(FSBO stands for For Sale By Owner. This one won't win any home decorating contest, but the space is TINY and could be amazing in the right hands (and at the right price). Readers may submit FSBO's to editor(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com and put "FSBO" in the subject line.)
Location: 211 Thompson Street
Size: 400 sf 3 Rooms & 1 Bath (really one big open room)
Price: $399,000
Contact: Ryan or Val 917-886-3082
Website: www.apartment5m.com
Pitch: 5M features approximately 400 square feet of imminently practical and charming living space. Although just a studio, 5M's split-level design makes it possible to easily divide your living and sleeping areas and create unique spaces. (Our current setup allows us to host as many as five guests comfortably in the lower-level living area alone.)
Bright Split-level Central Village Co-op
The kitchen includes new (2 yr old) appliances plus ample cabinet and counter space. The bathroom features loads of shelf and cabinet space, plus all new tile, faucet and lighting fixtures. A small foyer area between the front door and kitchen includes wall hooks and shelves for hanging coats or storing small items.
5M's eastern exposure and location on a high floor allow continuous sunlight to drench the living space at all hours of the day.
The apartment underwent a full gut rehab in 2004. All floors, walls, electrical and plumbing fixtures are next to brand new.
CLOSETS & STORAGE
5M features 4 closets, cabinets galore, hanging shelves and built-in wall bookshelves. You'll find more cubic feet of storage space in 5M than most apartments twice its size.
TRANSPORTATION
The A, C, E, B, Q, F, N, R, 1, 9 and 6 trains are all within 5-10 minutes walking distance.
OTHER AMENITIES
Juliet balcony overlooking Thompson Street and Washington Square Park. Part-time doorman, live-in superintendent, washer and dryer on each floor, DirecTV and XM satellite radio included in maintenance.
Once one has contemplates paying $1,000 a square foot for a tiny apartment with few interesting architectural features, one sees why so many Smallest Coolest entrants end up knowing the IKEA clerks by name.
Yeah, I know this is the going rate in NYC... as our local prices scoot closer to yours, I should be buying stock in whoever makes Top Ramen.
okay, i now know i am officially warped by nyc real estate...i really find myself thinking that this is not such a bad deal at all for such a fantastic location. great idea wende, top ramen it is!
actually, if all of the above in the description is accurante, this really isn't such a bad deal for nyc. what a great location and with some love it could be really quite cute.
What scares me is that it's not a bad deal. I have great faith that it's not a bad deal. For one thing, it's not a handyman special!
Every time husband and I have compared salaries in our fields, NYC is no higher than SFO (and sometimes a tad lower), yet your real estate is running about 30% higher than our Make the Ramen Cup Last Two Meals prices.
To cheer people up about NYC prices, here's the depressing end of the Bay Area market (not my blog, I promise):
http://www.marinpos.blogspot.com/
Am I reading this right? "Maintenance: $575/month"
$575 a month on top of a mortgage!?
Wow. Nearly half a million and no washer/dryer. No pets. Wow.
It's a whole different world in NYC!
And, sadly, that is really decent maintenance...
And "washer and dryer on every floor" is better than most...
But yes, warped.
Warped, yes -- but if you lived here in the early 90's, then you know things can change -- and will!
I like this entry a lot. It's real, it's how people live, it's clean, simple, efficient and unassuming, embraced by a raw brick view topped with a souffle slice of sky. This glimpse into apartment life kind of breaks the stylistic chain with its organic edges. Me like. I also like the lack of yellow. Lots o' yellow in recent entries...
Never mind. This is not a contest entry. *smacks head* That's what happens when you leave the page up for a while and think you're doing one thing when it's really another.
It should be an entry, tho, imho...
And there'll be a Duane Reade around the corner on Bleeker soon. Just walked past today and saw the familiar shelving being installed. Competition for the CVS across the street.
I *wish* we had a washer/dryer room in our building. Laundry can be an awfully inconvient chore here.
yet another duane reade? now that's just what we need.
yes but wende, don't forget, the usual compare and contrast east coast west coast circumstances -- nyc usually = no car, no car payments, no car insurance. yea, real estate is cuckoo here and it's expensive to live here, but you work it out somehow. sf ain't a lot cheaper and for some of us, like me, i lived there for two years and sure didn't find it to be that wonderful haven so many people think it is. the slightly, barely noticeably smaller mortgage just didn't make up for everything else i found lacking in that city by the bay. i left it easily and have never looked back and now i have a sizeable mortgage and am delighted that a higher salary brought me back to nyc.
bbjm -- Good points, except that my cost calculations for SF were already excluding car because most condos we've seen don't include deeded parking. So my price comparisons were carless-to-carless, where NYC real estate is at least 30% higher than SF, without higher wages to compensate. Not everyone has a car here. We do because I work in the far 'burbs where mass transit goeth not, but I know regular adults who don't have one.
If you want to convince me that NYC is so wonderful it's worth a premium to live there, there are days when I'd go for that (SF itself is a *lot* smaller and noticeably less urbanized)... but sheesh, that's still a lot of money to come up with!
Actually there is no Duane Reade in the neighborhood. You'd have to walk over to Broadway & Houston or go up Sixth Avenue to find one. Now if we could just get a bookstore back around here, that would make things even better.
Nice location for not a half-bad price.
If it were mine, I'd flip the arrangement so I'd have a nice eating area (with TV) up top and a really decent bedroom down below.
I don't know five people and if I did they wouldn't stay with me!
But it is 5M and they don't mention an elevator (or do they)? That may be an issue.
This discussion of NY housing prices is making me feel better. We are nervously thinking of bidding on a house in Toronto this week with three bedrooms, a yard and a finished basement for the same price as this apartment!
This is a screaming good deal for the neighborhood! 399K? That's IT? I mean, that's considerably under half a million dollars. And for that price, I guarantee ya, it's a walk-up.
And high maintenance costs come with the territory with NYC co-ops.
Don't get me wrong, I still couldn't afford it, but it is a great price for central Village.
I remember there being a Duane Reade already on Thompson/Bleecker, right under the Margarita restaurant that closed due to a fire two-three years ago.
it might not win a design contest, but it would at least get honorable mention. i visited this place and 1. it does have an elevator and doorman, and 2. they've made this place a LOT bigger than it is by adding lots of storage and putting the abundant closets to maximum use.
My maintenence is $950 for a two bedroom, and my apartment probably costs twice that (on the UWS). I am drooling....
I wish I lived in the village - could buy a lot of ramen with the money I saved in late night (early morning) cabs alone!!
No, its not a design contest but this looks pretty spiff to me. They have obviously made maximum use of the space and the sensible floorplan seems to allow for a very practical division of living/sleeping space which is damn hard to do in a studio, let alone one this small. Price seems reasonable but note the 3% markup for clients with brokers. Seems to me to be the going rate for this kinda space.
You don't need a car in San Francisco. It is a very public-transportation friendly town.
San Francisco is wonderful. It has a good job market with highly competitive salaries, beautiful weather, wonderful views (the city is not just PRETTY, it's BEAUTIFUL), friendly people, overall cleanliness (both business and residential trash is required to go into trash cans instead of being thrown willy nilly onto the sidewalk...who'd da thunk?), and availability of real parkland and nature (instead of the man-made, gated and fenced-in garden we call Central Park).
Sigh. I miss it.
NYC's got a slightly better restaurant scene. Definitely better night life (which I am now too old to care about).
However, if you're into major media or fashion, NYC is the town to be.
Wow, this place makes me feel GREAT about the place I'm guying in SF. I think I'm going to send it to anyone who talks trash about SF real estate. (Mostly my family and friends in TX where $120K will buy you a 3bdr, 2ba, + gourmet kitchen with a yard. Mosquitos, heat waves and flooding are included in the property taxes for free.)
Oh please, you get what you pay for. I'll take a mosquito over an earthquake anyday.
You left coasters have a gift for ignoring the most glaring eye sores in your own back...nay, front yards. If you had a rusted semi on blocks in front of your east bay tract home, you'd rave about the 3 inch plug of green grass next to your blood-stained curb. Your city council apparently landmarked every apartment with linoleum kitchen tile and shag carpet. I've never seen so many vile 1970s interiors that should have been updated in, um, 1980.
At least in NY you get bricks and mortar without termites and plate tectonics taking swipes at the foundations of your overpriced shoeboxes.
Yasushee,
Have you seen some of the mid-rises in Manhattan? Have you not noticed the rodent and vermin problem on this island? Have you looked around a subway station recently?
We're comparing major urban center to major urban center (San Francisco vs. Manhattan). You're comparing Manhattan to the West Coast equivalent of a suburban borough. You're better off comparing Hayward/Oakland vs. the Bronx/Queens instead of Manhattan vs. Hayward/Oakland.
East Coast Apples vs. West Coast Apples please.
Thanks,
Thomas
I cannot imagine that anyone would be willing to pay half a million dollars plus almost six hundred a month for "up keep" for this place. I pay less than the "up keep" a month for my apartment and everything is included, including a bedroom. Around here that half a million dollars will get you a beautiful four or five bedroom century home or farm with five or six acres of land, that's entirely modernized, with a view of the ocean or beside it if you care for that...And that monthly fee of $575 would pay for heat, lights, water... etc. As much as I like NYC I would never pay to live there. I worry for you people who think this place is worth a half a million dollars...seems like you might all be a wee bit jaded...jeez.
this is a cooperative... so the fee includes his share of the property taxes (probably around 250/mo, which is low compaired to just across the river in nj where it would be twice that) it most likely includes heat and hotwater and an underlying mortgage, and a master insurance policy, water and sewer. you add up all that and tell me if its ok. its actually very good as a percentage of the cost of the apartment.
that said... if your going to live in nyc... this is the most accessible nabe to just about everything. here is all about location. i live i brooklyn and just bought at 280/sf. 2 stops closer to manhattan on the F and it goes up another 100. krazy, but its all about the hood.
For a cooperative property, it's priced too high. Condominiums in NYC average $1,000psf (per square foot) and offer amenities. This apartment should be priced somewhere between $299K and max $340K, especially since it is now a buyer's market. Yes, I am a real estate broker.