OK, so we know our market is hot and inventory is down to less than a three month supply. According to Case Shiller, Dallas home prices rose 9.9 percent from November 2012 to November 2013.
So why hasn’t 3311 Blackburn #220, the Colonade at Turtle Creek, sold? It is PRECIOUS!
This happens to be owned by one of my daughter’s good friends, and like her, it is perfect. More than perfect, in fact: she’s extremely OCD about cleanliness and decorating. You could eat off the corner in this condo, both floor and trim, and still have a cleaner surface than plates in most restaurants! She has impeccable taste and the home, like her hair, has never had a strand out of place.
She has just, for some reason, encountered some “unique” buyers.
#220 went on the market last August, late August, and had a contract within a week or so. I certainly hope this young buyer learned a lesson: let’s just say she was the pickiest buyer on God’s green earth and wanted everything plus the world for nothing. Among her requests: a massive budget for completely repainting the condo.
Um, I don’t think so.
Next came a young Russian girl who loved the unit so much she waived her option period, but couldn’t get financing. She called mom and dad in Russia but they said they didn’t think buying real estate in America was a good idea.
What planet are they on? Surely some Chernobyl fairy dust must have skewed their thinking: everyone from Russia is buying U.S. real estate! Former fertilizer magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev paid $88 million so his daughter, Ekaterina Rybolovleva, who is studying in the U.S. could have a decent place to live when she visits New York City. He snapped up Citigroup Bad Boy Sandy Weill’s 15 Central Park West — the penthouse! — for $88 million! 6,744 square feet, ten rooms.
(Supposedly Weill donated proceeds of the sale to charity.)
While it’s not the most expensive little penthouse in Manhattan, it was the most cash a foreign-national father has paid for his lovely little heiress daughter, surpassing British Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone who bought Spelling Manor for his daughter, Petra, for $85 million back in July 2011.
So come on you Russian parents, follow your mining magnates. Rybolovleva is divorced from his wife of 23 years, Elena. They have two daughters, including Ekaterina. Mrs. Rybolovleva, 43, has accused her husband of serial infidelity and was said to clean up 3.5 billion in the divorce. Alas, the New York condo is in his daughter’s name. Meantime, in 2008, Mr. Rybolovlev, also 43, bought Donald Trump’s 33,000 sq ft Florida estate – Maison L’Amitie – for $95 million in cash.
Back to Blackburn: after the Russian, another buyer came by saying he was going to pay cash. Yippee! Everything was going swimmingly until his liquidation method did not pan out.
Mind you, each one of these transactions wrapped up this angel of a unit for 5 to 6 weeks apiece. So someone, please, bring in a buyer who (a) makes reasonable requests. Repairs (if any) are fine, but we are not painting the dining room with buckets of Revlon nail polish. We love Russia and all the tycoons but (b) make sure mom and dad are on board before you start signing and (c) get that cash out and be liquid before you lookey.
This home is 815 square feet with two bedrooms and one large bath, living, dining and cute kitchen. What more do you need? Located in the heart of Uptown, the home is one block from West Village and the Katy Trail. There are bamboo floors, granite kitchen counters, ten-foot ceilings, seclusion and privacy. The complex features pool, waterfall and outdoor fireplace and this unit comes with TWO assigned, covered parking spaces which are adjacent to entry stairwell.
At $169,900 I’d buy this as a retreat!
Craig Merriman at Dave Perry Miller Uptown has the listing, and this is the only unit in this fantastic building left to sell. HOA’s a mere $220 a month which includes security, trash pick up, and a sprinkler system.
