what's the deal with 221 west 82nd?

Well, the maintenance is high, square footage is probably closer to 1150, and sounds like their broker is an idiot (listed at $1.7MM, and almost a dozen price cuts over the course of a full year). I think they are probably close to a price where it will move.

I saw this months ago. The kitchen needs to be gutted and I think there was for practical practical purposes one bathroom. The "bathroom" off the kitchen might have just been the toilet. The space was nice, but the apartment needs a lot of work and the maintenance is high.

yes, but the apartment is absolutely unique: from its windows you can enjoy the "peaks of Central Park!"

I'm going to guess very mislead by their broker, or someone. Apartment is at a nice price now. Hope they sell it soon so someone can fix it up and enjoy it!

I wouldn't blame the brokers completely for this one. Testa knew ten months ago that it was a dog.

Anybody know the deductibility percentage on that high maintenance? A toilet with no sink is ridiculous. The kitchen is a gut job? +50k for that, I suppose.

I loved it and my husband did not. I thought it was a charming and unique apartment, especially the bathtub along the window. The kitchen does need a lot of work but its a great shape/size. The real dealbreaker for us was the high maintenance. That kills you when you own it and kills you when you sell it.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Is this not a join? That would explain the killer maintenance. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I studied the floor plan some more and I say it is a join, which would explain a lot about why it is having trouble moving in the market, even after numerous price cuts. Seeing units like this one scares me away from ever putting together a join.

It is most definitely not a join - this kind of floorplan is very common for a Classic 5. I looked at this building a while back. To whit, the maintenance is high because the original sponsor loaded it down with debt & the building had some financial trouble right after conversion, but pulled through. The price is a high maintenance due to the big mortgage.

People complain mightily about maintenance here, which is another thread altogether. The truth is, even if the building weren't saddled with a big mortgage, it is very hard these days to find a doorman building under 1/sqft. In fact, I'd say $1.50/sqft would be on the low side. Heating bills & electricity bills (for common areas) are huge. Just to give you an idea, if you go to brownstoner.com, fuel costs for a brownstone can be in excess of $600/month, insurance another 2000-3000/yr. Extrapolate for a building and you get the idea. And taxes can be very high as well, if they're anywhere close to taxing based on the market value (very long explanation here), taxes on a 6m Manhattan 10-apt brownstone run about 60k/year

I just looked up the building mortgage on ACRIS, looks like they have approx 5.5m in mortgage, which isn't bad. Say around 7% interest rate (commercial mtge rates are higher), that's approx. 350,000 in interest payments/year. The building taxes are currently 194k/quarter - so that's 800,000/year. I think there are 7 apts/floor and maybe 16 residential floors - 112 units. Right off the bat, you owe $10,000+/yr (divide by apartment) in maintenance based on just taxes + building mortgage payment. That leaves you $1200 left to pay heating + staff + maintenance, etc. That's not a badly run building.

I hate it when people jump on how high maintenance without realizing that taxes + heat take such a big chunk out of the monthly payment.

nyc10023,
Thanks for the explanation. I see now that you are correct. 14CD was joined at one point to make a whopper of an apartment but they obviously thought better of doing that and split them again.

I am aware of the problems associated with high maintenance as I live in a building that has relatively high maintenance. We have managed to keep our maintenance steady for the last three years while the rest of the city has crept up.

I think people need to look at the whole picture. How much of the maintenance is tax deductible? Has the maintenance been steady for a number of years? All buildings in the city face cost pressures.

Based on the picture I just painted you - i.e. at least 10k (and this is on a relatively high floor and there are smaller 1-bedrooms, so its share of taxes & mtge will be higher), I'd say at least 50% is tax-deductible.

What you revolt against are landlords of rent-stabilized buildings (and by inference, rent-stabilized tenants) NOT paying their fair share of taxes. You know that vacancy decontrol is about to be abolished, right? The implication is that the tax base will shrink because the taxes on those buildings will not increase...

That, and you should also revolt against property owners in outer boroughs who pay nowhere near the proportion of property taxes that Manhattan property owners do (and yes, I'm talking market value assessments here).

nyc10023,
I've with you, but, you know, rent-stabilized tenants do not want to pay their fair share of the costs. They want to be subsidized. A shrinking tax base is not a good thing. So many buildings in Manhattan are a crap shoot when it comes to buying, mainly because of the number of rent-stabilized tenants who will not be sharing in the future pain.

Yes, full-service buildings have a lot of costs, including labor, taxes, heating, mortgage payments, etc. Nobody is immune.