Innovative use to showcase condo model apartments as pop-up markets

Even consumers who are not in the market for a new apartment should stop by some model units to shop, because in some locations, shoppers can buy everything that's inside. NY1's Real Estate reporter Jill Urban filed the following report.


Model units are designed to help buyers feel right at home, but at one building in Long Island City, Queens, all shoppers are welcome to come in, have seat, and if they like it, they can buy it.

"We’ve turned a model unit into a pop-up shop. So pretty much everything in the apartment is for sale, whether it’s a piece of art or furniture. If you like it, you can buy it," says Modern Spaces NYC President Eric Benaim.

Some developers are turning vacant spaces into temporary art galleries, but at the Yard in Long Island City, they are taking it one step further. There, the model homes are actually furnished and designed by artists, and all their work is for sale.

Benaim brought the developer and the artists' cooperative We Are Familia together for the project, and it has proven to be a win-win situation.

Click here for full story and link to video: http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/real_estate/149921/some-model-units-have-become-pop-up-stores-of-their-own

To stage or not to stage...

Q. Our old apartment is sitting empty, and not selling. Is it worth the money to hire someone to stage it?
Read More Here >>  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/garden/staging-an-apartment-market-ready.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=home%20and%20garden&st=cse

To sell an apt no detail is too small...



On a recent Thursday morning, Jamella Swift, a Citi Habitats broker, was trying to anticipate every detail that would prevent a potential buyer from purchasing the two-bedroom condo she was selling in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She put a full-size bed in the bedroom so buyers wouldn’t think the room was too small. She dragged in a Lucite coffee table to create the illusion of a larger living space and set up three floor lamps to supplement the recessed lighting. Ms. Swift hoped that the $5,000 she had spent would help her land $395,000 to $425,000 for the apartment.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/nyregion/22appraisal.html?_r=4&hp

How Not to Stage an Apartment: Our Easy 10-Step Guide! - Service Journalism! - Curbed NY

How Not to Stage an Apartment: Our Easy 10-Step Guide! - Service Journalism! - Curbed NY

The Appraisal - Working Around Distinctive Décor to Sell an Apartment - NYTimes.com

John Blesso feels as though he has made plenty of compromises to try to sell his Morningside Heights apartment. Before every open house over the past five months, he has hidden away his toaster, cocktail shaker, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, remote controls, shaving cream and loofah, and even taken his towel off the towel rack.

The Appraisal - Working Around Distinctive Décor to Sell an Apartment - NYTimes.com