The recent enactment of legislation making individual cooperative sale prices public for the first time is generating little buzz in the real estate industry.
Most established real estate brokers had already honed their techniques for getting those numbers: Some used company databases, others got the skinny from managing agents at co-op buildings, but word of mouth among industry colleagues was the most common route to the information.
Sharon Baum, senior vice president and director of the exclusive property division at the Corcoran Group, said that as of mid-August she had not used the Automated City Register Information System, a free database known as ACRIS, to get co-op prices.
“I just haven’t needed it so far. I get the prices from other brokers,” Baum said, but added “I’m sure it’s going to be very helpful… this will probably save a lot of time.”
Sale prices of co-ops in every borough but Staten Island (which has its own county clerk) were posted on Aug. 1 in ACRIS following a bill signed into law by Gov. Pataki the month before. ACRIS is accessible through the city’s Department of Finance Web site, www.nyc.gov/dof. The co-op data dates back to July 2004 and will eventually go back to July 2003, said Owen Stone, spokesman for the finance department. The law prevents disclosure of the prices for co-ops prior to that time. Updates to ACRIS will be made in “real time,” Stone said.
Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, said the ACRIS system could be navigated by those in the real estate industry, but would be more difficult for the layman.
The search methods can be “a little tedious,” but it is a source “I know we are going to use,” Ramirez said. Halstead will incorporate the ACRIS data into the company’s database.
Ramirez also addressed how ACRIS would impact brokers’ relationships with clients.
“I think they are still going to count on us to give them the information, but understanding now it’s not hearsay,” Ramirez said. “Now we can quantify the number.”
Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, echoed Ramirez’s comments. “There are many characteristics and that’s what an appraiser still has to get you,” Miller said.
Buyers still need a real estate insider to get the maintenance charges, the number of rooms, bedrooms and baths, the condition of the apartment, any information on the view, and whether a unit has outdoor space. And for data predating the system, “it’ll be the same story that we had before the law was enacted,” Miller said.
Some ACRIS users might misconstrue the sale prices, according to brokers.
The sale prices in the system include any compensation paid to the grantor by the grantee such as unpaid principal on pre-existing mortgage(s) and accrued real estate taxes.
People are “looking to see what their home is worth like you would do in any property research, so if the numbers aren’t pure that’s going to be a problem,” Ramirez said. “I don’t think they have the system down completely the way it needs to be.” In one case, Halstead sold a co-op for $550,000, but ACRIS indicated it cost about $592,000, plus several hundred dollars and some cents, she said. “You don’t ever see transactions where there are cents.”
ACRIS allows for users to view lot records, and an ACRIS reference guide instructs users on how to search for sale prices by parcel identifier (borough, block and lot numbers), rather than by party name. In cases where users do not have the borough, block and lot numbers, the tutorial helps find them. Ramirez said the system still has one weakness — it doesn’t denote which party is the seller (Party 1) and which is the buyer (Party 2).
Though the tutorial does not showcase this, users can also search ACRIS for co-op sale prices by “party name,” a much simpler method. Querying the system by the names of the buyers and sellers is not new. What the 2006 law adds is the sale prices.