Open House Anecdotes - 4/13 - NON-UWS

Pardon the delayed post. Saw a bunch yesterday: LES, East/Central/West Village, Chelsea. Great day for a bike ride. Kylewest has a typically well written post of OHs in similar areas on the UWS OH thread. I started this in case some downtown low-enders aren’t reading that one. 237 Eldridge St. apt 3/4 $550k $980 maint (NY Times only): A 3br/2 bath in 100% shit condition claiming to be 1000sf. I’m... [more]

Pardon the delayed post. Saw a bunch yesterday: LES, East/Central/West Village, Chelsea. Great day for a bike ride. Kylewest has a typically well written post of OHs in similar areas on the UWS OH thread. I started this in case some downtown low-enders aren’t reading that one. 237 Eldridge St. apt 3/4 $550k $980 maint (NY Times only): A 3br/2 bath in 100% shit condition claiming to be 1000sf. I’m “greeted” at the door by a glum man who doesn’t return my hello. The broker is on the phone. There is no sign in sheet. It’s a combination, and it’s hard to tell what room is what or how big it really is, but I think 1k sf is exaggerated. 1st floor in a walkup. Back of the building so no street noise, but no views, either, though there’s some kind of a courtyard and there will be decent light in some of the rooms. This may be a unit I’ve seen for years listed on an HDFC-oriented website. It’s probably plenty negotiable, and may actually be a good opportunity for someone willing to gut reno who doesn’t mind the lack of views. 2 doors down from the brilliant Dr. Schaubhut at the East Village Veterinarian and 1 block from the F and V trains. 88 Bleecker St. 2K $650k $747 maint: 1br about 650 sf, facing north on Bleecker. The cyber doorman has me and 2 others confused. There’s a big green button at each door, but no buzzers for individual apartments. We’re buzzed into door one, and someone leaving opens door 2 for us. Very weird. I’ve seen another unit in the building on the ground floor, and hadn’t noticed the dark hallways that a friend recently mentioned to me, but she’s right. Kitchen and bath are recent; nice but not especially upscale. Kitchen is small w/ no DW. The broker is pretty classic, meaning about what you’d expect it to mean. This building is interesting to me because it has always traded lower than you would think it should, but has ticked up a bit in the past year. However, there have been a lot of sellers recently (7 1brs and 4 studios closed or listed in 08), and the studios have been cutting their prices. Feels like some “getting out of Dodge” going on. 5 visitors as of 45 minutes in. 630 E 14th St. #7 $475k $489 maint (NY Times only): A very dreary stretch of the East Village. West are projects, north is Stuy Town, and east is the Con Ed plant. I suppose for some it may have an early Tom Waits kind of charm (“It’s 14th and C, all the doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes”). Renovated kitchen (decent looking appliances, cheap looking cabinets), can’t remember the bath, view out back over the common garden (not memorably landscaped but still a nice thing). Very little activity, 4 visitors 1:15 in. 333 E 14th St. 5D $659k $782 maint: 1br w/ nice-sized bedroom and very large LR/DR. Floor though with N/S/E exposures. Same line on a higher floor claims 850 sf. Probably more like 750, maybe 800. Not in bad shape, but kitchen and bath are old. I really like the broker. She’s doing her job, flattering the place without being cheesy, but when she asks me my thoughts we wind up having a genuine conversation about the state of the market. The unit is down $30k from orig ask after less than 2 months. 3 visitors about a half hour in. I’ve discussed this location recently: loud and charmless, but convenient. 333 E 14th St. 9D $750k $843 maint. Same bones as above, but kitchen has been opened into the DR. Kitchen and bath are renovated with a lot of metal, a sort of industrial style I like, but neither quite seems finished, and the bathroom has a glass-brick wall (!). This one has a great southerly view from the LR and views to the east from all rooms. The broker was in heavy sales mode, but didn’t try to lie about interest or offers. It seems the seller is very motivated. No sign-in sheet. Here’s the most interesting part. He tells me the building’s sponsor has defaulted. This sure sounds like horrible news, but he says the co-op now owns 35 units it will be selling and putting the money towards major capital improvements, possibly adding a roof deck. I guess that could be good, but it also sounds like there will be a lot of inventory coming from this building before long, and that specific due diligence would be required. 325 West 21st St. #14 $395k $593 maint (NY Times only): Small space listed as 1br, really a studio w/ an arch dividing LR from BR. 4 flights up, old condition (tub in kitchen!). Faces a school, I think elementary, on 21st St. No dogs. How did I miss that? 325 West 21st St. #18 $475k $659 maint (NY Times only): Same line 1 floor up, but this one is renovated (not very expensively) with roof rights. It’s nice up there, but the better views are on the other side, including the IAC building and some pretty gardens between the buildings. For both properties (same broker showing), 7 visitors after an hour. 165 Christopher St. 6K $599k $821 maint (NY Times only): This building is ground zero for the West Village thugs and hustlers making their way between the piers, PATH train and subway. A listing here was featured in a Curbed OH preview a month or two ago and the building was savaged in the comments. If you Google the address you’ll find some other marginalizing factors, such as the hotel that’s run out of it. As such, it trades lower than the surrounding blocks. This Jr 1 (maybe 500 sf?) is pretending that’s not the case, and the OH was totally dead. 2 visitors all day. The last Jr 1 sold for $450k, though to be fair it was on the ground floor; not good with dealing and tricking outside your window. This is the top floor, with a nice view of protected townhouses on Washington St. Condition is old, but done in a classy-boho way. I think they’ll have a (very?) hard time getting over $500k. Freshly painted hallways are an improvement, though. 165 Christopher St. 4X $700k $784 maint: This is one of the units I’ve been thinking of when discussing aspirational pricing in the rougher part of the West Village. It was listed at $845k, in Dec 07. The current owners paid $392,700 in June 05. Do they really think a new kitchen and bath and 2.5 yrs is worth a 115% percent increase? The unit is unoccupied, so somewhere the owners are carrying two homes. View is of the storage warehouse on W 10th. Owners in this building need to sell when it’s cold out, before the kids return to the piers. I also wonder how service limitations with the coming budget shortfall will affect the police unit dedicated to the area. 4 visitors an hour in. I saw a few things two weeks ago that I never mentioned. Open houses are still running, so here goes: 54 East 1st St. 2B $499k (was $525k 2 weeks ago, price change on Halstead’s site not yet reflected on StreetEasy), $624 maint. I loved the building’s interior, but the unit turns out to be tiny w/ no views and light only in the LR. There’s a lot of action, not surprising given the price and location, but everyone seems to enter, look quickly, and leave. Apt 2C is now available at $525k, a mirror image floorplan of 2B. 4C just sold for $375k, so good luck with that. Also, no dogs. 25 Charles St. $675k, $705 maint: Don’t recall the apt #, but it’s the parlor level facing the back. There’s common outdoor space out there, but it’s totally unfinished, just some cracked concrete. It feels like an abandoned handball court. The unit is very small but beautifully renovated, w/ a WD in the kitchen and separate LR and DR. Prime location, obviously. While checking out the outdoor space, we went into a door to the basement, which seemed to be two whole unused units. It was like Blair Witch in the West Village. Then we saw, I kid you not, a sign on the ground for an Asian massage parlor. My girlfriend half-jokingly asked if there were any nail marks on the doors or locks on the outside. Maybe this was Heaven Spa South? This unit could be OK at a lower price, but this building requires some due diligence, to say the least. Lastly, the unit khd and I were discussing on the OH 3/31 thread Sunday was 51 St. Mark’s Place #9, in case anyone was interested. Here’s a copy/paste: “…I would guess the square footage to be in the low 700s, more than 100 sf less than they are claiming. I know most brokers like to think that 1k psf is a given in any desirable neighborhood, but the walkup is horrible. I’d say they’re losing 80+% of prospective buyers on that alone. The unit is livable, but it’s in old condition, everything from the floors to the appliances. The high ceilings, yes, are great, but most people don’t want their bed in their living room, even if it’s up 7-8 feet, and the actual bedroom is too small for adults, it’s just about crib (or home-office) worthy. Having a washer dryer is, of course, nice (and essential given the walkup), but having two units mixed in w/ the kitchen cabinets and appliances isn’t exactly elegant. The common areas, aside from that one piece of art, are old and drab. I don’t see how this place even breaks $600k, but maybe that’s just me. This really seems like one of those aspirational places we’ve talked about on the board where you have to wonder if the owner would be open to a low offer, if you’ll have to wait for the price chops, or if they’ll eventually pull it. Or maybe that uber-mom who was giving me the shit-eye really wants it for her kid. I’ll admit it’s not impossible, but it’s extremely unlikely…” [less]