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!

Where Are They Now?: 90 William

When we last visited 90 William back in May 2009 - a mostly sold FiDi conversion that was much much maligned for cheap finishes and dark apartments - we commented on how well-priced the building was (even back then) which was somewhat appropriate given the cave-like spaces.

And here we are, almost one year later and 90 William is...well, SOLD. For the most part, Corcoran has actually managed to sell almost all of the sponsor units, including even the dark as shit available "H" line apartments, which are basically hallways with a window at the end. Of course, most of the units sold at significant discounts to the ask. Notably, the most desirable units (the "A" and "B" line two bedrooms that actually get sun and where you can't do an easy spidey jump out of your window to the neighboring building) sold for the greatest discounts to the ask (usually more than 10% off). We're guessing this had something to do with financing availability (in 2009, someone buying an apartment for greater than $800k had to come up with a lot of cash) but who knows.

Incidentally, #14D, a resale unit that we visited but never wrote about, surprisingly sold for $620k, which was the asking price. This apartment is basically a history of the financial crisis in a single unit. It was purchased in early 2009 for $751k after going into contract (we believe) sometime in 2007 (can you say 'dragged to the closing table'?). The buyer then put the unit back on the market 4 months later at $599k and eventually closed for $620k. The seller's agent kept telling us that this one was "not a short sale", which is true, but only because the buyer put down more than $300k (ouch) on the original transaction.

We've always thought 90 William was a good deal and we aren't particularly surprised that the building has sold out. The fact that there are no washers and dryers in the units and that the "be@spot Sky Deck" come on, seriously is really, really small kept us away from this building, but otherwise kudos 90 William. You can finally break out that champagne that's been chilling since 2007.

90 William St (Be@William)

Although we are instinctively turned off by any development that has special characters in the name ("Be@William", are you a .com?), we were certainly attracted to the low price per sq ft of this well-timed conversion in one of our favorite areas of the Financial District. Because sales started here in 2007, this building managed to avoid the fate of our favorite zombie condo 20 Pine and has actually managed to sell most of it's units.

What's left over however, is tough to be @, as we wandered through dark unit after dark unit wishing that some sun would also be @ William. Five of the listed units (and we think actually more than that) are the ominous "H" line, long, dark units in the back of the building with two tiny windows that each face directly on to a soulless neighboring office building. Although they are priced attractively at under $700 per sq ft, we found it hard to imagine ourselves living in what looks like an Ikea showroom, with the same cheap fixtures and warehouse feel.

The white on white kitchen located inconveniently along a wall in the middle of the unit along with the inability to install a W/D (huh?) annoyed us even further. In fact, when we asked the icy cold Corcoran agent about installing a W/D (a standard question for us, particularly in a new conversion), she responded by saying that the 90% of people who already bought units were "happy without one" (whatever).

On the bright side (literally), it looks like there might be some price movement in the few units that actually are liveable here, namely the gorgeous West-facing 2BR, 2BA "A" line. These units face William St. (the only direction in this building where the sun is @) and we note with some level of excitement that one recently sold for just $875,000. While not a bargain, it's a step in the right direction.