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Buying & Selling
Changes in Lead Law
If you thought asbestos was a problem, wait until you hear about lead. Found in 57 million private homes in the United States (two million in New York City), lead-based paint poisons young children, reduces IQs, and causes learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and behavioral problems.
Read MoreMaking the Sale
The co-op and condo market in New York City has been booming for some time now, so when properties go on sale, it's not very difficult to find a buyer. It doesn't really matter if it's a sprawling penthouse in a hot neighborhood or a small studio on an out-of-the-way street - if it's got four walls and running water (and sometimes even that is negotiable) your unit will sell. Read More
Choosing A Broker
After 20 years in an English Tudor in Westchester's Pelham, Bobbi and Warner Burke decided it was time to "wake up in the heart of Manhattan. We wanted chaos, color and vibrancy where we lived," says Bobbi. Without any leads for brokers, Bobbi-who had been reading the real estate section of the newspaper for a year in anticipation of a move-went into the city and visited The Corcoran Group's Upper East Side location. "I just hit the agency cold," Burke recalls. She was hooked up with Inge LaSousa, a Corcoran broker who happened to be available at that moment. "We started to look at properties that day," says Burke. Read More
Cover Story: Selling One Home to Buy Another
You've planned carefully so that you'll be ready to close on the apartment you're selling just as you take possession of the apartment you're buying. Even though the new place isn't yours yet, you've already begun renovating and decorating it in your mind's eye. Then you get the bad news that a higher bidder has snatched "your" home out from under you. Unfortunately, it's too late to decide not to sell the co-op you live in. There's no turning back and the likelihood of finding another great apartment seems unlikely. Even worse, you begin to worry that you and your belongings will wind up out on the street or camped out in a relative's guest room. What are your options and are there any steps that buyers who are also sellers can take to avoid this and other nightmarish scenarios? Read More
Essential Qualities
Whether you're buying or selling a condo or co-op, the goal is to engage a real estate broker who will get you the best price or the best apartment in the shortest period of time. Unless you already work in the real estate industry, you likely will not have an ongoing relationship with an individual broker. When engaging a broker—either as a buyer or a seller—there are 10 essential qualities to look for when seeking a superior broker. Read More
I Want My RE-TV
Several years ago, the only television shows on buying and selling real estate were late-night or Sunday morning agonizing, yet tantalizing, infomercials touting get-rich-quick products. These shows taught viewers that by simply buying the product, purchasing property at no- or low-cost, they could reap the financial rewards of homeownership. Read More
Selling Smart in New York City
Sellers have one overriding goal that is clear to everyone: to achieve the highest possible price for their property. However there is risk and it is this risk that must be minimized to maximize the probability of return. Read More
Diversify and Conquer
In the last four or five years, the tri-state real estate industry has borne witness to seismic shifts in the balance of power among real estate brokerage firms. Companies that are giants in their own right have merged with others, creating titanic real estate empires stretching across every borough, reaching into the Hamptons at the easternmost tip of Long Island, and even stretching down the East Coast into Florida within the tonier enclaves of Palm Beach and Miami. Read More
Can We Talk?
They say there's no such thing as a bad question - and when it comes to buying or selling a condo or co-op, asking the right questions of your broker, both before you choose one and afterwards, can help make the process run a whole lot smoother. Read More
Let the Good Times Roll
Whatever goes up is supposed to come down, but when it comes to the New York City real estate market, the laws of gravity may not necessarily apply. Experts say the industry that enjoyed good times in 2004 will continue to be healthy throughout 2005. Read More
Tips for Moving on the Cheap
Moving on a budget? No sweat. Here are some money-saving tips Read More
Smooth Move
On the surface, moving sounds like a no-brainer: Put stuff in boxes. Move boxes from A to B. Unpack boxes. What's the big deal? But as anyone who's ever moved can tell you, it's never that simple. In fact, it's often a nightmare that leaves a trail of dead plants, abandoned toaster ovens and frayed nerves in its wake" but it doesn't have to be like that. Read on and we'll tell you everything you need to know to make your move go as smoothly as possible. Moving may not be an exact science, but smart planning - and patience - can take some of the angst out of the endeavor. Read More
Going to Market
Shopping is not a spectator sport. At almost any level, from books to stocks to brokers, it involves fulfilling desires, meeting needs, negotiating price and choosing suppliers. There is no guarantee of success, and as the price of the purchase goes up, so do the stakes - making the amount of research and advance preparation more important. Having the right professional by your side may be the best investment you can make to assure the best results, especially in the highly competitive game of New York City real estate, where it's common for both the apartment buyer and the seller to retain the services of separate brokers to facilitate their search for a home - or for a buyer. Read More
Showing People the Way Home
Sheila Lokitz came to New York 16 years ago with a career change in mind. Moving from Los Angeles to work in the garment industry, she knew that New York was different from other places and she wanted to be a part of it. As much as anything else she noticed the buildings - and not just because a lot of them are so big that they're impossible to overlook. Read More
The Market Strikes Back
Now that 2003, which opened with political strife and closed with one of the worst winters on record, is over, brokers are looking ahead and eagerly anticipating another strong year in 2004. An improved economy and enticingly low interest rates have helped to fuel a market resurgence unseen in many years. Empty nesters are migrating to Manhattan and would-be renters are buying, making once-iffy neighborhoods the newest hotspots. While brokers predict continued growth, they also warn of a price increase due to an inventory shortage and increasing demand. Read More
Relocation Services
Buying a new home is a very big decision that can be filled with excitement and fear, even if you're just moving across town. When you're coming to New York from another city, state, or even country, however, the task becomes much more challenging. Unless you know exactly where you want to live, relocating to the city means searching through over 300 miles of neighborhoods spanning five boroughs to find the right home. Manhattan alone breaks down even further into hundreds of little communities with homes for all budgets, each with its own special personality. Read More
MLS-Less
The road toward having a single, comprehensive Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, in New York City has so far been long and arduous. Most major U.S. cities have had their own version since the 1970s, but for a host of reasons - size, sheer number of listings, and fierce competition for listings among brokerages - an MLS for Gotham has never really gotten off the ground. Here's a quick look at the concept's stop-and-go history, and at some of the alternatives vying with MANAR's efforts to fill the void. Read More
Twenty-O-Two to Twenty-O-Three
At the beginning of 2002, the outlook for the city's real estate market seemed healthy, if a little uncertain. September 11th was still fresh on everyone's minds, and the aftereffects on the co-op and condo market carried over from 2001. According to Joanna Simon, a broker with the Fox Residential Group in Manhattan, "Everyone was in state of shock [after September 11th]. Some people panicked and wanted to get out of city, so they put their properties up for sale." But with a lack of buyers immediately following the attacks, most properties just sat on the market. Simon also found that some prospective buyers who were already in negotiations pre-September 11th didn't want to continue and close the deal. Read More
Banishing the "B- Word"
Selling your apartment in New York is serious business. If you're thinking of selling your co-op or condo, the question of where to even list the property for sale alone may be enough to keep you up nights, to say nothing of putting a fair market price on it, arranging for prospective buyers to come in and view what you're offering, and finally closing the deal. There are countless little (and not-so-little) things to worry about, and if you're a normal, mortal human with a job, maybe a family, and a life to lead, you may find yourself in serious need of help - the kind of help that a professional real estate broker may be just able to provide. Read More
Come On In!
New Yorkers are a famously busy bunch, always looking for ways to maximize their time. Buying or selling an apartment can be the most time-consuming process imaginable, and city dwellers are always eager to try out ways of moving things along: Hence the enduring popularity of open houses - one of the most efficient ways of unloading or snapping up real estate. But how do group events stack up against private showings? And what's the best way to run an open house? Are there mistakes to avoid? Read on, and the open house will be an open book. Read More
What's It Worth To You?
Everyone thinks their home looks like two million bucks, but in the world of banks and real estate agents, it takes a professional appraiser to prove it. Especially in the unique and ultra-competitive world of New York co-op and condo real estate, having someone with all the facts and figures at their fingertips can be invaluable. Whether you're selling property or buying, an appraiser can provide you with the information you need to make practical decisions about your home and finances. Read More
The Downtown Market
The downtown Manhattan real estate market has gone though a series of ups and downs in past years, but clearly, nothing in recent memory has affected it as drastically as the September 11 terrorist attacks. The aftereffects of the attacks on the World Trade Center have reverberated in the months since, disrupting the lives of those already living in Lower Manhattan and raising questions about the area's future. Early assumptions were that most people would leave and move to other parts of Manhattan or get out of the city altogether. But that mass exodus many were expecting never really happened, and in the time since the attack, realtors and real estate brokers have seen the market change dramatically. So what did happen, and where is the market now? Read More
Getting to Know You
The days of neighbors bringing casserole dishes to the door may be over, but welcoming new co-op and condo residents into the buildings they now call home is not an entirely lost art. In fact, it goes on every day in buildings throughout the city. Read More
Buy, Buy!
New Yorkers looking for a little more living space have a lot of options these days. Construction on new co-op and condo buildings–as well as conversions–are moving along at a steady pace, while the recent economic downturn has made New York City real estate something more closely resembling a buyer’s market than has been seen in some time. Prices are dropping while availability is increasing. Couple that with low interest rates, and developers are seeing a steady stream of new customers for their latest co-op and condo offerings. Read More
Big Money Invasion?
Should local banks be allowed to become actively involved in the real estate brokerage business? Specifically, should they have an administrative hand in the sale and management of units in co-ops and condos? Read More
The Purchasing Journey
The following article is an excerpt from The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling Co-ops and Condos in New York City, a book I wrote that was designed to be the ultimate guide: a good overview of what you need to know about buying and selling co-ops and condos in New York City; a reference guide to walk you through the specifics of each stage of the process; a guide to pertinent terminology; and an introduction to the basics of real estate investing. Read More
Asking for Trouble?
In real estate, they say the three most important things to consider are location, location, location. What about when you move from one piece of real estate to another? Moving out of your home and into a new one can be traumatic, but, says Oleh Turczak, director of workplace management for IA, a New York-based interior design firm, whether it’s the first or the 40th time, the key to a relatively pain-free move is organization, organization, organization. "If you don’t do your own research up front and plan your own move, you’re asking for trouble," he says. "You have to put the project manager’s hat on." Read More
Start Your Engines!
In Manhattan’s real estate market, consumers are hungry for efficient ways to find that elusive perfect apartment. Today, more than ever before, choices abound from the Web sites of individual brokerage firms to sites which feature compilations of listings. The Internet has profoundly affected the way people buy apartments. Various residential Web sites seeking to meet the high demand, display a variety of visuals to help pre-sell properties. And it’s working. Brokers report that buyers are viewing less and less apartments as the months go by. They say this is because buyers are becoming more knowledgeable; by previewing available listings on the Web, buyers are better prepared and know what they want. Just what is the future of online brokerage? Read More
House Hunting in the City
As parents we strive to create the perfect home for our children. A place of solitude, refuge–a place to call home. A place where our children can play freely in the backyard; a place where they can socialize and grow with other children; a place where they are safe. As parents we research every aspect of home buying from school districts to neighborhood stores. But what specifically should parents look for in their search for the perfect home? How can they find the perfect home in New York City where white picket fences, large backyards and cul-de-sacs do not exist but, instead, elevators, doormen and the subway are the norm? Read More
Douglas Elliman
Chinese lamps, leather chairs and carpeting reminiscent of the orient set the mood of subtle elegance in the lobby of Douglas Elliman’s executive offices. Company publications, Treasury of Fine Homes and Folio of Fine Homes, are set out for visitors to peruse as they wait to be admitted past this luxurious, hushed anteroom. An entirely different aura presents itself in the interior space of this brokerage space at 575 Madison Avenue. Read More
Caveat Emptor
Real estate in the New York Metropolitan area is hot. Ask any broker and they will tell you that their job is getting more and more difficult because there is simply no supply. Many sellers are having a hard time committing to a sale because of uncertainty as to whether tomorrow’s market may be able to generate a higher price or whether we’re experiencing the last gasp of a market boom period. In the superheated market, buyers are feeling tremendous pressure because sellers are demanding that contracts of sale contain few, if any, contingencies and the line of people bidding on a single apartment results in very short turn-around times for the execution and delivery of binding contracts. Sellers in this market look to bidders who are willing to sign a contract as quickly as possible; in many instances without concern for a purchaser’s need to perform their due diligence. The question then for the prudent buyer is who to rely upon when seeking representation about a co-op corporation’s or condo association’s condition when the time to verify such conditions independently may be short. Read More
Stribling & Associates
A full pane of glass fronts the Madison Avenue townhouse office of Stribling & Associates, a luxury residential real estate brokerage firm. Four ornate gold frames hang museum-style in the window and the pictures inside feature large, luxurious apartments, Manhattan’s most prestigious offerings of the moment. On this Spring day, a 17-room triplex on Fifth Avenue is being marketed for $6.75 million; another Fifth Avenue co-op, this one only six rooms, is displayed for $2.95 million. The pictures catch the attention of many pedestrians, notes Stribling president and founder, Elizabeth Stribling. "We’ve had many high ticket sales through these windows," she claims. In fact, the windows on 73rd Street and Madison have been so successful, mentions Stribling, that the two other company locations, Stribling-Wells & Gay at 340 West 23rd Street and the just-opened Stribling office at 246 West Broadway in TriBeCa, feature the same signature look. The apartments and lofts may be funkier in the downtown pictures, but the ornamental opulence of the frames remain the same. Read More
Tech Effects
It wasn’t so long ago that most New York City real estate professionals disdained all electronic devices. Sage advice dictated that nothing would replace the face-to-face or voice-to-voice relationship between buyer and broker and seller and broker. Many resisted company-wide voice mail, thinking that a buyer would hang up when confronted with a machine, or that with competition so stiff, he or she would keep calling until someone in the office picked up the phone. Read More
Cover Story: The Web's Role in Real Estate
Once upon time, finding a new apartment in Manhattan began with the classified ad pages of the New York Times. Perused over Sunday morning brunch, and circled with red ink, these ads led the prospective buyer to brokers' offices, open houses, and apartment walk-throughs until the dream home was found. In the new millennium, however, the search for a home more than likely will begin at a computer terminal, on the Internet, where umbrella websites such as NYToday.com or digitalcity.com have reframed the classified ad, presenting it alongside supporting products like movers, mortgage auctions and furniture retailers. Or one could start with the web pages of an individual brokerage firm which, depending on the site, may have added features like neighborhood analyses, broker profiles, and mortgage calculators and applications, in addition to available properties. Either way, the Internet is empowering and informing buyers, and changing the face of the real estate industry. Read More
