“Million Dollar Listing NY”: Sky-high expectations in a buyer’s market

Recap of season 6, episode 4

From left: Steve Gold, Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant
From left: Steve Gold, Fredrik Eklund and Ryan Serhant

On this week’s episode of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” our three heroes give us an exercise in stress management. Fredrik lands the project of a lifetime, but soon feels overwhelmed when he has to sell not one, but many multimillion-dollar apartments at once. Ryan watches two townhouse listings turn into one, while Steve gets smart with social media to turn the tide at an unstaged listing.

Here’s where we left off:

Going up! (in price)

With 25 Mercer in the rearview mirror, Fredrik is reaching for new heights — literally — at 45 West 22nd Street, an 83-unit condo tower in the Flatiron District. He’s beckoned by the building’s developer, Bruce Eichner, who bestows on him $400 million in unsold listings. Fredrik must physically restrain himself when he learns about the prospect of a $12 million commission… but such a big catch comes with a much bigger hitch. What remains are the tower’s priciest units. The first of eight full-floor condos is priced at $20 million, and each floor above it increases in price by $1 million. To top it all off, the two penthouses are asking $38 million and $48 million.

“Howard Lorber called me and he said, ‘Whatever he asks you, say yes and do it well,’” Fredrik says.

Though it doesn’t seem like Lorber is especially ecstatic when he finds out Fredrik has agreed to Eichner’s pricing structure. Perhaps he should have said no and ran for the hills? Nevertheless, Fredrik embarks on his quest to make Papa Lorber proud. This journey begins with a helicopter ride over Manhattan so he can capture the perfect views for his Instagram (strikethrough) for a big bash at the 45 East 22nd Street’s sales gallery. He focuses on selling the $20 million apartment before he pushes the pricier units on the higher floors. Lorber unexpectedly turns up during the sales soiree, and reminds Fredrik of all those ridiculously priced pads that he needed to sell, like yesterday.

This tower may too tall for even Fredrik to climb.

One for the price of two

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It looks like diverting buyers to the wider yet cheaper townhouse on 87th Street and Central Park West has paid off for Ryan. He meets with the seller Joseph, a considerably fresher breath of air from all the other chatty Kathys on the show, with an offer of $9 million. After some back and forth, Joseph is happy as a clam to walk away with $9.45 million, in what was probably the smoothest — albeit most boring — transaction in MDLNY history. On to the $11.5 million townhouse down the block, right? Wrong.

Shortly after the first home sells, Ryan meets with David, the seller of the 17-foot-wide townhouse, to convince him lower the asking price. He uses the $9.47 million townhouse — yep, the one that ruffled David’s feathers last episode — as a comp for the neighborhood. Even if the current price is a bit high, he should’ve known this would upset David, seeing as he was bothered by Ryan talking a similar listing on the same street. But rather than budging on the asking price, David decides to take the townhouse off the market.

“That’s not reducing the price — that’s the opposite,” Ryan says. “Now there’s no price!”

You got that right! Next stop for Ryan? Cuddle parties, pulling favors for relatives and apartment shopping with the so-called “Fat Jew.”

Me, my selfie and I

Steve finally accepts that the third-floor condo at 66 East 11th Street will never be staged, despite complaints from fellow Town Residential broker Dana Power and her client that it’s “showing small.” On top of that, the potential buyer wants new doors, reconfigured closets and a fireplace — without a price hike. After a contentious meeting between Steve and Ian at the gym, where very little exercise actually occurs, the developer reconsiders the price and drops the ask to $8.25 million. This gives Steve a bit more wiggle room.

Rather than focus his time and effort on the clients lining up for private showings, Steve has his assistant Jessica tag Dana and her client in a conga line of Instagram posts, boasting all the foot traffic through the apartment. It seems really annoying, because it is, but it also does the trick. Dana’s client finally puts an offer in at $8 million, but still wants that “stupid” fireplace… which also happens to cost a stupid $60,000. At first, Ian’s all like “come on bro,” but he looks like he’s ready to move on to badgering another real estate agent. Ian gives us his best poker face after calling the developer, but eventually concedes that they’re willing to move forward with the offer.

Way to go, bro!