1616 West End Ave #3201

Three sales closed last week that offer insight into the world of downtown condominiums versus single-family luxury homes. Of the three sales, two were similar but with confusing pricing, and one is light years apart form the other two.

When all the hubbub started with highrise condos back in the early 2000s, one veteran Realtor who had been out of the business on maternity leave for four months stated, “I don’t get how they price these things!” Her comments were understandable and ring true today.

For example, the Broadwest condominium listing company listed two closed sales on Realtracs, the Middle Tennessee Regional Multiple Listing Service even though one closed in April and the other closed in October.

The sale that closed in October was an unfinished box in the Broadwest tower that sold for $3.958 million, or $1,106 per square foot for exterior walls, floors, ceiling with plumbing, electrical and HVAC roughed in and available for the unit. It derives its value from resting atop 38 floors of the tower.

In that price range, buyers often prefer to design the floorplans themselves. The 505 Building on Church Street had one of its white boxes sell for $4.5 million in September 2020, so the boxes are holding their own.

To complicates pricing matters, the unit next door, also a white box, sold for $1,009 per square foot (2,703 square feet) for a price of $2.728 million. It went under contract last March, while the more expensive condo went under contract in January 2021.

To recap, there were two units side by side. The smaller one sold for a lower price per square foot, which goes against real estate tenets that the smaller the square footage, the higher the price per square foot.

It could be that the market had softened in the Broadwest between January 2021 and March 2022.

The Broadwest white box sales provided a blank palette for the buyer and has proven successful in both the 505 and Broadwest. As was the case in all of the Broadwest sales, the capable team of veterans Brian Stoltzfus and Zach Goodyear provide the listing, sales and marketing support. Both have experienced tremendous success in selling air when the various condos had yet to break ground.

The buyer’s agent for the $3.958 million unit was Danielle Hasley Helling of Village, while Jason Garner with Parks was the buyer’s agent on the $2.728 million sale. Stoltzfus and Goodyear are with Village, which also is Parks, but there is enough confusion to go around without explaining that Village and Parks have merged a couple of times, and this merger seems to have taken.

As the condo craze continued to proliferate the real estate market, one point of confusion stems from real estate brokers attempting to compare then high-rise condos to single-family homes. Those comparisons simply did not work then and do not work now.

For example, veteran, high-producing real estate broker Tommy Patterson listed 4001 Vailwood Drive in late October for $3.789 million, or $585 per square foot.

Patterson has as much experience in new, single-family construction as anyone in the Middle Tennessee area. After 27 days on the market, Chris Harwell, another veteran of years of real estate wars, brought a buyer, and the sale was negotiated at $3,600,444, or $555 per square foot, roughly half of what the shells – white boxes – are selling for downtown. The price is indicative of a heavyweight prize fight between these two champions.

The Vailwood home is situated on slightly more than 0.5 acres and has 6,842 square feet with five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and one half bath. Additionally, it has a covered terrace with a fireplace. The kitchen is equipped with Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances with custom inset cabinetry. Finishing a white box with these touches would cost at least $400 per square foot, and that is before the 20-foot blinds and window treatments.

Upon viewing the finishes in the Vailwood house, one builder lamented: “Do you mean I have to do all of this in order to sell a house?” The answer is no, you don’t. The builder is Craftsman Residential, and its owner Lucas Chesnut is very demanding of his sub-contractors and demands the highest quality in their work.

Patterson noted that Chesnut has his houses inspected by licensed inspectors before putting them on the market so he can make any repairs necessary before unveiling his work to the public. For those not familiar with the street Vailwood, it is a Stetson Bennett throw away from Julia Green School and slightly farther than an Ohio State field goal attempt from Green Hills Mall – and slightly to the right.

Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty, LLC, and can be reached at [email protected].