Helpful COVID-19 resources for you

The New Rent Laws: What You Need To Know (For Now) by Jessica Feder-Birnbaum

The new rent laws that went into affect in June 2019 have been overhauled to protect tenants. Landlords and management companies are scrambling to be law abiding and stay profitable. As with any new system, there’s a learning curve. Landlord feedback is that the laws skew too highly in favor of tenants. How pushback will alter these policies remains to be seen. Whether you’re a rent stabilized or market rate tenant, read on to see what these changes are and…

Apartment Buildings or Privately Owned Apartments?

The Pros and Cons of large versus small apartment buildings. When choosing your apartment, it’s essential to consider more than just the interior. What kind of apartment buildings you lease from matters too, and there are many different kinds of landlord tenant arrangements. The two primary kinds of apartment buildings in New York are either large apartment buildings, or those in private homes. Amazing apartments can come in either type of building. The lovely garden apartments of Cobble Hill and…

How to Find Costly Problems Before You Buy into a Building

Stuff no seller wants you to know about The term “buyer beware” doesn’t just apply to folks on a used car lot, kicking the tires of a recently repainted Buick. Buyers of New York City condos and co-ops need to be wary too because purchasing an apartment in a “lemon” building or one that’s about to undertake some costly repairs, can cost you a ton of money. With over one million buildings in New York City, many of them quite…

Why maintenance charges always go up and service doesn’t

Like death and taxes, maintenance fee increases are one of the sure things in life A New York City co-op owner recently said writing a maintenance check was like going to the dentist. It’s always painful but can’t be avoided. Maintenance fees, unlike most mortgage payments, which are fixed and do not increase over the period of the loan, almost always increase from year to year. This wouldn’t be so bad if service improved – better heating system, 24-hour doormen,…