Jackson Heights Life

Captain Flannel seems to have found a great resource in the buyer's agent he used. In my experience, most agents are not that knowledgeable about the inner workings of specific buildings really--I interacted with a lot of agents when we were looking. I would think they would have no way of knowing things like which buildings had too many owners on small fixed incomes, etc. One of the challenges of coops in JH is that there are so many very small ones--the individual coops that make up the large complexes like the Chateau or Elm Court. It is easier to have a sense of the financial standing of a large coop, but how would you know anything about the small individual houses that make up these larger complexes here? As a buyer it was kind of nerve-wracking, because we were buying into a situation that having our attorney read the board minutes really did not illuminate all that much. It's just different in a very small coop. We have a handful of fellow owners here and it was only at our Board interview that we met them and by that time it was too late to turn back even if we had wanted to.

Believe me, I am an obsessive researcher, and I found the names of everyone in this small coop in advance...but that's all I could find. I had no way of knowing their financial status or anything else about the handful of people who I now co-own the biggest investment of my life with. We just had to take a flying leap, so we did...and several years later it's working out very well.

Anyway, if you can find a really knowledgeable buyer's agent who doesn't charge extra (beyond the realtor's split with the selling agent) and could help you negotiate--sounds like a great idea and I wish I had done it because I think we paid too much. Our seller had a very aggressive agent and she and the agent knew that we were eager to make a deal (we had sold our old apartment and had to get out) and they took full advantage of that. We did not want to rent in the interim, have to move twice, etc--so we wound up paying a price that was too high for the un-renovated state of the apartment. (Though the price was in part justified by the unusually low maintenance in this particular coop, another reason we wanted this particular apartment.)

Another thing I wish I had done:slip flyers under every door (or put them in every entryway) in the complex we wanted to buy into. Because sometimes people are thinking of selling but haven't acted yet--and you might turn up hidden possibilities that way. When I saw that a bunch of new listings in our complex appeared not long after we bought our place, I realized that I might have turned up these other apartments had I taken the initiative and tried going door to door, something we had experienced as owners in our old place. (We got notes slipped under our door by people who wanted to buy our place if we wanted to sell.) And if we had found a place that way--it would have been a lower price because it would have been For Sale By Owner with no agent's fee involved. If I ever do this again, I will try that route if we find a particular building we want to buy in.

I understand it. I think hits a dying practice though.

My observation is, it depends on your motivation and timeline.

If you are determined to move to JH and even have a certain building in mind, an agent will really be worthwhile to you.

 If you have a flexible timeline and are reasonably skilled doing online real estate research, you can probably get by on your own steam.

I wanted a fixer upper in a sound building. I was in a months to month rental so not bound by a timeline. I stalked certain properties until I got what I wanted. I didn't need an agent.

The thing is, it's not like the boards list their requirements for a new shareholder. (I thought this was kind of silly, until someone pointed out to me it meant that the board can make an exception for whatever reason.) Had I known the first building we looked at wanted something like three years reserve *after* closing, I'd have never wasted my time and money. A good agent can give you loads of info that's actually not publicly available. We had insight in to which buildings' financials were a mess, and which ones were in really good shape. Our agent was really plugged in. But you know if she hadn't sold in to a small coop, like an Elm Court for example, what are you going to do? Take a leap I guess.

Another good source of info is MLSLI.com. If you just look at what has been sold, you can see the difference between what was asked, and what the sale price was (you'll have to do some clicking). Pretty much every one bedroom that was on the market in Jackson Heights last spring sold for less than asking. When I compared that to Sunnyside, where there are far fewer coops, I could see that pretty much everything there on the market in the last year had sold for more than asking.

I would also strongly recommend Vernalie Panchame.  She sold many units in my previous coop building, including our sponsor units, and helped my husband and me find our current home in another building in which she has represented many purchasers.  She was also able to get us a very solid offer on our one bedroom in a week.  Both Vernalie and her associate Shadaby Azam are a pleasure to work with.