817 West End Avenue

kgg: I wouldn't call them rabbit warrens. The layouts are basically what you would expect in a 100-year-old building.

I think the only flippers at the moment - delusional or otherwise - are 11B and 7E. The other listings look like sponsor apartments. But yes, the insider discounts at 817 WEA were unusually deep. I don't know the history.

Well, just wondering if you can squeeze 6 rooms into 1050 sq feet is it really a classic 6?
A bit too compartmentalized for my taste.

kgg: The sevens are more realistic. I looked at 11B. It's a wreck, but the layout is normal for the period. I agree that 7E is undersized. In fairness, Corcoran calls in an "Edwardian Six" not a classic. The difference is about fifteen years and maybe 200 square feet.

"Edwardian Six" refers to the layout as having a living room, a dining room, a bedroom, a DRESSING ROOM, a kitchen, and a maid's room. Think Edwardian Five and then add a dressing room: These were one bedroom apartments. There were originally french doors between the two "bedrooms" creating a suite. These were the smallest apartments in this era of Neville and Bagge buildings but, in a sense, they were the most gracious.

My impression was that the Edwardian Five's were more of a "bachelor's apartment" type of thing, and that there weren't really Edwardian Six's, just larger Edwardian Five's which brokers started calling Edwardian Six's just like they have added anywhere from .5 to 2 rooms to lots of listings without any real merit for doing so.

Although I just got a real chuckle out of this: (from http://nycblogestate.com/2007/09/apartment-room-count.html )

"Since I am a Manhattan real estate broker I certainly know how to count rooms in an apartment."

I agree that the Edwardian five/six is an unfairly maligned layout. In the day, it met the needs of the empty-nester couple, the "confirmed bachelor" (wink, wink) and the all-important kept mistress. The popularity of E5s might get a boost as baby-boomers finish spawning.

As for 817 WEA, the sponsor appears to have settled for renting the vacant units, and any aspiring flippers seem to have given up, at least for now. One can only hope that they didn't stretch too much to buy at what were - at the time - very attractive prices.