"Bet You This is Gone in Two Weeks": 14 Prospect Place

This morning we get an e-mail from a developer who says, "Bet you this is gone in two weeks," and sends us 14 Prospect Place.  Yes, this shiny 4-story 2-Family in north Park Slope just off of 5th Avenue wants $2.5M mere weeks after a fixer-upper on the same street on a deeper lot just across Flatbush in Prospect Heights listed for $2.15M and is rumored to have bids pushing $2.5M itself.

Is 14 Prospect Place a $2.5M in this market?  Certainly!  Might it go in 2 weeks?  A definite possibility!  But the irony of this is, the e-mail's coming from the same developer who's astonished that a winner like 489 Park Place exceeded bids of $1.15M cash.  The same developer who told us, "I have a bad taste in my mouth from Williamsburg" because he only made $1M on his last deal there.  Yeah, 'cause we all know what that icky one million dollar taste feels like...

This coming from the same developer bragging to us this time last year that his condos well over a million in Park Slope didn't have to come any lower than 3% off their asking price to sell, while he's happy to offer other sellers 30% below their asking prices.  Which is silly, because obviously everyone wants to get the most money for what they have.  That's a two-way street.  Yet, trust us, there are scores of folks running around offering 20-30% below asking price in this market and still thinking that's an actual bidding strategy.  We believe "Sweet Brown" said it best when she said, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

As we realized yesterday and Tweeted this morning, anyone can offer 20% off asking price, but the real savvy buyer is the one who can identify which properties are worth even 20% ABOVE asking price and bid accordingly.  People with many millions in the bank swear they're shrewd investors 'cause they run around town with low-ball offers waiting to see which ones come in.  In this market - very few.  Meanwhile, the real movers & shakers are getting great places at great prices.

Oh yeah, so back to the house.  Yeah, don't be surprised when someone who just sold their lame condo in midtown buys this Corcoran listing on a great block in Park Slope for over its asking price of $2.5M:

In a word:  Yawn!

Pro's:  location, shiny pics, floor to ceiling glass out to the backyard, open house, Park Slope

Con's:  ain't cheap, ain't a secret, ain't gonna last long, PS 282 makes precious parents run the other way

Ideally:  can't think of too many scenarios where this goes for under $2.7M