I just got an accepted offer...

congrats!!!!

Those are huge black arrows.

Congratulations!

Well done!

accepted: you said you have settled 23% below their final asking price. can you calculate what % below their INITIAL asking price they have accepted your offer? Thanks very much. Not asking for incidental reasons, we are considering bidding on a similar apartment, and this information would be helpful to us,

Congratulations, AO. Best of luck with the rest of the transaction. Thanks for posting.

By the way, AO - you've already posted enough information for a determined investigator to identify the apartment. If you don't want the deal splashed on Streeteasy, I suggest that you not provide any more details until after you close.

Can you give us a general area? UWS? UES? Asking because we have been bidding on Classic 8's on the UES (Park Ave) and haven't gotten any traction.

Congrats!

Can you reveal the current emotions of the seller? Did you feel they finally accepted reality, job loss, finally pushed by their broker etc etc?

Am I the only person skeptical of this post?

I think this thread is BS.

come on 81, we do need a bit more juice..Accepoffr how about manhattan or brooklyn...$0-1mm, 1mm-3mm 0r over 3mm....this much more detes won't hurt..but it might help some others

strange.

The only thing that makes me suspicious is not that someone could get a deal. It's the classic 8 reference. There simply aren't that many around. I looked for ages and ended with a townhouse because there was so few. If he got it in washington heights, maybe. But as someone who owns a lot of property in that area I am a little suspicious. Most people who own the classic 6, 7, and 8s are hard core - as they have probably lived through the time when that area was a total shit hols and paid very little for it. one could argue it's all gravy so why not sell...but more than likely they're able to hold to their price and hang out. But, I am just speculating...

But if he/she did get a deal..mazel tov.

eah: I think it's legit, and I think the OP should STFU.

good on him/her then. i like to think the enthusiasm is real...we certainly need more of it on this board.

Why does this seem so hard to believe for some people? I'm aware of many lowball offers being accepted. Do the idiots on this board think it's impossible in Manhattan? Where have you been the last few months?

If it's the UES, I am surprised. We have lowballed quite a few Park Ave apts and got nowhere close to 50% off peak. Maybe it's a fringe area?

Looking forward to hearing the REST of the story

The story is likely garbage. Anytime someone starts a thread but does nto stick around to respond to posters is usually playing games.

yes, i tend to trust most the people who keep posting over and over all day and every day that there is no decline...

;-)

Seriously though, no matter whether you are a bull or bear, it is hard to believe that the poster got a 50% discount. Let's not kid ourselves.

I only trust people that post negative articles from today's newspaper.

yes, i tend to trust most the people who keep posting over and over all day and every day that there is no decline...

;-)

Congrats!

50% 0ff, I'm getting a 3/4 mutz

"Seriously though, no matter whether you are a bull or bear, it is hard to believe that the poster got a 50% discount. Let's not kid ourselves. "

In a market where the median contract is down 20%, you don't think that includes a handful at 40-50% down? Hell, you've tried to point out some things that were more level, so to balance out the 0% downs, you'd need some at least 40% down...

Troll.

I just wanted to provide you guys with a little market intel I didn't think I was going to be pilloried for it. I said I wasn't giving any more info and I am not giving any more info. The only reason I posted at all was because I got the balls to lowball in part from following the thread on market movement on here. Just wanted to let people know that you should definitely go for it if you are interested in an apartment and want to make a real aggressive play. I'm not an expert in real estate so I don't know if the whole market is down 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or anything like that I just know about my own situation.

The one thing I will respond to is Alpine. I didn't get a 50$ discount I got a slightly more than 20% discount. It's just that the price was already lowered a lot.

Thanks for posting accepted_offer. Apparently lots of owners and brokers are upset with your post. Your story is becoming more and more common. As I already mentioned, I am familiar with many buyers who have been successful in bidding way below asking. Congratulations! I'm glad the market has turned and is slowly favoring those who were shut out during the crazy inflated bubble.

Forgive me for asking again accepted - and I was definitely not a pillorier (not a word) but since you've said "the price was already lowered a lot" will you not give a sense of how far off their original asking price the seller came? I am asking as I am trying to suss out what offer to put in on what I believe to be a similar apartment. I understand I could use your 23% below last ask, but I'd also like to know top to bottom how much a seller came in in this marketplace.

Thanks either way

Is it a 9 into 8? Don't see too many 8es on the market.

Believe.

Sorry liquid no more information. I think you should bid based on comps and rents and a lot of factors not the asking price. All i am saying is that you should not be put off by the asking price. Bid what you want whatever the asking price is because you might get it anyway.

OK honestly like I said I am not a real estate expert so maybe there is a technical definition of a 'classic 8' that I didn't know about. I thought that a standard old 8 room apartment was a classic 8.

I think w81st was right. AO should share the details later. After you close, do come back and share the info. Congratulations.

81: I DO BELIEVE, I also believe I am going to get EB's apt for 3mm in the St. Urban.

good job accepted offer you are my new real estate hero :). j/k. people why do you find this so shocking? there are starting to be a few apartments ASKING almost 40% less than peak comps why shouldn't there be some closing at that level?

Get up
Get up
Now get down
The asking price is a joke in your town
-Pubic Enemy ("911 is a joke")

accepted - OK

Here's an old chestnut "The buyer makes the price, not the seller" - Thomas Hobbes

leviathan, chapter 10

Dude you should have tried the "Woo" method... you coulda got it cheaper :)

I believe we just hit 50% :)

is anyone else tempted to go out and bid aggressively? or do we think that even at that discount AO (and i am happy for you, don't worry) is catching a falling knife?

happy - good to see another early riser here - My answer to your question, as the thread I started about a specific apartment is yes . . . tempted sorely, but also not sleeping well thinking about it and wondering how agressive to be if we really decide to bid (offer in RE terms. Drives me nuts to have to remember that difference when at work).

liquid, is your concern about being aggressive a fear of losing the apartment? or is it a fear of getting the apartment but overpaying? i think the first fear is silly in this market: plenty more apartments will come along. and i also believe that in a buyer's market like this there is scant risk of offending sellers. they will be happy to get any bid, even if it is one they don't accept.

The latter. I agree that the supply is larger than the (my) demand as I only want to buy one, if that many (have been a renter all my life). And I'm also not worried about offending the seller (in this case estate sale). My concern is primarily with pricing my offer appropriately for the current marketplace, and also with taking into account the amount of money & time that the specific apartment (as described more full on other threads) would require.

congrats! 23% is amazing...i'm about to go into contract on a brooklyn condo and while we didn't do THAT well, the seller was much faster to negotiate/concede than any other deals we've tried to do in the last nine months, and we ended up at a much lower final cost than the property we were going to take a few months ago. patience is a virtue that is very hard for me to learn.

happyrenter - i agree re: aggressively low bids. i think sellers might be more inclined to preserve their sale price where they can, but throw you any number of other incentives - paying closing costs, cash back at closing, paying maintenance for a time, etc.

"is anyone else tempted to go out and bid aggressively? or do we think that even at that discount AO (and i am happy for you, don't worry) is catching a falling knife?"

This is what's shocking to me - why do you feel it's ok now to bid aggressively and not before? That should ALWAYS be how you bid if you want a good deal. The overreaction to one person reporting success on this is entertaining. I don't think you can declare the market is down x% based on this one anecdote (with no actual data to back it up, though I do believe him/her). Right now, this is not the norm. But that doesn't mean you can't go out, make a few bids on places you really like, and come out in a similar situation.

happyowner
about 18 hours ago
ignore this person
report abuse Troll.

Is this the new bull tactic? Any negative news is now "trolling"?

bjw,

if one should always do it, then clearly i can't be overreacting when i suggest doing it--i'm confused by your post. am i being insufficiently bearish, or insufficiently bullish?

bjw2103: Exactly. Each situation is unique, and the only way to know whether an apartment you like can be had "cheap" is to make an offer.

Accepted_offer's deal is an interesting data point - no more, no less. And for anyone who has been paying attention, a deal like this shouldn't come as a particular surprise.

happyrenter: In the context of this thread, you sort of seemed to be asking whether this particular deal was inspiring anyone to bid aggressively. We've conversed enough for me to understand that wasn't really what you meant.

It's touching to read Accepted_Offer's kudo that "...I got the balls to lowball in part from following the thread on market movement on here." I'm sure we're getting too much credit, but it's still a nice gesture on A_O's part.

I can totally believe this!!
I just got an accepted offer on a bridge in Brooklyn. I am not going to share the details as to which one, because I don't want to ruin the deal. But I got it for 50% off their asking price and 25% below peak. I am so excited I can just pee.

ruff: Go ahead and scoff. Unless there's a weird coincidence in play, I'm vouching for the story.

Accepted_Offer: Don't let me down. My street(easy) cred is in your hands.

happyrenter, what I meant was that you shouldn't need an anonymous anecdotal post to be "tempted to go out and bid aggressively." If you're serious about buying, you should already be doing that! Apologies for singling you out - I just tend to think all this facile doom and gloom posting can make people feel very lax about their buying approach, which I think will hurt them in the long run. I think you inherently knew this already, but that post just came off wrong from my perspective. West81st put it very well.

Well there you have it!!

Thanks for the voucher.

" agree re: aggressively low bids. i think sellers might be more inclined to preserve their sale price where they can, but throw you any number of other incentives - paying closing costs, cash back at closing, paying maintenance for a time, etc."

Cash back at closing can constitute mortgage fraud if it is more than a certain percentage of the sales price.

ruff: I don't expect you to care whether anyone here vouches for Accepted_Offer or not. The only reason I beleive the story is that I happen to know of a very similar deal that was just struck. The percentages don't quite match exactly, but the details are close enough (including the inflated, lower-floor comp) to constitute an odd coincidence. Anyway, regardless of A_O's authenticity, deals like this are happening. They aren't typical, or even common, but they are happening.

81: "They aren't typical, or even common, but they are happening."

It takes a REO to be the first to make the low print. They are happening and will become the new "norm" soon enough

bjw and west81st,

sorry for the mixup. clearly you are right that one isolated incident like this--particularly an anonymous one with no hard data to back it up--should have no impact whatsoever on one's decision to buy. the word i used was 'tempted,' but perhaps the better word would have been 'inspired.' i do have to admit that this story does inspire me to at least consider bidding on an apartment like this now, rather than waiting for the market as a whole to decline (which is what i expect). it reenforces the point that each apartment is in some sense its own special situation.

a better question would have been: is anyone else considering doing what AO did? or are people planning to wait around until the market as a whole goes lower?

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised by one transaction down 40-50% in a market where the median seems to be down 20%... median doesn't mean everything is down 20%, it means there are probably some 0% (or even up) and 40% thrown in...

Two transactions when you count my bridge in the mix, and once again it is nice to see you have stopped quoting Urban digs and SE as two seperate data bases.

happyrenter, no worries at all. I think your last question still underscores my point though: if you are serious about buying, you should already be bidding what you think apartments are worth. I've never understood why people wait for some sign that this is "ok." Some people like to perpetuate this myth that sellers will be "offended," as if that should make a difference to you. I was bidding this way in 2007, and I heard that line way too often, but these are the same brokers who are now contacting me with pretty negotiable listings right away. It has its advantages.

We already own, and I'm definitely interested in making offers (contingent on selling our place) in this market. Nothing lost, and my primary interest is in getting an even better location for the same price or lower. Brokers are open to contingent offers in this market. I would go even further in stipulating that if I get X (net) for my place, you get Y.

but nyc10023, what makes you think you will be able to get more space or a better location for what you can sell your place for? that is, what gives you confidence you could make the contingency work and that it won't be a waste of time?

Putting out a contingent offer takes no time at all. I can't out myself, but I'm fairly confident that I will at some point be able to trade for a property in a better location. Don't need more space. The key factor is that my place is mint condition, move-in and all the properties I'm looking at need work.

nyc - market where the median seems to be down 3%

Corrected it for you. :)

I have placed offers on several properties about at 30% below ask. Tod date the offers have not been accepted.

eah-Do you manage your multiple properties yourself?
Have a customer who owns some 40 properties. He claims that he pays the management company 20% of the gross income. Is this a reasonable expectation?

accepted_offer. I have a question I'm hoping you won't mind answering. How many "lowball" offers on other apartments did you put in before this one was accepted?

1818 - I have placed offers on several properties about at 30% below ask. Tod date the offers have not been accepted.

Nor should they be. Why throw away an important asset, when waiting a short while will let you keep much more money?

"I would go even further in stipulating that if I get X (net) for my place, you get Y."

So basically your offer is going to say that if I get my pipe dream price when pigs fly, I will overpay for your place by $X.