Upper Manhattan
$260,000
604 Riverside Drive
1-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 670 sf co-op in a prewar elevator building; part-time doorman; concierge; unit has windowed kitchen, home office, hardwood floors; building has roof deck, laundry and storage facilities; maintenance: $542 per month; 34 percent tax-deductible; asking price: $260,000; 51 weeks on the market. (Broker: Gordon Voight, Barak Realty)
“There was nothing normal about this apartment. The way the building was designed, when you walked in the building you walked downstairs to the unit, even though it was supposed to be on the ground floor. It had courtyard views, and many women were uncomfortable with it — they felt underground or unsafe. It took me about a year to sell because we were too high with the price to begin with, at $350,000. But it was very private, with concrete reinforced walls, so you could have parties and no one would ever hear you. We actually went into contract at $275,000, but then the appraisal came in real low at $245,000, so that drove the price down and we settled at $260,000.” — Gordon Voight, Barak Realty
Mary Lou Currier, Century 21 NY Metro
Upper West Side
$850,000
243 West End Avenue
1-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 850 sf co-op in a prewar elevator building; full-time doorman; penthouse unit is newly renovated with wood-burning fireplace, original moldings and 1,000-square-foot terrace; building has live-in super and laundry facilities; maintenance: $2,002 per month; 50 percent tax-deductible; asking price: $890,000; 40 weeks on the market. (Brokers: Mary Lou Currier, Century 21 NY Metro; Miki Fiegel, Miki Fiegel Real Estate)
“I could have sold this apartment four times except that the building has a no-dogs policy. Guys weren’t really that drawn to it, but a lot of women, including one famous actress, were like, ‘This is heaven.’ When I first put it on the market, we had two accepted offers at very close to ask that fell through because of the dog thing. Then the next-door neighbor decided to put her apartment on the market because she knew that she’d get a better price through a joint sale than she would on her own. She wasn’t my client, but she was making a smart decision — it might have been another 10 years before this opportunity would come up again. Her apartment was smaller and unrenovated, whereas my seller was an investor who buys foreclosed apartments and renovates them, so my listing was in mint condition. The showings and negotiations were all separate, but the buyer wound up getting two apartments that could be combined for about $1.6 million, and the seller next door did very well.” — Mary Lou Currier, Century 21 NY Metro
47 N. 4th Street
Williamsburg
$514,500
47 N. 4th Street
1-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 775 sf condo in a new high-rise building (Northside Piers II); unit has views of the East River and the Manhattan skyline; building has indoor pool, roof deck, fitness center and parking; common charges: $525.25 per month; taxes: $5.83 per month (abated); asking price: $542,900; two weeks on the market. (Brokers: Northside Piers Sales Center; Angela Ward, City Connections Realty)
“I had been working with this client’s older brother for months, and I’d been all over Brooklyn with him — in every new development from Downtown to Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope. The older brother put in an offer at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, but the sponsors weren’t budging on their prices to where we thought that they would. When that fell through, I suggested Williamsburg, and that’s when his younger brother hopped on board. After a couple of weeks, they both put in offers at Northside Piers. It’s not like they always had the intention of living in the same building, but they got excited about the project and the possibility of living together.” — Angela Ward, City Connections Realty
Compiled by Sarabeth Sanders