2016 Tax Rates by Class

‎In case anyone missed it:



NOTICE RECEIVED THROUGH REBNY (REAL ESTATE BOARD OF NEW YORK) 

The City Council adopted real property tax rates for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1, 2015.  Here are the 2016 tax rates by class as well as last year's rates for comparison.   Tax Rates by Class Please note that the tax bills issued for the first half of fiscal year 2016 (July 2015 through December 2015) were based on the fiscal year 2015 tax rates. As a result, your second half tax bill will be based on the recently adopted fiscal year 2016 tax  rates and will include an adjustment for any overpayment or underpayment in  the first half of the year.

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My Own Non-Scientific Take on the City-Verizon Spat

I've been following Crain's NY Business' chronicle of the fight that the De Blasio administration is picking with Verizon over its failure to roll out FIOS citywide. In a nutshell, Verizon struck an agreement with the Bloomberg administration in 2008 to install fiber optic cable (trademark FiOS) internet access throughout the city, ostensibly so that areas served by only one cable provider (Time Warner, Cablevision, etc.) will have another choice.  This makes sense on the face of it. After all, cable companies are currently the only broadband providers in certain areas. Sure, you can go with another "provider" if you want - you might get mailings announcing "alternatives", but the fact is that in most areas, those companies have to rent capacity from the main cable company in the area, for the simple reason that those are the only cables in the ground.

My bugaboo with the whole scheme is that while attempting to lay all this fiber, Verizon has completely neglected the existing copper wire network that runs throughout New York. It is falling apart - and that fact is not being covered all that extensively.  One article in Ars Technica from 2014 mentions it briefly, as does the above Crain's article, again, briefly.

Let me paint a picture at how bad it has gotten by talking about two buildings that my firm manages. The first is on West 11th in Greenwich Village, a building with residential and business tenants.  At least every two months, and sometimes more often (depends on the weather conditions), I am forced to meet a Verizon repair tech at this building to let them through an apartment to the back, where they try to find a "good pair" in the phone box. This box is older than the hills, and it's full of rust. But when I have asked about replacing said box, I'm told that Verizon isn't replacing ANY copper phone equipment.

The problem is sometimes within the line between the building and the hub, which is an apartment building on the next block south. The tech must then go back and forth between this building and that, trying to find a connection that will hold. Once, I was told it was not the box, but the line between the hub and the box, which - in contradiction to Verizon's claims in the articles - runs above ground. You can see the phone wire strung all along the back yards of the block! When the line "goes bad" - meaning that it gets exposed and nicked/broken somehow - the tech has to "splice" it, meaning cutting the damaged part of the line out and basically taping the two ends together.  The tech who told me about the line said "that line has so many splices in it I don't know how it still works."  When I asked about getting a new copper line run - yes, you guessed it!  "They're not replacing anything."

 So, the tenants in this building constantly lose the phone service they pay so much for. And it's not just that building! My firm manages an adjacent building that has also had similar phone problems.

I looked into FiOS as an option to get away from the crumbling infrastructure and found to my amazement (though not so much now that I've been reading articles telling of similar experiences all around the city) that FiOS is NOT available on that block. This blew my mind. I understand that Verizon may not wish to wire every small building right off the bat (though seven years in one would hope they'd made some headway), but this building is right between two major thoroughfares - Fifth and Sixth Avenues - that surely must have fiber available? They don't have to bring it that far, and they have a building manager - ME - who is willing to get them access - all so they don't have to waste thousands of dollars visiting this building's back yard every six to eight weeks. Recently I head that another building towards Fifth Ave had successfully managed to get FiOS installed. How did they do that?

Which leads me to the other building, also on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron. This building is not a large office building but it happens to have line running through it that serves some adjacent buildings as well. Within the past two months I have had at least five technicians needing access to that basement to repair copper phone and data connections! Again, I am completely shocked. The copper here in Silicon Alley is no better maintained (though it is apparently underground)! And I listen to the techs speaking with their home office, trying again to find "good lines". There isn't enough capacity to service all the commercial and residential tenants in that block!  The tech suggested I try to get some of them to sign up for "fiber", which would alleviate the crowded copper box.

Today I had a conversation with a very nice lady from the Verizon business office, and she informed me that she knew "no more FiOS installations were being scheduled for the rest of the year".  !!!!!!  In the meantime Verizon is spending millions of dollars running fiber "past" buildings but telling potential customers that it's not available to them. What kind of shell game is that? It reminds me of the recent scandal about the military contractors who built all kinds of equipment that only got destroyed once it was shipped to the Middle East. And all the money spent on advertising a service that no one can get? There's just no answer to that.

Following which, I might as well air my frustration at the fact that I am seeing many many of those little internet antennae popping up all over the place in Manhattan subway stations... but I am not getting any service!  I travel all over the city (forget the fact that not a single underground station in Brookyn has service), and I have seen these tell-tale signs of service in Washington Heights, East Harlem, and the Lower East Side - some for eight months or longer - but zero bars in any of these stations (I'm looking at YOU Second Avenue!).

I've said before that Transit Wireless' strategy seems completely haphazard. Their blog states that they have begun installing equipment in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, but their Lower East Side stations? Nary a word - oh wait, I see that Delancy is part of the Phase 3 rollout - but no announcement as to when that will happen?

Oh, and the website www.NYCSubwayWireless.com seems to have been hijacked, or given up. It takes you to a website about call forwarding. It does not, as suggested on the Transit Wireless website, show you which stations have service.

What's a Non-Conforming Coop?

You're searching the Internet for your new home to buy.  You find a property - a coop unit - that looks really, really good. You read through the description and you are loving the way it sounds. The photos look great too. Then you see at the bottom of the listing "Non-conforming building - cash offers only (or preferred)." Huh. What does that mean?

You Google the term "nonconforming building". The returns define it to be a building that doesn't conform to existing zoning laws. But in New York City, it's more likely to mean that the building's financials and/or owner occupancy do not conform to guidelines set by Fannie Mae (FNMA) and her compatriot, Freddie Mac (FHLMC), the two entities that purchase loans on the secondary market from the banks that originate them.

So you Google "nonconforming loans".  This search just gives you a lot of information about jumbo loans, which are a type of nonconforming loan, because the amount of the loan is higher than Fannie Mae conforming limits.

But this property is asking less than the published conforming loan limits. Are there other issues that can put a property into nonconforming territory?

Answer: yes there are. One of the big ones is owner occupancy. This refers to the number of units in the coop that have been sold by the sponsor to individual owners and are occupied by those owners and their families. Units that are owned by individuals but sublet to renters do not count, but individually-owned vacant units do. Sponsor-owned units also are not considered owner-occupied (a sponsor unit is one that continues to be owned by the original landlord of the building who created the coop, or their successor).

FNMA/FHLMC requires 51% of cooperative units to be "owner occupied". Not 50%, but 51%. This was a big issue back in the 1980s and 1990s when sponsors owned more than 50% of units in many coops that had just been converted. The sponsor ownership is less of a problem these days, but smaller coops (under 40 units) can still slip into this nonconforming status if they have a significant percentage of sponsor ownership (ie, 25-40%) and if the coop allows too many owners to sublet in addition. When that happens, the coop falls into non-conforming status.

In the olden days, it was possible to get something called a "waiver" on nonconforming buildings. This literally meant that the owner occupancy issue could be waived, and a bank could get you a conforming loan. Since 2008, however, that is practically impossible, according to mortgage lenders that I have considered. Whereas waivers were practically a given before the mortgage crisis (for a small fee), now each application for a waiver is scrutinized and takes weeks to process. Few are granted.

So that leaves us back to this beautiful coop in your price range. You don't have cash, but you see it's a bargain. What can be done?

First, realize that while many mortgage programs are not going to be available for that particular unit, some loans might be. These loans are called portfolio loans, and they may be given by banks or mortgage lenders.  A portfolio loan is a loan that a bank cannot sell to FNMA/FHLMC. The bank has limited choices - either the loan must be held and collected by the bank until the end of the term, or the loan can be sold to an investor who will deal in nonconforming loans.

Unfortunately, that translates to a slightly higher interest rate for the borrower.
But such a property may present an opportunity. Remember, every coop is different. Some may be primarily investor-owned, while others may simply be one unit from conforming.  Ask your agent what the situation is.  If the situation is just one unit, then you might have an opportunity to get a little pop in value when that one unit does finally turn the owner occupancy ratio over 51%. You have the option of refinancing into a conforming loan once the building is conforming as well.

So, all in all, don't leave those gems in the dust. Nonconforming coops can present an opportunity to the person looking for a below market opportunity for a long term primary residence.

2 Digital Maps to Help You Know New York City and How to Use Them

The IS department of the City of New York has some beautiful map tools available for use by the general public. If you're searching for a home, you might be interested in a couple of them:

1) The NYC Crime map shows how many and what types of crimes occurred throughout the city. You can look by precinct, by graduated point map (which shows how many crimes occurred in a specific spot that you can drill down by zooming in), and by heat map (where changing colors indicate a larger number of crimes). You can even specify which kinds of crimes you would like to see information for. 

One thing you won't see too much of is murder. Thankfully, as former Mayor Bloomberg pointed out, NYC has had very few violent crimes given how large the city is over the past few years. This tool is great for people moving to the city who want to understand what happens in different neighborhoods, and residents who what to keep track of what is happening in their particular area.

2) The NYC Business Atlas shows a variety of demographic information about population and business density. It shows businesses by heat maps and also the number of different types of businesses in a specific area, as well as what types of businesses have started up recently. Prospective residents might find this information useful as they evaluate various neighborhoods.  http://maps.nyc.gov/businessatlas/

Enjoy!

New York's the Same, the World is Better, What's Going On?

I am no Wall Street guru, but I follow the market pretty closely these days, as well as economic indicators throughout the world. Here is what we've got going:   .

1) Interest rates made a rather large move (.25% not really a large move, but for bond traders it's a large move)

 2) Several large retailers - and today Cisco, which is like the GE of pure tech plays - have reported lower than expected 2nd quarter results (whose expectations? it's sort of an average taken across many investment firms' analysts' projections).

 3) Walmart also missed on revenues, though not earnings (earnings are the actual income reported after all expenses have been removed), and cut its own projections for the rest of the year.

 However, other things are not all bad! For instance:

 1) July unemployment nationwide FELL to 7.4%, the lowest since 2007 - that's a YEAR before the crap hit the fan in 2008. Remember that before the credit crunch caused by the failures of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, among many others. Many people forget that the downturn began in late 2004, when the first of the subprime mortgage crisis started to be felt.

 2) Europe, which caused an echo credit crunch on these shores as analysts scrambled to discern which of our multinational banks held how many Greek, Spanish, Irish, Cypriot, etc. bonds, has suddenly peaked its head out of the recession pit, according to the official statistics office of the European Union. China, too, has seen a slight rebound that is pulling materials and mining stocks up ever so slightly.

All that, plus lighter volume (which exaggerates price swings in an individual stock) made for a 200-point drop in the market today.

I watch the stock market because it seems to have more correlation to the real estate market in Manhattan (and increasingly, Brooklyn) than the markets in the rest of the country (which is why NYC's prices kept going up until almost the moment Bear Stearns went down). But it's hard to say what's the new normal here: the Dow made new highs nearly every week until April, had a correction in May, resumed upwards in June, and now in August (traditionally not a great month for the market) it's heading down again, mostly lazily but today in a more precipitous fashion. What will happen in September? What indeed? It's a soap opera that doesn't end.

My personal experience tells me that buyers are less likely to buy in New York when the market goes down. This might be because the buyer is actually employed in the financial industry, or it may be sympathetic concern, as most people in New York are at least cognizant of the market's moves, even if they aren't invested.

Dearth of buyers can lead to price drops, but only if there is a glut of properties relative to the number of buyers on the market. A quick glance at the live listings infographic provided by Urbandigs.com shows that active inventory (ie, properties currently listed for sale) has dropped nearly 20% in the past 3 months. In addition, properties in contract, after a huge 43% pop four to six months ago, has declined by 6% in the past three months. Finally, properties that have gone off market have increased over 15% in the past three months.

So, to summarize, fewer properties are on the market, at a rate that exceeds the drop in contracts signed. This means the inventory seems to be right-sizing itself. So, for the moment, prices in New York should remain unchanged.

We'll see how that works out when interest rates really begin to rise.

2012 May Be the Year of the Starter Apartment

So the headlines of the last nearly 2 years have been how luxury homes (over $5 million) just don't seem to be slowing down... until they kind of have. I mean, at the very top end people will always have the money to buy. But now, according to a couple articles, family sized apartment sales have been slowing down.

Instead, it looks like the little guy is finally feeling a little more confident, and smaller starter homes are starting to finally move on the market.  It may not be all about the want to invest however, as Manhattan rents are starting to fly skyhigh again. All you renters, that means you don't have 48-72 hours to "think over" apartments. February, a traditionally slow month, saw very high rental activity.

When you're out shopping for apartments, you need your previous year's tax returns and/or W-2s, letter from your employer showing salary and tenure, 2-3 consecutive paycheck stubs, and bank statements showing enough reserves to pay all the move in costs (please don't send a checking account statement showing only $50; you are trying to prove you are financially qualified to pay rent monthly!). You may also need a copy of your ID, a reference or previous lease from your current landlord. Forewarned is forearmed: I would have quite a fortune if I were given a commission for every renter who missed out on an apartment they loved because they didn't take my advice and have all their paperwork close to hand.

Save on Your Refinance

Came across this excellent article today regarding title insurance and refinancing:

http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/jackguttentag/dont-overpay-title-insurance

Title insurance is a safeguard against defects in the title of real property. This phenomenon came out of the era of non-computerized records (since the 1500s, basically), when it was very easy to impersonate someone, forge documents, or otherwise muddy the waters when it came to proving ownership of a property. Title insurance (coupled with title abstracts) basically come into play when there is a defect in title, such as an old lien on the property or a claim by a previous owner.

In New York, particularly in Manhattan, title insurance is rarely used. Some 80% of available residential units are co-ops, which are not considered real property, and therefore rarely involve title insurance. Title insurance is mostly applicable to real property ownership - including condos and townhouses or buildings of any kinds. In fact, mortgage companies require a title abstract - and usually also title insurance - before they will agree to the mortgage loan.

The author of this article - Mr. Guttentag - has highlighted a possible cost savings for owners of condos and townhouses who wish to refinance - namely, a discount on the reissue of title insurance. If you are thinking about refinancing your condo or house, this is required reading!

Dogs Are Classic New York...

NYC Real Estate Goddess entertained some family from out west over the last couple weeks. It's always fun to have the perspective of non-New Yorkers. Our own 1 bedroom apartment is about 750 square feet, so our cousins had some space to stretch out. I didn't take them "sight-seeing" - my version of showing them the quintessential tiny New York - particularly Manhattan - apartments that we're so famous for.

One thing they did notice was how many New Yorkers had dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, all kind of dogs. As mountain-dwellers with their own dogs, they wondered how we New Yorkers manage to care for their dogs. Answer: an elaborate system of housebreaking, strict scheduled walks, alternative transportation and/or totable dogs, and additional support. We love our canine friends. They brighten up our day. We bring them with us on the subway in approved (and not-so-approved) carriers. We have dog walkers shuttling them while we're at work so their not too uncomfortable. And of course, wee-wee pads have helped immensely. 

New York is such a dog town that the Westminster Kennel Club holds its annual dog show in New York's Madison Square Garden every year. This year - the 136th annual dog show, was where NYC Real Estate Goddess went to get her fix. Usually we just content ourselves with standing outside the Garden and peering at the specimens being walked. But not this year - we had to be in the thick of it. And so we were:

Scottish Terrier breed competition at 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

Here you see my favorite breed being judged - the Scottish Terriers. Truly these are a dog after my own heart. They are described on the Scottish Terrier Club of America as "aloof" and the breed introduction in the group competition says they feel "openly superior to their owners". But they are great little creatures - equal parts smart and cute, and very loyal. I was able to figure out which one would be named the winner (it's #6 - in the center of the photo). But I loved them all!

Backstage at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is the best place to be - it's very hectic and crowded, especially as there was a lot of renovation going on at Madison Square Garden. They were shoehorning the benching areas everywhere they could, including behind the judging areas in the theater, and grooming was happening up in the wings!

Norwich Terriers in the Wings at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show   

Here you see several of the Norwich (pronounced "NOR-itch") terriers getting ready for their show. They are shoehorned up into the wings of the theater stage left - luckily they are small and resilient, as are their groomers!

Backstage in the arena, the big dogs were on display. These guys have tons of personality and their owners give them lots of love.

Great Pyrenees Playing on the Bench at the  136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show   

I think this is a Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog - not sure as I couldn't get close to that bench, but it sure looks like one to me. 

I guess I'm a sucker for large dogs. I mean, they were so cute!  

Mastiff backstage at 136th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

I mean, how do you resist this beautiful (and friendly) mastiff face?

Or this?

A Young Girl Plays With a Leonberger entry at the 136th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

There were some great creatures in general. As a close second to my beloved Scottie, I really liked the Sky Terrier in the Terrier Group.

A Sky Terrier chills out in the benching area at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

The ears are the pointy things behind the pigtails.

There's no end to the gorgeous dogs, and most of the animals you see at home are just as wonderful. Yes, we New Yorkers love our dogs and Westminster is right at home among us (even more so when they move the preliminary judging and benching to Piers 92-94 in 2013, thus alleviating some of the incredible crowding we experienced this year and allowing more dogs to enter!). 

New Yorkers love their dogs so much, in fact, that it's known pet owners will pay a premium in rent to have their beloved friends with them. In fact, an apartment my firm listed recently did not rent - in part, we believe, because all cat and dog owners were turned away.  So, landlords, food for thought: better rents to let these adorable creatures keep their masters company.

Do you have a story about how you successfully deal with pet owner tenants? Let me know!

New York Foreclosures Inversely Proportional to Delinquencies

Saw an article this week on New York State foreclosure and delinquency rates. The gist is that delinquency rates of loans (that means loans that are 30 days or more behind) have fallen as a proportion of all mortgage loans in New York State. Foreclosures, however, have risen during the same time. 

That may sound ominous but for the projections mentioned in this article regarding New York City Foreclosure and delinquency rates published in October 2011.  To recap, the article states that actual foreclosures in New York City (where the property goes to auction and is sold or taken by the bank) fell by 69% in third quarter 2011. However, experts cited a virtual moratorium on actual foreclosures forced by scrutiny and fallout from the robo-signing debacle. This earlier article states that the number of loans 90 days late was the same as in previous quarters in October 2011.

So, between the October 2011 article and this week's article... PROGRESS! It was predicted in October that a spate of mortgages currently in default (90 days late) would move through the foreclosure process, thus raising the number of foreclosures from the abnormally low number achieved in the 3rd quarter. So according to February's article, that happened. Foreclosures rose.

BUT, according to the February article, the number of delinquent loans fell. (Delinquent loans are loans that are 30 days or more late; this includes loans considered 90 days late which were previously defined as "in default").   30-day late loans fell as a proportion from 8.12% of outstanding loans to 7.98%. So, maybe New York State is starting to work its way through the housing crisis.

.14% of loans may not sound like much (and indeed may be somewhat accounted for by the number of loans that finally were foreclosed and therefore removed from the loan pool). So clearly New York has a long way to go. But every little bit helps. The February article puts the current levels of delinquency and foreclosures in historical perspective (5% of total loans go delinquent and .5% go to foreclosure), as well as national perspective (New York ranks 26th out of 50 in total delinquencies - right on the median). 

With the stock market, as a leading indicator, having been mostly positive from early 2010 through now, it follows that the real estate market would start to improve as a traditional trailing indicator. "Stopping the bleeding" in New York is one of the first steps.  It's nice to see some progress back from the brink.

THAT's 700 Square Feet!?!

Found this post on the other day that highlighted a great issue: measuring square footage of a property and whether, or how, to report it.

With prices above $1000 per square foot in many parts of Manhattan, we care about every inch! As mentioned in this blog post, square footage is measured in several ways. In new development condos, for instance, the square footage is measured by the floor plate. That means some of the square footage in the apartment is between the drywall and the studs, unfortunately.

In prewar apartments, square footage is often (but not always) measured from interior wall to interior wall. Why the difference?  Because floorplans for the prewar buildings are often not available. As a result, new layouts are drawn using interior wall measurements only.  So next time you see a 650 square foot prewar and a 650 square foot recent development listing, and one feels a lot bigger, you know why.

The actual issue discussed in this blog post is whether to list the square footage of a property in the marketing materials. The author tells a story of a very particular buyer who tried to back out when the actual square footage differed from the listed amount by less than 1%.  That's a pretty extreme example to me, but it happens.

A colleague of mine doesn't list square footage because she finds that people have different opinions of the same number. Instead, she asks them to tell her how much they think the space is. Predictably, answers vary all over the map.

The truth is that layout greatly affects the perception of square feet. In my opinion, potential buyers will tell you how much usable square footage they see. Does the unit have a long hallway from the entrance to the foyer? Wasted Space. Square bathroom or narrow rectangular bath? The wide square shape may be perceived as larger. Galley kitchen or open kitchen with breakfast bar? That's a toss-up. Some will count the separate kitchen as more space, while others will perceive the narrow kitchen as smaller than it really is.

I've gotten pretty good at figuring out - within 50 square feet or so, how big an apartment is. Sometimes I work forwards. For instance, if a prewar apartment has a 12' x 22' living room and a 12' x 15' bedroom, then total square footage is likely between 750 (if a galley kitchen) and 850 (if eat-in kitchen).  Other times, I work backwards. For instance, if an apartment is a full floor of a townhouse, then you take the size of the town house (ie, 20' wide by 40' long, a typical size in the West Village) and subtract 50-100 square feet for the interior staircase. A longer house makes for a bigger apartment with an interior dining room and/or a second bedroom.

One thing I do not recommend is using a "rule of thumb" or "legendary" square footage. I once knew a seller who represented that his apartment was a certain square footage because "the coop assigns one share per square foot". Unfortunately, the buyer's appraiser found that the real number was nearly 300 square feet less. The buyer cared very much about the square footage and wanted a huge price drop. Turns out he cared about the price per square foot, even though the property appraised for the contract price. He didn't want it unless he was getting a deal, even though he'd been through the apartment several times and felt it met his needs. Ultimately, the sale died.  Moral of story: do take a measuring stick and measure the apartment yourself, even if you "know" what the rough number is.

As a broker (and a person with a decent - though hardly perfect - spatial perception), I appreciate an approximate square footage in the listing information. It helps me understand whether I should even bring a customer to a specific listing, or if it would be too small. I use floorplans and photos to help me make that decision (and the more information a listing has, the more likely I am to shortlist it for a customer).

Bottom line: Measure the property, even if you have documents stating a particular square footage. Always use the word approximate. Provide more visual information to complement the square footage information (floorplans, photos, etc.). It could save your sale.

Bedbug Scare Not So Bad This Year

You can't help but read anything about bedbugs without starting to itch a little... and then running to burn your sheets.  But Crain's brings good news!

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120101/HEALTH_CARE/301019970/1020

Yes it seems that all our vigilance is paying off - thank goodness! But just as with other scourges, bedbugs never were completely gone, and they are still out there, as the article says, particularly in hotels. So please, keep taking precautions, and we will all sleep a little better at night.

Pros and Cons of Brownstone Living

When I became a real estate agent in 2005, my first training was to familiarize myself with the real estate of New York. That is no easy feat and it involved climbing lots of stairs and bluffing my way into hundreds of buildings to see many more apartments than I could hope to count. My photo collection includes hundreds of apartments, and hundreds more if I hadn't lost some photos to corruption.
What I learned was that, in addition to certain neighborhoods having various charms and amenities, the housing shares certain characteristics. People who don't live in these neighborhoods are sometimes shocked, for instance, that nothing in their price range has laundry in the building, or an elevator, or everything is dark. A real estate agent can end up turning off a client by doing nothing more than showing an uneducated client exactly what they are asking for in terms of price, location and number of bedrooms.
I sometimes get a call from an interested party who declares that their last broker "only showed me garbage." When I probe a little more deeply into what they asked for, I quickly realize why.
My favorite request is a brownstone "with lots of light".
Brownstones are long, narrow townhouses that typically have a north-south orientation. This means two things: 1) the only windows are typically in the living room and the bedroom, leaving the kitchen, bathroom, and half the living room fairly dark UNLESS the apartment is on the top floor. But that of course means walking up 2-3 more flights of stairs; and 2) one of the rooms with windows will usually be very dark because it's facing north. To make things even worse, the side of the apartment that faces the back of the building may face nothing but a brick wall because in some parts of Manhattan (Upper West Side!), there isn't much of a backyard separating the buildings.
And this is only when you are lucky enough to find a floor-through apartment! If you end up with a half floor-through, then you get one set of windows out the front, and one room (usually the bedroom) with one measly window on a (poorly named) airshaft - might as well have it bricked up for all the light it brings! So, when someone calls me up and specifies a brownstone, I have to groan just a little bit.

But other types of buildings have their own issues. More on that next time....

Renovations - striking a balance

I recently had a call from an acquaintance who purchased a co-op apartment a couple years ago. This person's lifestyle had changed up a bit and he was thinking about converting his one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom by splitting the bedrooms. He had done careful planning and measuring and was able to arrange the rooms so that a window and closet would be available in each room. His question to me was: how would this affect the eventual sale price of his apartment?

The most general answer is that renovations generally affect sales prices positively, but it depends on the type of renovation and execution. Then, I ask another question. Once answered, the homeowner will have a better idea of what to do and how.

How long are you going to be living in this home?

Food for Thought: If you feel like you will be moving within the next 2-3 years or less and selling your home for any reason (need more space, plan to relocate, etc.), then any renovations you do should take into account the next owners of the space. For instance, if you divide your bedroom into two rooms, make sure that you frame the wall in a way that minimal damage is done to the underlying floor and walls. This way, the extra walls can be removed so that the next resident can choose his preferred layout.

Likewise, refrain from making statements that are too bold in kitchen and bathroom renovations. Choose neutral tile colors such as earth tones in the kitchen and clean colors such as blue or black and white in the bathroom. This will appeal to a wide range of future buyers (who won't feel like they need to gut the apartment) and will still give you a fresh new home that you can enjoy. If you feel the need for bold choices, express your style with paint colors and furniture, items that will be easy to change for the next homeowner.

If, however, you plan to live in your home for a fairly long time, feel free to make more customized renovations, choosing bold tile colors and building in customized fixtures. It is, after all, your home for the foreseeable future, and you should enjoy it to the utmost!