Selling Your Home in Bayside, Queens, NY

Early in my career, while I was living and working in Bayside, I came across two renovated Fannie Mae REO co-ops that had been sitting on the market for approximately two years. They were renovated, reasonably attractive and offered at good prices. But by then, the amount of time they had been on the market had become a problem of its own. Buyers were looking at them and thinking: if these units are renovated and priced this well, why hasn’t anybody bought them?

One of the things that initially caught my attention was the unusually high buyer-agent compensation being offered through the MLS at the time—approximately 5%, by my recollection. This happened under the older MLS compensation rules. I do not want to pretend that the compensation was irrelevant. It got my attention. But once I looked closer, I saw that the real problem was not finding people who liked the units. It was finding buyers who could satisfy the cooperative’s requirements.

Instead of continuing to show the units and hoping someone eventually qualified, I went directly to the building’s management. I brought pizza and donuts and basically said, teach me exactly what you want from a buyer. They explained the building’s income, credit, financial and application requirements.

Once I understood those requirements, I could evaluate my leads differently. I stopped looking only for people who wanted the co-ops and started looking for people whose documented financial circumstances appeared to fit the building. By my recollection, I found suitable buyers for both units within roughly two to three weeks each. The REO listing broker later tried to recruit me.

This is still how I approach real estate problems. I want to know what is actually causing the property not to sell. In this case, the surface problem was two units with approximately two years of market time. The actual problem was that interested buyers were not being matched to the building’s qualification requirements. Once I understood the mechanism, I could change the approach.

The owner of 50-32 232nd Street, a Bayside-area property identified publicly as Oakland Gardens, NY 11364, was facing foreclosure after a previous attempt to sell the house did not work. His grandson encouraged him to contact me and give me an opportunity to handle the sale.

The previous listing began at $949,000 and was removed after 99 days without selling. When I met with the owner, I explained that I believed the house was worth approximately $850,000. He wanted to remain closer to $875,000, so we agreed to list it at $874,888.

The house was dated and had significant deferred maintenance. We did not renovate or repair it before listing. Instead, I recommended selling it as-is at a price designed to bring buyers through the door and create competition.

We used new listing photographs and concentrated the initial showings into one weekend. Buyers were invited to attend from 12:00 to 2:00 on Saturday and again from 12:00 to 2:00 on Sunday. This allowed interested buyers to see that other people were seriously considering the same property instead of experiencing isolated private appointments with no understanding of the competition.

The property received multiple offers and went pending on June 28, 2018—18 calendar days after my listing began. It closed for $900,000 on January 10, 2019, which was $25,112 above our asking price.

The fast part of this result was the marketing period and the time required to secure a buyer. The closing itself took longer. The completed sale allowed the owner to resolve the foreclosure and preserve the remaining equity in the property.

The lesson is not that every seller should lower the price. The lesson is that the price, presentation and showing strategy have to work together. An ambitious asking price does not protect a seller if it prevents the market from responding.