Manhattan Condo Living

Well it looks like the popularity of the first newstory about the tiniest apartment in Manhattan sprouted a couple of other inquiries to truly find the smallest apartment in New York City.

Here is a link to new article about the smallest apartment in Manhattan.  I recommend watching the video which will give you the best idea of what this apartment is like. 

Now I don't think this is a true apples to apples comparison of Manhattan's tiniest apartments simply because this is a rental apartment.  The tenant is paying about $800/month for rent.  The previous article was about a couple who actually bought an apartment.

Some buildings and neighborhoods are notorious to cut up the original layouts and make these tiny apartments, is this a legal apartment, I'm not sure.  But as a commenter on the article stated, now the New York Fire Department knows about this apartment, even though an address is not given and from the video it looks near impossible to know where exactly this building could be located at.

I completely understand the mentality the gentleman renting this unit has.  I have helped a number of young people who will be working extremely long hours and outside of work will be letting off a little bit of steam and only look at their apartment as a place to sleep.  Location is super important so they will sacrifice renovations, views, and in this case size. 

Copyright "New York City's Smallest Apartment - Spoke too Soon" 

I read this article and figured I share it with the rest of the community.  Anytime I work with a new buyer or renter they are shell shocked at the size and price of Manhattan real estate. 

Recently, a couple bought a 175 sq ft apartment for $150,000.  Here is a link to the pictures.  I have shown rental apartments this size, but never a for sale unit.  What's nice about this unit is that it appears to get good light. I find that a lot of small studios are positioned within a building to squeeze out just enough space and are right next to brick walls or in a building's air shaft.  Because this unit looks to have a pretty clean open exposure that will do wonders for the lack of space.

The couple seems to have done a pretty good job of maximizing the space.  They mentioned adding a Murphy Bed which I would say will be a very good addition.  Overall my takeaway is that this couple is as happy as can be about their purchase.   Which in the end is probably all that matters, it seems they got what they want and are having fun with the extra money they would have spent for a much larger apartment.

So next time you walk into a house and the buyer's mention how small it is, you can mention to them about how in New York City people buy apartments that are only 150 square feet.

I had a tremendously busy week of appointments and today was the pinnacle of my busy week.  Starting at noon I had a whirlwind afternoon of buyer appointments and showing appointments for a couple of our better priced listings since we do not have any lockboxes in New York City.  With so many appointments in a short period of time, if one appointment is late a domino effect will happen and the rest of the appointments will all fall down.  What gets a little tricky is not how fast you can get from one appointment to another.  The tricky part is when other people are late or call last minute to reschedule.  

My first appointment was at noon and was at one of our Murray Hill studio co-op apartments.  This property gets shown a lot and I am ready for it go get an offer one of these days.  My next appointment was about 3/4 of a mile away at one of most requested listings, a renovated Gramercy alcove studio priced at $499,000 with a washer/dryer in the unit.  Here in New York City having a studio with its very own washer/dryer is quite the luxury.  This unit is priced very well and is in great condition, people respond very well to this listing.  At this point I was still on time, no hiccups yet.  

My next appointment was at the Gramercy Starck.  This is the type of building that has to be seen to to believe.  Designed by Phillipe Starck and his design team, this is a high design super lux condominium building.  We have a number of listings available in the building and I was there to show one of our two bedroom listings.  While I was in the lobby waiting for the appointment to arrive I had a last minute request to see another unit in the building.  I wanted to accommodate so I stayed and showed a listing again.  Now I am running a little late to my next appointment.

I hustled uptown 50 blocks away to the Upper East Side and had three appointments to show a buyer some one bedroom and alcove studio apartments.  These appointments went pretty smoothly.  Earlier on in the day I had to juggle a couple of these appointments, but everybody showed up on time and my buyer saw a couple of apartments with lots of potential.

The next appointment was back downtown at the Renovated Alcove Studio.  This was a second showing, something that is always very encouraging in todays market.  I gave a full tour of the building and was told that our exclusive is on their short list of finalists.  We will see if an offer comes in.  The next and final appointment was at the Murray Hill studio co-op.   This is where things got interesting.  I met a nice couple and their broker who were looking for a pied-a-terres property here in New York City.  This apartment is tailor made for that type of situation.  As I am explaining the different types of ways to have their furniture positioned and they are asking me questions about the units renovations I hear the doorbell ring.  The first thing I thought was that was weird.  I answer the door and  I was looking at a very pissed off neighbor.  The owner directly below us started screaming at me about all of the noise that we were making and that she had the right to exist in peace.  Needless to say, I was hoping the buyer did not get turned off by this disgruntle neighbor that may just been having a bad day, we were the victims of her bad day...

I started at noon today with this madness appointments day and finished at 5pm in the afternoon, I calculated how many miles I have walked today, it had to be about 10 miles!!! I could not even believe that I walked 10 miles today hustling around town.  Now I truly think that we have to be in absolute great shape to be in Real Estate... but first I rewarded myself with one of my favorite meals of a cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake!

To view more New York City condominium and co-ops please click Here!

When we go to Costco we  go with the understanding that we are going to be buying a product in a really large quantity, but we are going to be getting a great discount for doing so.  Thats why we shop there.  I personally love the hot dogs and coke for $1.50, but thats just my own personal thoughts.  Well now here in New York City you can buy Condos Costco Style!!

According to a recent article,

Last month, the sponsors of 20 Pine, a 413-unit condo conversion in the Financial District, put 80 of the building's unsold units on the market for $63.7 million, according to the Web site Curbed.

The bulk price for the units, according to an advertisement reprinted on Curbed, represented only 51.5 percent of their current value of $124 million.
Meanwhile, 22 units in a 40-unit condo in Williamsburg also hit the market last month.

The sales pitch for the units at 349 Metropolitan Avenue included the following description: "Newly built 40-unit elevator building was developed as a luxury condominium and is being offered as a bulk sale for investors. Eighteen units are currently under contract at an average price per square foot of $720 and the developer can't close because the building is not finished. The developer is currently in default on his primary debt. Prospective purchasers can bid on the entire project and/or on the available units."

The above examples aren't the only ones. Faced with a stagnant market and looming loans, more and more developers are finding the notion of bulk condo sales attractive.

"When you can't sell retail, you sell wholesale," said Eric Anton, a principal at the investment services firm Eastern Consolidated

From a lender's standpoint, bulk sales can be a "pragmatic" move, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, a research firm that focuses on the commercial market.

"The last thing a lender wants is to have the units back at this point," said Fasulo, who noted that attempts at bulk sales are beginning to be more commonplace. "How's the bank going to sell them?"

The last couple of years, I would say that the overall trend for these new development buildings has been over the top luxury exclusivity, super-lux, mega-lux, fancy words that are hard to pronounce.  Bargain, value, those adjectives were unheard of, so I find it very ironic that now these high end condos are being compared to a value based store like Costco.  

For more information, please contact Morgan Evans or call 917-837-8869

Disclaimer: All information in this post is subject to change without notice. Subject matter: is an opinion, is not guaranteed, may be time sensitive, and may be based on information collected from several sources which may or may not be reliable at the time of sourcing.