Round kaysen
07/26/2021 3:38 PM
Clarín.com
The New York Times International Weekly
Updated 07/26/2021 3:38 PM
In a housing market desperately short of stock, with prices skyrocketing, sellers can demand just about anything these days.
They can even demand the toilets.
High-tech toilets and luxury appliances are going with the vendors.
Photo AP Photo / Shizuo Kambayashi.
Toilets, especially
expensive self-cleaning bidets
, are one of the most popular items that end up in moving trucks, as salespeople take advantage of the sale.
Vendors also take their appliances, and not just the
high-end Viking kitchens
.
They demand mid-range refrigerators, stoves and dishwashers to avoid buying new ones at a time when these items can be backordered for months.
There are also
sentimental demands
, like the mantels and the fruit trees in the backyard;
A Manhattan couple insisted on keeping the sink where their daughter learned to brush her teeth 50 years ago.
Shoppers, dejected by incessant bidding wars, shrug their shoulders and move on.
What else can they do?
This is a world of salespeople and we all live in it.
"Salespeople have gotten more greedy," says Chase Landow, a salesman for Serhant in Manhattan.
"Good inventory is rather tight and they know they
can control
the show."
In June, the median home sales price across the country rose
25% year-on-year
to $ 386,888, while the number of homes for sale was
down 28%
from 2020, according to Redfin.
Homes that hit the market last month sold quickly - a typical one sold in 14 days - and 56% of them sold above the asking price.
Even in Manhattan, where the market was slow to recover from the pandemic, properties are moving rapidly again, with the number of sales increasing 152% in the second quarter of 2021, and the median sales price 13% higher than last year, according to a report by Douglas Elliman.
With so many buyers knocking on the door, sellers know that if one backs down, another will be waiting behind the scenes, probably with a better offer.
Comedians on
TikTok and YouTube
paint a comically bleak picture of the desperate buyer: If the family dog is handed over to you or the seller's children are paid college tuition, you might consider their offer.
Landow recently informed clients, the buyers of a $ 15.5 million apartment at the Carlton House on East 61st Street, that the sellers wanted to take the kitchen cabinets.
All of them.
"The question is what the hell are you doing with them?"
Landow said.
"I have no idea, that's why it's all very strange."
Sellers were willing to wait for their custom bamboo cabinets, which buyers really hated, until buyers renovated the kitchen, agreeing to come back and claim them
during the demolition.
So the buyers relented.
"This market is so crazy that you want to do what you can to keep the sellers happy," Landow said.
The deal closed in early July, with legacy cabinets and all.
In any market, it's not uncommon for buyers and sellers to argue over light fixtures, window treatments, and appliances, and million-dollar deals are sometimes rolled over for items that cost
a few thousand
.
Generally, anything that is attached to the walls (cabinets, sinks and toilets) is considered part of the sale, while removable items, such as lamps and mounted flat-screen televisions, fall into a
gray area
that is resolves during contract negotiations.
If an item is lost, it is usually replaced with a contractor quality equivalent.
But ultimately, a contract can include the terms that the buyer and seller agree to.
And this year, buyers are agreeing on a few things.
In East Hampton, the sellers of a $ 2.2 million home decided to keep
a couple of fruit trees
, even though their removal left two huge holes by the pool.
Even the sellers agent was confused.
"Where did that come from? The buyer gets scared, he's going to ruin the landscape," said Yorgos Tsibiridis, an associate agent for Compass, who represented the sellers in the deal.
The trees, about 1.80 meters high, were a gift from a grandfather to the children of the sellers and, in the end, they were an obstacle to the agreement.
"She said, 'No, if they don't let me take them, I'll cancel the contract,'" Tsibiridis recounted.
And so a
landscaper
recently showed up and dug up the trees in time for the closure, which is expected to take place in a few days.
There are other factors at play beyond the seizure of power.
Housing is scarce, but so are household appliances, furniture and building materials, as the global supply chain continues to falter during the recovery from the pandemic.
When sellers leave their homes, some look around and realize that they
may not be able to replace
the items they leave behind.
So why not take them away?
During negotiations for a two-bedroom condo in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, sellers insisted on keeping the kitchen appliances and the washer and dryer.
If buyers wanted them, they could pay $ 10,000, a premium for second-hand Samsung appliances.
Buyers were furious that this requirement was
not mentioned in the ad for
the $ 430,000 apartment.
"They found it very petty and cheap to include it at the last minute," said Jack Chiu, a Douglas Elliman associate broker who represents buyers.
He said they would have modified their offer if they had known that appliances were excluded.
"It came as a surprise to them."
Buyers considered other departments, but had gotten this one after winning an eight-party bidding war after eight months of disappointment.
"They were very tired because they had been outbid many times," Chiu said.
They agreed to let the sellers keep the appliances and signed the contract.
Buyers have started looking at appliances not to move into an apartment with a stripped kitchen, but their first priority is to secure a loan and get approval from the condo board so they can close the deal in September.
Other demands are purely
sentimental
.
On the Upper West Side, a couple who have lived in their condo apartment for decades looked at the Sherle Wagner lavatory where their daughter, now 52, learned to brush her teeth when she was little, and couldn't get rid of it.
The decorative pedestal lavatory is hand painted in pink and green and is shaped like a seashell.
"They know they have the upper hand," says Sheila Trichter, associate agent for Warburg Realty, on behalf of her clients.
"They know they are being absurd, up to a point. They know they are asking a lot."
The couple, who are moving to Florida, hope to install the sink in their new home.
The buyers complied with the lawsuit, but instead of agreeing to a contractor-quality replacement, they asked for a credit for the cost of a new one.
"Everything has been friendly," Trichter said.
And in Monroe, New York,
Corcoran Baer & McIntosh
salesperson Amy Wilhelm
was stiff when her client told her she wanted to remove the toilet from the master bathroom.
"When I raised my jaw from the ground, I said:
'I guess we could do it,' "Wilhelm said.
The self-cleaning toilet lights up and the lid opens automatically when you enter the bathroom.
But the saleswoman loved it for a very personal reason: Her recently deceased husband wanted the toilet so badly that he had jokingly filled a toilet saving jar.
"This toilet was
his usual joke
," Wilhelm said.
The saleswoman revealed her plans on the listing, making the accessory a rarity at the open house.
Potential buyers "were blown away," Wilhelm said.
On June 1, just days after the house was listed for $ 549,000, the seller accepted an offer, well above the asking price.
It was one of the six that had
c.2021 The New York Times Company
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