Irish Heir Teaches Us How Not to List an FSBO Apartment

An heir to the fortune of the Dunne family—which owns Dunnes, Ireland's largest retailer and a chain of stores akin to Target—Andrew Heffernan appears to possess plenty of business savvy. A Harvard Business School alum, he did stints investment banking at Goldman and consulting at Bain. Yet Heffernan has decided to navigate New York's cutthroat real estate waters solo, putting his 1,266-square foot 2 bed/2 bath condo at The Caledonia on the market without a broker for $3.15 million. (According to Streeteasy, he bought in 2010 for $2.6M.) We wonder, though—if he's got such pedigreed, money-making acumen, both in his blood and coming out of his ears, could he not afford to hire a photographer to take sexier (or at least non-blurry) pictures of his for-sale-by-owner apartment along the High Line? Not that we are dying to see his backgammon board and shelves of picture frames, but really?

Not to get dark, but there's precedent for failure here. What was widely dubbed 15 Central Park West's ugliest apartment went FSBO for a time before finally selling at $2 million below its asking price. Trying the FSBO tack's risky, is all we're saying. Plus, Heffernan's Gmail address and a 917 cellphone number are posted online for the world to use and abuse. Will this place sell?
· Official listing [For Sale By Owner]
· More FSBO coverage [Curbed]
· More on The Caledonia [Curbed]