quote for the day / NYT The Hunt

who is out of touch now?
The Sunday Real Estate section of the New York Times regular feature by Joyce Cohen, The Hunt, today profiles a woman who seems to have spent much of the last 18 months looking for a 2 bedroom with light on a narrow slice of the Upper West Side. She eventually found her light slice of Manhattan (as always happens in this feature) and closed last month.

Among various other adventures, she made a bid on another apartment that also closed last month. The article implies that the offer was made when the apartment was asking $1.6mm, which helps narrow the time frame considerably (below). The fun stuff is in bold.

Nearby, on West 111th, was a beautiful three-bedroom co-op on sale for $1.6 million. Ms. Gooding offered $1.05 million. Her only concern was the possibility of construction nearby.

When she finally heard back, the agent said the offer was so low as to be “out of touch.” The apartment sat on the market for a year and finally sold this summer for $1.075 million.

a better quote that I’d like to have overheard
Zing! That “out of touch” is a good quote, but the conversation I would like to see reported is the one between that agent and that seller. Maybe the seller agreed about the touchiness of the $1.05mm offer (which presumably would have been raised); but maybe not. I sure hope the seller knew about the offer.

on further review
I dislike short posts (I need to get over that), so — having written this much — it took only a little digging to find the apartment, which was offered for $1.6mm for only a short while. I will not identify the unit because this is a snarky post, but here is the listing history:

In defense of the agent, the real story is not quite what the NYT story implies — though The Quote is priceless. In reality, agent and seller recognized in 6 weeks that they were at the wrong price, although it did take six months to get to a price that would generate a (deeply discounted) contract. I wonder at what point they tried to find Ms. Gooding and her $1.05mm ….

If the oh-so-quotable listing agent has half a brain, she will refrain from defending herself publicly.

© Sandy Mattingly 2009