October 17, 190S
RECORD AND GUIDE
745
enough to be able to hold on to their purchases until the mar¬
ket w^ent up sufficiently to let them get out approximately even,
receiving in most cases no remuneration for their mouths of
anxiety. They have learned their little lesson and now want
to invest in something staple, that produces actual results. Pa¬
tience is required in some cases, but taken on the whole real
estate has made many friends by the recent slump in Wall
Street securities (?)."
The budget of sales included what is probably the most im¬
portant sale of the year. The properties affected were the south¬
east corner of Broadway and Maiden iane, an IS-sty fireproof
business building, 76,7 feet on Broadway and 110.11 feet on
Maiden lane. As an investment this structure is considered one
of the best producers in Manhattan, not only on account of its
central location, but also on account of its interior arrange¬
ment. Chicago acreage was given by the purchaser. The new
owner, John E. Brown is a resident of Ipswich, Mass. The 4-sty
business building No. 62 Cortlandt st, 20.11x."5.6, was reported
sold, as well as No. 3-3 Maiden lane, a 5-sty mercantile build¬
ing, 17.7x90x irregular. This latter parcel is located 38 feet
east of Nassau st, and is rented for a long term of years to a
quick-lunch concern. Nos. 3S and 40 Prince st, a 3-sty business
building, 50x114 also changed hands. It is thirty-one years
since this piece of realty last was sold, when the present
owner of record acquired it at foreclosure sale for ?26,330,
In that section north of 59th st, Empire square came in for
a reported sale. Nos. IOS and UO West 64th st, two 4^sty
brownstone high stoop dwellings were bought by Bolton Hall.
Mr. Hail already owns the three houses Nos. 107, 100 and 111
West 63d st, abutting on Ihe parcel just sold. These, together
with his newly acquired holdhig, gives Mr. Hall a plot front¬
ing 54.S feet on 63d st and 37 feet on 64th st. Another plot
was disposed of on Cathedral Heights. Irving I. Kempner
bought 32x100.11 on the south side of 113th st, located 193 feet
west of Amsterdam av. It is believed that this site will shortly
be improved with a high-class apartment house. A number
of deals have been reported in this section of late, and at the
present time property in this locality is in good demand. The
northeast corner of Sth av and 126th st was sold by the Mc¬
Cormick estate. This plot is improved with a 5-sty flat, witii
store, and occupies a lot 24.11x100. There is a saloon in the
corner. The last date of sale was 1860.
THE AUCTION MARKET
THIS market was rather uninteresting, and with two ex¬
ceptions, one a prominent 5th av hotel and the other three
6-sty tenements on Av A, the offerings were commonplace. In
point of attendance the crowds were small. In fact, as oc¬
casionally happens in the auction market, it was an off week.
Announcements of voluntary sales, are being made for coming
weeks, to test the pulse of the market. Last spring, when this
same testing out process took place, the effect was disastrous.
The market on the whole is in better shape at the moment, and
it is not unreasonable to expect at least partially successful
results.
The sale of the Hotel Gotham, at the southwest corner of 5th
av and 55th st. was the most notable sale of the week. The
sale was the result of an action brought by the Knickerbocker
Trust Co. to foreclose a mortgage of $452,840.74; taxes and
other charges amounting to lf43,16o.75. There were two prior
mortgages aggregating )S1.050,000. The property was knocked
down to Benjamin P. Cheney, who represented a party in in¬
terest for $2,458,853. As has been already noted in the Record
and Guide, one of the principal reasons for the failure of this
hotel to make money was due to the fact that it could not
obtain a liquor license, on account of being within the pre¬
scribed distance of a church. It was announced that the man¬
agement recently installed will continue. There were all told
four bids for the property. Dennis and Preston building in be¬
half of a client. Joseph P. Day conducted the sale. There were
three 6-sty tenements, Nos. 1235, 1237 and 1239 Av A, 40x100
each, put up at foreclosure sale by the same auctioneer. The
plaintiff, C. M. Silverman, made the highest bid in each case
and received the property. The flrst one is on the southwest
corner of 67th st and was knocked down for $00,728, the next
one for $40,000, as was the third house. In each case the
amount of the judgment and prior incumbrances was not
brought.
At the stand of Samuel Goldsticker the northeast corner of
125th st and Lenox av was withdrawn. This property. 74.10x
85x iregular, is improved with four 2-sty and one 3-sty stores,
and is leasehold. The amount due on the judgment is $20,-
554.41; taxes and other charges aggregating .$3,000. The flrst
property of the week that went to outside hands was last
Wednesday, when at the stand of James L. Wells the 2-sty
frame dwelling No. 420 East 157th st, 50x118.11x50x116.4, was
sold to Joseph McBride for $10,850. This parcel was sold by
order of the executors of the estate of Emma Klemann. The
sale of the vacant parcel on the north side of Nelson av, 116
feet southeast and east of 169th st, 75x125, and the property
running from the centre line of Sherman av north 130 feet to
the centre line of 166th st, 50x130, with a 3-sty dwelling, was
adjourned sine die.
ADMIRABLE ADVICE TO REALTY
BROKERS.
SUCCESS IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS LARGELY
DEPENDS UPON HONESTY AND
STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS.
By W. A. GRETZENGER.
MEN often become brokers without any preliminary experi¬
ence. To such, I desire to especially speak. The secret of
success must be found within, and cannot be acquired, save in
very limited degree, from others, but it is possible for the man
of experience to uncover some of the pitfalls that waylay the
steps of the beginner. Mistakes of some kinds are hard to live
down, and if a novice, intoxicated it may be by "success
literature," seeks to compass an end without regard to the
means employed, he may be betrayed unawares into trans¬
actions which will sully his reputation for all time. In the
real estate business, a good name, once tarnished, will never
shine again with its pristine lustre.
One of the first lessons for a broker to learn is that honesty
and square dealing are just as indispensable to true success
in the real estate business as in any other calling. It may
seem gratuitous and absurd to advance this self-evident propo¬
sition, but the occupation of selling real estate tempts so many
independent adventurers who have neither financial resources
nor moral responsibility, that it behooves the beginner to dis¬
criminate carefully between sterling success and its pinch¬
beck counterfeit. He may be dazzled by some transactions
carried through by questionable methods, forgetting that a
knave is soon found out, and that the man who succeeds through
trickery once is not apt to have the opportunity to succeed in
the future, even by honest methods.
Fidelity to the seller who employs him is the broiler's car¬
dinal virtue, but this does not mean that he must or can aid
and abet a property owner in making a dishonest sale. A
real estate broker is not a horse trader. His duty to himself
as an honest man antedates in both time and importance his
duty to his employer. He must never on any consideration
be a party, either actively or passively, to any scheme for de¬
ceiving and overreaching an innocent person. An old building
veneered into the semblance of a new one is not a flt thing for
a self-respecting agent to handle. An unwary novice might be
duped by the sham, but an agent who negotiated a sale to a
victim ignorant of the real character of the structure would
forfeit all claim to reputable standing. It is not enough for
him to avoid active misrepresentation. A lie is a lie. spoken
or suffered.
SOUND ADVICE.
It is not the duty of an agent having property for sale to
preach down any enthusiasm which a customer may evince,
even though it may seem to the agent to be excessive, but it
is his duty to see that no property is palmed off through his
office upon a man who does not know substantially what he is
buying. He should, for example, refuse to have anything to
do M-ith the sale of a house which is structurally unsound.
Never, under any circumstances, should he allow himself to be
made a tool of to humbug a buyer. The beginner who, from
lack of business, is tempted to accept a commission for what
his conscience condemns is doing his reputation and himself
an irreparable injury and renouncing all title to real success
in his business.
There is one practice, for example, which is entirely too com¬
mon, but which iio honest broker can afford to tolerate for a
moment. In this city it is the fashion, in some cases, to make
out leases at a higher rental than tenants actually pay, the
rent being rebated for the first month or two of each year. The
purpose of this deception is to make prospective customers
suppose that the property yields a iarge income. It should be
hardly necessary to caution a broker who has any conscience
at all, or any regard for his own good name, against lending
himself to such mendacity. It is the business of a broker who
selis a building to know and inform the buyer what the actual
rentals are. The difference between selling a gold brick and
selling a building with a stuffed rent roll is only a matter of
percentage, and a very small percentage at that. A broker who
knowingly sells a building on the basis of a fictitious income
need not complain if nobody will trust him afterwards. Nor
can he-save his reputation by the cheap apology that he made
no false representations himself. The world will rightly judge
him no less guilty for earning commissions through his prin-
cipars known dishonesty than if he were himself the prime
actor in the fraud.
EFFICIENCY NECESSARY.
No broker can intelligently offer property for sale untii he
has examined it in person or by a trustworthy inspector. A
volume might be filled with good reasons why a broker should
never ofl:er anything to a purchaser until he knows all about
tt. He will be able to do business or not according to the meas¬
ure of satisfaction he gives to people who inquire at his office
for property that is offered for sale. Nobody is likely to form
a high opinion of an oflice where the only information that can
be had about property listed for sale is its location, nor will