Scott Harris, January 1, 2025 Staging is a Great Marketing Tool. Real estate agents talk a lot about staging. We tell sellers that staging is worth every penny. If we don’t think the situation calls for physical staging, we recommend virtual staging. And these days, I bet we’re using that 85-90% of the time. When
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Scott Harris, 1/1/2025 Ah this congestion pricing thing. Because my children’s school is positioned between 60th and 61st Streets on West End Avenue, I’ve had a front-row seat to the city’s preparation for it. What do I mean? The camera and associated infrastructure was installed directly outside the school’s front doors (see an example via
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Everyone is Sick of Waiting I am convinced that buyers and sellers are sick of waiting. How do I know? I know that the plural of anecdote is not data. But there’s enough data out there beyond my team’s experience to give a strong sense that 2025 will be a return to health. We will
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In case you missed it, New York City’s City Council just passed a new rule that will impact the real estate market forever. They all but eliminated the dominant business model that has ruled the rental market for more than three decades: tenants paying brokerage commissions. I want to discuss all of the knock-on effects
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There’s a durable caricature of a real estate agent. Here’s the scene: you sit down and ask them if now is a good time to buy or sell, and you already can hear the answer: “Of course!” they say. All of the litany of plausible and less-plausible answers come pouring out. You’re not sure you
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Forget mortgage rates. Forget low inventory.Forget “prices need to adjust down further.” The data doesn’t show that any of that means as much as you think.And don’t take my word for it. The numbers show that buyers are active. Very much so. So if you’re thinking about selling, you may not want, or need, to
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So How’s the Market? There’s a lot that I can say about market trends, and this listing that just closed is indicative of a real estate market returning to health. This property at 200 Riverside Boulevard, a 26th-floor unit which was asking $2.25mm and sold for that level. It went into contract in 12 days
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I was touring the Penn Station renovation last month with a whole group of real estate professionals, and I struck up a conversation with MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) consultant, David Reiter of Consulting Engineering Services. He asked what I do, and when I mentioned residential brokerage, he told me about some innovation in construction, innovation
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I’m not one to panic. But I’m seeing something in the NYC Market today that doesn’t happen very often. I mean, not like that once-in-82,000-years rare, not a hunter’s moon, and not once-in-a-lifetime, either. But a moment that is at least quite rare in real estate: The win-win situation. How often can you, as a
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In the early weeks of a sea change in real estate, where all buyers must sign buyer representation agreements to work with agents (see our other post here), September’s Deal of the Month speaks directly to why, for most buyers, agents are so absolutely essential. How We Met We met these buyers not through some
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