On the Market: End-Unit Trinity in Queen Village

Attractively renovated and just as attractively situated, this trinity at 1023-A E. Moyamensing Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19147 should have sold already. It’s certainly not for lack of effort on the part of the listing agent, who recently tweaked the photos. / Bright MLS images via Space & Company

Some years back, this section had a regular department titled “Why Won’t This Sell?”

Maybe I need to dust that off for this Queen Village end-unit trinity house for sale.

When I took a look at the listing today, I thought I’d run across an aging listing I hadn’t seen before.

Then I realized that I had — back when it went on the market last October.

Kitchen

Because architect Timothy Kerner of Terra Studio did such a good job refreshing this trinity, and because Maryland-based Teknika Design Group did an equally bang-up job on the kitchen, I made this house one of those rare exceptions to my “no photos of empty rooms” rule.

I tell agents that the reason I have that rule is: The hardest thing for a buyer to do is fill an empty room with their imagination. One of the things home-stagers do is help prod that imagination by offering visions of what those empty rooms might look like.

The listing agent for this property appears to have reached this conclusion as well, for she has now virtually staged two of the rooms in this trinity.

Living room

Living room

These photos give you an idea of what its living room might look like.

Primary bedroom

Primary bedroom

And these do the same for the primary bedroom on the top floor.

Bathroom

She left the second-floor bedroom untouched, though. That’s okay, because the bathroom still looks really spiffy.

So: Why is this attractive, conveniently located trinity still on the market?

There are several reasons.

One of them may be its sale price. Even after a reduction, it’s still be on the high side, especially after comparing what Unit B, listed in the fall of 2017, sold for. The price, however, may be sticky because of what this unit’s owner spent on renovating it. For purposes of comparison, here’s what it looked like in 2016, when its current owner bought it.

But another may be that the market for trinities has gone back into the doldrums. The conditions that produced a two-month drought of new trinity listings haven’t really eased up. Interest rates continue to rise, and even though sales have slowed, prices haven’t fallen all that far. Together, those factors still squeeze trinity owners looking to move to bigger digs. And the interest rates are likely discouraging some buyers looking for their first homes. Most trinity buyers fall into this category.

So I feel for both the owner of this Queen Village end-unit trinity house for sale and the listing agent. May their efforts meet with success in the coming months. The same goes for the owners of the 12 other individual trinities and one four-pack currently on the market, half of which have been on the market longer than this one. That includes the historic Fishtown trinity that needs major work.

THE FINE PRINT

BEDS: 2

BATHS: 1

SQUARE FEET: 693

SALE PRICE: $325,000

OTHER STUFF: You should also have use of the shared rear patio behind Unit D, but check with the listing agent. This house’s sale price was reduced by $15,000 on November 15th.

1023-A E. Moyamensing Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19147 [Jeremy Kaplan | Space & Company]