more than 18 months to contract for 377 West 11 Street loft

only 2 price changes, less than 10% total
You’d think that a Manhattan loft on the market from August 2010 into 2012 would need more than a 10% price drop to sell(if you are like me, that is.) I still think you’d be generally right, but the recent sale of the”2,366 sq ft” Manhattan loft #3C at 377 West 11 Street gives you an opportunity to wonder about the ‘wisdom’ of The Market. After all, if the loft was worth $2.1mm in May 2012 (it had to be; that’s what it cleared at), you’d think it would have attracted a buyer when asking $2.275mm since September 2011, or possibly even when asking $2.4mm since January 2011.

The listing history looks more stark in table form, doesn’t it?

That is a patient seller! Five months at one too-high price, followed by 8 months at another too-high price, followed by nearly 6 months at the right price (right in the sense that it generated a contract).

another day, another mezzanine loft
Yesterday’s post played with the resale history and incredible growth of a “2,000 sq ft” loft with a single exposure in Chelsea, in which more than a third of the space was on a mezzanine level taking advantage of tall ceilings. (June 19, bold-faced names on both sides of 121 West 20 Street loft sale that beat 2008 by a million buck) The floor plan for this way way West Village loft uses a similar trick to add about a quarter of the “2,366 sq ft” claimed, taking advantage of tall ceilings to put the only sleeping area in the current configuration. (Note that the floor plan designation of Upper and Lower has to be backwards.)

You can see the challenge in the floor plan: huge windows span the 26 foot south wall but there are no other windows in the nearly 70 foot long space (with those angles it is hardly a classic Long-and-Narrow). Many lofts with that problem and the high ceilings that offer flexibility deal with this array by stacking the kitchen up front with a sleeping loft above, but this loft has a kitchen at the tall far end of the loft, with an odd stack of “sitting / gallery” space under the sleeping loft up front. (Maybe the plumbing stacks in that front bathroom can’t support a kitchen.)

There’s only that single sleep area in the current floor plan, and even the alternative provided has but two.Perhaps this loft feels differently in real life, but my read of the floorplan and photos is that this will seem like one of the smaller “2,366 sq ft” lofts around.

In terms of finishes, the bragging is limited to that kitchen and even that bragging is muted: “open cook’s kitchen with slate counters”. Despite one hint (“Many custom details throughout”), the implication of the headline (“Get Creative”), the few photos, the alternate floor plan option, and the muted babble is that the loft needs some work; how much is unknowable from the public data.

interesting neighbor-on-neighbor action here
I wonder about the social fabric of this building; specifically, whether the 3rd floor neighbors were getting along in 2011. Take a quick look at the listing history table for #3C up top, and then look at the March 2012 sales history of the “2,100 sq ft” loft #3G (to market April 28, 2011 at $2.5mm, in contract December 16 at $2.1mm). That one was explicitly marketed as a project (“[p]erfect as is, or renovate using the owners approved plans”), with one huge advantage over #3C (“ brilliant light and mesmerizing sunsets “). 10% smaller than #3C, #3G sold for 7% higher on a dollar-per-foot basis.

These lofts directly competed for the same buyer pool for the 7 months that it took #3G to find a contract. Loft #3G won. But there was another 3rd floor loft also for sale while #3C was on the market, this one from September 2010 (one month after #3C started) into August 2011. One could conclude that the #3C – #3G tag team in 2011 drove that one off the market, until both those competitors closed.

Awkward meetings in the elevators??

adventures in marketing
I get it that picture #6 is really a photo of the river, but it includes an awful lot of New Jersey skyline. can’t remember the last time I saw a Jersey photo so prominently featured in Manhattan loft marketing.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012