170 East 79th Street
Upper East Side, cross streets: Third/Lexington Aves.
Web ID: 1023962

Major $800,000 Price Drop! Exquisite chic & stylish renovation by Eric Cohler of a pre-war Classic 7 duplex apartment on the Upper East Side. This 3 bedroom, 3 bath apartment contains an impressive entry gallery that boasts a lovely staircase with the original mahogany banister. The downstairs encompasses a large living room with a working wood burning fireplace & custom limestone mantle. The living room has oversize mahogany pocket doors that open into the "Great Room?/Dining Room. The windowed eat-in chef's kitchen features custom cabinetry & top-of-the-line appliances including: Sub-zero, Viking & Mele. The maid's room with washer/dryer & full bath can be used as an office or fourth bedroom. 14 new wood windows provide sun filled Northern and Southern exposures. The sweeping staircase leads upstairs to three bedrooms & two bathrooms. The large master bedroom contains 4 closets, built in dresser & bookshelves. Completing the picture: new hardwood cherry floors, high ceilings, crown molding, home theater system w/ surround sound & speakers, apartment is wired for flat screen TVs & internet in every room, semi-private elevator landing & full electrical upgrade.

325 Fifth Avenue APT# 29C
Flatiron District, cross street: East 32nd & 33rd Streets
Web ID: 1064270

Spectacular open city and Chrysler building views from the 29th floor of downtown's tallest condo. This is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom designer residence. Move right into this BEAUTIFULLY FURNISHED home, which is also a perfect 1031 exchange, investor unit or pied-a-terre! Apartment features include floor to ceiling windows, private balcony, central air and heat, Bosch, Sub zero and Dacor stainless steel appliances as well as Watermark and Kohler fixtures. The apartment boasts 10' ceilings, gorgeous Bielle wood floors, oversized fully recessed tri-view medicine cabinets, light Emperador marble counter tops with walnut wood vanity, Gres-globe and tumbled marble tiles, to name a few. The building offers an abundance of amenities including a state of the art health club & yoga studio, pool, children's playroom, residents lounge with fireplace, business center and screening room. This is a full service ULTRA Modern glass building in a convenient location. This apartment comes with a private storage bin. Tenant in place until February 28th, 2008.

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This map from Trulia shows some listings on the Upper West Side

In the last two weeks, two powerful new Web-based tools have launched in the hopes of simplifying the home-buying and selling process. Both put vast amounts of new data into your hands and both are fun to use, but both have major kinks.

As Prudential Douglas Elliman President & CEO Dorothy Herman told Newsday's Randi Marshall in a hard-hitting article about Zillow, consumers might choose to use it as an information tool, a starting point for a future purchase - or simply for fun, but "I certainly wouldn't price my house based on that."

Zillow
What it does: provides free, instant valuation data for homes
Biggest plus: the promise of informational power at your fingertips
Biggest minus: data is incomplete, especially in Manhattan–where co-op sales data is not publicly available (co-ops make up about 80% of the Manhattan market)

Trulia
What it does: aggregates all listings of homes for sale from various brokerage Web sites
Biggest plus: a joy for anyone who loves real estate
Biggest minus: software misses a huge number of the available homes in NY

Summary
These tools are fun to use and might help you learn something about the real estate market, but they are no substitute for actual knowledge. By showing how hard it is to provide the expertise that good real estate agents carry around in their head, it proves that agents are irreplaceable after all.

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