5th Avenue Address in Harlem - Open House Sunday 4/5 from 2:30 - 4:00 PM

I'm so excited about this apartment! I meant "ask" me anything!

This thread feels like deja vu all over again. You're the owner and you're posting on here? Word to the wise, run and hide. It seems like you have a broker, throw the broker to the wolves. ;-)

We're not supposed to post for sale ads on the forums.

it may be quite lovely in person, but it doesn't photo well. declutter 90% more of it and take new pictures - it looks like a doll house.

Did you look at the florrplan? It IS a dollhouse.

Why buy COOP in Harlem when you can get a much bigger condo with no taxes for like 50 cents these days.

And that particular corner is not the nicest corner in Harlem, or even the 57th nicest. For 675k you would be MUCH better off at the fuller service Kalahari. AMong other harlem condos.

Not clear about the maintenance, it says $730 and $1457

ITs the higher number for sure. That place has REDONK maintenance.

The current maintenance is $1457/month. HOWEVER, I am willing to pay half of the first year's maintenance, thus bringing the monthly maintenance for the first year to $730.00.

so you are knocking $8,400 off the purchase price of $675 K? that's 1.2%? and then the lucky buyer gets to pay $1,500 a month for the priveledge of living at 125th with a part time doorman and ? you must be kidding. this place might be 600 sq feet on a good day...so you 're looking for $1,000 per sq ft? on 125th? wow...this is a sick deal. and you're the patient.

come on ...

09/05/2006
Previous Sale recorded for $677,136.
02/27/2009
Listed in StreetEasy by Bellmarc at $739,000.
03/24/2009
Price decreased by 9% to $674,000.

you bought this disaster for $677 K and now you are offering a deal at $674 K .... come on.... drop if to $489 and see if you can get someone to bail you out.

Wow, only a part time doorman for almost $1500 maintenance. A 1400 sf 3 BR at the Kalahari pays only $800 maintenance.

but that's not a sick deal.

wake up to sky and trees...Where else but Harlem?

this is a joke, right? only have sky and trees in Harlem?

we have plenty of both and we're not in harlem.

I heard there were issues with drumming in the park?

nah...that's just feedback from the trees.

or....that's why the price is so reasonable.

or....hey, who cares---it's a sick deal.

"I'm so excited about this apartment! I meant "ask" me anything!"

ok---how come you priced this place at higher than you paid in 2006? have you not read anything about the market?

let's start with this from ny mag on 3/29/09

Harlem’s annus mirabilis was 2006. A Convent Avenue house smashed records that year, selling for $3.89 million; prices had appreciated by an impressive 30 percent in twelve months. New condos at 111 Central Park North were selling for $1,400 per square foot, the going price for similar units in Chelsea and Gramercy, and the penthouses there were rumored to be selling for $8.5 million, maybe even more. The long-term recovery of Harlem—was it a mirage on the horizon all these years?—seemed finally to have arrived. “[It’s] on the fast track,” predicted one Curbed.com poster in 2007. “In about 3 years … Harlem will be very, very expensive.”

Except that New York, once again, did not cooperate. According to data compiled by Streeteasy.com, the number of transactions in East Harlem, Central Harlem, and Hamilton Heights is down 60 to 90 percent. Last year, the first quarter’s total was 136 new contracts; this year, it’s 32 contracts (as of March 18). In West Harlem this past quarter, not a single deal was struck. Other formerly edgy areas where prices rose sharply have fared somewhat better: Fort Greene and Manhattan Valley both saw 50 percent drops, and Clinton Hill and Hell’s Kitchen fell 60 percent. (The financial district is up 4.4 percent.) One Harlem agent took all her listings off the market because, she says, “nobody’s buying.”

Why is Harlem hit so badly? Theories abound, none of them telling the whole story. Yes, buyers are skittish, and mortgage approvals don’t come easy, but both rationales fail to fully explain the thudding drop. Prudential Douglas Elliman senior vice-president and Harlemite Todd Stevens thinks the postponement of projects that would have cemented Harlem’s real-estate values—such as the redevelopment of 125th Street—has hurt momentum. Another broker blames “small-time developers” who rushed to build high-priced condos, simultaneously driving away buyers and glutting the high end of the market. Many new apartments are two-bedrooms or larger, notes Jenny Schuetz of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning, and right now studios and one-bedrooms are trading best. Retail establishments with high-rent leases are also faltering, and a lack of services has, for many years, been one of the things that keep affluent buyers wary of Harlem. “[You’d] see a store open and you’d cross your fingers it stays open,” says K.S., a screenwriter who moved to Harlem during the past few years. For what it’s worth, she says she’s staying put.

Oh my, do you realize what deep DOG-POO you stepped in with this post?

This is not your family and friends, slapping you on the back and saying, go get um.

This is a critical-minded, market-prescient group that will let you know what your apartment is worth today (if you're lucky), and in a few months, and in a few years. And that knowledge will irritate you. But, the thing is, odds are these take-no-prisoners truth-tellers are right. The truth is ugly. This is not a place to find a greater fool. In fact, the talk threads on this site are defacto dedicated to stopping the greater-fool illness from re-surging to re-flate the absurd prices that have afflicted New York City, including Harlem, in recent years. Greater-fool-ery is being treated, but fighting like hell to stay alive. It's almost like MRSA. I wear gloves when I surf real estate sites.

Now, you might think that , as a broker, you know the market better than the posters on here. But, realistically, how many brokers ever counseled against a buy, right now. So, brokers have to abstain in the post-bubble discussion.

My first question is this: what is the market rent for this place,roughly , and is it worth paying 675k to avoid paying rent-maintenance?

I mean -- is the 675 capital outlay a sensible thing to invest to avoid paying the difference in cost between renting and paying monthly charges.

Thanks......

ColumbiaCounty...how do you calculate the sf?..It looked to me like 900 or a bit more doing a rough thing but I have zero knowledge of how to calculate this.

this should rent for not much over $1500

sq ft for rooms showing dimensions add up to approx 555 sq ft--perhaps I was a little too conservative, call it 700 sq ft. re: rent/maintenance---even assuming that it would rent for $2,200--with a $1,500 maintenance, that maybe supports a price of $250 K. eesh.

meanwhile, where is mr. ask me anything?

or should it be, mr. ask me anything except anything about my price?

hey---how bout that terrace? pretty nice to hang out on while you're waiting for the in unit washer dryer to d o its thing? (this kinda more like the questions you were shooting for?)

Maybe the drums finally got to Barry, and can't face the prospect of another summer. Must be like living on the subway platform when the steel drums are going. He was mentioned in the NYT article about the issue.

What's all this about steel drums?

Realistically...what would this place rent for?

hey---mr. ask me anything. would like your take on quote below.

"Complaints about the drum circle began long before the co-op was built two years ago. In the past, however, if neighbors objected, the drummers simply found a new place in the park without engendering ill will, longtime residents said.

But since receiving noise complaints from the co-op last summer, the city’s parks department has relocated the drummers within the park twice.

The current location, not far from the co-op, is marked with a parks department sign that reads “Drummers Circle,” which is propped up by a pile of paving stones.

During a brief telephone conversation last month, Barry W. Segen, president of the co-op’s board, said that neither he nor any other residents would discuss the drummers.

A few minutes later, Mr. Segen sent residents an e-mail message titled “Urgent!!!” The message, which a resident later forwarded to The New York Times, read in part: “Please do not speak with the press on this issue. As we have determined in the past there is no benefit to the building or the community in speaking with the press.”

But some residents did speak, on the condition of anonymity. Most residents, they said, wanted to reach a compromise."

It seems rather dubious but the mortgage calculator is set up to show 1/2 the maint.charge. Assuming rental of say 2600$, and maint. of 1500$, then you would be paying 675,000 to avoid paying 1000$ or so per month. In these cases where the maint. = 60% or more of rent then YIKES....

well--let's ask.

hey---mr. ask me anything.

what's wrong with jim's analysis? or does he have it right? in which case, what kind of patsy are you looking for with this price?

certainly, one who enjoys a little weekend drumming?

p.s. i think you should look up agent rachel. she has a close associate who is a power broker -- if anyone can make this work, they can. they have a sure fire approach which they call "highest and best" for short. give them a call.

> It is the talk of the neighborhood, and even beyond. The conflict received news media attention, but since then it has taken a darker turn: A racist e-mail message was circulated among residents advocating violence against the musicians, and the New Black Panther Party, which espouses anti-white ideals, has marched in support of the drummers.

Oh, yeah, I would just love to parachute into this as a new resident.

Another question: people often throw around price/rent ratio, so what is it in this case, and does it seem like a post-bubble ratio?

Look at price/gross rental.....and also since price/rent is is in essence looking at price/income, look at the price/netincome (ie net of monthly charges).

My gut tells me that paying 675k for something that rents for less than 3000 per month is still bubble-fluff territory?

that is a minor detail that someone of agent rachel's caliber and determination would not be deterred by. where are you agent rachel...mr. ask me anything is in desperate need of your incredible sales and marketing prowess.

This is rich. So, you buy an apartment, an ostensibly straightforward human undertaking, but in this case you need to "reach a compromise" with people in your neighborhood.

Another question: what local neighborhood risk premium (in addition to whatever components of the risk premium over the risk free rate one would deem appropriate for a nyc real estate investment) should be added to reflect this location, and do you think it was appropriately calculated in past sales?

Stick to the facts guys, not personalities. No agent is needed.

I read the drums article. What a nightmare. The developer was remiss in not resolving this somehow...taking legal action, building a nice drum place further away,,something...just building this place and THEN trying to resolve the issue was asking for trouble. This should have been reflected in initial building prices. Some people don't mind noise like this. I hate it.

Coop president, why is the maint so high and why was it developed as a coop rather than a condo? new construction, where's the tax abatement.

I'm sorry for your loss Mr. Coop President -- I know it was hard to resist the temptation of NYC real estate when everyone was saying that prices wouldn't go down and you can't lose money in manhattan real estate.

ironic in a way, as harlem was built up back in the 1890s as a RE gambit that failed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striver%27s_Row

Hmm, I think this may be land leased building -- can any acris sleuths find that out. If you have a land lease situation, does that necessitate a coop? How many coops have actually been built in nyc in the last 20 years?