FiDi developers surrounded by excess inventory
1. Many bankers including me do not like to live on Wall Street because
we work here. You do not want your boss to see you on Sunday morning.
Who else will then buy those condos?
[more]

New discount brokerage looks to succeed where Foxtons failed
1. There is nothing new in this announcement and most brokers in New
York City will discount their fees to 5 or even 4 percent if the
apartment is priced correctly and it is a quick sale. These guys will
look to make the money up and it will probably come from the agent’s
side. No good agent will work for a start-up for less money, as they
can work anywhere at a small discount. This company will probably be
doing rentals within a few months as this business model will not work
in Manhattan.
2. In my opinion, this is not a drastic innovation that will “change the game,” for lack of a better phrase. [more]

Agents see the strangest things at open houses
1. None of these have anything on me… try getting a large-caliber gun pulled on you when trying to show a rent-stabilized fifth-floor walk-up where the tenant was an illegal holdover living there without a lease.
2. I was hosting an open house where the tenants of the owners were complete slobs. I had to hide the dirty jockstraps and gay porn before the open house began and you couldn’t get into one of the bedrooms because it was filled up with dirty clothes.
3. I found a stripper pole in the middle of a studio once.
[more]

Bond launches commercial division
Before working with a commercial broker, I ask them whether [they] know the following terms: LIBOR, cap rate expansion/compression [and] DHCR. If they aren’t familiar with all three — then I [would] move on. Too many brokers think you can apply a dollar-per-square-foot price to anything just like it’s a cookie-cutter condo. Comments

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