Where does this land? Midtown East 1br w. Terrace

Looks nice
$759,000 ?

After someone goes into the RLS and removes at least two of the photos, because there are currently three different bathroom shots (I kid you not) that come up on the listing.

ali r.
{upstairs realty}

Funny thing, Ali - the renovations pictured were things I did when I owned it. So - a 15 year old economy bathroom and kitchen reno. (They held up better than I would have expected - so, there's that...) Was a great apartment, and a nice building, so figured it would have sold by now.

$700k. Nice apartment, and a not-often-seen layout with nice terrace, but some work needed. Maintenance is reasonable for a full service building, and on the surface looks like a liberal board (co-purchase, guarantors, pieds).

But: One fake living room photo, a not very good photo of the BR, and a balcony photo that implies that the foreground plant is hiding something unpleasant. And why exactly does there need to be a closeup of a $20 bottle of wine? It appears the unit has central air, but that's not mentioned in the listing. The listing broker isn't helping make this sale.

Looks like a cute place. Agree that the image of the cheap wine and the CUs of the plants are a waste of time and suggest total amature hour on the part of the broker.

I don't have a problem with the wine shot -- y'all may think it's cheesy, but that stuff works. It's more that, to be clear, I think I am looking at shots of three *different* bathrooms. Even if one shot is a post-renovation shot that corresponds to another one (and it's hard to imagine that it is, but maybe) what's the "other" bathroom doing there?

I don’t see central air. I see fan coil units. And the windows and terrace door could stand to be replaced.

Overall love this layout and that terrace is huge. If only it faced south the apartment maybe then would command a million.

Lanzz - how was the noise situation in this building ?

Am looking for peace and quiet during work hours and I play guitar recreationally (acoustic + electric mid-volume). Super sensitive to noise. Don't want to be disturbed or disturb anyone else. Am looking for solid walls, ceilings and no sound of music or heels or people slamming/dropping stuff next door or sound coming through ventilation shafts. (am not sensitive to ambient city noises at all though)

Having lived there that long, what was your experience with all this ?

It is chilled water central air - I replaced those units in 2003 - not the coolest air, but good enough and included in the maintenance. At this point, kitchen and bathroom aren't up to current buyer standards, I would guess, but definitely livable and the terrace and WIC were the best parts of the place. Also - building really was friendly and well taken care of. That broker was considered the "building expert" when I lived there, and if I recall, I was the subject of scorn for using a different broker.

Yes, fan coil units, with cold water / hot water provided by the building. I think of that as 'central air' (as opposed to window units), for large buildings, but unlike a system that is unique to your unit, you can't fully control when it's hot and when it's cold. The general broker trend lists fan coil units as 'central air'.

(just finding 1 bathroom shot on the SE listing, logged on as an ordinary user).

I personally think that’s a misuse of the term “central air.” Central air should be a centralized air handler with one or more ducts to provide cool air to the space and warm air back to the air handler. Like in a house or in any decent apartment anywhere outside of NYC. A well-functioning fan coil unit is probably a step above a through-wall AC unit but not as good as a ductless system, which is not as good as a ducted central system.

One of my pet-peeves with StreetEasy is that there is no way to select or filter by kinda of AC systems. Through-walls, fan-coils, mini-splits, and central AC systems are not at all similar in form and function.

Int, Most people will say outdoor space square footage as a separate listing attribute is a far bigger improvement vs debatable definition of Central AC. One may then ask whether the "condenser" units in the AC system is inside the unit or outside the unit. Is it Central to the building and each unit has its own condensing unit? Fancoil units which only blow air are certainly considered broadly central air as long as cold or hot water is supplied centrally. This is where people have to visit the apartment and see for themselves.

For example, my understanding is that 100 UN plaza has vertical fan coil units which you can see hidden in a column in living room. Most people will call it "central air" even if there is no central air handler in your home.

https://streeteasy.com/building/100-united-nations-plaza-new_york/sale/1576634

https://www.york.com/commercial-equipment/air-systems/fan-and-blower-coil-units/fs_ad/vertical-high-rise-fan-coil-units

300. Yeaaaaa I don't consider what you sent examples of to be "central air" either. It's still a single point of air entering the room and returning to the unit, both of which are quite near one another. Subpar. A true central AC would have supply and return ducts oriented so that conditioned air flows throughout the space - a much more extravagant set up.

I personally have a mini-split system and wouldn't dare tell someone it is central air. It is not.

Also, HVAC is a v important attribute. Everyone needs it regardless of whether they have outdoor space. And it's becoming even more important as the climate warms. HVAC systems in NYC notoriously s.u.c.k so finding or outfitting an apartment with a quality well-performing HAVC system should be compensated accordingly.

For me it is perhaps my most important attribute. I specifically want a unit with ductless systems or central air and am angered every time Streeteasy puts in front of me a unit with FCUs and through-wall AC units because the broker's only choice was "central air."

I think this has to do with how much temperature control you require as a human being. I sleep in the winter with the heat at 66 and in the summer with the AC at 84. During waking hours, I perhaps desire a couple of degrees on either side. I have both central air and outdoor space, and I’m with 300 on this one — I’d take the outdoor space over central air.

I've got both central fan coil air, and outdoor space, and I'll take the air over the space. I'll take fan coils using building supplied hot/cold water over PTACs and window units. (would prefer the building have a 4-pipe system, so I can have hot/cold on demand at any season, but I gather those are rare).

Int, I have ducted central air with condenser in the unit but I am lucky enough to have high ceilings making it possible. For Manhattan, with 8 foot ceilings ducting really does not work. Even with 9 foot ceilings it is a stretch.

You will find ducted central air in mostly in new construction and can easily tell from the pictures via presence of duct openings close to ceilings or in rare cases floor registers. Biggest downside of the ducted system is that most outlets are not close to window without compromising with the windows or space. This leaves space close to windows too hot. But fan-coils produce cold air near the windows where it is most needed but they do take valuable floor space. So if you are searching streeteasy, just limit yourself to loft and new construction for ducted acs.

The SE listing claims that it just closed for $699,999. Assuming that's correct (not in ACRIS yet), I was over by $1. What do I win? That $20 bottle of wine?

As a former owner of 20D, I am ready to award the bottle of wine. Having sold it for $675,000 in 2014, the $20 is well within my budget. Please advise where I should ship it to. :-)

Bring it to the next SE forum posters' gathering! (where is our social secretary to arrange these things?)