Upper East Side
350 East 72nd Street
3-bed, 3-bath, 2,000-square-foot condo. Ask: $2.4 million. Sell: $2.13 million. Four months on market.

"In the listing, I called it 'Shhh, I've got a secret,' " says William B. May's Penny Pear. She meant that the property was an undiscovered gem -- it's a spacious combination of two apartments -- but the real secret was a skeleton in the closet: One of the two sellers had declared bankruptcy, and creditors had placed several liens on the apartment that needed to be paid off. In a rare display of New York cooperation and goodwill, buyer, sellers, broker, and four lawyers worked together to make the sale, and the buyers finally got their new home. "There were ten people at the closing," reports Pear. "Everybody was happy."

Upper West Side
225 Central Park West
3-bed, 3-bath, 2,000-square-foot co-op. Ask: $2.5 million. Sell: $2.375 million. Maintenance: $2,500. Four weeks on market.

Thirty years ago, this apartment's buyers moved from the Upper West Side to Long Island, so they could raise their children in wholesome suburbia. Once the kids grew up and moved away, however, the empty-nesters couldn't wait to wing their way back to the city. "This apartment is three blocks away from their old building," reports Charles Greenthal Residential Sales broker Terri Stone. "They wanted to come back to the culture." They've also got two extra bedrooms, so the kids can stop by the nest anytime.

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Related:

• Archive: “Real Estate”
• Articles by Emily Gitter
• Table of Contents: Jul 16, 2001 issue of New York | Subscribe!