A move-in ready home with high ceilings and large windows that provides a view of the New York City skyline closed this month for a whopping $330,000 more than its asking price.
The five-bedroom, three full- and one half-bathroom home with wide-plank white oak floors and a renovated kitchen was listed Jan. 23 for $925,000.
It broke a price record for the Gregory neighborhood in West Orange by $200,000 when it closed for $1,255,000 on March 5.
“Pricing this home was tricky,” said Ann Laskowski with Coldwell Banker Realty in Maplewood, the listing agent. “I knew it was going to get a visceral response from the market. But if I priced it too high, I could’ve alienated a lot of people. I had to get people in the door.”
By pricing it at $925,000, she said, it “hints at a million,” but would still draw people who are shopping for homes in the $900,000 price point.
Smaller homes in the neighborhood usually sell in the mid-$600,000s and higher-end homes sell in the $900,000 range, Laskowski said.
The median sales price of a home in West Orange was $635,000 in January, according to the most recent data available from New Jersey Realtors. That’s an increase of 15.5% from January 2023, when the median sales price was $550,000.
The house is just completely move-in ready,” Laskowski said. “People just loved it. I loved being in the house for the weekend open house. I said to my husband, ‘Why aren’t we buying this house,’ and I never say that.”
In addition to the scale, views and renovated kitchen, the home had a renovated primary bathroom and a first floor bedroom with a renovated ensuite bathroom that would be ideal for an au pair, she said.
The sellers bought the home in April 2020 for $656,000 and put about $300,000 worth of updates into it, Laskowski said.
“Most people don’t have the bandwith or vision to figure out how to make improvements to make it look the way they’d like,” she said, adding that nine out of 10 buyers she works with don’t want to have to do any improvements to a home.
During a three-day open house, about 65 groups of people came through. The first offer came in Friday, and the home received a total of 21 offers.
The buyer who was chosen had the second highest price but the “cleanest’ offer, Laskowski said.
“There were people from all different age groups – downsizers, upsizers, people buying their first home,” she said.
People who toured the home commented on the floors, the space, the views, the nice size of the flat backyard, a walk-in pantry in the kitchen, the laundry on the second floor and the clean-looking basement, she said.
“Everything felt kind of easy about it,” Laskowski said.
Are you an agent, buyer or seller who is active in this changing market? Do you have tips about New Jersey’s real estate market? Unusual listings? Let us know.
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Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com.
