Broker Tips
5 Rules to Make the Walkthrough Much Smoother
The final inspection — or walk through — should simply be one more pleasant meeting with the buyer to welcome them to their new home, before heading over to the closing to finish the deal and convey title. But too often, the walk through can be the source of dispute, and fodder for the buyer …
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Reading Co-op Financials
OK I know. Let the lawyer handle the financials. But in today’s ever-increasing competitive environment, super brokers are conversant in all issues affecting their clients’ purchases. Understanding all aspects of the deal, makes clients loyal and your advice to buyers and sellers all the more valuable. This is part 1 of a continuing series to …
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Shooting Your Seller in the Foot
It’s easier to borrow less money than more… Right? The answer, like so many answers in NYC real estate, is not so simple. Consider the following. You have a listing and multiple offers are coming in. The seller prefers one bidder far more than the rest, and wants to pursue their offer. But they need …
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Success in 2015: Build on What We Learned In 2014
Santayana famously said “[t]hose who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” With that admonition, let’s take a look at what we learned from real estate in 2014 and use it to build an even more successful 2015. It’s All About The Team: Buyers spend months searching for the perfect apartment. They miss …
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Two Easy Ways To Save Your Buyer Money On Closing Costs
New York is used to coming in number one in lots of contests. And in the competition for highest closing costs, it does not disappoint, consistently having the highest average closing costs of any city in the country year after year. But a couple of rules about how certain closing costs are calculated can save …
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More Pretending to Be a Coop: Confessions of a Condominium
As we turn the corner toward Halloween, a time of year when people dress up and pretend to be someone else, let’s revisit the subject of condominium boards that like to pretend they are coop boards. Let’s take a minute to review. A coop typically has a right of approval of a purchase transaction. That …
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The Coop / Condo Abatement: New Rules That Any Real Estate Expert Needs to Know
NYC real estate taxes are an important component of value, and recent developments in this area require close attention. This abatement gives eligible coop and condominium owners a reduction in their real estate taxes. Here are the changes that were recently enacted. Primary residence: The apartment must be the owner’s primary residence to be eligible …
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Managing Clients’ Expectations In A Seller’s Market – Part 2/2
In my last issue I wrote about managing a client’s expectations in order to avoid turning a happy client into an unhappy (non-referral source) one. Here are a few rules I have come up with to put that plan into effect. Be careful about telling a buyer we have a deal: We know that a …
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Managing Clients’ Expectations in a Seller’s Market: Part 1/2
Most real estate clients start out happy. And if we’re good, most of those clients who start out happy will end the transaction happy also, which of course is the foundation of a successful career in any service business that requires referrals to grow. But what about those real estate clients who end up dissatisfied, …
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Navigating the Financing Contingency in a Competitive Market
Although financing contingencies are becoming less common in this competitive market, they are still an important term that often is part of the final contract. But it’s important to avoid some common mistakes when negotiating these provisions or your client could end up inadvertently putting themselves in a compromised position. Loan To Value It Too …
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