This Week in Comments

Could virtual doormen replace the real thing?
1.
Good! One less envelope to distribute at Christmas.
2. I love all my
doorman, even at Christmas.
3. A virtual broker would be good if you
were looking to buy a virtual home.

UES townhouse in contract
for $19.6M
Great… a
comparable sale at last.

Switching from sales to rentals? Think again.
Brokers switching from sales to rentals are usually a pain to deal with; they have no clue.

Buyers can get refunds at 22 Renwick
These guys know months, if not years, ahead when the TCO date is. It’s their fault for not having construction workers building around the clock to make sure the site is finished. On the other hand, I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for the buyers losing money on their contracts either. Buying pre-construction real estate is a speculative bet, just like putting money in the stock market. If you enter into a futures or swaps contract, you can’t just get out of it because the market went against you a few months later. Apparently in real estate you can.

Developers still banking on buyer, broker incentives
Azure
dropped prices and still no one is buying. Why? Because they haven’t
been dropped enough.

Toren seeks FHA financing, closings
expected
Appraisals
for Toren are coming [in at] 15 percent less than contract price.

Tony
residences showcased in HGTV realty reality show: slide show
I
was looking forward to the show, but it was not well done. Too staged.
Too phony.

Model agency founder and broker Paolo Zampolli sues Massey Knakal, others for $200K in commissions
If the broker introduced the buyer to that property, he is entitled to a commission. Hopefully he has e-mail communication with that buyer as proof that he brought the buyer [to] show the property.