THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, April 3, 2020 |M5
MANSION
Alexander of Douglas Elliman said
he saw a flurry of deals rushed
through last month, as clients
looked to relocate to Florida amid
the outbreak. His team has closed
four sizable deals since March 13,
including a $13.8 million condo sale
at the new Zaha Hadid-designed
building in Miami. Some buyers
planned to move in immediately.
“People were like, ‘I want to
close ASAP because this is a better
place for me to be quarantined,’ ”
Mr. Alexander said. “If you’re
cooped up in your apartment
somewhere in Chicago or Detroit
you think, ‘I wish I had a big
house in Miami right now,’ where
I can sit out by my pool while still
being close to a major hospital.”
One homeowner in the Hamp-
tons, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said he had been of-
fered $500,000 by a renter to take
over his nine-bedroom Watermill
mansion through Memorial Day, but
he had to say no as he and his fam-
ily had nowhere else to stay.
In Los Angeles, agents said they
haven’t yet seen buyers try to re-
nege, but sellers are already more
willing to negotiate on price.
Branden Williams of Hilton &
Hyland said he had two deals
close last week for around $10
million apiece. One buyer was
able to renegotiate based on an
appraisal last week, and got a 15%
discount, he said.
Ben Bacal, an agent with RevelReal Estate, said he’s received
calls from buyers looking for dis-
counts on major listings. “Typi-
cally, I would never approach my
sellers with these offers, but now
a handful of my sellers are open
to them,” he said.
While sellers aren’t taking list-
ings off the market—Zillow re-
ported 34,639 listings priced at $2
million or above on the market as
of March 22, just 1.78% less than
March 1—agents don’t expect activ-
ity to last. Without the ability to
show, it is hard to sell, they said.
The numbers bear that out. Last
week, there were just two contracts
signed at $4 million and above in
Manhattan, according to Ms.Olshan’s report.
With cities across the country
shut down, showings were down
by nearly 58% across the country
as of March 31 from the early
March peak, according to data
from ShowingTime, a showing
management technology provider.
McKenzie Ryan, an agent with
Compass who sold a $7.2 million
townhouse in the West Village two
weeks ago, said she heard from
the seller after the closing. “He
said, ‘It looks like we sold just in
the nick of time,’ ” she said.THE TOP*
5
1. 40 Gramercy Park North
Neighborhood: Gramercy
Townhouse
6 bedrooms
7,200 square feet
Price: Went into contract
last asking $12.995 million
2. 601 Washington Street
Neighborhood: West Village
Condo
3 bedrooms
3,000 square feet
Price: Went into contract
last priced at $8.85 million
3. 421 Hudson Street
Neighborhood: West Village
Condo
4 bedrooms
5,517 square feet
Price: Went into contract
last priced at $8.65 million
4. 33 Vestry Street
Neighborhood: Tribeca
Condo
3 bedrooms
2,973 square feet
Price: Went into contract
last priced at $7.5 million
5. 225 West 17th Street
Neighborhood: Chelsea
Condo
5 bedrooms
3,444 square feet
Price: Went into contract
last priced at $6.75 million
*Five biggest New York City contracts
signed the week of March 22This West Village townhouse sold for $7.2 million on March 19. After the deal
closed, the seller said he was relieved it was completed in the nick of time.FROM LEFT: ANTHONY BEHAR/SIPA USA/ASSOCIATED PRESS; ALENA GRAFF; RISE MEDIA
A few buyers snapped up units at this new Zaha Hadid-designed building in Miami, above; Angelo Acquista and
Svetlana Aquista, above left, said they had to buy as they’d already sold their previous home on Park Avenue.years, backing out would risk los-
ing deposits of 20% to 25% if they
reneged, said appraiser Jonathan
Miller. That is a departure from
the last financial crisis, when buy-
ers were generally required to
make only 10% deposits, making
walking away a little easier.
Adam Leitman Bailey, a New
York real-estate attorney who
helped buyers wriggle out of con-
tracts in the last financial melt-
down using an old federal statute,
said he’s already faced a barrage of
calls from buyers looking to
get out of condo con-
tracts—and sellers
looking to enforce
them. It is early days
in figuring out how
many contracts will
stand, he said.
Agent Lisa Lipp-
man of Brown Harris
Stevens said she was
working on three deals last
week, including two where she al-
ready has accepted offers. The
apartments are priced at between
$2.5 million and $5 million.
“In all cases, the seller is taking
less than they hoped to get, but
that’s not really a change from the
past few months anyway,” she said,
referencing the recent softness in
the New York luxury market.
Then there are those in urban
areas rushing out to secure more
desirable quarantine destinations.
In Miami, real-estate agent Orenbalconies and views from the
George Washington Bridge to the
north to the Verrazzano Bridge to
the south.
“Corona or no corona, we
wouldn’t have gotten a lower
price,” Ms. Bernshtein said.
All over the country, moneyed
buyers continued to ink deals for
real estate through the middle of
March, even amid the uncertainty
of the pandemic and the stock-mar-
ket plunge. Some attempted to cap-
italize on the downturn by renego-
tiating prices at the 11th hour, while
sellers sought to expedite closings
before the market tanked further.
Agents, realizing that the mar-
ket would grind to a halt once
property showings were impossi-
ble, sought to get as many in-
progress deals across the finish
line as they could.
In the week ended March 22, 14
contracts on Manhattan units
priced at $4 million and up were
signed, according to a report by
Olshan Realty—relatively consis-
tent with the number of weekly
contracts signed at that price point
in February.
“I have found in my 40-year ca-
reer that the buyers who venture
out in the worst periods do the
best,” said Donna Olshan, the cre-
ator of the report and an agent.
“The recipe is cash and
balls: Throw in a very
low offer and see
what sticks. No guts.
No glory.”
One buyer sign-
ing a contract for
an Upper West Side
co-op for about $5
million moved to rene-
gotiate, and scored an-
other 4% off a deal that had
been agreed to 10 days previously,
said real-estate attorney Pierre
Debbas of Romer Debbas.
“Honestly, [sellers] took the bird
in the hand,” Mr. Debbas said. For
clients signing contracts today, Mr.
Debbas said his firm is adding a
“coronavirus clause” to contracts,
mandating that if the pandemic gets
in the way of the buyer obtaining fi-
nancing, the deal can be nullified.
For buyers who signed con-
tracts for new development units
in New York over the past several
Continued from page M1
Pandemic
14
CONTRACTS
for Manhattan units
priced $4 million or
more were signed
the week of
March 22.For those
seeking an exceptional life
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