We were delighted to help a family make their move downtown recently. It was a lovely 1600 square foot, three-bedroom, three bath home with one of the largest terraces that you’ll ever see in an apartment.

The only problem?

A healthy dose of overoptimism before we can on the scene. You see, we were the third agent that the sellers hired to sell their home. Now the cliche that I’ve heard before is this: “I want to be your first love, your second wife, and your third real estate agent.”

There’s a little to unpack here, but it’s more of the same. By the time a seller has gotten to their third agent, the thinking goes, they are more realistic with their pricing.

I don’t think that was the case here, though. I have to put the pricing blame on the first two agents. The first agent swore that they would get close to $3,950,000 for their apartment in early 2022. It sat for nearly a year. The second agent was a little less excited, but thought a $3.5mm asking price might do it. When they took it off the market in May of 2023, having dropped the price to $3,100,000, they admitted defeat.

Both times, they were going on the recommendations of the agents they hired. Would the third time be the charm? We thought $2,995,000 might be the right level, but were asking them to do more than just lower the price:

• Repaint a large portion of the apartment
• Restage the living room, and outdoor space
• Touch up cabinetry in the kitchen
• Repair and replace flooring throughout

Even we were a little bit off with pricing. When we launched in late September 2023, we had headwinds in the market. Our launch nearly coincided with the tragic events of October 7th in Israel, when the market in New York took a big, deep breath. By the time we emerged in late 2023, we had lowered the price to $2,795,000. And the charming finally began.

We had one deal go sideways. That had more to do with the couple not being aligned on what they wanted; the newly-married couple, each had different ideas of location. I admit it didn’t bode well for the marriage, in my view!

Ultimately, we sold the apartment for $2,550,000, $1,400,000 lower than their original asking price. I would note that they paid $2,325,000 in 2008. After closing costs, their walk away number was—get this— $2,345,000. That’s $20,000 more than they had paid in 2008, 16 years before.

Should they be happy? Sad? Our sellers were happy to make their move into a new apartment downtown. They were willing to break even in order to fulfill this dream.

How about the buyer? Was it a great deal for them? We’ll have to see how things shake out, but I’ll say that the buyers were quite happy at the closing table. I imagine they feel quite excited to enjoy their terrace this spring and summer.

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