If you plan on home buying in New York City, it’s time to start getting serious now.
According to StreetEasy, last April, 5,691 sellers listed their homes on the NYC market, making it the most popular month to list. While many homes are available for purchase, the fear of cost and time inefficiencies begin to loom.
StreetEasy is known to be the easiest way to rent, buy and now sell in New York City. With its easy-to-understand and user-friendly website, StreetEasy provides quick and easy access to the housing market. Their services also include a blog where home experts share tips and pieces of advice on home-ownership in such a large city.
Buying and selling homes in New York City is complicated. One must take into consideration the neighborhood, building history and so much more. Casey Roberts, a StreetEasy home trends expert, compiled a list of four avoidable mistakes commonly made when buying and selling in the city.
First of all, people generally fail to hire agents with hyperlocal experience. While it may seem to be more cost-efficient to hire someone’s cousin’s best friend, it is crucial to choose the person with the right expertise in the specific area and type of home one is shopping for. StreetEasy pairs buyers with experts based on neighborhood, price point, and property type – ensuring they are best suited to add value.
A second common mistake is forgetting to put finances above all else. Finance includes a lack of pre-approval for a loan before beginning to shop. Additionally, people commonly fail by setting an unrealistic budget for a city apartment. Too many buyers set a budget without thinking of city-specific closing costs, maintenance costs, and how they differ between condos, co-ops and townhouses.
Thirdly, most people ignore and underutilize real-time alerts. City real estate moves quickly. In NYC, homes are coming off the market one month faster than last year and spending an average of just 88 days on the market. Tech platforms like StreetEasy allow buyers access to real-time notifications of new homes that fit their criteria as soon as they hit the market to help them find and win their home faster than the competition.
Finally, a common mistake people make in the city is not making an offer that fits today’s quickly changing market. It is easy to make the mistake of insufficient research and making an offer that may have seemed reasonable last year, but it is a different story given the post-pandemic hot market. An experienced local agent can help you put together a competitive offer beyond just the offer price.
“This is a question that’s super relevant and one of importance in today’s extremely competitive market where listings are trading for hundreds of thousands above their asking price,” said Scott Savory, a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker at Compass. “Most buyers today and over the last year have likely been involved in or have heard the stories of homes having so many offers they are in multiple bid situations and many have lost out on apartments by not knowing how to structure their offer. Knowing this and the state of the market, having an experienced and professional agent by your side is paramount and it could be the difference between winning or losing a bid, and the difference for some not finding a new home quickly enough could be quite costly, as many are racing against rising prices and interest rates.”
