The Value in a Broker

So you have decided to put your property on the market, but not sure if you want to retain the services of a broker. What a real estate broker can bring to the table is incomparable to what the average home or property owner can do.

You should know that you're relationship with a real estate broker, a lawyer, a accountant or even a doctor is very similar, You're broker is someone you have a relationship with, someone that you trust and in some cases even form a friendship.

Real Estate Brokers work real hard, they solely work on commission based, which means no salary, no health insurance, pay there own taxes, and all expenses that goes into marketing your property, They spend hours on the phone talking to potential buyers, they place numerous ads in various publications, work on huge web based advertising campaigns everything from posting on numerous multiple listing services (mls) to emailing the 22,000 other real estate brokers that are in this city, they invest money and time in stuffing envelopes, making postcards and sending thousands of these snail mail materials to potential buyers., They work from dusk to dawn pushing and trying to sell your property, a real estate broker works all hours 7 days a week, sometimes as late as midnight just trying to close a deal for you, (the client). There objective getting you the highest value for your property. They work in liaison between lawyers, other brokers, management companies as well as the buyer and seller. They draw up or just review countless documents, put building packages together, It really never ends.

So when picking a broker consider all the things I just mentioned, make sure you have a good rapport with them, and good luck in selling or purchasing your property.

And Remember

The Finest Compliment a Broker can ever recieve is a referral from a friend and a customer.

New York's West Coast!

I have decided to start something new, im calling it New York Spotlight, where i will feature a new neighborhood or trend in this city, This week it is New York's West Coast.

There is a New York City Real Estate Revolution taking place, the revolution on the far west side, "Waterfront" Is what people are asking for, New Yorkers have realized that they too can have spectacular water views outside the summer getaways, and developers are moving fast on the demand. What can be more beautiful then waking up to a picture perfect sunrise onto the Hudson River, and it's not just residential developments, restaurants and shops have also popped up, the old Tunnel nightclub has been converted into a shopping plaza, Chef's such as Jean George have opened up restaurants on the west side, The Highline, an old railway that spans across the west side from 14th street to the 40's is being converted into the second largest public park in Manhattan, the first elevated park see www.thehighline.org


And on the Upper West Side, a development so big and magnificent that it could have only been dreamed up by Donald Trump himself, the old west side railyards is becoming the new hot address of the city, Trump Place will feature 17 buildings going across the newly formed Riverside Blvd, boasts spectacular views and amenities, everything from a pool, fitness center to recreation rooms, and access to a 38 acre park which Trump has donated to the city, it features tennis courts, basketball courts, bike paths, picture yourself walking down the promenade and seeing a sail boat, sail by. That is something that was unheard of years ago, being steps away from Lincoln Center, Central Park, The Citarella fish market and so much more. A Perfect place to call home. If this is somewhere you would like to call home or would like some more information feel free to contact me.

Real Estate Investing 101

So You have finally decided to invest in Real Estate, Congratulations! Your ticket to becoming a millionaire is on it's way. In today's issue, I will discuss the many ways to invest in Real Estate, even if you only have a thousand dollars. There are many ways to invest in Real Estate, you have to first figure out how much you can invest, if your looking to turn over your investment quickly or if your in it for the long run.

1. Pre-Construction: Pre-Construction is actually one of the areas I specialize in, it is also one of the more popular ways to invest in real estate, you are basically purchasing a unit, before the building is even complete, in some cases before they have even broken ground on construction. The key to buying pre-construction is being able to purchase a unit from the first releasing, which is also known as the first amendment. Once Albany gives the developer the O.K. then they start releasing units. However the developers don't release all the units at once, they might only release a handful, usually because they are trying to get a feel of how in demand there project is, try to get a buzz going. Being one of the lucky few to buy one of these units from the first amendment is hard, it can also be tricky. They usually don't announce the date that it will be released, even people in the industry get at most a few hours notice or hear word the night before, so when you do find a development that you want to invest your money in, you have to be ready at a minutes notice. To be able to get on the first amendment you have to find a good broker, now I am not hear to promote myself, this is meant to be a forum discussing the real estate market, I am trying to be as non partisan as i can, obviously I welcome any and all business, but again, there is no hidden agenda. SO back the what I was saying, finding a good broker who has the contacts and knowledge of the specific area is vital in obtaining a unit at first offering. So you got a unit, the first thing you will receive is an offering plan, the developer will require some sort of deposit to take the unit that you have chosen off the market and give you and/or your attorney to review everything, the deposit can be anything from $100 to $25,000, most of the time they don't even cash the checks, they just keep it until your done reviewing, time frame can be anywhere from 3-15 days, upon reviewing and finally taking your unit you will need a 10% down payment minus the amount you first gave. Word of advice, if you are lucky enough to get a unit, any unit at first amendment, even if your not sure about it, leave them the $25,000 check, at least give yourself time to review it and make up your mind, worst case scenario you will say no and get your deposit back, but at least you took that specific unit off the market and at whatever price it was offered at. Now if you have a great broker who knows his stuff, You could be lucky enough to be one of the VIP's who gets in before first offering, and at even a lower price. Now you were smart enough to buy a unit, what now? You wait till the development is complete usually anywhere from 12-24 months, in the meantime your unit has started to appreciate, you will start getting information from the development, your broker about the second amendment, then 3rd, 4th and so on, you will see the prices increase before your eyes. I personally bought a unit 3 weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get in on the VIP list and was able to obtain the 6th out of 9 units that were being offered that week. I bought my unit at $959 a sqft, which is unheard of now, by the second week units were being sold from anywhere from $1100-$1200 a sqft, in less then two weeks, my unit increased upwards of $100,000, not bad huh? For an investment I wouldn't suggest paying more then $1100 a sqft to make a decent profit, unless of course the development has a great address, Anything in Tribeca is fine spending more per sqft, maybe a Park Avenue address, it really depends. So hypothetically lets say you bought a 1000sqft 1 Bedroom unit at $1000 a sqft, that would equal $1 Million Dollars, lets say the development is complete in 12 months, you can expect to sell the unit anywhere from $1200-$1300 a sqft, after taxes and brokers fee, you should be able to walk away with on average $125-$150k at the very least. The average one bedroom condo in Manhattan now goes for $1,140,000. Remember some of the benefits of buying pre-construction, besides all it's amenities, knowing knowone has been there before you, is that you get the 421-A tax benefit, which is basically an abatement for approximately 10 years. This makes the unit when selling it, more attractive to the buyer. Now you can use your profits and purchase another unit, continuing to roll over your money. There are people who buy multiple units a year, and they make millions a year doing this.

2. Handy Man Special: A Handy Man Special is an apartment/house that is in disrepair, because of this you can buy one at a steal, invest additional money fixing it up, kicthen/bathroom etc. Making it more attractive, then you flip it, people can make anywhere from $100k and up in profits, it does take somewhat longer to sell and does require you to be hands on in the project. Updated a Kicthen and Bathroom alone can increase the unit anywhere from 25-30% and up. The initial investment varies, if it's a condo/co-op or house, you can buy it with as low as 10% down and has high as 30% percent, you have to figure out how much you can invest.

3. Income Generating Property: most of the time is a building or commercial property, this is for someone who has a lot of initial capital and is in it for the long run. When purchasing an income generating property, there are a lot of things you have to look for, is there a conversion opportunity, air rights, what's the Gross operating income, NET etc, rule of thumb is outside Manhattan you should be paying around 10 times the rent roll. Rent Roll is what the yearly gross income is. In Manhattan it can vary from 10 to as much as 30 times the rent roll, because of the lack of available properties, the value Manhattan brings in general and the potential in the future.

4. Now you read all of the above, and your saying, Damn I wish I had that can of money, but you don't. You still want to get into real estate though, here are some options for people who aren't in the financial position yet. 1. You can partner up with someone, a family member, a friend, a colleague. Form an LLC or Joint Venture, and get into pre construction or something, you can do this with more then 2 people as well. 2. If you know a lot of people who have money and would like to pool them together, you can form what is called a Syndicate, there are many ways for doing this and many books on doing so, you can check out the list of real estate investing books on the sidebar from Amazon.com 3. This is for anyone who only might have a thousand dollars or so but would like to invest in real estate, you should try investing in a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) which is sort of like a stock, but your buying shares with companies who own, operate and develop real estate property, You would have to talk to a stock person for that, but I feel they are a much safer investment then stocks in general, one you might want to research is SL Green, they recently bought the PANAM/METLIFE Building, but you should do your own research and figure out which company you think is best.

One other piece of advice, when buying and selling real estate, consider performing a 1031 exchange, it is a program provided by the government that says if you sell one form of real estate and purchase another with the money, you get a tax break. This is something that needs to be discussed with an attorney, usually you are given 45 days to identify a property and 6 months to close. But again I am not a lawyer and advise you to speak to a good real estate lawyer.

Keep coming back, as I am updating this blog frequently

STOCKS vs REAL ESTATE what's the better investment?

So You have some money saved up under the mattress, and now you want to make it work for you, Where to Invest? People in work are talking about Googles IPO while at home your family is talking about The Booming Real Estate Market. Decisions, Decisions, what to do? Well first you have to decide how much can you invest. Before we jump ahead of ourselves let me break down the difference between the Stock and Real Estate Market.

Stocks: I'll be honest, I'm not that experienced with stocks, have invested some in the past, and lost money doing so, I do speak with people who are multi millionaires on a daily basis, often I pick there brain, trying to gain the knowledge that might of been the cause of there great success, within that knowledge I have learned this about the stock market, 1. If investing in stocks with the hopes of making tons of money, be prepared, be prepared to follow up on the market every hour, up a point here, down a point there, your company just fired there CEO, Your company just hired one, a merger is in talks, someone was just indicted, this is all information that you have to be ontop of, so that your ahead of the game and you make as much as possible, and lose as little as possible. Think you spend a lot of time online now? Wait till you invest in the stock market, you'll have no choice but to outsource your daily routine,because you will be glued to the monitor. Another thing you have to realize, is that your trusting your money with a company that consists of thousands of employees, So if a manager, a VP a CEO or an Accountant does something unethical, illegal or is just careless, you could be a victim just like all the victims of Enron, Worldcom, Adelphi, Anderson and all the other companies that lost billions for there share holders. Then when that happens, do you know what you can do with your stock certificates? Use them as toilet paper that's what.

Real Estate: Now with real estate it's a whole other ball game, real estate puts you in control, the balls on your court, You actually own something, you can do various things with real estate, for instance, if you were to invest in a condo, you could rent it out, live in there, turn it into an office, or either do some minor capital improvements, or if you bought pre construction, flip (resell) it when the development is complete, its always going to appreciate, even if the market isn't so good, you will always get more then what you paid for it. Hey lets say this hot market slows down, you don't feel you should sell it yet, well then you could always either live in the unit or rent it, rent it so that the rent you will be collecting will pay off the mortgage and other expenses, in the meantime, your gaining equity, now you can wait until that market starts to rise again, remember the real estate market always has a 7 year cycle, everyone's heard the saying in real estate that goes "Location, Location, Location" well have you heard the other one that goes "Patience, Patience, Patience"

Think about this, one of the main factors that the market was booming at the beginning of the year was because all the people who work within the finance and stock markets got there bonuses which totaled 16 Billion Dollars, and where did all these stock and bond people invest there money? With there vast knowledge of the stock market, you would think they would invest in some blue chip stock or something, wrong! They put the money in real estate, these wallstreet people were buying 10 million dollar homes, like I buy DVD's when I'm at Virgin or something. That should tell you something. If you have money in stocks, and want to invest in real estate and your broker tells you not to or warns you about a bubble, or just says you should only invest X amount, You would think he is looking out for you, but he isn't, he is telling you all this, because every trade you make, everytime you buy/sell he charges you a commission or a fee or whatever, the less money he has to work with, the less he makes. Now I'm not saying that real estate brokers aren't like that, I'm a broker myself. What I am saying is that a real estate broker At 95% of the time gets his commission from the seller, so if your buying, you don't pay commission. So again, these are just some things I have picked up and learned over the years, it is up to you what you want to invest in, I'm just throwing in my two sense.
You just have to decide, at the end of the day, do you want to hold a piece of paper that says you own X percent of such and such company, or do you want to hold a set of keys to a house, an apartment or a building, something with four walls, floors and a roof? You make the decision.

NYRealEstateBlog

NYRealEstateBlog

Is there a bubble?

Ok so I've been watching TV, reading magazines and the media can't stop talking about this bubble. Everyone is worried that this socalled real estate bubble is gonnah burst like the dot com bubble bursted in 1999. Here is some advice, not just from me, but also from my father who has been in the NYC real estate industry for 40 years. There is no bubble, happy? Can you sleep better now? Good! What's the difference between the real estate "bubble" and the dot come bubble? Well during the dotcom era, all these companies didn't really have anything, they weren't offering anything, it was all just air, ideas and dreams floating around, but nothing tangible. That's the key word in real estate "Real" Estate something that is actually tangible, something you can touch, something you can work out of or live in, something you can rent out and generate an additional income from. The Market was very hot the last few years, everyone knows that, it's been hot due to a few factors

1. After 9/11 the Country was in an economic nightmare, so Mr. Greenspan lowered the interest rates, to an unbelievable low. 2. After people lost millions in the dotcom craze, Enron or any of the other giant corporations gone bad, they lost there faith in the stock market and realized the value and potential in real estate. A Huge factor in the real estate market is supply and demand, when people started realizing the value in real estate and not having access to a huge amount of inventory, that's when bidding wars start, So now with the interest rates slowly rising, and more inventory is available the market is leveraging out. There is no way that the market will just plummet, it might slow down, but even with it slowing down, the market will still be hot and real estate in general will still be valued much more tomorrow then it was today. Remember in real estate, your not putting your money and counting on some hot shot greedy CEO to be in control of your investment, your in control of your own investment, and real estate has a 7 year market cycle.

I live in a huge 1000 sqft CO-OP, I bought 5 years ago this February, I paid $90,000 for it, since then it has nearly quadrupled, Let's just say that there is a bubble hypothetically, and hypothetically it does burst, does that mean that I will lose my investment of $90,000? No it doesn't, even if the market would drop 30-40% which would never happen, I would at the very least get double what I paid for. Remember as years go by, neighborhoods get better, crime goes down, real estate especially in this city gets harder to find and the market increases. Especially in Manhattan which is only 12 miles long and 2 miles wide, there is only so much real estate to own.

So I will leave you with this quote from Sopranos:

Remember what Tony Soprano once told his son AJ. "Invest in land, cause god aint making anymore of it"

Welcome To The NY Real Estate Blog!

Hello and Welcome to the NYRealEstateBlog.

Here you will find new and informative information regarding the NY Real Estate Market, you will learn about new trends, new developments, Industry News, Neighborhood information and much more. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions you might have, I will try my best to answer them. If you are looking for advice, looking to purchase, sell or invest in real estate I would be more then happy to assist you with that as well. I hope that you will find this blog very informative, and I will do my best to keep you informed.


About me, Your friendly Blogger, A true New Yorker and lover of its architecture, history and culture, I am a real estate broker with Nest Seekers International. As a child, I a second generation real estate professional, accompanied my father, a developer and landlord to various properties throughout the five boroughs. I witnessed my first closing at the mere age of 10, when I watched and listened to my father in negotiate and close a transaction.

From the age of 12, I was given hands-on experience in remodeling units and developing commercial property. At 17, I decided to branch out of real estate and start my own business, a concert production company which I successfully ran for 5 years, rubbing shoulders with such celebrities as Moby, Christina Aguilera, Mary J Blige, Iggy Pop, Billy Crudup and Elizabeth Shue.

Shortly after 9/11, I rediscovered my love for New York City and received my real estate license from NYU. Having grown up a few blocks away from Donald Trump, and attended the same school Trump did when he was my age. I was inspired and impressed by Mr. Trump's success - and have set much of the same high standards for myself. I started my career closing rentals and slowly shifted to sales. More than three years later I received my Brokers' license and found a place I can call home at Nest Seekers International.

I am not only a broker but also an investor who owns multiple condominium units. I have been noted for my sharp eye and ear on the market. Aside from finding people a new home, I am also skilled at dealing directly with Investors. I have worked on deals as small as $100,000 to multi million dollar transactions. Whatever the size of the deal, I put my heart into what I do and make sure that my clients are always happy.