Brokers!! What are you seeing out there???

It's hard not to call Brooklyn (or at least a large swath of it) a sellers market, if you're a buyer in BK chime in here. After a lag, Manhattan is showing a lot of strength, at least for the best in class/desirable properties. Ex: Bid on both listings at 108 5th ave, first time all cash at ask-nope. Second listing $100k over ask, non-contingent, told we were 5th! Oh well. We have two new listings in Gramercy, lets see how it goes, first OH's this weekend.

But who cares what I have to say, just look at the UD dashboard, numbers don't lie.
 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member
It's hard not to call Brooklyn (or at least a large swath of it) a sellers market, if you're a buyer in BK chime in here. After a lag, Manhattan is showing a lot of strength, at least for the best in class/desirable properties. Ex: Bid on both listings at 108 5th ave, first time all cash at ask-nope. Second listing $100k over ask, non-contingent, told we were 5th! Oh well. We have two new listings in Gramercy, lets see how it goes, first OH's this weekend.

But who cares what I have to say, just look at the UD dashboard, numbers don't lie.
If only everyone was renovating and still asking 36% less than they purchased for in 2015.
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
If only everyone was renovating and still asking 36% less than they purchased for in 2015.
David I just want to say it feels very nice to see you commenting. Hope all is well.

Hmm, 16A asking about 20% less than 2017 closed price, interesting proxy on where we are now
 
Regarding the 5th avenue listings, I'm not certain where they will end up, but I can assure you the strategy was to price them soft. And it worked well, multiple bids after one open house. At least regarding the second one, we know it traded at least 100k higher than the ask, since we were told we came in 5th and we bid 100K above the ask. The first listing we bid the asking price and were told we weren't close. Guess we'll know once these close.
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
Regarding the 5th avenue listings, I'm not certain where they will end up, but I can assure you the strategy was to price them soft. And it worked well, multiple bids after one open house. At least regarding the second one, we know it traded at least 100k higher than the ask, since we were told we came in 5th and we bid 100K above the ask. The first listing we bid the asking price and were told we weren't close. Guess we'll know once these close.
streets level comments always awesome here. Thx Keith
 
@noah certainly every offer isn't like this, however, I thought you'd find this scenario interesting;

Something else interesting to note as we've worked with this agent before, she does her best and highest in an open bidding format. When she establishes a set amount of people that are actively bidding, she creates an email chain and discloses all the current bids. You then have the opportunity to bid again or drop out. We participated in one of these a few years ago and our client was successful. Initially I didn't like the process, but the client was pleased with the transparency.

This is for a property in Park Slope;

Hi Jeff and Anna -

I just received this:

'Thank you for the offer! We have 14 viable offers on the table. The highest and best offer at the moment is $720,000 with 39% down. Please let me know if your buyers would like to raise their offer.'

Not sure what you want to do here. Let me know.

Thanks,
Norman
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
wow..I must say, I never thought it was good practice to reveal the exact price of the current highest bidder to a competiting bidder. I mean, it represents the seller well but all the best n finals Ive been part of has been in private with teh caveat if your good enough to get intel from the listing agent which at best was a ballpark thing to pass on to a competing buyer client. 14 offers though, thats a lot of bids to deal with
 

nicolebeauchamp

Well-known member
As I'm thinking more about this and there are so many other sometimes intangibles , as not all offers are equally viable ,particularly in scenarios where the buyers are increasing their offers, their DTI and PCA shift ,and in a scenario like this trying to explain to someone who had the highest price but was the least board viable, potentially...I dunno...I still think I need to know more
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
yeah. That is one element that is in play here. Also, I would think some buyers wouldnt want to play games like this. If I was the top bidder, knowing my bid is being openly disclosed to X other buyers, to decide if they want to raise higher? Then what do I do? I raise or stay put or remove the bid? That last item is scary, never good to lose a solid bid over processes. But I guess in the end, if it works it will not matter.

I always enjoyed the broker that handled their multiple offer situation like this VIA email to all agents via BCC:

1. clearly explain the multiple offer situation
2. declare one deadline for all
3. declare time of winner announcement after deadline
4. declare all financial items and bid items needed (obv you guys know what I mean here)
5. declare a window with deadline for winning bidder to produce a signed contract w/ deposit otherwise backup offer will be engaged
6. all bids are private and confidential, so please submit your HIGHEST & BEST bid

I liked to share these emails with my buyers so they see what I see and how the process will be played for all.

But that is just me and Im not active in the game anymore, so times could be a changin' :)
 
That's essentially how we handle our highest and best. And we have two going on right now on both our listings in Gramercy Park.

The auction style is certainly easier to do with a condo. I wasn't a fan, however, our client really appreciated the transparency, and in the end they wound up with the property. I'll say it was interesting to observe the process as with every email the list of bidders got smaller. This was about 3 years ago in Brooklyn, so I'm a little foggy on the exact details.
 

Mark

Member
Single data point: as a buyer, I much prefer the open bidding process vs. secretive "highest and best" bid process. When I lose, I hate finding out that its because I missed the bid by a marginal amount. The closing cycle in NY is also soooo slow. I don't learn from the interaction for at least another 3+ months when the sale price updates online.
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
Excellent! Thanks for sharing this Mark, awesome to hear your pov on this matter. Any other buyers out there have thoughts on this?
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
Single data point: as a buyer, I much prefer the open bidding process vs. secretive "highest and best" bid process. When I lose, I hate finding out that its because I missed the bid by a marginal amount. The closing cycle in NY is also soooo slow. I don't learn from the interaction for at least another 3+ months when the sale price updates online.
Agree with closing cycle, in this day and age too..its really the bank + building processes that make up the bulk of the wait
 

Soicanbefree

New member
I've lived in a country where this is the standard process.

1) The seller pays for an independent inspection report that is part of the offering / available to all.
2) There is a viewing day or days.
3) There is a day set for bidding. Usually I think noon on a Saturday. It's via text. Buyers are pre qualified with their details / mortgage info. I believe the timer resets with each bid to give everyone a chance to continue. It's around 15-30 minutes.

I like the process and transparency.
 
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