Part 3: Ready For Sale
A: Well the apartment is finished and ready for the open market once the new year begins. The floors came out great, the paint job neatened things up, and the cleaners finished it off. I also removed the security cage on all the windows as it was limiting the amount of sunlight the apartmet gets. I'll just keep them in the closets for the new buyer to either throw away or re-install. Although we could have done more work to this apartment, there really wasn't any point. Here's why!
A while ago I wrote a post about renovating in a cooling housing market touching base on why high end contracting just doesn't make much financial sense. I stated:
IN A SLOWING HOUSING MARKET YOU WANT TO DO THE LOW RISK HIGH REWARD RENOVATIONS THAT COULD PAYOFF AT RESALE. THESE INCLUDE FLOORS & BATHROOMS, NOT KITCHENS!The reason is that you don't want to spend too much money on renovation work when it's a buyers market in the sense that buyers can negotiate! The headache of going through the renovations process should be rewarded at resale as you get a premium for not only the upgrades you installed, but also the 1-3 months of paperwork, noise, dust, and migraines that come with it.
That's one of the reasons why renovations pay off so well in New York City real estate! But when its a buyers market with the element of negotiability alive and well, that premium could get wiped out! So why risk it!
Here are the 'BEFORE' pictures again of APT 1A at 314 West 56th Street:
And, here are the web ready pictures taken at 1PM on a sunny weekday afternoon:
Its amazing what a few dollars and good photo shoot can do to liven up a place for resale! The floor refinishing brightens the space on its own and gives a great first impression when buyers first enter. The kitchen and bathroom came out just fine when deeply cleaned (although can use a renovation) and the amount of natural sunlight literally doubled when I removed the security cage on the windows. Although the apartment # is 1A, it is actually one floor up giving you a view of other unit's garden level below.
By keeping costs and the 'amount of work' low, we should be able to maximize profit at resale and still get top dollar for what alcove studios in midtown west in a well-maintained elevator building are getting. Time will tell. I'm hoping to provide my client with a buyer within 10-12 weeks for this one.
If we would have decided to renovate the kitchen and bathroom, it would have cost aproximately $30,000 - $35,000 in materials and labor and about 6-8 weeks in total for paperwork, architect work, board approval, and contracting. We would have added $50K to asking price and ask $400,000 instead of $350,000, and HOPE to get at least $50K more than if we didnt do the work; $35,000 for work + $15,000 premium for renovating!
I think we made the right choice by minimizing work done and pricing right at $636/sft, as the low monthlys should convince someone that buying this property is better than renting!
What do you think? A mistake? Should we have done more work?
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Comments (7)
While I renovated the bathroom when I moved into my apartment, I left the kitchen alone. Are there any steps one can take to improve the appearance of a kitchen that's not renovated? Does it pay to just replace a floor or counter?
Posted by Lee Semel | December 22, 2006 2:14 PM
Lee - maybe. Depends how bad the kitchen actually is. You can definately save money by having your bldg handyman replace tile with something from home depot that fits nicely and refacing the cabinetry.
Or, you can update appliances with stainless steel ones for not that much. That would help. But a overall gut renovation in kitchen will probably set you back a good $20-30K.
Posted by Noah | December 22, 2006 2:57 PM
Who did the "deep cleaning"?
Posted by Jeff | December 24, 2006 6:25 PM
Jeff - Actually, my client hired the super to take care of the deep cleaning on this apt. Not sure if he had his crew do it, or if he hired someone else.
But you can find reasonable full service deep cleaners in the yellow pages. I remember using MR HAPPY DEEP CLEANING SERVICES about a year ago or so in NYC and they were great.
Posted by Noah | December 25, 2006 11:34 AM
I am about to go through bath/kitchen/painting for a small one bedroom I am purchasing. I am keeping things close to minimum (and got quotes for 2x this price and more). I find that I can keep materials to a minimum, but where do you get such low labor costs? In the end, I have somewhat reasonable contractor who comes recommended - but I didn't find it was normal to see the ranges you quoted for both a kitchen and bath labor and materials (30k to 35k). Please let me know your suppliers!
Posted by newbuyergal | December 25, 2006 3:40 PM
newbuyergal - the range of 30-35K comes from one of my clients who is going through a high end renovation now and from a contractor I knew at Astor Terrace.
For low end renovations, it will be about $20-$25K for kitchen and $10-15K for bathroom. Add on $5-10K for higher end renovations but that is still less than the quotes you got.
Alex is the Astor Terrace contractor and does great work. Email me directly, nrosenblatt@citi-habitats.com, and I'll give you his #.
Posted by Noah | December 25, 2006 5:51 PM
Wow,
It's crazy the difference in the sun light. The floors look great also. As far as the kitchen, I completely agree that in a buyers market it's not worth putting all that money towards it. I think a lot of people enjoy redoing a kitchen how they want as well. The tile on the kitchen floor seems to look ok. One small thing I think could be worth spending money on is a new fridge. Nothing fancy, you can get a nice new white one for $400-$500 at Sears but I think it makes a big difference. Just my opinion but there is something nice about looking through a condo and seeing a new fridge ready for use. I don't like the cabinets but again I think that the buyer would appreciate being able to replace that with what they liked.
Posted by Matt | December 26, 2006 3:27 PM