Back in March, 5 West 121st Street (center) went into contract within 2 weeks of being on the market at $1.65 million, and folks have been wondering what the 3-family, 20 foot wide townhouse eventually went for. The 4,393 square foot, landmark brownstone in the Mount Morris Park Historic District was officially sold at the end of June and public records show that it received full asking price. We are guessing the interiors must have been pretty decent but there seems to be no images available. The location is just a couple of buildings from the park and four blocks from the 2,3 express on 125th Street. This might be the first full asking price house seen on the market in some time. Facade photo by Ulysses
Monday, July 26, 2010
☞ DWELL: 5 West 121st Street Sold in June
Back in March, 5 West 121st Street (center) went into contract within 2 weeks of being on the market at $1.65 million, and folks have been wondering what the 3-family, 20 foot wide townhouse eventually went for. The 4,393 square foot, landmark brownstone in the Mount Morris Park Historic District was officially sold at the end of June and public records show that it received full asking price. We are guessing the interiors must have been pretty decent but there seems to be no images available. The location is just a couple of buildings from the park and four blocks from the 2,3 express on 125th Street. This might be the first full asking price house seen on the market in some time. Facade photo by Ulysses
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Beautiful house, beautiful block. Even if the interior leaves something to be desired I think it's well worth the price.
ReplyDeleteLooks STUNNING !! I would love to see the inside of it. Full price good for Harlem, but bad for us first time home buyers ! It is huge ! Worth the price for sure !
ReplyDeleteI hope we don't hear from folks who hate the park on the blog !!
Agreed. Beautiful part of the neighborhood. No surprise to see it going for asking. Somebody got a great deal.
ReplyDeleteA great new comp and a nice starting point for the turnaround. Mt. Morris park just down the block is a huge plus and the reno going on there also helps.
ReplyDeleteYes. Just goes to show, when something is priced correctly, it will move. Actually, I think this place was priced on the low side, which is why it went within two weeks of asking.
ReplyDeleteWas in the park over the weekend and they had a great steel drum band up and playing. Along with the farmers market I think there is a definite effort to make this place a viable place to take the family and spend an hour or two.
Would guess if the listing had no interior pictures it needed some serious work. Hopefully the original details are still intact.
ReplyDelete>Chris said...Just goes to show, when something is priced correctly, it will move.
ReplyDelete-
Oh brother. When property sells within 2 weeks of being on the market, it was not priced correctly....and everybody kind of knows that. The seller was not well guided by the agent.
113 w120th asking 2.6M? & 129 w.119th 1,950,000?
You don't need a real estate agent or firm if your property sold within 2 weeks. Less than 14 days on the market is not a badge of honor, it's a "left money on the table". If you're asking price is 15% lower than the competition's, you're going to sell your property. You just don't need an agent when you undercut the neighborhood, good grief.
When a property like this sells within 2 weeks, there are potential buyers who never even had a chance to see it, before it got snapped up. Who knows what price this property could have captured, the only thing that's for sure is that a proper sales effort, a number of showings, etc. takes more than "under 2 weeks" to be executed.
It was not priced correctly, money was left on the table, and the other sellers in the nabe are probably none to pleased.
Easy to Monday morning quarterback. Seller may have needed a quick sale for any number of reasons.
ReplyDeleteLast I noticed as of 7/1/10 in New York City Days on the market for condos decreased 10.2% to 136 days from last quarter and 9.8% from last year. As far as Brownstones & TownHouses....I am guessing it was about 180 - 190 days.
ReplyDeleteSomething smells rotten in Denmark. This property was never allowed to test the market. A lightening fast sale would have been "30 days" on the market. It's not unusual for selling agencies to have their tickler file of buyers and buyers agents who will move right instantly if the price is "x" and they ahead of time price the property consistent with what they can project closing it at immediately within their own tickler file. Even if the seller needed cash immediately, in the real world with how long it takes to close, even with a cash buyer, allowing the property to be at least on the market for a 30 day period would have served the sellers interest and when the smoke clears...could have gotten them their money just as fast. Even with a cash buyer, this less than 2 weeks on the market to contract does not necessarily mean it's going to be a faster or quicker deal.
Again, something smells rotten in Denmark here. It's worth noting that for a townhouse/brownstone in Harlem, this might be a record post 2000 for days on the market. Please, this is so unusually and out of place, explaining it away as "maybe the seller needed a quick sale" is very naive. Lots of sellers need cash in Manhattan and Harlem but you just don't see this. Something amiss, and was done on the inside if you ask me and I highly doubt the seller was served well.
A preplanned ultra fast sale would have gone like this, "The floor is $1.65M", we're taking bids for 30 days, high bidder gets the house.
HarlemOnMyMind, some interesting points. This was definitely priced on the low end and (from somebody who is not an expert in this area) I see your point re. not needing a sales agent. Could it be the buyer paid all cash? Or, as GreenGirl pointed out, the interior may have needed a lot of work. Redoing the entire interior could run upwards of 800k.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure it was an inside deal. I had an alert on streeteasy that sent an email when something came on the market. This house came up and I had our broker call about it. She said there would be no open houses as there was already a buyer; sounded like the other broker knew someone who was interested and it was snapped up right away.
ReplyDeleteMore I think about it though, the stranger it is. I mean, why would you take that price when in fact you probably could get closer to 2 mill? Insider deal or not. Maybe it was a family member buying it.
ReplyDeleteThe buyer did not pay all cash. She paid some cash. Such things are a matter of public record. No need to speculate.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, the building is an SRO with no c. of o., in a block with just about all SRO protected buildings except one or two. It is landmarked. I am in favor of landmarking but it does mean, bring lots of money for renovations if these are needed.
Faria, probably worth checking your facts before you comment. From what I can tell, the building does have c. of o's in place for Class "A" occupancy.
ReplyDeleteChris, not sure where you got that information, but the I-card information states, "SRO status." Perhaps it is not updated ...? SRO status would make sense given that the adjacent properties are also SROs, and that this is apparently challenge for that area - the costs involved in resolving that.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, my point was, with that burden in place the price would need to be low. There is a great townhouse not so far away from me, several deals fell through precisely due to the SRO thing. This in spite of the fact that the adjacent places already went through the process and are occupied by families. Beautiful restorations and good people living there.
No worries Faria. From what I understand, the building records are often incomplete. Try this URL (copy and paste it into your browser) and click on "View Certificates of Occupancy". Certainly appears to be in place.
ReplyDeletehttp://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=5&street=West+121&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E
Sometimes a building will be marked as SRO restricted, whereas in fact the restriction was removed years ago.
Thanks !
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that a sale is a sale these days. You can list at whatever price you want, but that doesn't mean it will sell within a reasonable period of time - like within 3 months of the listing. Anything passed 3 months makes it a stale listing. Bottom-line, I suspect the seller was happy enough to actual accept an offer, go to contract and actually close.
ReplyDeleteShow me a similar property that sold for much more than this one within the last 3 months. $2m is a nice number, but the property would have to be extradinary and unique to garner such a price these days.
148 West 120th has been on the market for months and has been fully renovated with central air and its priced to sell at $1.795 and is still unsold.
There just aren't that many real buyers out there and $1.65 might be a steal, but it least it actually got sold.
We are the new owners and wish to dispel any misconceptions re. the property. First, the original details ARE all intact and really nice. Most of the work we're doing is simple woodwork and painting, as the electric and plumbing are all decent. Second, the home is NOT an SRO, but rather a legal 3 family (two garden studios with owner's quadraplex).
ReplyDeleteMost important though, we are really smitten with the block and are so excited to move into a such vibrant, lovely neighborhood.