Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 82, no. 2118: October 17, 1908

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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