Weekly Roundup: Upcoming auction, Hamptons rentals, U.S. prices, trending rates, much more

Queens public administrator schedules auction of three co-ops, 12 houses from $64,000 to $1.054 million

Co-op boards have broad latitude in making, amending, rescinding house rules, however wiggy

Suburbs, particularly in Connecticut and New Jersey, see rising prices

And in the Hamptons, number of $1 million rentals — for the summer alone — approaches record

Homeowners hurt by Sandy to receive property tax reductions totaling $90 million

Uh, those folks using balconies for storage or dead house plants can opt for highest, best use

When it comes to living here, actor Richard Kind knows what he loves

Again to be newly wed, actress turned fashion mogul lists Beverly Hills estate for $8 million

Discount taken in purchase of singer’s Central Park West apartment hardly immaterial

Rap mogul

Make noise, skip elevator in 2/2 UWS co-op

A handsome two-bedroom co-op on the Upper West Side provides expansive rooms, no adjacent neighbors and no need to wait for elevators on 93rd Street at Amsterdam Avenue.

Totally renewed with skim-coated walls, fresh paint throughout, brand-new lighting and numerous other improvements, the pristine pre-war apartment on a high first floor contains approximately 1,200 square feet, a modern kitchen with granite countertops and upscale appliances, two baths with stylish new updates that include Carrara marble, and exceptionally spacious closets.

Floorplan of 180 W. 93rd St., #1B (Click to enlarge.)

About halfway between Central and Riverside parks and in the middle of a neghborhood with all kinds of grocery stores, retailers, schools, restaurants and other amenities, the pet-friendly boutique building provides a part-time doorman seven days a week, live-in supers, bike room, laundry room and private storage room (for which there is a waiting list).  Washer/dryers, sublets and pieds-a-terre are permitted.

The apartment is priced to sell, at $995,000 with monthly maintenance of $1,812.  There’s more information and you’ll find more photos here.

You may have guessed by now that I am listing the apartment for sale, and the first open house will be Sunday, June 2 from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.  This co-op happens to have been a wonderful home for me over the last seven years.

Tomorrow: Weekly Roundup

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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
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Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

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Got scalpel? Would you operate on yourself?

The questions in the headline are something of an exaggeration and wholly a cliché that I was too weak to resist, but a new online service made me do it.

You can check BuyerCurious.com yourself, then wonder how well the process would work for you in New York.  In a nutshell, the site describes its benefits this way:

Buyers can search homes for sale, request showings, and make an offer on a home online, while sellers can list a home for free, get information on low cost and discount ways to advertise their properties tapping the best of web 2.0, get professional yard signs, receive and negotiate offers, and finalize a purchase agreement in a private, online Deal Room.

From my biased point of view, I can’t imagine that even the site’s cafeteria of services would help buyers anywhere; as for sellers trying to unload a home themselves, that debate continues.

Although Robert Hahn, a consultant focusing on the real estate industry, sees the site as the beginning of the end of buyer representation,

Out and About: Battery Park City has many fans

Looking north from Battery Park City’s South End Avenue on a Sunday.

There is nothing quite like Battery Park City, that enclave built on landfill at the southwest tip of Manhattan.

Among its characteristics is a large concentration of playgrounds, parks and promenades,\; astounding views of the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty and New Jersey (for what that last perspective is worth); proximity to the Financial District; and its remove from the overwhelming bustle and hustle found elsewhere in New York City.

Like Roosevelt Island and some other areas on the fringes of Manhattan’s centers of energy and commerce, Battery Park City (which, of course, is practically on Wall Street, is not for everyone.  To me, Battery Park City feels remote.  To other folks, the pace could not be more agreeable.

Compared with other areas of the city,

Weekly Roundup: Skinny condominiums, celeb comings and goings, nation’s price and sales increases, continuing rate rise, investments

This has been year of pricing audaciously

City’s property records site gets update with more information

Developers specifically catering to families in West Chelsea and farther downtown

New graduates returning to New York City learning that life just isn’t fair

Zillow says it takes up to 11.9 years, depending on neighborhood, to match cost of buying with renting

Boom in luxury towers

Guest post: Former co-op member on Intro 188

To writer/editor Norman Schreiber, co-op boards engage in “bloodlust psychodrama.”  He is the author of what Schreiber describes as a “fun novel,”  Out Of Order, about murders in a co-op.  It is available on Amazon.

by Norman Schreiber

Awesome and awful is a bill under consideration by the New York City Council.

The Council, that bastion of reform, hopes to transform the co-op sales process, though the effort faces a hard road.

As recently reported here, the pending bill (Intro 188) obviously views co-op boards of directors as  evil and discriminatory.  The measure would mandate transparency and accountability via 45-day time limits, explanations for turndowns, retention of documents for five years and board member certification that no discrimination occurred in rejecting a shareholder application.

Intro 188 puts the burden of proof on all co-ops to show that they don’t discriminate, instead of proving a pattern of discrimination in those that actually do so.  I’m not sure if the bill could work; more likely, it would change the way in which discrimination is covered up.

Still,

Choosing real estate agent means asking quesions

Articles about picking the right real estate agent/broker appear regularly in newspapers, magazines and blogs, including a piece in the Washington Post that highlights the desirability of obtaining references.

Another one that I recently came across is from a publication at which I once worked, Money magazine, which headlined the piece “7 question for your next real estate agent.”  (Using a number is supposed to increase readership.)

The first question either buyers or sellers are supposed to ask is this:

There is more than one way to win ‘bidding war’

Escalators here would serve an important purpose. (Flickr photo by zoetnet)

There is more than one way to win what homebuyers insist on calling a bidding war.  (I call it “competition.”)  But at least two of them are shunned here in New York.

Of course, conventional tactics include raising the price and stripping the contract of any contingencies such as financing and home inspection or otherwise improving terms such as settlement date.

One of the out-of-the-box idea that no one here endorses, however, demonstrates a buyer’s high motivation to close the transaction.  The concept is to offer

Out and About: The allure of Hamilton Heights

View of a Hamilton Heights from top floor of a nicely renovated 4,400-sf townhouse that is offered for $2.695 million.

For buyers accustomed to neighborhoods farther south, Hamilton Heights may represent challenges with respect to convenience, amenities and street life.

Yet on a recent tour of an even dozen open houses, I was struck anew with how vibrant the area is and how great is the value of properties in contrast to more popular parts of Manhattan.

As the New York Times has noted, the massive Columbia University development now rising to the south suggests that Hamilton Heights is on the verge of a boomlet:

. . . Hamilton Heights, largely unknown to those who have never cracked the 100s on the No. 1 train, is preparing for an influx of teachers, students and support workers. It is also anticipating the higher real estate prices that usually come with proximity to an Ivy League institution.

The Heights

Weekly Roundup: Landlord confession, piece of Portugal, April building permits, pocket listings, air purifiers, timely Lotto win, recovery threats

Penthouse pursuit is costly contagion to attain height, light, unobstructed views

Airbnb gears up for Albany initiative that would regulate short-term apartment rentals

City plans sale to debt collectors of tax liens against Sandy-hit homeowners

Cost of rent, price of property actually moving in sync

New York region’s borrowers way below average of homeowners who deduct mortgage interest

Stuyvesant Town tenants told pay up and up or move out this summer

Onetime Sinatra apartment sells after steep price cut

Lease confessions of small landlord make for compelling reading

All it takes is money, but there’s still rental inventory in the Hamptons

Investment group identified as purchaser of most expensive Manhattan residence, One 57 penthouse

Nascar superstar lists trophy condo on Central Park West for $30 million

Dancing queen