It was 75% sold and they want to move the rest of the units before the end of the year. To that end there is a 4% selling office commission instead of the usual 3%.

I don’t have much nice to say about Trio. The building felt cheap and the interior was dirty. In particular I don’t like the screens they use that have cutouts for the opener, the drywall/paint job looked bad, the intersection between the carpet and the baseboard is off, some outlet layouts weren’t that well considered, and weird Mosler style access panels etc.

What I did like, and that few developments do is that the common area is combined with the lobby.

Usually the common area is buried deep in the building and I suspect sees little action. With this model I can imagine it becoming a real hub for the community.

View all my photos.

Here’s a winner photo of the interior:

They also dropped the price on #319 $60k to $439k.

Shameless Redfin plugin: We were on the front page of the Seattle Times today, Home buying: How to find sweetest deals

There are a few on the market:

• #116 at Gallery
• #118 at Gallery
• #101 at The Parc
• 2425 E Union St
• 1135 25th Ave

But what other buildings offer live/work units?

• The Klee
• Mosler Lofts
• Trio

?

A few months ago I helped my son buy a condo in a small, newly refurbished building. He got it for about $10,000 off the asking price, and the developer paid his closing costs. A month later, the developer sold an identical unit on the same floor for $30,000 off. This seems quite unfair to my son. What can he do about it? Shouldn’t the developer have disclosed he was desperate to sell?

Short answer: No.

(Wouldn’t you all like to know which conversion this is? I do.)

Maybe with Olive 8 leading the way with a price guarantee and Trio following suit more developers will offer this without buying asked and those who don’t offer it will have it demanded of them by buyers.

Sidenote: Wendy, I think you went easy on Trio in that post. They’ve been on the market over two years and haven’t yet sold 50% of their inventory? For a downtown project that’s unacceptable. No matter what the initial issues were they should have been able to react much quicker. They also still need to work on their marketing (see last post re: $80k price reduction and sub-par MLS listings.)

1400 Taylor decided after a month at $399,000 that it was time to up the price to $415,000. Best of luck with that.

Mosler

Mosler is now up to 23 units on the MLS. My favorite, and most expensive, is unit #1200 at $2,495,000 (now that’s a pricey flip! anyone know the original price?) for a whopping 2,400 square feet.

Trio

Trio has 9 units on the MLS and recently whacked #305 down from $489,950 to $409,950. Wow. Before trimming $80k off list they should have gone from 2 to 15 photos and updated their marketing description which is now months out of date. Shame on MCM.

Bonus Link: Smarter Neighbors read Hugeasscity. So should you.

• Mose calculates the average days on Redfin for Seattle condos is 92 days.
• Our spy at Mosler snuck into the penthouse and took some photos. Here’s what they thought:
  

  I’m not sure if it is schuster’s unit – he bought one of the units but I’m not sure if it was this one. It’s the only one with a second level although I have to say I was pretty unimpressed by the mezzanine where I came in. The view was hot though and 20′ ceilings don’t hurt either

• Rent at Trace for only $1800. Strange it took this long to come on the market.
• EconE details Vulcan vs. Flipper
• Jesse at Vintage Seattle does a photo shoot at Trace
• DanC writes in about a NYT article, Like Subprime Mortgages, Some Construction Loans Are Delinquent

• Elizabeth Rhodes answers a question about pets and condos
• Aubrey notices where the condo ad dollars are going. Answer: New Yorker ads.
• Monica wonders why condos are always the bad guy?
• Trio unit #323 didn’t sell at its 10% reduction. The price is now $480k from $440. Guess they forgot to update the marketing text though, “* TRIO 2BD Home Of The Week * Hurry – this special pricing is for 1 wk only! 10% Reduction!”. href="http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1317634">#203 also had a price bump from $500k to $550k.

• Update on Madison Lofts:
  

  Prices for these homes should be available in January 2008 and sales will likely start in February 2008.

• Ben has posted a November 2007 condo market update. “Buyers are still buying and sellers are still experiencing value appreciation.”

Enso

I am surprised to see Vulcan/John L Scott drop the price of their representation Enso unit, 820 Blanchard St #1503, $30,000, from $690,000 to $660,000. I wonder if they have price reduced other non-MLS inventory as well?

Trio

Trio at 3104 Western Ave looks almost done (marketing remarks say November occupancy) and it looks like the builder is motivated to move some units; one unit had a $80,000 drop.

#302. $395,000 to $349,000.

#203. $629,950 to $549,950

#522. $306,950 to $279,950

#419. $624,950 to $609,950

#401. $349,950 to $339,950

Brix: Choose your life at Brix. Move in summer 2008.

Carbon 56: Don’t wait until 2008. Move to South Lake Union today!

Decatur: Over 40 sold in 30 days! $4,000 buyer bonus.

Enso: Now selling. Coming spring 2009.

Equinox: Sales events begin March 2007. (It’s odd the don’t include the dates?)

Escala: Limited priority sales opportunities happening now. Presentation center opens spring 2007.

Gallery: Artfully inspired living.

Harwood: $10,000 buyer bonus on all 2-Br. homes! Final Phase! Last 12 homes

Noma: Only 13 homes remain.

The Parc: 80% sold. Downtown’s earliest occupancy.

Press: Phase 2 now released. Move in to the hottest homes on Capitol Hill in 30 days! $4000 buyer bonus.

Queen Anne High: 15 sold in last 30 days. From $284,950. (Last week they were from $299,000. What happened??)

Rollin Street: Now accepting reservations for April sales. Coming to Westlake and Denny, Early 2009.

Tobira: Ready for Move-In! $4000 buyer bonus.

Trio: Big Views-High Style…

Veer Lofts: Now selling! Starting in the mid 400’s.

After six weeks of failing to lure more than a couple of dozen buyers, Mr. Franco and his partner, Jeff Blum, joined the builders of nearly 6,000 condominium units in the Washington metropolitan area who have decided in the last three months to recast their projects as rental apartment buildings.

Since the middle of 2006, the frenzied condominium market here and in several other big cities like Las Vegas, Miami and Boston has collapsed. Once roaring sales have slowed to a trickle, sparse inventory has mushroomed into a glut and soaring prices have flattened out and started falling.

While this article is primarily about the problem in Washington, D.C., SocketSite, a SF real estate blog comments about a SF condo project reverting to rentals for their unsold inventory. Overall I think the Seattle market is still in good shape but what are the exit strategy’s for the developers at struggling projects like Trio and Domaine? Are they considering rentals? Should the be?

I’ll try later tonight to pull the number on unsold and upcoming inventory, though if anyone has those numbers handy, please post them in the comments below.

Noma

19 units at Noma came online. They now have 22 listings on the MLS range in price from $222,950 to $539,950 which if my other information is correct means that all their listings are now listed on the MLS. Also, I imagine they’re a little frustrated watching Canal’s success.

Trio

Likewise 4 units from Trio came online. Trio is unarguably Seatte’s biggest failure with only 28 units sold of 113 in over a year. Glad to see they’re coming to their senses and making their units more accessible to all the users of the MLS.

Gallery

One new unit, 2911 2nd Ave #903 – 2 beds / 2 bath – 1,215 sq ft, $679 sq/ft.

Hotel 1000 / Madison Tower

One new unit, 1000 1st Ave #1504 – $685,000 – 1 beds / 1.5 bath – 877 sq ft – $781 sq/ft.

Braeburn

One unit, don’t know if it’s a re-sale or not since I thought these closed awhile ago, 1400 E Pine St #W210 – $259m950 – 0 beds / 1 bath – 561 sq ft – $463 sq/ft

2200

Oh, price drop at 2200, 900 Lenora St #W-309 is now $519,000.

Olive 8

Hope you weren’t waiting for a unit at Olive 8 because they have just had a huge round of price increases. Though their increases don’t seem very logical. They’re all in the $30-$50k range regardless of the listing price.

#3802 – $50,000 inrease to $1,750,000

#3804 – $45,000 increase to $740,000

#3809 – $20,000 increase to $670,000

#2500 – $35,000 increase to $1,260,000

#2200 – $45,000 increase to $1,170,000

#2800 – $35,000 increase to $1,360,000

#2605 – $45,000 increase to $995,000

#3605 – $30,000 increase to $1,230,000

#3700 – $40,000 increase to $2,835,000

#3608 – $50,000 increase to $920,000

Press

9 units from Press 2 were listed. Press 2 is the newer of the Press buildings and has never been occupied.