Well, at least we weren’t wrong when we published that 235 Berry was “At Most 89% Sold” two weeks ago (or even “Under 50% Sold” four months ago). But based on a couple of readers’ comments, we did some more digging. And as best we can tell (i.e., no tipsters involved), 235 Berry is currently 40% sold (and available for occupancy).
∙ 235 Berry Street Update: At Most 89% Sold (And Moving On In) [SocketSite]
∙ 235 Berry Street Update: Under 50% Sold? [SocketSite]
∙ 235 Berry Street Sales Release (6/11/06) [SocketSite]
Thanks for the info!! I hope you guys had some fun digging up the numbers. Asking a sales person how many they have sold is almost as entertaining as asking a male college student how many girls he slept with. You never know what an individual’s multiplier is.
Ha! Completely correct. Unless the sales numbers are wildly exceeding expectations, the actual sales numbers (as well as pricing and upgrade data) are generally closely guarded competitive business information that the developer nor the marketing team wants to release. Direct competition with other projects based on hard data is discouraged – instead each project wants you to think it is so completely unique as to defy comparison with anything else. I think it’s fantastic that people are wising up and demanding more info before committing to this major financial decision. BTW – once a project is completed and the units can close escrow, it’s good to check the public records to see if the closed sales come anywhere close to the sales activity represented by the marketing team. Generally this requires a paid subscription to a data provider to get this information so make your agent works for their money as they will have access to public records data (it also looks like Property Shark can do this now but I haven’t used it). However, beware that sometimes the closed sales on public records can be hard to verify too as condo units are assigned new addresses and Assessor Parcel Numbers so they don’t show up in the public records where you think they will sometime.