself is nobody gets hurt.

Sorry Falco, just realized that listing doesnt really fit the theme of your thread

....yet

au contraire, mon frere

Jacques Foussard and Craig Filipacchi of Brown Harris Stevens, pony up to the bar and let me pour you a high ball.

116 West 22nd Street #PHB in Chelsea
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/627066-condo-116-west-22nd-street-chelsea-new-york

07/18/2007 Previous Sale recorded for $3,200,000.
01/29/2009 Previously Listed by Sotheby's at $1,495,000.
08/26/2010 Sotheby's Listing is no longer available. Last priced at $1,500,000.
08/04/2011 Listed by Citi Habitats at $2,300,000.
09/23/2011 Price decreased by 7% to $2,150,000.
11/09/2011 Price decreased by 7% to $2,000,000.

Thank you Keren Greenstein and Brian H Arava of Citi Habitats.
Without your boundless optimism this thread could never exsist!
The skys the limit...it only take one!
Can't wait to see the next price....could be 3MM, could be 1.2MM...keep'em guessing!

99% of brokers do highballing all the time, why should people care about it?

yeah but it says it wont last long at that price.

10 East 70th Street #3D $2,400,000
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/648691-coop-10-east-70th-street-lenox-hill-new-york

10 East 70th Street #4D
12/16/2008 Listed by Corcoran at $1,700,000.
03/03/2009 Price decreased by 6% to $1,600,000.
06/06/2009 Listing entered contract.
10/22/2009 Listing sold.
10/22/2009 Sale recorded for $1,400,000.

That's 1MM based on a one floor differential...
High baller, smoking crack, while doing lines of crushed up oxyicodone.
Rica Tarnoff says this market IS ON FIRE! oh wait, maybe that's me on fire, do you smell smoke?
Corcoran must be very proud.