How many ways can it make you pay? More than you think. In case you don’t even know who your building’s managing company is look at the name on that brass plaque affixed to the façade announcing they’re in command. They’re entitled to get paid. Managing a building and the cast of eccentric characters who live there is a tough job, and the better the company, the more it's worth. Only now, in order to get even more,they're slicing and dicing their services like exotic derivatives. How does it work? Read more »

That depends who you are and how much you’re prepared to put up with. Take a look in the mirror when you are at your most Zen like and ask whether you’re willing to put up with crazy people parading through your apartment, criticizing every decorating decision you’ve made, opening your closets and test flushing your toilet, asking you ridiculous questions, and offering less than you paid for your place. If the answer is anything less than an unqualified “yes,” FSBO is not for you. If you think you have the necessary fortitude, read on. Read more »

I’m a sucker for rages to riches tales. On the news the other night, I heard about Indra Tamang, the butler who was left an estate valued in excess of $10 million, including two apartments at the venerable Dakota (1 West 72nd Street), where he’d cooked and cleaned for 35 years for his former employers turned benefactors, Charles and Ruth Ford. I had to know the rest of the story. Read more »

Open houses sell apartments, especially if you put on a good show. Such is the advice of John Herlihy a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman, who recently took on a near death listing at 210 East 63rd Street, and revived it by turning the outdoor space into a happening.The apartment sold the same day. So why have some buildings closed the doors? Read more »

OK, so there’s nothing, but you, to prevent a specialist on the inside from selling every apartment in the building. But what if a broker on the outside says, it’s not fair. The board is condoning the monopoly because it only approves applications submitted by a single real estate agent – and I’m being left out in the cold. Read more »