Good and bad staging

Haha! I'll bet they also have those foam steps so pets can get up onto the bed...

One of the worst I've seen (still on the market after more than a year of price chops) was not only filthy, with an unflushed toidy and half-eaten bowl of cereal balanced on the bathroom sink, but was in disastrous condition. Leaks at most of the windows, floors gouged beyond all repair, crumbling plaster, peeling paint, kitchen that looked downright dangerous. Weird photos of family members strewn on every surface, dirty sheets on unmade beds. A house-plant whose tentacles had taken over at least a third of the living-room floor. Gigantic TV placed directly in front of the living-room's windows, blocking the apartment's only saving grace, its beautiful view.

A close second was the apartment where the tenant greeted us in boxers and a stained wife-beater. Entire place reeked of pets and garbage, mixed with some super-noxious cooking shtank. A week's worth of paperwork and mail was strewn on the floor in an arc around the toilet. There was clutter in every corner, and closet doors bulged from barely-contained detritus. Kitchen was filthy, with crusty pots and pans teetering on the counters.

In both these examples the apartments had tenants who clearly didn't want to leave--the first one is apparently owned by a man whose middle-aged daughters now live there and are fighting his attempts to sell (they oughta be ashamed). The second scenario was some sort of sub-lease situation gone WAY bad...

Bring your bulldozer! http://www.prudentialelliman.com/1066192

NWT: WTF, $10k maintenance? typo? Who would buy that? $120K/year in maint is nutso.

The $10K/month is for a place at the Carlyle- a full service hotel, not yer run of the mill co-op/condo. Basically an apartment with room service and transients. What an effin' bargain!

I know I have seen the worst apartment on the entire Upper West Side but I am still in therapy to get over what I saw. I can't talk about it.

By the way, those are the nicest pet fences I have ever seen. Are they made out of mahogany or walnut?

I wholeheartedly nominate Rachel Realty for absolute worst photos ever. They remind me of the "before" shots on home makeover shows. I just can't understand the motivation to advertise such horrendous images. Perhaps the clutter camouflauges the real flaws in the space...

Behold - http://rachelrealtynyc.com/index.cfm?page=details&id=1145

Good one! Nice use of glare, and "Hey, let's put the stool in the *middle* of the kitchen. So boring and expected under the counter." Best is labeling the photos in the center rather than the edge, as if somebody's going to steal them.

and I barely notice the typos w/ photos like that....

Eww, uwsmom. I agree. And when are people gonna realize that NO ONE wants to see pets (or evidence thereof) when looking at an apartment to buy or rent? Reminds me of when we were looking to rent a weekend house--cannot tell you how many perfectly nice-looking places we nixed place because the listing showed dogs sacked out on sofas and cats curled up on beds or traipsing across kitchen counters. Blech.

Yeah, um, thanks but no thanks.

>>I know I have seen the worst apartment on the entire Upper West Side but I am still in therapy to get over what I saw. I can't talk about it.<<

407--I wonder if we're talking about the same place... Does it, by chance, happen to be on RSD in the mid 80's?

now you've got me looking. terrible...
http://rachelrealtynyc.com/index.cfm?page=details&id=1147

i'm sorry. jut one more b/c i love the framing!
http://rachelrealtynyc.com/index.cfm?page=details&id=1966

uwsmom, you get the cake for finding those.

Squid,
The one we looked at was on RSD but up in the 90s, if I recall correctly. I just felt sorry for everyone involved, the owner, the agent, everybody. I don't know who was going to buy the place.

The problems had nothing to do with staging. We're talking about forty years of damage and bad repairs, floors completely destroyed, kitchen and bathrooms were absolutely wrecked. One of the bathrooms looked like a cave with stalactites or stalagmites, whatever hangs down from the ceiling. The plaster was in terrible shape.

The dirt and tar from the cigarettes was coated thickly on everything. I have painted with KILZ before but that was a nasty job.

I guess you could call it a gut job. I didn't have the stomach for it. It was a nice building though...

1185 Park #14G is/was the family apt. of the designer Vladimir Kagan. His designs make at least 100 appearances in the photos and OpenHouse NY video:

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&listingid=1429965

http://lxtv.com/openhousenyc/video/9639

I like many of his designs, but this is just 40 years of stuff on acid.

407PAS, was it that K-line one at 140 RSD?

Plain old wrecks don't bother me, for some reason. Probably because mine will be one. It's the sad little gesture, like that framed photo uwsmom found, that's heartbreaking.

Ding, ding, ding!!! NWT gets a prize.

Did anyone happen to notice that the listing that clearly has a cat curled up on the unmade bed says "pet policy unknown"? I wonder if that was a really bad but deliberate attempt to make a subtle point. Fact is cats like curling up on made beds even more...

kas, the Kagan apt is certainly *them*. Think how the broker must've begged them to empty it out or at least edit before going on the market. That surface wiring on the foyer wall, first thing you see, does add a homey touch. Just like the tenement walk-up that's the potential buyer's alternative.

on the flipside, this is really nice staging, http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/345587-coop-245-west-104th-street-manhattan-valley-new-york?email=true

Found it!

https://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/314960-coop-285-riverside-drive-manhattan-valley-new-york

and it sold, wow, ok, if you were interested in doing a complete renovation, this was the place.

Yeah, it is. And this A-line at 490 WEA: http://www.halstead.com/detail.aspx?id=1683496. Like how the light hits the surfaces, and the dining room looks wider than its 10' width. The photographer found the perfect angle on that one.

To the agent's credit, he managed to get one photograph that made the place look ok.

I know Kagan's work, I would love to visit just to see all of the prototypes. $6mil is way out of my price range though. Thanks for that link.

That is nice, professional photography in the shots of that $3mil apartment at 490 WEA. I guess they could only afford to pay for two shots. ;-) They're using High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques to combine multiple exposures so you can see what is outside the window, the river view, etc, as well as what is in the bedroom. I tried to do the same thing with the shot of my bedroom.

http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=1504130

Terrible staging, exaggerated square footage. Raise your hand if you think it will go for $3.2M.

Yeah, I think I remember the one, 407. I really do like 285 as a building, though--I've yet to see a more pristine basement ANYWHERE. That super runs a tight ship.

407PAS, 285RSD 2F closed for nearly 20% off ask (i.e., 650K final price) so the buyer no doubt felt he had room in the budget for a total overhaul.

ddanyc,
That 20% off the $799k ask is a huge chop and indicates the condition of the apartment. It will take that $150k, if not more, to renovate the apartment. I hope nobody thinks that sale is in any way a comp for a renovated unit in the same line.

Squid,
Yes, we liked that building a lot. It is a Candela building. Oh well...

This came up elsewhere, but belongs here: http://www.brownharrisstevens.com/detail.aspx?id=768116

Want to vent, but have stayed up way too late reading Ali's book. Great read, BTW.

One more, while I'm thinking of it: http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/320576-coop-480-park-avenue-midtown-new-york

What do you think of these?

http://www.brownharrisstevens.com/detail.aspx?id=1005935

I like it. Dunno about that stray little chair in the corner, though. It does show the scale of the space.

I can't provide a pic or link, but get this...
Maybe 4 years ago, I looked at a small 1 BR in SOHO (not typically where I was looking, but it was kinda cheap). So, the realtor tells me it needs a lot of work... no big deal, I figure. When I got there, it looked like it was abandoned for maybe a year. BUT, all the personal effects of the previous tenant were still there (like, toiletries!). Apparently, he went missing, or died, and no one knew his whereabouts. But, the place was an absolute disaster. To make matters worse, it was one of those goofy places with the tub in the kitchen. And, there was mold and mildew abound, and dust, and whatever else comes with that stuff.
I can't believe they showed the place in that condition... it was hilarious (wish I had a camera when I saw it).

i kind of like to see evidence of pets. it makes me like the people more and i love when cats are just hanging out at an open house. maybe i am odd but i MUCH prefer it to evidence of children.

i should add this so i don't get flamed by parents but children to me just equal extra wear and tear on the apartment. much more so than a pet.

http://www.domain-properties.com/property_detail.cfm?listing_type=S&id_listing=256463

eeewww- that would be an example of bad.. right?

Don't know why I should care, but ticks me off when the seller doesn't even clear off the kitchen counter. Maybe it's intentional; some perverse reverse-psychology motive to making the place look like a squalid shit-box.

it's the whole "lived in" concept... but i think i saw tupperware!!!!!!

Revived after two years in honor of this place -- http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/589768-condo-120-riverside-blvd-lincoln-square-new-york -- featured on the first two episodes of "Million Dollar Listing: New York".

For the photo shoot, they left behind a slot machine, piles of magazines all over the floors, and some too-ugly-even-for-them furniture.

I saw a 2-br on the UES many yrs ago that was appalling. Even the agent didn't want to walk into the apt. It smelled of cat urine when you opened the door. The walls were dingy with years of encrusted smoke. There were dishes of half eaten food, piles of garbage, coffee cans overflowing with cigarette butts everywhere, and flies buzzing around. It looked like the perfect setting to discover a dead body. Instead, when we walked into the second BR, an unshaven, smelly man in a robe and underwear jumped out.

I personally get offended when I take time out of my day to attend an open house for a place I might potentially purchase and the owners don't even take the time to neaten the place in the slightest. I went to see 330WEA #2A last year and it was a total filthy mess. I know there were renters living there, but come on. Every closet was stuffed to the max and overflowing. There was a pet gate in the small kitchen they didn't bother to take down so you had to climb over it to see anything. On every inch of wall and surface space were thousands of personal photos, but not even in frames, just tacked up randomly. And even though it was a small 2 bedroom apartment, they somehow managed to stuff a pack & play into EVERY room and they were left assembled for the open house. I mean the whole point of a pack & play is that it's portable and since space is at such a premium in this city it was amazing to see that a family would actually live like that fulltime.

But the worst one I ever saw was a large 3 bedroom listing on RSD & 96th with full views of the park from every window, but had just come off of a rent control situation since the tenants apparently died. It had everything in original and uncleaned condition. I guess there used to be wallpaper because the walls were literally shredding with layers of dirt, hair and fibers of paper. The kitchen was a joke, the fridge didn't even work anymore and there was no dishwasher and it was just filthy. All of the tile in the bathrooms were coming loose and broken and the mirrors had long been shattered but not replaced. There were large gaping holes in the walls of every room that had never been patched up. The carpeting was actually scary to walk on since it was covered in stains and not even really connected to the floor anymore. The electrical needed complete rewiring and replacing. It was listed as a full gut reno, but the broker actually had the nerve to give $100K as an estimate for the reno, which IMO might just pay for new floors.

Not necessarily disgusting, but an interesting find nonetheless, was the rack of 1970s and 1980s Bordeaux first growths sitting in wine rack under a window in an estate apartment in Lincoln Towers a few months ago. If they hadn't been sitting out in the open for presumably the last 30 years, they probably would have been worth a significant percentage of the list price on the apartment. The 1960s magnavox tv was also a nice touch.

Just saw an example of "Good". Here's the listing:
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/669592-coop-250-west-94th-street-upper-west-side-new-york

I had seen the apartment before it was staged, so I have a pretty good idea of what they did. It's all small, subtle stuff that makes the most of the apartment's strengths: a thorough decluttering and cleaning, touchup to walls and floors, plus some window treatments and selective refurnishing in several rooms. The collective effect is to make the space feel bigger and brighter, but also more private and comfortable. Lastly, Corcoran kept just enough of the late owners' theatrical memorabilia to let buyers know whose home this was.

The apartment has some issues. It sits on the corner, just two floors above Broadway, and needs a fair amount of work. But if you're showing a low-floor, pre-war Broadway coop in estate condition, I think this is the way to do it.

W81: I'm more taken by the fact that it's a C7 at 250W94. Never seen this line on the market.

ebabrah: a 1960's Magnavox t.v.?! Was it still in working condition?

W81st: if I may ask, how does the co-op allow these rent control units to get so bad? Those conditions seem to be at least a health issue to other residents. Didn't the odor annoy the other residents?

In my book I tell a couple of staging stories, one involving the eternal "where do I put the tenants' bong before the clients come over?" question.

That said, the most cluttered apartments I've seen are on the UES. Are the standards lower there?

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

nyc10023: First time in the "A" line for me too. Good layout - feels like an eight-into-seven (less one window) because the kitchen is pretty big and the pantry effectively makes it even bigger. The problem - especially on low floors - is that two bedrooms face Broadway; and one of them is the master. With a tiny bit of wet-over-dry, you could convert the DR and maid's quarters into a great master suite and flip the DR to the front, next to the LR; but the Board might shoot down that alteration proposal.

Truth: The way I understand it, a rent-regulated tenant's legal relationship is with his/her landlord - either the Sponsor or some successor entity with sponsor rights - not the coop. Since the tenant isn't a party to the coop's rules, enforcement would have to go through the shareholder. Enforcing house rules or terms of a proprietary lease on an absentee sponsor (who may still hold seats on the Board) can be problematic, for a variety of reasons.

W81: I think that w94 apt is staged very well. It looks very homey and clean. And it is priced well. I think it has much more potential than your last open house analysis apt (which I still think is overpriced). In the 94th St apt, I would definitely move the Dining Room next to the LR and enlarge the bathroom and closet for the master. I think the current dining room would make a fantastic family room/ media room and then you wouldn't need to put in the bath. That is, if you don't need the extra bedroom --which I don't.

>That is, if you don't need the extra bedroom --which I don't.

What a surprise. No family

Oops. Now that I look at it W81, you would need another bathroom if you moved dining room up front. Btw, wouldn't double pane windows deal with some of the issues of low floor on Broadway.

apt23: My thought was to widen the maid's bath into the maid's room, to give the new MBR (the original DR) a full bathroom and dressing area. I don't know whether it would be permitted. The maid's room might technically be "wet" in the original floor plan because the sink was probably in there; but even if that's the case, the Board might not want you to make it wetter.

W81st: Amazing that the sponsor can get away with allowing his unit(s) to become such a mess.

The odor from that apt and the fire/pest/rodent hazard it presents is still not enough to force the sponsor to go in there and clean it up. I'm not suggesting that they try to get the tenants to leave, just go in and clean it up. Work around the tenants if they don't want to go out while it's being done.

Clean/unclutter that apt the way my grandma used to wipe the crumbs off of the table while people were still having their coffee and cake. Raise your cup to drink, she's there with the sponge wiping.

What I can't stand is million $ plus listings where the shoes are hanging next to the couch and the bedroom nightstand is overstuffed with papers and files hanging on the shelves and the floors... the room can be neatened and tidied up but who is SHOOTING these pictures and what owner lets that lazy stuff get by them? I'd post the crappy pics but I don't want to bring them traffic. Another thing I hate is Corcoran- their photos are tiny. In this day and age when the internet sells the apartment why are they in the dark ages and what is the point posting a floor plan that you need a magnifying glass to read?

On the other hand I usually take my own pictures because unless the agency uses a camera with wide angle lenses its usually just a broker with no clue on how to handle a camera taking the pictures.
I'm about to rent this when its available in a few months and would like opinions... Be gentle: https://sites.google.com/site/atelier28nyc/

Slop: Well, first the pix need to be organized and spaced. Second, "steps from Times Square" is an inflated claim -- it is more like a hike. Also you might have difficulty due to the many apts for rent in the Atelier. Plus I just heard a broker say that there are more "A" line apts coming on the market which will be serious competition.

Price accordingly or be priced out for a long time -- some on this board would say forever. What do you think will happen to your rental investment when all the planned buildings in the area break ground. Are you going to sell to avoid a loss due to a tsunami of new inventory?

some good points- pricing is not at the highest point (Its fully furnished and mid 5k) and unfortunately its a crappy google site and there's no such thing as placement. I will try to go more high end with the look, maybe with a blogsite instead... thanks!

The A line isn't much better for now when you're high up, just different- there's still northwest and east exposures, especially since its light and bright all day. The 'steps from' line is kind of broker babbly so I'll work on it. And frankly I love the building- I'm not likely to sell any time soon but I don't know how one can be 'worried' about other buildings when there are two 60 story rental buildings right across the street, MIMA and I get my price. I think of the dozen or so Trump buildings, rushmore etc all lumped together along the 70's- most of them are rentals. Its NY, the more they build the more that show up.

Well, I disagree. You might want to invest $10 a month to get prices on SE. Look at how much inventory is on Riverside, the price drop at buildings like 120 Riverside and especially how long apts are on the market -- over a year is not unusual. Plus, do an analysis of how prices in other buildings on Riverside Blvd and Drive dropped once Rushmore opened. Rushmore ask price is down over 10% and every year they continue -- and every year Extell is over extended in other areas of the city-- how much further declines will be. What about when they build even more planned buildings on Riverside. If you were an owner, exactly when would you bail to try to protect your investment plus yearly nut.

The tsunami of inventory next to Atelier will not be different. You will be left holding the old, dated inventory. And if you wait to sell before everyone realizes that the the new subway is eternally delayed, you will lose.

And where are all these buyers coming from? More Europeans with less cash due to a deflated euro currency? Hoping to get Asian buyers before a hard landing? Finacial guys with a bonus cash cap of $125K? good luck

sloperaly,

IMHO the Atelier renter likes the clean modernism of the building. Stick in a bathroom shot.

No towels or white towels, no candles, maybe one grooming product but no toothbrushes razors etc. Flowers if you want.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

I do have SE membership and I don't really concern myself with Riverside because its a whole different neighborhood, clientele. I can see purchase and rental prices- this is furnished. The thing that the neighborhood has that it didn't years ago is high end tenancy in Times Square: NY Times, Pryor Cashman, even 5th avenue law firms moved there- patience, not fear is what makes profitability.

I do appreciate the advice too and I don't mean to hijack the thread with this discussion, I was here to talk about staging, but prices historically don't go down - real estate pays off for people who are patient and wait. Its the flipping that gets the attention. There will always be speculation in New York- you have to time the investment and know what you want to gain, 5-10% on your money these days is fantastic. People told me 25 years ago that Park Slope was 'over priced' and comparatively it may have been, but LOL, prices climbed 20 times the original-not 20%- it took only about 10 years to go 10x and 2 years to go up 2.5 times so now its ok to be content if you are making 5-10% when everyone else is making 1%. Williamsburg- Bushwick, who'd a thought? Unless you were in it you didn't win it so to complain about over building is not the point- know your goals is more important.

That said, the guy who engineered the west side #7 train tunnel was my tenant- they were done with their part of the job ahead of schedule and bored the tunnel for 10th avenue- even platforms; a true rarity. The rest is politics, we'll see!

Here's the blog- it has a cleaner look I think and I'm glad you told me to fix it:

http://atelier28nyc.blogspot.com/?view=classic

Yes. That is what makes a market. Your site looks much better. I think the bathroom shot ali suggested did help. Also, it may not be necessary but as I recall those kitchens were rather nice. I always like to look at the working space in a kitchen. But it looks great as it is. I think you will do well with it. good luck

Kindness of strangers - thanks again to both of you for the feedback- it made a difference

PS- you can make the kitchen shot larger on that blog.. click on the photos and they show the higer res photo...I love that part. Like I mentinoed earlier, while some like Elliman take really great shots and put up large pics, still more agencies meke tens of thousands of $ off our apartments and some make very little effort to show the rooms in the best light. I just don't get it and neither do I.

I can't stand agencies that publish tiny photos where you can't see the best features of the apartments or the floorplans- what's the point? Do they just want you to call? These days, people don't have time to go see a dozen apartments in person so anything you can do to help them view it in detail really helps. (unless they have something to hide)