Tag Archives: Manhattan

Foreign Investment, Upperwestside

Where foreign investors are buying in Manhattan

According to CNBC, foreign investors are choosing New York City as the number two place to make their real estate investments behind only London. Certain neighborhoods seem to be attracted the most interest. The Upper West side was mentioned as attracting Chinese buyers in the $1 to $2 million range according to one real estate broker. Harlem was not mentioned but Brownstone Brooklyn was mentioned.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

 

Real estate

What type of Manhattan apartment is the best investment in the current market?

This is the 2nd in a series of articles for buyers who are considering buying a Manhattan apartment as an investment. 

According to the latest data, Manhattan apartments with the least price vulnerability continue to be affordable luxury. Depending on what market segment and neighborhood you look in, the price range is different. On the Upper west side, where I live, that would amount to $3 million and below. In the townhouse market on the Upper West side, it’s roughly $6 million and below where sales still occur. Above $10 million is a different story. In Harlem, affordable luxury is probably closer to $1.5 million and down for apartments and about $2.3 million and below for townhouses.

Mansion Global takes a look at the Manhattan market as a whole and asserts that the affordable luxury market makes up a large portion of Manhattan apartments. Year by year, property at $5mm and below accounts for more than 90% of the sales. The eight figure deals are the outliers but tend to get the headlines. One interesting point that they bring up is that larger apartments change hands less frequently so are more difficult to price, remain on the market longer, and eventually discount their prices more.

More from Mansion Global

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

 

Buying tips for your NYC apartment, BuyingtipsforManhattanproperty, Investment

Thinking of buying a Manhattan apartment for investment?

1 Comment

This is the 1st in a series of articles for buyers who are considering buying a Manhattan apartment as an investment. 

I  once read an article where someone commented that NYC property is like a Swiss bank account for investors because it’s considered so low risk and certainly will go up in the future. But where do you buy and for how much? Should you get a loan or pay CASH? Here’s some advice that may help you to decide.

So let’s say you have $1 million just as an example and you want to invest. What are your options assuming you will not live there? Click through for guidelines.

Continue reading Thinking of buying a Manhattan apartment for investment? →

Buying tips for your NYC apartment, Listings, Upperwestside

Upper west side 2bd/2ba condos under $2 million

According to a search on listings website Streeteasy.com, there are 42 condo listings on Manhattan’s upper west side with at least 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms under $2 million. The largest apartment for sale in this price range is a 1400 sqft duplex and the listings include 16 listings for $1.7 million and under.

The listings include two listings in the newly converted 350 W 71st street and overall 23 of the 42 listings are in Lincoln Square with many in the amenity rich Riverside Boulevard buildings as sellers attempt to move on from buildings with a tax abatement either recently expired or expiring soon. 7 of the 42 listings are in the Avery, at 100 Riverside boulevard which has a tax abatement expiring in 2 years. Overall, the Avery has 20 listings for sale of the 266 units.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

 

 

 

BuyingtipsforManhattanproperty, Selling tips

How long does it take to go from contract to closing for a Manhattan property

Once you have an accepted offer, the contract review process begins. In an ideal world, this will take about a week but can often take longer, as the lawyers haggle over details of the contract like as is versus working condition or closing dates or what happens if there is a title issue…Once the contract is signed by the buyer and the deposit (normally 10% of the purchase price) is sent to the seller’s attorney, the seller can sign the contract.

At that point, the buyer will give their documents to their lender for their loan application. Within about a month, the buyer will have a loan commitment and from there the bank can be ready in about another month or so to close the transaction.

If this is a condo or co-op in Manhattan, there will be Board application to be submitted and reviewed first by management and then the Board. In the case of a condo, they grant a waiver of the right of first refusal which is the Building’s right to buy an apartment if they so choose. If it’s a co-op then they will review the application and first decide to interview or not, then interview and give an approval or rejection. This can add another 1-2 months total to the process.

Lastly, the lawyers will set the scheduled date for closing when all parties are available. From contract to closing, can average about 3 months, less if a cash transaction and more in the case of co-op.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Manhattan, multifamily, Propertytaxes

What’s the advantage of tax class 2A and 2B for Manhattan properties?

Some investors focus on larger apartment buildings for their acquisition and may miss out on smaller ones that make just as much or more sense. In a recent Commercial Observer, a commercial broker takes a look at the advantage of tax class 2A and 2B(4-10 units) and perhaps acquiring a few of those instead of large buildings that are just in tax Class 2(11+ units).

Full coverage from Commercial Observer

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every neighborhood from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Real estate

Thinking of moving- Common moving mistakes to avoid

If you are in the process of moving from or to your Manhattan property,  there are many common mistakes to avoid. One of the most common ones is to take everything and sort it out later. If you are downsizing, take the time to sort through everything prior to packing and throw away what you do not need so as not to move unnecessary items.

I think it’s important also to decide what service level you need. Some clients want to have everything packed and unpacked for them and others want to do a DIY move. Take it from someone who once moved himself with two friends about 15 years ago, it was the most difficult work I have ever completed in my life. Also many fragile items did not survive the move. So think twice about that.

More common moving mistakes

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every Manhattan market from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Buying tips for your NYC apartment, Manhattan, Real estate

Thinking of buying your first Manhattan apartment?

Very often, I am asked by first time buyers what are the guidelines that banks use to determine how the bank determines how much they will lend. In generally, let’s take a look at a scenario where you are interested in buying a Manhattan condo for $1,000,000.

$1,000,000 purchase price
$200,000 down payment
$40,000 closing costs
?                   post closing reserves

In this scenario you need about $250,000 liquid plus post closing reserves which depend on the bank but let’s say 6 months of payments which can be in a 401k or non-liquid account.

In this case, your monthly mortgage is about $4,000 based on a 4.5 interest rate on a 30 year mortgage, add in about $1400 for common charges and taxes and you end up at $5,400. In order for the bank to make a loan you would need to have at least 2.5 to 3 times that in monthly income assuming little or no debt and very good credit. So you would need a minimum of $13,500 in monthly income or $162k annual. In many neighborhoods this will buy you a  1bedroom condo or even a  2 bedroom north of 110th street.

If you purchase a co-op, the co-op will require a minimum of 20% and in some cases more plus they will require 2 years of monthly payments in reserves so the cash outlay will be higher. So you may need close to $400k in assets to make the purchase. However, you will have a much larger choice of apartments with a co-op in this price range- 102 listings with at least 1 bedroom on the Upper west side under $1 million on the listing site streeteasy compared with 17 condos under $1 million. Co-ops are less expensive than condos but have more restrictions and higher monthly charges. More on that another time.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every Manhattan market from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Listings, Manhattan, Real estate, Selling tips

When should you adjust the price of your Manhattan property?

So you list your Manhattan property and are imagining bidding wars and cash offers. What happens if you do not receive offers or have a dearth of showings? At what point do you adjust your price and how much do you adjust? Normally, within the first month you like to see showings and perhaps an offer, this is the best time to capture someone off the initial marketing/interest. If however, you have very few showings, an adjustment might be needed. But how much?

Often times, I will see price adjustments of $20,000 on a $3 million property or $100k on and $8 million property. These types of adjustments will not move the needle at all. Generally speaking analyze the data of showings of your property with your real estate broker and compare it with traffic of recently sold and comparable listings that are for sale and you can see how far off you are on your pricing. If you are getting showings but no offers what that means is the market is willing to come see your property but not offer on it. In this case 7-8% might be enough. However a total lack of showings and a declining market are a bad combination. If that is the case an adjustment of 10% or more depending on what the competing properties are offering. Communication is very important here with your real estate broker. I use a project management site to communicate directly with my clients so that if they want to know about showings and feedback from buyers in real time they can receive these updates directly in their email box or on their phones. You need to get that feedback to understand what the buyer market mindset is.

Recently, on a Battery Park City listing that I had,  we had to reduce it twice from $1.5 million to $1.35 to eventually $1.2 million. That was due to an extreme case where the common charges and taxes were unusually high.  In this case, two very strong negatives were dragging the price down but thankful the seller adjusted and was able to get a buyer before the market headed down even more which it did especially in that neighborhood.

So as far as price adjustments, be aggressive with them especially if after the first month you are getting zero or a very low amount of showings. Be less aggressive when you are getting showings but no offers. And adjust your expectations when the market is heading down and there is more inventory coming to market to compete with your property.

The Author-  Brian Silvestry , a licensed real estate broker, has been selling residential and commercial real estate since 1999. He has sold in every Manhattan market from Battery Park City to Washington Heights.

Legislation, Manhattan

Council members pushing for Green roofs

Three council members are pushing bills that would mandate that certain newly constructed buildings will be required to dedicate half their roof to greenery, solar panels or small wind turbines. The idea is by covering Manhattan rooftops with greenery you can combat climate change and reduce our carbon footprint.

Full coverage from AM New York