True Gotham

I have been friends with Douglas Heddings for years. And it's a great thing to be friends with a good Manhattan broker--because if you need to make a big decision about buying and selling, you can call him for free advice.

It occurs to me that, thanks to the magic of podcast technology, I can now call him ask those same questions, record it, and make it available to the world.

So here it is. If you were a friend of Doug's, and you were considering selling your apartment, this podcast is what he would tell you.

Some of the topics he covers:

• How to tell whether or not it's time for you to sell.
• Why you shouldn't hire the broker who tells you a bunch of good news.
• A whole bunch of ways the wrong broker can cause you trouble, and a whole bunch of ways to find the right broker.
• The best question to ask when you're interviewing brokers.
• Two documents to get your broker to sign before you sign an exclusive contract with a broker.

Click here to listen to the whole thing. (It's under twenty minutes.)

Posted By Henry Abbott | Permalink | 0 Comments

Photo: Jennifer Breu

Manhattan is an island, so the amount of property for sale can't change all that much, right? Wrong.

Not only can little buildings be replaced with big buildings, but rental buildings can be converted to condominiums. Both are happening fast in Manhattan right now, and both are contributing mightily to the available inventory. What does all that mean for buyers and sellers?

The latest episode of the TrueGotham podcast delves into the issue.

Posted By Henry Abbott | Permalink | 2 Comments

Here's an excerpt of what you'll hear in the latest episode of the TrueGotham podcast, in which Douglas Heddings explains some of the ways the Manhattan real estate market is different from the rest of the nation:

85 percent of the property you can own in New York City is cooperative housing. Which you know, is a saving grace for real estate brokers, because in the rest of the country where the real estate broker is in danger of extinction, in Manhattan, they have not figured out a way to streamline the co-op board process. Nine times out of ten, when a buyer tries to do it on their own, they get a board rejection. Because they just don't know what to look for and how to present things to a board.

We spend a lot of time doing co-op board packages. It's a big deal. You know, it basically is the most gross invasion of someone's privacy that they'll ever go through; complete financial disclosure, complete financial statement including assets, liabilities, income, expenses; all of the bank statements and brokerage statements to back up everything that you put on that financial statement; personal reference letters; business reference letters; employer reference letters; your great-grandmother's uncle's reference letter...

Co-op boards are getting even more strict where they've gotten wise to adjustable rate mortgages and they're really looking more closely at people's income and their assets, as opposed to what type of mortgage they're actually applying for. If someone's doing a one month LIBOR loan at like, two and a half percent interes, they may be borrowing a million dollars, and they only have to pay say, three-thousand dollars a month on that loan. Boards have figured out that that three-thousand dollar payment could very quickly be eight-thousand dollars if rates go up dramatically. So they're looking at that worst-case scenario and they're taking that into consideration.

Posted By Henry Abbott | Permalink | 0 Comments

In the latest episode of the TrueGotham podcast, we delve into one of New York's favorite topics: unscruplous real estate brokers.

The episode is a little more than eight minutes long, and covers a lot of ground. Here's an excerpt, about how selfish or desperate brokers (The New York Times reportedly recently that the vast majority of New York brokers have no listings) can cost sellers major time and money:

Often, a broker will have multiple offers on a property, and before they present all of these offers to you, they will go through those offers and they'll say "which one of these is going to make me the most money?" And that's the offer that they're going to push on you as hard as they can. And that offer may not be in your best interest.

You may have someone who comes in and says "I'll pay you two million dollars, cash. I've worked at JP Morgan Chase for the last 10 years, I'm a senior vice-president, I'm a managing director, I'll close whenever you want." And then you have someone else over here, a struggling artist, God bless them, but they're not making a lot of money, they need a mortgage contingency, they have to get financing and the contract has to be contingent on that... if the broker stands to make a six percent commission with that person, and only a three percent commission with the other person because they're working with a broker--I'm not saying all brokers, but many brokers are going to steer you toward that six percent person.

And it's not in your best interest. It's only in the broker's best interest. And three months, six months down the road when you've gone through a board process, you know, you've been trying to get this person approved by a co-op board and you get a rejection, you've lost three to four months of income, or expenses that you've been putting out, and worse yet, now your apartment has been on the market for four months.

Statistics show that the longer an apartment has been on the market, the less its going to sell for. So you've lost money. And there's nothing you can do to salvage that.

Listen to the whole episode by clicking here.

Posted By Henry Abbott | Permalink | 7 Comments

As real estate brokers, we fight the used car salesman stigma every single day. I believe the stereotypes don't come from space. There is some validity to these things, and I would like to see the bar raised higher.

This is dangerous, there could be repercussions. There could be repercussions from my own company. I don't know how its going to be perceived by the rest of the industry.

But I think it's a necessity.

I think it's important people feel comfortable and confident with whatever broker they're working with, and I would like to see some of the distrust that people have, and the disdain that people have for real estate brokers dissipate. I'd like to see that go away. And I think if they see the inner workings of the real estate industry from a broker and his team who are full of integrity, with the utmost honesty, they'll see things that enable them to make the right choices and decisions when it comes to buy or sell.

--DOUGLAS HEDDINGS

For more information: Listen to a podcast about why this blog was started.