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PARUL: So, what about the piano? Who plays?
PURVI: It was a gift from the previous owner, actually.
You know Moby, the musician?
MARCO: Once I sell this property,
that will free me up to buy a place in the city.
PARUL: My challenge here -- to get brokers from Manhattan
to make the trek to actually see this one home.
I'm here on the Upper West Side, and I'm meeting with Nancy.
So, the kitchen, you know, obviously, it's dated.
Look at the difference when we pull back these sheers.
It's true. It's a lot more light.
Not only do I have things that are in my control within the apartment,
but I've got stuff that's out of my control out in that hallway.
I've got a very small window to get this apartment on the market.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
That's a much better counter-offer.
Today, I'm meeting Marco and Purvi.
They're new clients referred to me by a friend.
They currently rent in the city,
but they're ready to start looking for an apartment to buy.
MARCO: I like Chelsea.
It's the one neighborhood in downtown
that I haven't lived in yet.
Maybe it's time now.
I'm a hedge-fund manager.
We rent an apartment in the East Village currently.
PURVI: We want something that's loft-like,
that has tons of light,
and just a big, open space, 'cause we love to entertain.
So, something that also has a great kitchen.
Hi, Vince.
How are you doing?
Good. Nice seeing you again.
Hey, Marco. How are you?
Good. Thank you.
Vince Smith from Halstead Property. How are you?
Good. Welcome to 217.
It's a three-bedroom, two-bath.
And if I can be of any assistance during your tour,
please let me know.
PARUL: So, what I love about this apartment
is this north/south exposure.
I agree.
Just continues to make the place feel so light and airy.
You've got a view of the Empire State Building.
I love the open kitchen here.
PURVI: Mm-hmm.
Let me take you to the master.
This master is a real master.
It's not a tiny, New York City master.
You've got plenty of closet space and a very large bathroom.
I think that, you know, when a new buyer walks in
looking for an apartment for the first time with a new broker,
they really want to know that I can hit the mark
and that I really did listen
to what it is that they were looking for
and provided them with something that makes them comfortable,
that I understand their needs.
So, from what we've talked about,
it seems that this space is a really good fit for you.
MARCO: Yeah, I think we really like it.
PURVI: Yeah, we really like it.
You did a great job.
But there's one little hitch.
Uh-huh.
Before I move ahead and buy something in the city,
I have a property in the Hudson Valley
that I'd like to sell first.
Oh, okay.
I originally purchased the house with my ex-wife back in 2006.
So, I'm trying to tie up some loose ends now.
I don't spend as much time there.
I'm spending more time in the city these days.
Do you think you could help me?
I mean, I'm so flattered that you'd want my help to sell that.
However, I really am pretty focused in Manhattan.
In any case, you know, whether I'm a good fit or not,
I would just love to come take a look at the place
and give you just a real assessment
of what I think that should be done to market it.
Can we schedule something?
Yeah, let's get our schedules together.
Great. So, do you guys want to grab some lunch?
We'd love to.
Let's go do that.
ANN: So, I'm here on the Upper West Side at 90 Riverside Drive,
which is one of the best buildings in the city.
And I'm meeting with Nancy.
She's just hired me, actually, over the phone
because I've sold so many apartments in the building.
So, I'm really excited about getting in there
and letting her know what it is that we need to do to it
to be able to kind of make it look its best
and to be able to sell for top dollar.
Yeah, I don't think it will take that long.
All right, I'll be ready to leave -- Yeah, around then.
We're selling the home because it's large
and we have a second home in New Paltz, New York.
And we don't need this much space.
Hi, Nancy.
Nice to meet you.
I feel the same.
I'm a painter, and my husband was nice enough
to build me a beautiful studio in our barn.
And so I'm now fully committed to my country life.
I love it there.
And I'm never in the city.
See, now, I love the size of these rooms.
They're so great.
So, the kitchen, you know, obviously, it's dated.
Was this done when you moved in?
Okay.
This, somebody could move in,
and obviously, they'd probably want to change it eventually.
They can move in, live with it the way it is.
Exactly.
So, bedroom number two.
So, this is great. So, you've got the bathroom off of here.
And I know there's a big closet, right?
Full bathroom, big closet.
And I love your built-ins. They're great.
It's really a nice space for an office or a second bedroom.
Here, you know, I see why you did the sheers.
But, you know, look at the difference
when we pull back these sheers.
It's true. It's a lot more light.
I mean, and you got, you know, kind of an open view here.
So, I think that we need to take
a lot of these window treatments down,
switch them out for some other things that are lighter,
and then also just take some of them off completely.
ANN: By Nancy being as open to my suggestions,
as a person that's been doing this for 30 years,
I absolutely think that we can maximize the amount of money
that she's gonna get from this apartment.
But most importantly, we have to get it on quick,
'cause there's very little inventory,
and that will also drive the price higher.
So, when you come out of these doors,
you want to have this landing looking great.
So, I think we need to just brighten up the paint a little bit.
I've worked in the building a lot. I know the super.
I've got a very small window to get this apartment on the market.
Not only do I have things
that are in my control within the apartment,
but I've got stuff that's out of my control out in that hallway.
So I've got to get on it.
Because if we wait, it's probably gonna cost Nancy money.
I'd like to do it at a $1,650,000.
I think that's the way to go.
If we get push-back from the market, we'll know quickly.
I feel completely confident with you.
Oh, you're so sweet.
So I'm very happy about the whole thing.
Well, thank you very much.
But thank me when we're at the closing table, right?
'Cause I've got my work cut out for me.
ANN: Now, the whole building's in such beautiful shape,
and I know that, kind of,
the owners have to get together to do their own hallways.
And this just needs a little bit of a pop.
ANN: I'm here at 90 Riverside Drive
to meet with the super of the building, Michael.
I'm here to help my clients, Nancy and Richard,
get their apartment together --
but not only their apartment, but their hallways, as well.
If we could get it painted,
and then some of these doors just need to be touched up.
Like, some of the -- Just do them in a darker color.
MICHAEL: It's not that unusual that somebody
asks us to freshen up the hallways
because this is a co-op building.
So everybody has to be in agreeance with the colors
and what they like to do in the hallway.
I've got one more thing. I've got blinds in there that --
Some of the blinds have to be taken out
and I need sheers put up.
I need, like, a big fan taken out of the kitchen window.
Could the guys help me with that, too?
Sure, probably be doing that myself.
Just may go faster.
Is there anybody better than you?
Every day in this market counts, and we want to be
one of the only games in town, so to speak,
so the sooner I can get this apartment on the market,
but make sure that it looks great when we do so,
the better for Nancy.
So, let's get you back to work.
Thank you for coming up so quickly. You're the best.
The best, the best.
MARCO: So, it's 33 acres, but it feels like a lot more.
PARUL: Today, I'm with my clients, Marco and Purvi,
at their Hudson Valley home.
Marco wants me to help them sell this home
before he can actually move on with his purchase in Manhattan.
PARUL: Thank you.
PURVI: Thanks.
Oh, my God.
You weren't kidding. This is incredible.
Exactly.
So, what about the piano? Who plays?
It was a gift from the previous owner, actually.
Oh, really? Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah, you know Moby, the musician?
Oh, interesting. Amazing.
I mean, I just feel like you'd be so inspired
playing music from this corner right here with the view.
I wish I could tell you what's that like,
but maybe the new owner --
I will give the piano to the new owner
Really?
Oh, that's a great thing to throw in with the house.
I think that's a great idea, yeah.
I'm trying to just simplify my life,
consolidate it in the city.
I used to spend a lot of time up here in the country.
Once I sell this property,
that will free me up to buy a place in the city that I love.
Well, let me show you the spa area.
No way.
Right. So, we got a hot tub here and a sauna.
And this is where we wake up every morning.
This is what we see.
PARUL: What's really at stake here
is that I'm stepping out of my comfort zone to help my client.
I just want to make sure that I'm able to do a great job.
I think the home is worth $4.5 million.
Yeah, no, I think that sounds reasonable to me,
and I think the market always dictates in the end.
But I also think that it would be really important for us
to have somebody locally representing, as well.
If we have someone local,
if there's, you know, a last-minute phone call
where somebody wants a showing,
it's going to take me an hour and a half at least
before I can get up here.
But I've heard of this woman, Jayne Morelock.
She seems to have a lot of listings in this area.
She seems to be really good at what she does.
If you're okay with that, I'll reach out to her
and see where we can take this further.
MARCO: I think it's a good idea,
'cause I think I'm gonna have two brokers now
that are working for me.
I think there's just more people, more resources,
more exposure that my house is gonna benefit from.
I think that, in order to get Manhattan buyers to get here,
first and foremost, it's really important for us
to get brokers buy in.
PARUL: It's also going to be the challenge.
It's going to be a challenge to get people to --
especially brokers --
to come up here and look at this place first.
I think that if the right brokers come up here,
take a look at this property,
they're going to see that they have buyers
who'd be perfect for this.
Well, I think whatever it takes to get people physically here
is the best way to sell this house.
So, Nancy, I'm gonna put the alternate floor plans here, too,
to show people how it can be,
you know, a three-bedroom, as well.
Perfect.
I'm here at my listing at 90 Riverside Drive
with the seller, Nancy, and the building's super, Michael,
who was so instrumental in helping us
get those last-minute details ready.
'Cause we're gonna be showing the apartment
any minute to buyers.
And we'll see what kind of response we get.
I love the hallway.
I know. It does.
The black doors are fabulous.
I know. Do the neighbors like it?
It looked crumby before. So this is nice.
I know. It's got that pop now.
Open this, and without those sheers up there,
♪ Here comes the sun ♪
Yeah, it looks nice.
It looks good.
It looks good. It looks light. It looks good.
Hopefully -- Are you gonna still move?
I am feeling a little sad about leaving the city.
And we'll miss the building, we'll miss the apartment,
but I think we have other things in store for us.
You know what? Would you do me a favor?
Could you just get these -- turn these on?
Michael, how you doing?
MICHAEL: Good. Just one more to do.
Good, good, good. Thank you so much.
You are amazing.
ANN: The window treatments are really key.
To be able to let the light shine in --
particularly because it's mostly interior views.
And we want to let them see that you have light
even though you don't have great views.
We've got somebody coming in like five minutes.
Oh, my gosh.
All right, so, I'm gonna clean up and get out of here.
You are a goddess. Thank you so much.
We turned this place around within a week.
This is the first time we have it on the market,
and I'm sure we're gonna get a great response.
[ Siren wails ]
PARUL: Jayne, thank you so much for coming down to the city
and making the trip.
I really appreciate you coming here.
Oh, no problem.
Seriously, I'll do anything to work with you
and get this house sold.
Today, I'm at the Core offices,
meeting with Jayne Morelock, a local broker from Putnam County,
in order to come up with a marketing strategy
to sell Marco and Purvi's home.
My challenge here is really going to be
to get brokers from Manhattan to make the trek
an hour, hour and 15 minutes
to Putnam County to actually see this one home.
And that's a little tough to do.
Maybe we could do a sunset cocktail party.
The foliage is coming.
It might be truly spectacular.
I just am a little concerned if brokers here
would come the whole way up there for cocktails.
It might not be enough of a draw.
What if we do a bit of a cocktail hour,
but then do a sit-down dinner with a personal chef?
Parul, I think that's a great idea.
If you can get a chef from down here,
I know I can get local brokers to come.
JAYNE: Doing this event, we're really offering the brokers
something special and unique,
and we're also kind of labeling them and saying,
"You know what? You're the top.
"You're invited here for a reason.
"We're not inviting everybody.
We're inviting you because of your past records."
Sounds great. So, you know what?
I'll work on getting a chef for the event.
And if you don't mind,
you can start planning some of the more logistical things
like where we're gonna get the stemware, so on and so forth.
Okay. Sounds great.
ANN: They use this as the master,
but the other bedroom does have another bathroom.
And is this a queen or a king?
No, that's a king.
Oh, wow.
I mean, it makes it look like a queen 'cause the room's so big.
ANN: 90 Riverside Drive is one of the premier buildings
not only on the Upper West Side, but in Manhattan.
The response, already, has been terrific.
We have four different appointments set
for the first hour that this apartment's on the market.
There's a washer and dryer over there behind those doors.
And the building allows it, which is nice.
NATALIE: The kitchen is a really nice size,
and it has a washer and dryer, which is very important.
It's a little bit dated,
but it's nothing that I can't live with.
I like the windows, how bright they are,
and how they sort of accented them with the balances.
I really like that detail.
I always do it in apartments like this.
Oh, are you in the design business?
Yes, I am. I'm an interior designer.
Oh, great. Oh, good.
So, then, you've got the vision.
Yes, yes. And tons of furniture.
Exactly. Well, that's good.
MARK: Light is a big thing for me.
I usually work from home.
That's where all my files are,
where a lot of my samples and stuff are.
The light in this apartment is really nice,
and that's what I really like about it.
What you can do is actually take the back part of this room.
And people have kind of put a divider.
They've made this kind of a den/TV room/office.
And then a dining area --
you can actually open up that wall there.
And so what's left of the formal dining room
kind of flows into --
Can open up.
That just gives us so many more possibilities if not right away,
definitely later on down the line.
I think it's great to have that option.
This is my favorite part, though,
'cause me and my mom are really big readers.
I know my mom would be really excited.
That really grabbed me from the moment I saw it.
And it was big. For a second bedroom,
I thought it was gonna be this little, tiny thing.
That was probably my favorite part of the whole apartment.
We were doing a little research.
There was a unit up above.
Right, for a lower price.
Do you know why that would have been?
Yeah, I mean, it was in the condition
that you really couldn't live with it the way that it was.
So, the views are not different,
and even though it's on a higher floor,
the condition of this apartment is much better.
This building is so desirable, in a great, great location.
I think now that we've shown that it actually does get light,
even though it's an interior apartment,
I think it's gonna also sell very quickly
and for more than the apartment upstairs.
I love it.
The master bedroom is oversized, as well.
I mean, look at how spacious this is.
You've got a bathroom off of here and an enormous closet.
PARUL: Hi.
How are you?
Thank you so much for coming.
Jayne, this is Emily and Brian Beare.
So nice to meet you.
Tonight's the event that Jayne and I have been working on
to promote Marco's property in the Hudson Valley.
Jayne is absolutely fantastic.
She's been nothing but helpful.
She's been doing such a great job
of really getting local brokers involved.
I don't know if I could have done it without her.
PARUL: So, guys, you have to see this master.
It's just unbelievable.
It's like a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.
Never.
And, so, I just know that you guys have the right buyer
in your back pocket.
EMILY: I think the house is absolutely stunning.
I really feel like I'm on vacation.
Over here, we have two other bedrooms.
You can see they're very interesting
and very different and unique.
They have high ceilings, skylights.
It's a special oasis up here.
The house is beautiful,
the space is bright and open,
and you just feel like you've gone away to a spa.
Everything's going great.
I'm getting such amazing, raving reviews.
Really? And I even took a tour to some of the Manhattan agents.
I was touring with them,
and he's taking pictures, e-mailing it to a client.
So, I was thrilled with that.
I love it. Love it. That's so great.
This whole thing seems so great.
PARUL: The dinner went very well.
We have a couple of very strong buyers,
actually, that seem quite interested.
So hopefully we'll get an offer.
But if not, this is just one event
of many things that we're going to have to do
to really keep the interest going,
keep the word spreading, and sell this place.
I was so excited to sit down
and talk to you about the event and how it went.
PARUL: Today, I'm back in the city,
meeting up with Marco and Purvi to discuss how the event went
up at their home in the Hudson Valley.
The event went so spectacularly.
I really just can't wait to give them all the good news.
Everyone was just completely shocked at how different
and elegant the event itself was,
but, even more importantly, how beautiful the home was.
This is all great, that a lot of people came to the party,
but where are we with the leads?
Emily Beare, my colleague from Core,
is bringing up two buyers to take a look at the place.
PURVI: Great.
So we'll be scheduling those appointments in the next week.
And, then, Jayne also had equally great feedback.
She has a broker from Dutchess County,
who is bringing a buyer this week,
has already made an appointment.
Leo Sossa from town, from the city, brought a buyer, Stefan.
Loved the home, loved the guest house,
and just loved the feeling that was, like, indoor/outdoors,
around the Jacuzzi and the spa.
So, you know, keep your fingers crossed.
I think we might have an offer coming
in the next couple of days.
We're, of course, going to continue to hold
more open houses and showings as they come up.
PURVI: Okay.
But, really, I think the most important thing
is to keep the word spreading.
Just spoke to a PR person to pitch a story
to Wall Street Journal to their mansion section
which they just started that's brand-new.
Looks like you've got all your bases covered.
You've got the agents, you've got the buyers,
you've got the press.
MARCO: I think Parul's doing a good job so far.
I'm seeing a lot of energy in marketing the house.
It's making me think that we should restart the search
for a place in the city.
I love the confidence of wanting to start to look again.
We definitely should.
PARUL: You know, what I love about this project
is that it is just something that is unexpected.
It's something different for me.
To get a challenge is such a great thing to do,
because it really just pushes you, personally, as a broker
and as a person to a different level
that you may not have ever expected.
Cheers.
Cheers.
You're gonna miss this place, I would imagine.
I'm gonna miss the neighborhood, yeah.
ANN: I'm here with Nancy in her neighborhood.
And I'm here to give her an update
on what's been happening with the apartment.
I am really excited about the feedback we've gotten.
I mean, seriously.
I think we've probably had 30-some-odd showings,
Oh, my God.
That's amazing.
And I really think that everything we did
has really made a big difference. I do.
Should I be worried that there are no offers?
No, don't be worried. Because you know what?
We've already had three second-showings.
I've had one person make an appointment for next week
Wow.
So this is all good. This is all good.
I would imagine that we're gonna have this thing sold --
I hate to say this thing and jinx it --
but I think that we'll have it sold definitely within the month.
The reaction that we've gotten from the buyers
that have come into the apartment
really have made it crystal-clear
that the changes that we made were important ones.
Traffic has been fantastic. We've shown it a ton of times.
We've even had second-showings.
So that gives me the indication that it is priced right
and it's gonna sell quickly.
We really appreciate it.
I hope you come and visit us in New Paltz.
Oh, I want to. That would be great.
And I really want to see all of your artwork.
I would really, really love to see it.
Great, great.
Let's go back to our apartment.
Since I've been spending so much time there,
I feel like I've basically been living in your apartment.
I hope you don't mind.