What Makes New York City Amazing, $801,000 for a Storage Room!

A basement storage room sold for $801,000 in the renowned Dakota apartment building. The Dakota, located on Central Park West, is most well known as the home of John Lennon and still is the current residence of Yoko Ono. The apartments sell for upwards of 10-20 million dollars.Now this was no ordinary damp tiny storage room. The room was about 800 square feet had 20-foot-high ceilings and two windows. There is a bathroom and electricity wired already into the unit. Despite The Dakota being one of New York City’s most expensive and desired buildings there is no common exercise room for the building residents. The new owner of the storage unit was planning on converting the room into a small gymnasium and opening it up to the buildings residents. How altruistic of him!!
Space is at such a premium in New York City that I not really that surprised by this sale. First is the fact that if you can afford a $20 million dollar apartment, an $800,000 storage unit is probably not too much of a stretch in your budget. If you look at the price per square foot it really is not that much in New York City standards. It’s just at $1,000 a sq/ft, some condominium buildings have been selling at $3,000+ sq/ft recently.

I live in the Upper West Side and I walk by the Dakota to go to Central Park. It is an extraordinary building. The location is perfect right at 72nd and Central Park West. The architecture is absolutely eye-catching. You can’t help but check out the building. I’ve never been in any of the apartments in The Dakota, but when I do I will make sure to ask if a basement storage room comes with the unit knowing what one could sell for.

Buying your first apartment in New York City

Knowledge, Understanding, and Experience

Whether you are brand new or a life long resident, buying your first apartment in New York City is going to be an experience. Hopefully that experience is filled with excitement, guidance, and anticipation of owning your own piece of the Big Apple.

When I begin working with somebody who is thinking or has decided to buy their first apartment the first thing I do is walk them through why buying a New York City apartment is going to be different than anywhere else. Educating the buyer about the difference between a condominium and co-op, board packages, walk-ups, and the jargon used to describe apartments. What’s a junior 4, classic 6, EIK, or a Pullman kitchen? I have a step by step process that will walk them through the first day all the way to the day of closing. Having an understanding of the pros and cons of buying a condominium or co-op is important to understand what the right type of apartment is for them. We have created a workbook for our buyers that acts as a guide to the entire process from A-Z in buying an apartment in New York City. It includes the time line guide for purchasing, questions to ask before purchasing, facts you want to know before looking and purchasing a Co-op, and the services we provide as a buyer’s broker.

I understand what its like to relocate to New York City. The first thing I had to figure out was what neighborhood I wanted to live in. For those relocating to Manhattan that can be a difficult decision. Each neighborhood has a lot to offer, has its drawbacks and its reasons why people love living there. The only way to choose a neighborhood is to go experience it firsthand; go walk the streets, try getting to your work from that neighborhood, go there on the weekends.

We continuously and successfully work with first time home buyers in Manhattan. We understand the importance of educating and guidance. We walk you through the entire process before you step foot into your first apartment. Buying an apartment can be scary and nerve racking; we understand that feeling because we have been there too. We have the resources and knowledge to make your experience a memorable one.

Relocating to Manhattan

Having the unique experience of starting my real estate career on the West Coast in Seattle, WA and now being an agent in Manhattan has given me the ability to help first time home buyer’s relocating to Manhattan.

I grew up on the West Coast in Seattle, WA and started selling real estate once I graduated from the University of Washington. Relocating to Manhattan from Seattle was definitely a culture shock, so I understand what its like to move the big move here. I understand the buying process in a more traditional real estate environment and then coming to an almost entirely different experience buying or renting real estate in New York City.

In Seattle, apartments meant rental apartments. If you were renting, you said you lived in an apartment. In Manhattan everybody lives in apartments, except for the small majority of townhouse owners. In Seattle, I sold my fare share of condominiums, but never a co-op. I wouldn’t even know where to go look for one if somebody asked for a co-op building. When I tell my first time home buyers that when they buy a co-op, they don’t actually own their apartment. Instead, they own shares of a corporation that owns the building they live in, they are a bit surprised at first, but not as surprised when we go look at apartments and they see the compact size of some of the spaces.

In Seattle I owned my own 2 bedroom 1 bath house. I thought my kitchen was tiny, but it was huge compared to the kitchens here. I would consider a spacious kitchen here to be maybe 8x8 with just enough room for two people to be in the kitchen at the same time. A lot of the kitchens in the studio apartments are the size of a closet. Your mini kitchen will include a two burner cook top, the refrigerator you use to have in your room in college, and a couple of cabinets, and a tiny sink. The lifestyle here is to eat out a lot more so the necessity of a full size working kitchen is not as important.

Another aspect of relocating to New York City is getting use to the jargon used specifically describing apartments. What is a 2bd, 2ba, w/d, wfp, eik, CAC, Triple Mint Apartment? The use of triple mint condition is overly used in my opinion. If an apartment has been remodeled recently it means triple mint, if it’s been well maintained it becomes triple mint maintained. The high end property descriptions are fun to read just to see how they create this fantastic beautiful language describing exceptional properties.

Because I have sold real estate in the more traditional setting I understand the point of view of the buyer relocating to Manhattan and what they understand as the conventional real estate buying process. I can bridge that gap to understanding the New York market and facilitate a smooth transition to either buying or renting a New York City apartment.

The Tide is Turning for New York City Rentals

"Why is it so hard to rent an apartment in New York City?" I had a young woman relocating from San Francisco ask me this question just a few weeks ago after we found her an apartment in the Upper West Side. The other statement I usually here is, "I'm so sick of looking for an apartment!" Despite the difficult nature of finding an apartment in Manhattan things might be getting a little bit easier.

As the Manhattan real estate market turns into a buyer's market, many buyers are becoming renters to wait out and see what happens to the market. Typically the summer market for rentals is very hot and properties get snatched up very quickly. Not so much this summer, properly priced units still rented quickly but more inventory sat until the prices adjusted. Now that we are into the fall season the rental market has started to slow down and the holidays now are just around the corner. Landlord are beginning to ease up on rents and offering more room to negotiate.

Many of the major management companies are offering one and sometimes two months free rent for 12-16 month long leases, offering built in gym memberships, and negotiating prices. I find that landlords would rather offer incentives, such as one months free rent, a free gym membership, compared to significantly reducing the rents because when it is time to renegotiate the rents when the leases are up they will be in a better position because the base monthly rents will be inflated. The net effective rent during the life of the lease was considerably less and when the leases are up they will expire in January to March when the rental market is seasonally stronger and the landlord will be in a better position to negotiate a new lease.

Overall this is a good time to be in the market for a rental apartment. Whether you are looking for a walk-up building in the Upper East Side, a full service doorman condominium in Union Square, or a prewar Upper West Side co-op there are plenty of opportunities to negotiate favorable terms and find the perfect apartment.

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