Fourth Floor Walk-Ups

In the current buyer's market, walk-ups have been suffering. With more properties available in Hoboken, buyers are more reluctant to deal with the top floor walk-up. For what is considered by many to be the best locations (the streets of Hudson, Washington, Bloomfield, Garden, Park, and Willow), we are finding that buyers don't seem to mind third floor so much. However, they are balking at the fourth floor or above. Of course, this is even more true for walk-up condos further west. Sellers can and have overcome this problem. Fourth floor walk-ups can overcome the stigma of the additional flight of stairs with substantial upgrades such as stainless steel appliances, granite, marble in the kitchen or bath, newly refinished floors, central air or new installed a/c wall units, and washer/dryer in the unit. Sometimes, it requires all these upgrades. Buyers feel these properties should be negotiable unless they are completely tricked out in all the high end upgrades. We are seeing that people will pay for high end upgrades, even if top floor walk-ups.

The good news for buyers is that many of these properties are the best deals available in Hoboken. In the Sunday real estate section, The New York Times recently ran an article on the deals to be had if you buy a fourth floor walk-up in the New York market. They have great light and you have no one "walking on your head." You can get more square footage for the money, and sometimes, more in upgrades. The downside is that it will usually take longer to sell your unit and sellers will rarely get the same price as just the floor below would, even for an identical unit with similar upgrades. On the other hand, when selling a top floor unit, upgrades and good staging can make a big difference.