Data is not always reliable. And it’s not always enough.

Studying it carefully—and ignoring what’s not helpful—may be the difference between winning and losing your dream home.

Our deal of the month was in an Upper East Side cooperative comprised of three buildings, where we have sold about twelve apartments over the last decade. So we know a lot about the units and the complex. This unit was the mirror image of another duplex which we had sold about two years ago for $1,600,000, located literally across the hall. On its face, it looked like the same apartment. In truth, there were a lot of differences between them that many buyers and their agents missed. This unit sold for $1,675,000. What accounted for the difference in price, when the market today was arguably far less strong than it was in early 2022?

Both relied on their agent’s experience to negotiate the best deal. But one agent knew when online research had to make way for their agent’s market knowledge.

The Losing Buyer

This buyer’s agent simply looked at the old listings and started his negotiations with a very low offer. I can understand. Judging by a quick online search, a buyer should have paid $1.6mm or less for this unit. What information couldn’t they have known from that cursory glance?

• The neighboring unit’s photos were misleading. The apartment was not in nearly the same condition as this new listing.
• The quality of this listing’s renovation was also much nicer.
• The older listing had sold for $1.6mm, yes, but the original contract price was $1.65mm. It only sold for $50,000 less because of a glitch in the timing; the seller had to close out an electrical permit that took an extra two months, and the buyer was about to walk away, just as mortgage rates were starting to rise.
• There was an appreciable difference in the way the apartment felt, too. That it, this new listing, with a much more open plan, was just a plan better apartment. You couldn’t tell that from a floorplan, either.

The negotiations took a long time, and the seller was actually close to accepting their offer. And then the kicker appeared: The buyer agent, who was used to doing more commercial sales and residential ones, hadn’t close a coop sale in more than thirty years! He had no idea how to prepare his buyer for that process. And that in and of itself scared the seller to death.

The nail in the coffin was when the buyer made an unreasonable demand: To be able to walk away if the coop board didn’t allow him to close in the name of an LLC. No amount of research is going to tell you that coop boards can ask for weird things. And no seller is going to put herself in a position to lose a deal in two months when they do.

This buyer had a three- or four-week headstart, and they still lost the race. Just as we were haggling over nonsensical negotiations, another buyer came in won the deal, and around the same price.

The Winning Buyer

This buyer’s agent was a breath of fresh air!

• He had seen the other unit when it was on the market
• He understood the difference in the quality of the renovations
• He understood that the low maintenance of this unit made it stand out even more at a time when most buildings are having to increase their monthly charges.
• He knew that his buyers would never be able to find a comparable unit like this elsewhere.
• He also knew how to win over this seller—by making it easy for her to say yes. The contract negotiations were rational and thoughtful, not crazy-making.

With all of that in mind, they swooped in and won the deal. The actual price was a tiny big lower than the other deal, but the seller couldn’t have been happier.

Congratulations to Jason Katz at the Modlin Group for bringing this buyer to the table, and for knowing when his experience was more important than online data. The former was most important to win the deal for his buyer. -Scott & The HRT