Bypassing "Exclusive Sales Agents"

I should add, the condo has been on the market for about 3 years now, and 2 months ago the sponsor lowered the asking price by about 10%. The condo is in Central Harlem and my offer is still over $500psf ... $526psf to be exact. The original price was $721psf and the present asking price is $637psf.

sticky, who is the developer? if i know him, i can direct you...

I also am curious about making offers in situations where there is an "exclusive" agent. Shouldn't that be illegal!?!?!? How is this exclusive agent not in cahoots with the developer? Can I bring my own agent to do the negotiating for me?

you have to make the offer through the agent but she is required to present to the developer. if the agent tells me the developer would never consider my client's offer, than i usually go to the developer directly because i happen to know most them. the agent doesn't like this but too bad.

The development is a joint venture by Gotham and the Richmond Group.

you mean the Langston?

Yeppers.

stick, how long ago were you last in the sales office?

I never actually went to the sales office. Just open houses, where I met the sales agent. I emailed all my offers to him.

stick. i can totally help you. do you want to chat via telephone? i'm not shady.

OK. Does this place have a private message feature?

i don't think so. email me at rglazer@homesteadnyc.com and I will write u back with my phone...

""I'm not shady.""

LOVE it!!! Quote of the day, if not the entire year!

LOL Squid. Everyone here thinks agents are shady. I'm sure asking to speak via telephone sounds especially shady. LOL

Ha ha ha. Everybody in real estate is shady? What line of work are you in, Squid? I'm sure you're a shady lot, too. (No, I'm not in RE)

Any luck?

She's meeting with the sponsor on Friday. I'll post the results when I hear back.

OK so I met Rachel and she's NOT shady---and in my apartment hunting I've met some shady or difficult brokers.

She did meet with the developer and confirmed my suspicion that the sales agent wasn't submitting my offers, because this particular sponsor had instructed him not to submit any offers below X amount.

The Langston is almost entirely sold, with the last 3 penthouses remaining. They've been on the market for 3 years despite 2 priced reductions. The monthlies are very low, even for the penthouses ... $900/month (including taxes and factoring in a recent maintenance increase). So the word is the developer would rather keep paying those monthlies than sell for 100K less than asking.

AND I was even told that the developer would rather that the bank take over the property than sell for what I'm offering ... somehow that his loss would be greater if he took my offer than letting the bank foreclose? I didn't know that a developer could foreclose on a particular unit if the company is otherwise financially sound ... I thought you had to demonstrate that you can't afford payments.

Anyway that's that. Rachel is very nice & I hope she can twist these guys arms to get them to make a deal with me.

I'm so happy Agent Rachel was able to jump in and save the day.

Holding the apartments and paying the monthlies to hold out for a higher price only seems like a good strategy if you expect a quick market turnaround. I'm guessing it'll be a long time before the developers would be better off than taking $100k under asking today.

Well the original asking price was $960K, today's asking price (after 2 reductions) is $849K, and my offer (which has remained the same & I've submitted several times) is $700K in cash.

lol, of course it's cash, you thought they take amex?!!
the need of brokers (Rachel in this case) should not be needed, welcome to free market. only buyers and sellers are welcomed