Archive for the 'reality tv' category

"My name is Chris, and I'm a 'Selling New Yorkaholic'".

Seriously, I feel like I need a support group.  Have you ever seen Selling New York on HGTV?  If not, you need to.  It's a "reality" show about the New York City (primarily Manhattan) residential real estate market.  I put reality in quotes because the world of Manhattan real estate might as well be another planet.

The show focuses on three different real estate companies and shows their agents as they list and sell real estate.  You've got CORE, which is the new boutique brokerage in town.  You've got the established two generation power family - the Kleiers - of Gumley Haft Kleier, the mother and daughters of the family seemingly conjured right out of central casting.  And you've got Warburg, another established brokerage added for this season (season two) but they seem to get the least face time of the three firms.

Watching this show, I can't believe the prices of the properties and I can't believe who is buying them.  More often than not, if you see an 800 sq ft "apartment" (here in MA, we'd call them condos or co-ops) for sale with 1 bedroom and 1 bath, you're talking an $850,000-$1,000,000 price tag.  Move up to 2,000 square feet and now you're talking $1.8-$2.2 million and sometimes much more than that.  And many of these properties are located in buildings with all the luxury amenities including doormen, and the condo fees alone can run in the thousands of dollars per month.

Once you've seen a few episodes, you find your expectations and point of reference changing without realizing it.  During one episode, when they gave the price of a 2,200 sq ft apartment and it was something like $1.4 million, my wife leaned over and said "that's actually a pretty good price".  About 5 seconds later, she leaned over again and said "I can't believe I just said that".

As an agent, I can tell you that it gets me thinking and the competitive juices start to flow, and I start contemplating relocating the family to New York.  But that only lasts for a second.  I mean, it's Bizarro World, and I think my head would explode.  I'd be slapping buyers and telling them "for $1.4 million let's go to the suburbs and I'll sell you a big colonial on an acre".

But having said that, I have to say that I really respect the agents on the show and can only imagine the pressures of that marketplace, and the demands placed on them by the buyers and sellers as well.

Anyway, if you've been entertained by this, go DVR a few episodes and check them out.  I promise you won't be disappointed.