stubborn loft seller at 421 Hudson Street waits 1 year for contract

not a slur, honest
When I call a seller “stubborn” I am talking about behavior, not character. (Note that I don’t call sellers “greedy”, though I may find sales efforts … inexplicable.) How other than “stubborn” to describe a seller who came out on March 29, 2010 and before getting a contract on March 31, 2011 offered only one teensy-weensy price drop (3%)?

The Manhattan loft in question is the “900 sq ft” #718 at 421 Hudson Street (the Printing House) and the behavior in question is this:

(The anal among you will insist that he also changed brokers, but note that he did not change agents; it looks as though his original agent changed firms and partnered with some people at his new firm; I wonder if the new teammates insisted on at least a small price change after 8 months.)

The loft in question is small, with some wonderful attributes; 15 foot ceilings, river views and sunsets, among them. The 15 foot ceilings are open to half the space, however, as there is a mezzanine “bedroom” that sits on top of the kitchen, such that it probably does not feel ‘loft-y’ until you clear that mezzanine.

4 sales
Loft #718 now has a rich sales history:

• Feb 7, 1997      $305,000
• Feb 11, 2002     $593,000
• July 15, 2003    $680,000
• June 24, 2011   $1,100,000

None of the prior sales has a listing preserved on StreetEasy, and there is not much detail about the condition of this loft when it sold last in 2003, so it is hard to say whether the recent seller bought or created the “meticulous” renovation, with features like “beech wood cabinetry by Neff, top of the line appliances by Sub-Zero and Miele, … hood ventilation by Pando…. wide-plank wood flooring, a unique custom-designed floating staircase, [or] remote-controlled electric shades over double height windows”. (The mezzanine bedroom was already there; that is typical of smaller units at the Printing House since it was converted in 1987.)

Whether he bought the (existing) good stuff or installed it will determine how much net gain he realized on the recent sale, of course. Whether his gain from 2003 to now was over 60%, or ‘just’ (something like) 47% (if he put in $100,000 in upgrades after buying), there’s no reason to sneeze at that gain.

Evidently, he wanted His Number before he agreed to sell; evidently, he got it. Not by being greedy but by being stubborn. I can respect that.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011