Some call it "New York", others refer to it as "New York City", on my side I prefer to say "Manhattan" since this is where I focused all my attention for more than 25 years now of being a real estate agent here. Manhattan then naturally became my specialty.
Some of you are living here, others are visiting, but a lot of you don't know where to start the process of buying a residence in Manhattan!
I am here to help, so let me share with you, my experience as a licensed real estate associate broker of the Manhattan residential market.
The seller’s agent represent the interest of the seller, the buyer’s agent represent the interest of the buyer.
Several cases do exist and need to be taking care of upfront:
- Which type of property are you looking for? A Cooperative building or a Condominium building? One bedroom? Two bedrooms? Three bedrooms? Four bedrooms? Townhouse?
- Are you a cash buyer?
- If financing, what is the exact amount in us dollars that you would like to bring as part of cash in the transaction?
- What is your status in the USA? Are you a US citizen? Are you a green card holder? Are you under Visa? Are you a tourist?
- Do you have a favorite neighborhood?
- Would you like to rent this future property or would you prefer to use it as a pied-a-terre or it would be your future main residence?
- Do you need an easy access to any particular school or university?
All these questions are here to help you, your answers will allow me to guide you towards the appropriate professional(s) since I surrounded myself with other professional(s) all very useful to make your project a reality.
Just as an example let's consider the Condominium market, a nice one bedroom will be around $1,500,000+, a nice two bedroom will be around $2,750,000+, a nice three bedroom will be around $3,750,000+, Townhouses starting $12M+.
Before even going on the streets, my objective will be to introduce you to a real estate attorney (of course feel free to use your own contact if you have one), then this professional will explain you the different possibilities under which you can purchase your property. Either under your own name or to use the vehicle of an LLC ? or a C. Corp.? or a Trust?
The expertise of your real estate attorney coupled, if you wish, with a certified public accountant both certified in New York State, will guide you in this matter.
Also if needed in case of financing, I can introduce you to the corresponding professionals. It is important to know that not all banks are lending to foreign nationals, assuming that you are in this category.
With the full knowledge of these legal and fiscal parts now we are ready to go on the streets to see properties. From there everything can go very fast since you are now ready and if the right property is out there for you then you can make the right step forward and present a complete offer.
Let's assume that you do not know the Manhattan residential market and that you are coming from a different state or foreign country. At best I would like to take 5 days of your agenda from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.
For example you are landing here in New York City on a Saturday.
Sunday if we have the occasion we will start to see few properties, then Monday we have scheduled the appointment with the real estate attorney, the certified public accountant, and the bankers if you needed financing.
Tuesday we keep seeing properties, same about Wednesday. Thursday will be dedicated to seeing for the 2nd time your favorites properties, it will help you to compare and give you the occasion to see which one is really unique and fit most of your criteria.
On Friday if you like a property then I will be presenting your offer on your behalf to the seller's real estate agent. At the same time, you might be interested to see again your real estate attorney to sign a power of attorney, just in case. Also, it might be a good idea to see again your certified public accountant and eventually your banker, the all idea here is to have everything perfectly aligned before you return to the airport for your flight back home.
Here in Manhattan, everything for sale is being shared between all real estate companies part of the real estate board of New York. Your real estate agent has access to all properties for sale on the market place so there is no need to work in parallel with several real estate agents since all are going to pick into the same basket of properties.
Another question you might have in mind: "How we are paid?"
Two possibilities here, either the buyer’s agent commission is included in the asking price or if not then it will have to be paid by you and to that extend a buyer’s agreement will be presented to you explaining this possibility and to be signed by you. Which payment of the buyer’s agent commission will be due at the closing table.
Different country, different city, different mentality, a different way of handling business and here come into play a well-seasoned real estate agent that will make the difference to your advantage.
Very quickly you will see that the logic "copy and paste" with what you might know doesn't work, laws are obviously different, the system is different and more so the psychology of a transaction is different.
Manhattan is a unique market.
For you, the most important thing is to be guided by a real estate agent with a great reputation, with the needed patience to give you all of his knowledge, and then suddenly everything will make total sense and the potential obstacles here and there will be then anticipated because together you are gonna work as a team.
As soon as you would have identified the type of building you want to purchase into (Cooperatives or Condominiums), next when with your real estate agent you will see the apartment that fits most of your needs then everything will go fast (thus the need to have anticipated before being on the streets the legal, fiscal and financing, if any, part of your project).
Depending on the niche we are focusing on, the price range, location, the period of the year, the cycle of the market we are in, all these elements are gonna tell us if we can negotiate or not in comparison to the asking price presented to us. Sometimes we might even have to offer more than the asking price to get the property.
Remember, we are in Manhattan and buyers from all around the world are buying Manhattan, added to it, we are on an island and by definition an island is not growing...
Important information, the golden rule will be to never contact directly the other side real estate agent directly, even though if you notice a property that you like, instead report it to your real estate agent whom will do the necessary steps to protect your interest.
Why this golden rule?
The rule is simple, at all initial contact, by phone, by e-mail, through a visit, the real estate agent representing the seller should know upfront that you have already a real estate agent representing you.
You will have just to say: "Laurent Circu" and the firm i work for: "R New York" this information to be registered next to your name. A very simple rule to apply, otherwise it will be simply impossible for me later on to enter into the transaction and represent you.
Your success is my success.
As a conclusion two types of purchase will be offered to you, either buying through a developer or sponsor or buying a resale unit. These two options will have incidences on your total closing cost and also on the paper trail or not, meaning submitting your purchase application or not.
After more than 25 years of experience I can announce that I know pretty well the Manhattan residential market in all its neighborhoods, could it be a one bedroom, two bedrooms, three bedrooms, four bedrooms and up or a townhouse or a multi-family brownstone for income producing asset, this being said the professionnals that i am working with and myself are totally ready to share our combined decades of expertise to helping you achieve your project of purchasing your dream home in Manhattan.
Feel free to send me an e-mail at lcircu@wernewyork.com then we can set up a conference call depending on your time zone or meet here in Manhattan, like 1 hour for our 1st meeting. From there we will put together a very logical plan respectful of your timeline and budget.
