And Speaking of 90 William, Follow Us on the Journey of #5D on Bid On the City

Although we have both blogged in the past regarding listings on the "EBay" of real estate Bid On The City and also followed the experiences of other bloggers with the site, we'd like to get even more up close and personal with this "EBay" as we have always fantasized about buying an apartment at auction (admit it, you have too).

So, after noticing that apartment #5D at 90 William will be going up for auction on April 27, we've decided to follow the process from start to finish. We'll be at the open house and then we'll see how the bidding goes! (heck, we might even bid - the starting price of $579k isn't too bad although we don't see this one going for much higher).

For now, here are some thoughts on the Bid on The City listing:

- Minimum Bid: $579k Our Take - sounds like this is the "Reserve" price to us. If the seller actually gets a bid at $579k, we think he or she should take it. #4D (all of the "D" lines at 90 William are identical) sold for $575k in August of 2009, around 6 months ago. There is no reason to think that pricing has changed significantly since then - if anything, the market is probably a smidge lower. #14D sold for $620k earlier this month. Assuming that you think that each floor is worth around $4500 (sounds reasonable to us, maybe even a bit on the low side), then $579k again seems to be the absolute highest price that anyone should pay for #5D in this market.

- "Original Price": $695k Boy, do we like anyone who crosses stuff out as much as we do. Bid On The City lists the "Original Price", crossed out of course, as part of the listing. This tried and true strategy is similar to the 'ol "Half Off Lamps TODAY ONLY at Crazy Larry's" tactic, complete with an impossibly high price paired with a deep discount. So where do they get the Original Price? Well, it looks like it's the highest price that has ever been asked for the unit by the current sellers. In this case, it happens to be the original list price of $695k, even though the apartment was last listed for $670k on Streeteasy.

- The comp: For obvious reasons, the last price at which #5D sold is not listed on Bid on the City. #5D closed in June of 2008 for $656k. According to ACRIS records, the sellers put around 20% down, so any sales price less than $524k would make this a short sale. We're pretty confident though that it won't get to that point.

- The floorplans: Pretty darn snazzy and we love the cute addition of what looks like a partitioned bedroom in the unit. The unit itself is large but doesn't have a particularly partition-friendly layout.

We'll see you at the Open House on 4/18!