Rarely is real estate sales chosen as a first career

Heaven knows that real estate sales lacks the glamor of, say, school crossing guard, exterminator, barista or subway conductor.

Of course, there exist those brokers and agents whose social credentials rival Britain’s royal family and whose transactions involve properties in the double-digit millions from the outset of careers that have been their first choice.  But the rest of us have tended to select real estate for a second, third or fourth career when the economy or age has left us with few options.

Although many starting out in the industry may feel like second-class members of the community,

The debate that won’t — and shouldn’t — go away

It is unlikely that listing prices are the subject of this debate by Tibetan monks. (flickr photo by ianyake)

Perhaps nothing is trickier in listing a property than deciding on the right asking price.

Too high, the argument goes, and prospective buyers will eliminate themselves even before seeing the place.

Too low, and the seller risks obtaining what the place is worth.

Finding the sweet spot depends on

Weekly Roundup: Flat condo market, new U.S. price lows, Buffett, rollicking washers, more

Sales off 6.4 percent year to date from same time last year

Condo market mostly weak in January

Median listing price for new Manhattan developments jumps 12.6 percent from prior year

$21 million apartment has great views, but a $12 million lawsuit by the 2010 purchaser claims latent defects

Soaring Manhattan rents lure investors

Eight ways to have your super climbing the walls

Neighborhoods record

Weekly Roundup: ‘Royalty,’ rates, prices, more

Luxury market in Brooklyn attains four-year high

When having your child sleep in a room, it really should have windows

Even homeowners facing foreclosure take to home repairs

For celebrity stalkers, there’s nothing like a cool map

New program aims to enable state courts to speed up foreclosures

Rents bordering Second Avenue subway drop but rise one avenue away

Mom, 92, battles son, 58, to get back into condo she owns

Slice of the Upper West Side overlooking Hudson River lacks name

Long Island City undergoes third wave of gentrification

Ambivalent about selling, a legendary interior designer lists his Manhattan pied-à-terre for $22.5 million. . . unfurnished

Some basketball player indulges

Weekly Roundup: Q4 sales tumble in the Big Apple, U.S. sales slide, rates match record low

Sales down in Q4, prices about even

Can any other condo top this?

Board turndowns become all the rage

Yes! You can suffocate the bug(gers), but at a cost

The Financial District is up and Murray Hill is down

Inflexible dog policy can bite co-ops back

While NYC residential lending is loosening in some corners, the industry is moving slowly in its recovery

Four renovation surprises that can cost a bundle

Region’s foreclosure rates leap in October

Taxes on property sales dropped to $982 million in 2010 from $3.3 billion in 2007

The Times answers questions about co-op sponsors, smoking and the sale of common areas

Weight-loss guru trims price of southern California home for kin

Bunny is hopping off her private Cape Cod island

Former NFL chief

Survey: Prospective home buyers harbor 5 myths

Many U.S. home buyers operate in the dark (Flickr photo by SP8254 - Catching Up)

As a New Yorker, of course I believe that we’re smarter than anyone else in the country.  So, I don’t necessarily subscribe to our sharing the same deficiencies that home buyers who live elsewhere suffer.

But I do think that a recent survey for Zillow bears scrutiny.

Astonishingly, it found that 42 percent of polled prospective home buyers believe

Weekly Roundup: Brooke’s place takes a beating, mortgage rates jump, $1 million goes only so far

Because of city’s renters, state has lowest homeownership rate in the nation

Harlem attracts post-slump buyers

Brooke Astor’s Park Avenue duplex goes for half its 2008 asking price

Wall Street jobs cut since 2008 could total 32,000 by end of next year

Landlords trim concessions in Q3, effectively raising rents

Even with sales slowing, 3Q prices of new condos rise 4% in Manhattan and 3% in Brooklyn

Governor’s wife selling their home on their own behalf

Actor lists his vantage point in Montana for $14 million to surf in Hawaii

What $1 million buys

The Big Apple: Will there really be a condo shortage?

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT IN YOUR APARTMENT, YOU CAN DO MORE THAN WHINE ABOUT IT

Even when you turn off your radiators, your apartment is a miserable sweatbox.

Meantime, some of your neighbors are complaining that they’re not getting enough heat, so cranking down the basement boiler fueling your inferno isn’t the answer. But BrickUnderground.com helpfully supplies answers to the seasonal curse of overheated co-ops and condos.

HUGE DEVELOPMENT ON COLUMBUS AVENUE ENJOYS RESOUNDING SUCCESS

Columbus Square boasts 500,000 square feet of retail space, including a Whole Foods, Modell’s and a TJ Maxx, 710 rental apartments with elevated landscaped gardens, two private schools and a $650 million price tag.

That’s a lot of units to fill at premium prices, but demand has been strong so far. The first two buildings, where one-bedrooms start

Roundup of news about the Big Apple and beyond

NEWLY COMPILED DATA LETS YOU COMPARE MAINTENANCE FEES AND MORE IN DIFFERENT NEIGHBORHOODS

CONDOMINIUM TAKES ON SENIORS AND LEARNS A LESSON

WHAT DO STEEP PARK AVENUE DISCOUNTS MEAN FOR THE LUXURY MARKET, TROPHY HOMES?

BROOKLYN WOMAN DIES, MAN STEALS HER BUILDINGS, SO MAN HEADS UP RIVER TO NEW RESIDENCE FOR A LONG, LONG TIME

UNWANTED TENANTS COLLECT $1.3 MILLION AND MORE TO LEAVE CENTRAL PARK SOUTH BUILDING

ZECKENDORF TOWERS DEMONSTRATES HOW A GREEN A ROOF CAN BE

LATE PHILANTHROPIST’S APARTMENT SELLS AT A STEEP DISCOUNT

SELLER DRAGS IN

When is a kitchen not really a kitchen?

No one would mistake Julia Child’s kitchen for a typical one in the Big Apple.

Out-of-towners invariably know two things about New York City apartments: Prices are high and kitchens are small.

But how many consumers and brokers alike know what a kitchen is?  Yes, we have galley kitchens, country kitchens, eat-in kitchens and Pullman kitchens.

In fact, any space used for cooking either is a kitchen or a kitchenette, according to the city’s Administrative Code.

While a kitchen must contain 80 square feet,