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August 18, 2008

When Lowering A Home's Price Doesn't Sell It

1701-Albemarle.jpg
The New York Times delved into a seller's woes this weekend, with the tale of one Yvette Folk. She picked up a Ditmas Park one-bedroom (at, a reader suggests, 1701 Albemarke Road) for, ahem, $16,000 back in 2002, and tried for eight months to get around a quarter of a million dollars for it. Might be hard to generate sympathy for someone who has, until the roller coaster market, had such real estate luck, but her trials could be instructive to some of you out there thinking of selling. She had to do more than lower the price $5,000 or $10,000, more than throw a coat of antique white on the walls (which she only conceded to doing after the broker pushed for it). There was the staging and re-photographing of the place, and finally taking a lower bid from a more attractive candidate. Anybody else have tales of creative selling techniques?
When It’s Not Enough Just to Cut the Price [NY Times]




Posted by lisa at 9:35 AM | Comments (17)
Categories: Ditmas Park, Market, Real Estate

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Comments

Completely off-topic - but those rubber fender mats as shown in the far right of the pic are pretty much useless. People tend to scrape the corner of the fender as the move in and out of tight parking spots which those mats fail to help with. The straight-on bump to a fender tends to do nothing to the fender.

I only wish I could invent something as useless and as profitable.

Posted by: dittoburg at August 18, 2008 9:48 AM

Woes? We should all have such problems.

Posted by: jawbreaker at August 18, 2008 10:09 AM

pet rock. Oh...someone thought of that already.

Posted by: troll at August 18, 2008 10:10 AM

I most certainly don't feel bad for her because she had to drop her asking price, especially when by her own admission the apartment needed work. She still eventually got 15 times more than what she paid for it six years ago! If it wasn't for the Co-op board rejecting a prospective buyer she would have walked away with even more.

The buyer of the apartment still got a pretty good deal though. Just goes to show that there are still affordable deals out there. You just have to go a little further into Brooklyn to find them.

Posted by: Just Wondering at August 18, 2008 10:12 AM

troll, damn. It always seems so easy in retrospect.

Posted by: dittoburg at August 18, 2008 10:17 AM

Anyone know the exact address of this building. Couldn't make it out in the NYT photo. Also, if anyone were able to take a photo of the building and send it in, it would be most appreciated.

Posted by: brownstoner at August 18, 2008 10:19 AM

An odd article really, considering everything hinged on the price & the condition of the apartment...and there were no photos!

Posted by: binnyG at August 18, 2008 10:26 AM

Most people want to feel that they are getting something worth the money, especially when it is a huge purchase like an apartment or home. Although I dislike blanding a home down to the most common denominators of white and beige, I can see where the blank slate approach can help sell a home, especially when walls are some really awful color that were applied seemingly, in a drug induced state. Most people want to walk into a place that's clean and ready to have your own personality applied to it. Especially today, when you may not want to spend big bucks initially, just to be habitable.

On the other hand, I personally love the undone, scary messes, if they are in an old home with lots of period charm behind the dirt and crap. I find the mess scares off some of the competition, and perhaps can lead to some negotiation with the seller. The rest is just vision and a good crew of workers, and a big pile of renovation money. I have the first, can get the second if I have the third. Working on it!

Posted by: Montrose Morris at August 18, 2008 10:35 AM

montrose, i agree 100%. we wouldn't have been able to afford our brownstone if it had been cleaned, staged, and marketed properly. i was almost scared off, but my wife's imagination saved the day!

Posted by: z at August 18, 2008 10:51 AM

The apartment in question was on Albermarle Road in the teens, while the photo appears to be Rugby Road between Cortelyou and Dorchester.

Posted by: yaakovdoe at August 18, 2008 11:00 AM

Saw a wonderful, really needs imagination to see it house a few weeks ago. It had so much period detail I can't see how anyone could miss it. My biggest fear with houses like that- and I have seen it happen- is someone buys the house and rips it all out because it "looks too old." FWIW MM I have saved all my change and will donate to your reno fund :-)

Posted by: bxgrl at August 18, 2008 11:02 AM

Pet hanger (C)? You know ... for the office.

Posted by: MacD at August 18, 2008 11:05 AM

I believe the building is 1701 Albemarle Road, which takes up the north side of Albemarle Road between East 18th Street and the B/Q tracks. It's the only building on Albemarle that "overlooks the tennis court.".

This building is huge, with 84 units. That area of Flatbush has many large, multi-unit buildings. Only a realtor - and apparently the Times - would call that "Ditmas Park," which lies three long blocks away to the south.

Posted by: Xris at August 18, 2008 12:22 PM

I think part of the concern is whether or not you can buy a place for what you sell it. Doesn't really matter what you paid if you need to relocated and you can't get a price that enables you to move on without taking a big loss.

Posted by: Architerrorist at August 18, 2008 12:53 PM

This just reflects the change to a buyer's market. Honestly, I think it is a little insulting (and stupid) to try to pawn off a POS and not make any attempt to make it look presentable (and worth more). That said, my house had great bones and lovely details but required someone with vision to make it a great house. The seller could have gotten more if he had gotten his act together. Luckily, he was lazy.

Posted by: 11233 at August 18, 2008 12:53 PM

So she got a little less than she really wanted- she made out very well and good for her! So what if she didn't want to repaint? Most buyers will do that anyway and if the apartment was as appealing as the actual buyer thought, there's no real problem. And not that a single one of us wouldn't do the same if we could.

Posted by: east river at August 18, 2008 1:14 PM

We were had during the run-up. But now, more and more, buyers are seeing right through this inexpensive staging scheme. In a down market, price is all a seller's got.

Posted by: DOW8000SP800 at August 18, 2008 1:27 PM

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