From left: Some of this week’s top brokers are Kirk Henckels, Alexa Lambert, Karen Foley (Sebiri), Jed Garfield and Daniela Kunen

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From left: Some of this week’s top brokers are Liora Yalof, Maria Pashby, Robert Browne, Alexa Lambert and Richard Orenstein

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Core’s Michael Graves and 225 West 11th Street

Though fitting for a client who’s known for using pseudonyms, the marketing technique used by the seller’s brokers for a West Village townhouse was unconventional, if not downright foolish. At least that’s what Michael Graves of Core was told as he marketed 225 West 11th Street on behalf of owner Robert Rosenblum, a novelist with 30 published works under various names, including “The Religion,” which was made into a movie starring Martin Sheen. But today he was vindicated, as the sale of the home closed for $7.83 million.

Graves refused to use signage outside of the 3,600-square-foot, seven-bedroom, five-bathroom home, dressed down the listing to the bare minimum, declining even to include photos of the home’s interior despite its $8.35 million asking price (note: correction appended). Graves also barred the cameras of “Selling New York” to enter the home, even though he had been regularly working with the show, to maintain the listing’s intrigue. [more]

Tribeca’s inventory shortage has helped salvage the troubled Tribeca Skylofts condominium at 145 Hudson Street, according to the Observer. The 14-story building, purchased in 1996 by developer Stanley Scott, launched sales for 22 condominium units on the top four floors in 2002. But the duplex penthouse was so large it exceeded Landmarks Preservation Commission filings, and had to be reworked, before eventually being bought at a then-record downtown price of $30.5 million by William Duker. However, that construction delayed the sale of a second round of nine condos on the three floors directly below the first round. (The building’s first seven floors consist exclusively of commercial condos.) Buyers deposits were refunded, and the units first returned to the market this spring. The two-, three-, and four-bedroom units, ranging in price from $3.5 million to $7.3 million are now completely sold out at an average price just less than $1,900 per square foot, despite residing in a building without any amenities typical of newer high-end stock. Real estate insiders credited the paucity of available Tribeca inventory. [more]

The Real Deal has ranked the top listing agents of the week based on the highest priced residential deals filed with the city.

Some of the top agents of the week, from left: Fritzi Kallop, Maria Pashby, Alexa Lambert, Iris Marden, Eileen Teich, Joanna Pashby and Cornelia Zagat Eland

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From left: P. Diddy, his former home at 807 Park Avenue, three
Stribling agents who rented the units there, from top: Tim Desmond,
Alexa Lambert, and Linda Melnick

P. Diddy’s former home provided plenty of bling for Stribling in 2009. The mogul’s onetime Park Avenue pad is now a 25-foot-wide limestone
doorman rental building, known as 807 Park Avenue, with three
townhouse-style residences. This year, Stribling’s Alexa Lambert, Tim Desmond and Linda Melnick
rented the building’s Townhouse II for $40,000 per month, the firm
said. It was Stribling’s largest rental deal of 2009. Also this year, the three agents rented the building’s penthouse,
Townhouse III, for $38,000 a month, and Townhouse 1 went for $32,000,
according to Desmond. The three four-story units share a lobby, but
each has its own private elevator. In a sign of how far the high-end rental market has fallen, however,
those rents have dropped significantly since the first time they were
rented in 2008, after the project failed to sell as a condo.
Comments

From the December issue: Everyone loves cash. Nothing new there. But in this market, cash deals are even sweeter. In some cases, a onetime payment could even be the only way to close a sale, according to brokers, attorneys and developers. And discounts often await all-cash buyers. There are other benefits: less paperwork and fewer delays in getting deals done. No long waits for banks to pore over buyers’ financial records, only to reject them on the eve of closing. “Cash used to be king, but now it’s the emperor,” said Luigi Rosabianca, a real estate attorney who says 50 percent of his clients have paid cash so far this year versus 20 percent in 2007 at the market’s peak. The exact number of cash deals is difficult to determine; property records on file with the city’s Department of Finance don’t specify how apartments are paid for. And the sheer number of cash deals doesn’t seem to be increasing, as the volume of all deals remains depressed.

The Real Deal has ranked the top listing agents of the week based on the highest priced residential deals filed with the city.

[more]

The Real Deal has ranked the top residential listing agents of the week based on the highest priced residential deals filed with the city.

[more]