The landmark home at 809 Riverside Drive has gone into contract a week after we reported that it was basically half off of its original asking price. The semi-detached, single family townhouse dwelling, just slightly above Harlem's northern border, is in the Audubon Park Historic District of Washington Heights and had been owned by the same family for over three decades. Since the kids had grown up and moved out, the owners put the house on the market for roughly $2 million sometimes last September. In April, that asking price finally landed at $1.1 million and a reader mentioned that their offer for $950K did not go through (so there must have been a couple of higher offers in the target range). This is definitely a great house, with great details but will need a lot of work to get the infrastructure upgraded. Read our past post on 809 Riverside Drive: LINK. Photo by Ulysses
Monday, May 10, 2010
☞ DWELL: 809 Riverside Drive in Contract
The landmark home at 809 Riverside Drive has gone into contract a week after we reported that it was basically half off of its original asking price. The semi-detached, single family townhouse dwelling, just slightly above Harlem's northern border, is in the Audubon Park Historic District of Washington Heights and had been owned by the same family for over three decades. Since the kids had grown up and moved out, the owners put the house on the market for roughly $2 million sometimes last September. In April, that asking price finally landed at $1.1 million and a reader mentioned that their offer for $950K did not go through (so there must have been a couple of higher offers in the target range). This is definitely a great house, with great details but will need a lot of work to get the infrastructure upgraded. Read our past post on 809 Riverside Drive: LINK. Photo by Ulysses
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Seems above 110th St. initial asking prices are pretty much based on PT Barnum being right (a sucker being born every day). It's one thing to "reach", it's entirely another thing to set a price that's pretty much 100% higher than the actual selling price down the line at the end of the day. 50%+ hair cuts are not uncommon in Harlem and only illustrate not a hint of professional wise and prudent counsel is part of determining the initial asking price in many caes. Nope, my 8 year old son knows how to throw a pie in the sky number on the wall and see if it sticks. It's beyond reaching, it's bluntly looking for a sucker to buy into the narrative, hoping one warm body bites. And why do they do it? Why does the real estate industrial complex toss out these initial asking prices that are 25%, 50%, and 100% above what the final selling price is 9 and 12 months later down the line? Very often, it works. A sucker is found...early in the process...who buys into the narrative hook, line, & sinker.
ReplyDeleteI think you miss the point anon. This is the area above 155th Street which is an entirely different section of town.
ReplyDeleteProperty owners further downtown are probably now getting anxious since they spend five times as much on their small apartments and uptowner are getting much larger property for less money. It is not a question of "if" anymore but "when" for things turn around and that must make many who invested downtown feel threaten.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1, you sound an awful lot like Sai Baba, the Harlem basher who shows up everywhere, seemingly on a mission to keep Harlem prices low by disparaging the neighborhood. If you're not him, you have a kindred spirit.
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