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A first time buyer recently asked me what questions I would ask when viewing an apartment to buy in NYC. Basically, what questions would I ask as a real estate professional that she wouldn't know to ask herself. I gave her a few examples which I'll list below, but would love to hear any other good questions others can think of.
What's the actual square footage?
This is important to verify as much as you can, even though many co-ops won't list square footage and if they do it'll be inflated by 10-20%. Sometimes coop listing agents will simply explain that they got the square footage from a previous listing for the unit (i.e. what the previous listing agent used), or that another unit of the same line has this square footage listed. Sometimes they'll just shrug and say that it's what the owner estimated.
Even condos may not have a correct square footage listed. I've seen an apartment where the square footage stated by the NYC Department of Finance's "Notice of Property Value" which is publicly available online was 14% less than the marketed square footage. The listing agent just shrugged and said it was an estimate, and that the offering plan had unique language where the space for the walls weren't counted. Apparently he says that it's common for square footage in the city to include 50% of shared wall space, and 100% of unshared wall space (i.e. exterior walls).
Furthermore, this is an email I recently received from a customer who complained about how other agents were incorrectly listing square footages for condo listings:
The cheapest condo in Turtle Bay is for 565k which is basically looking at a brick wall but has a month to month tenant. Anyhow I checked on SE the previous sale deed and it shows 373sq footage yet the agent listed it at 425sq. He did this with two other studio listings he had so I sent him the below email with his response back. Do many agents do this and does it help at all in the sale of apartments? Thanks Steve
Hello. All quoted square footage or square meters are stated as approximate. Exact square footage would need to measured by a professional since often times dimensions can be impacted during renovations or replacements of walls, rooms, closets, etc as well as methodology of measurements used during a particular period or time of construction, which for this building was 1962.
Does the building have a ground lease?
This is another super important question that first time home buyers in NYC usually forget about. You'll see ground leases for even condos in BPC. However it's benign in the case of Battery Park City since the land is owned by a government agency whose sole job is to improve the neighborhood, so you won't have to worry about not getting the lease renewed.
Different story if you're buying a co op in Carnegie Hill that doesn't own the land it sits on. When that land lease expires, you'd better hope there are reasonable renewal provisions build in. Otherwise, if it doesn't get renewed everything that is built on the land reverts to the landowner. Basically your entire investment could be kaput.
What's the actual square footage?
This is important to verify as much as you can, even though many co-ops won't list square footage and if they do it'll be inflated by 10-20%. Sometimes coop listing agents will simply explain that they got the square footage from a previous listing for the unit (i.e. what the previous listing agent used), or that another unit of the same line has this square footage listed. Sometimes they'll just shrug and say that it's what the owner estimated.
Even condos may not have a correct square footage listed. I've seen an apartment where the square footage stated by the NYC Department of Finance's "Notice of Property Value" which is publicly available online was 14% less than the marketed square footage. The listing agent just shrugged and said it was an estimate, and that the offering plan had unique language where the space for the walls weren't counted. Apparently he says that it's common for square footage in the city to include 50% of shared wall space, and 100% of unshared wall space (i.e. exterior walls).
Furthermore, this is an email I recently received from a customer who complained about how other agents were incorrectly listing square footages for condo listings:
The cheapest condo in Turtle Bay is for 565k which is basically looking at a brick wall but has a month to month tenant. Anyhow I checked on SE the previous sale deed and it shows 373sq footage yet the agent listed it at 425sq. He did this with two other studio listings he had so I sent him the below email with his response back. Do many agents do this and does it help at all in the sale of apartments? Thanks Steve
Hello. All quoted square footage or square meters are stated as approximate. Exact square footage would need to measured by a professional since often times dimensions can be impacted during renovations or replacements of walls, rooms, closets, etc as well as methodology of measurements used during a particular period or time of construction, which for this building was 1962.
Does the building have a ground lease?
This is another super important question that first time home buyers in NYC usually forget about. You'll see ground leases for even condos in BPC. However it's benign in the case of Battery Park City since the land is owned by a government agency whose sole job is to improve the neighborhood, so you won't have to worry about not getting the lease renewed.
Different story if you're buying a co op in Carnegie Hill that doesn't own the land it sits on. When that land lease expires, you'd better hope there are reasonable renewal provisions build in. Otherwise, if it doesn't get renewed everything that is built on the land reverts to the landowner. Basically your entire investment could be kaput.