Buying into Brooklyn Event Reminder!!

Tomorrow night is the night.  Just wanted to let everyone know, and remind those who already knew, that we'll be at Brooklyn Brewery along with a great panel of folks who can answer your questions about buying in Brooklyn.  Come for the knowledge, come for the beer, come for the snacks.  Come see us!!  Check the event's facebook page for tickets and more info.

Buying into Brooklyn May 21st!

We've had so much fun doing this event in the past and we're back to do it again the evening of May 21st at Brooklyn Brewery!  So, if you're starting to think about buying here and have some questions for us this is the perfect event.  You'll get your questions answered while eating snacks and drinking beer!  To read more about what to expect, including who will be with us on the panel, check out the facebook page.  You can also enter questions that you have so the panel can address them and buy tickets.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from everyone here at Realty Collective.  If you're looking for something to do today we suggest walking down to the Brooklyn Promenade! It's one of our favorite things to do and reminds us how lucky we are to live in such an amazing place...plus it's a great way to walk off all those cookies you've been indulging in.  And if you go after dinner the view is spectacular.  The Manhattan skyline is like the ultimate Christmas light show!  Well, we hope you are yours are well and enjoying the holiday season! 

New Red Hook home for Dustin Yellin's gallery?

We've always loved this gorgeous warehouse building on the corner of Pioneer and Conover, one of the many neighborhood facilities owned by Time Moving and Storage. It's been on the market for a while, and we have had our fingers crossed that it will find a new owner who respects its incredible bones. Looks like it has. An employee paused his skid loader this morning to confirm local rumor that "the guy over there" - artist and Kidd-Yellin gallery co-owner Dustin Yellin - is buying the building.

This is great news for the neighborhood. Yellin and Charlotte Kidd transformed their current digs from "a mix between a crack den and an abandoned garage" into a spectacular gallery and studio space. They have been generous with the neighborhood, too - hosting the annual Taste of Red Hook benefit for RHI.

What will he do with this 27,000sf brick building - and its 20,000sf of parking? What would you do? Share your ideas below.

REALTY COLLECTIVE ADDS ANOTHER BROOKLYN LEGEND!

REALTY COLLECTIVE ADDS ANOTHER BROOKLYN LEGEND

Just over a year ago, Realty Collective was thrilled to announce their acquisition of Manzione Real Estate, a well loved and respected fixture on the Columbia Waterfront and Red Hook scenes for 30 years. Frank Manzione built his stellar reputation by creating and nurturing strong client relationships and business practices. When he decided to sell the company, he was looking for someone with the same kind of drive and energy to continue and expand on what he’d already so carefully established, so he approached Victoria Hagman (co-founder and President of Realty Collective) and here they are. Wisdom & longtime connections plus a future forward, youthful vision = the perfect combination.

And the Collective is growing.

In early March, another longtime BK legend, Angela Vita, approached Frank Manzione about purchasing Vita Real Estate. It was a no-brainer to recommended Realty Collective, being happy with the smooth transition and continued success after selling and merging with Victoria and her team.

So today, they are once again, thrilled and fortunate to announce their acquisition and merger with Vita Real Estate, who brings 30 years of experience and service to Carroll Gardens. They are pleased to welcome Angela Vita to their Collective. Not only does she bring her vast wealth of experience, but they now have a new office space at 296 Smith Street (in addition to their original space with Manzione Real Estate at 223 Columbia Street).

Realty Collective is so excited to continue serving their communities and continuing their love affair with Brooklyn and spreading the word!

To learn more about Realty Collective, please visit us at www.realtycollective.com

A post-Craigslist NYC?

The folks at real estate blog theapplepeeled.com wonder if New Yorkers have outgrown craigslist. A google search of the phrase "sick of craigslist" brings up hundreds of rants, and even an eponymous blog (albeit with a single entry - sometimes the rage subsides).

We're wondering if a new model is due. In an intensely networked world, does craigslist even make sense as a marketplace for real estate? And if something were to take its place, what might it look like?

Realty Collective dishes Red Hook in The Real Deal

Look who's talking! Click here to read how I devalue the neighborhood I love. An excerpt:

Tina Fallon, an agent with Realty Collective — a brokerage that she said mainly represents buyers — observed that the only single- and two-family houses now selling in Red Hook are going for less than $1 million. 

"The $1 million mark seems to be the number buyers have a hard time going beyond," she said. 

She and her husband actually paid more than $1 million for a house in the neighborhood a couple of years ago. But she said the streak of sales priced in that range that began in 2006 has been cut short by the weakened market and by the fact that there was more high-end inventory for sale from 2006 to 2008. 

"There are still renovated properties on the market in excess of $1 million, but they're just not selling," Fallon said. "Renovated properties that come onto the market under a million — those are selling, and at prices very close to $1 million." 

After 2005, said Fallon, "the quality of the housing stock available improved" in Red Hook because fully renovated homes were coming on the market more readily. 

"Pre-2005, we had a market of 100 percent unrenovated properties," she said. "And renovated versus unrenovated makes all the difference in Red Hook." 

Note that I paid more than $1M for my house in Red Hook, making me either a) dumb, or b) cooler than you.

Don't let the door hit you on the a...

The New York Times reports that recession pricing and lenient landlords are drawing former Brooklynites back to Manhattan. One newly minted Manhattanite claims to have sacrificed half his living space and the luxury of a sink in the bathroom. "Concessions must be made," he says. 

Let's hope the next round of concessions come from Brooklyn landlords. While I don't mind losing the folks who would rather be in Manhattan anyway (all joking aside, I'm happy for them), I certainly don't want those of us who aren't interested in trading our monthly Metrocards for a 300sf studio to feel like suckers. Can I get a no fee rental and a free month's rent, Carroll Gardens landlords? You know who you are...

Selling your apartment? How to pick a real estate broker.

I'm always surprised when I see sale listings come on the market with bad photos, no floor plans, no advertising. I think sellers need to be as educated about the market as their buyers are, and should insist on certain services from their listing agents. Here are some of the services you can request from your broker:

-Insist on professional photos and floorplans - they should be part of your listing from day one. 
-Advertising in NYTimes at the very least; ask for a "featured" listing in Streeteasy, Trulia, Property Shark, etc.. 
-If you are going after a high-end buyer, or even just buyers over $1M, the advertising commitment must be long term and inventive; even a well-priced (i.e. 20% off recent comps) apartment over $1M may take a while to sell. Make sure your broker will continue to actively market the place if nothing happens in the first six weeks. 
-Ask what types of buyers they have currently - what are their buyers looking for? Ideally, you'll find a broker who has qualified buyers lined up looking for a place exactly like yours. What have their buyers bought recently? 
-What banks have they dealt with to facilitate loans for properties like yours? See if they can have a bank/mortgage broker draw up a sheet showing loan options for buyers of your actual apartment. It helps buyers and sellers to know that a bank will underwrite the mortgage for your property. 
-Ask for them to provide a stager. They may not want to pay for it, but you can usually get them to (at least) split the cost with you. Staging is KEY. 
-Ask what their co-broke policy is. You want them actively marketing the property to other brokers. Ask them to hold a brokers' open house. See if they'll provide lunch. 
-As always, you'll want a CMA - a comparative market analysis - to support your asking price.

Please know that in this market, your initial asking price needs to be realistic to ensure a timely sale. There is no margin in starting high to see if anyone will bite. They won't. Buyers are looking for value. Find a broker who knows how to maximize your apartment's exposure to the very people who are in the market to purchase it. But don't expect them to find any suckers. They're not out there.

A tale of two houses: Sutton Place & Brooklyn Heights

Price chop alert?: Brooklyn Heights Townhouse 

First listed by Corcoran in January 2007 for a whopping $5,800,000, the sellers switched to Brown Harris Stevens, who raised the price to $5,950,000. The sellers are working their way through the brand-name brokers, and have given the listing to Halstead for the bargain price of $4,895,000. So, what's the new marketing strategy? "LOSING MONEY! Seller's loss is your gain, selling @ less than the cost." 

OMG! That's like having a big wad of housing Bubblicious, and, like, it popped and got stuck in your hair in the middle of homecoming and all the popular kids tried to get it out with peanut butter but you're totally gonna have to just cut it off and look like a new waver till it grows back.

Now, let's say you take your nearly five million dollars, and ferry it across the river to Sutton Place? You could buy a slightly smaller townhouse for $4M and build it out with the remaining $895K. 

Yeah, but then you'd have to live in Manhattan.