From the NYTimes: Coronavirus Resources

In recent news, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently updated its policies to limit the use of private real estate listings by its brokers. For buyers and sellers, this means that more listings will be publicly available sooner. For more information, please see the news release here.

New York’s Mansion Tax recently made the national news on CNN, so we wanted to briefly share the article here for anyone who has general questions about how the mansion tax works, which states levy one, and why.

It is important to be aware that, in New York City especially, the name “Mansion Tax” can be misleading, since the median home price locally is higher than the $1 million benchmark at which the tax is levied – so a property doesn’t exactly need gold-plated bathtubs in order to qualify.

If you would like more info about the Mansion Tax in New York, or would like to know if your transaction qualifies, you can read more about it on our blog here.

Founding partner Jack Harari spoke recently at Google’s New York Headquarters, continuing Buying 101, a lecture series in Partnership with Lifelaidout’s Roger Ma. Real Estate transactions in New York City are often far more complex than their counterparts elsewhere in the US, and Buying 101 aims to provide helpful information and advice tailored to employees who may be looking to purchase residential property for the first time.

If you are looking at a prospective purchase yourself, don’t hesitate to give our office a call!

Michael Zadjelovich, a partner here at Weidenbaum & Harari, has been meeting with agents in the past few weeks to give lectures on Combined Units.

“Purchasing and Selling a “Combined” Unit in NYC: Twice as Nice or Double Trouble” is a talk that focuses on the potential issues that may arise when a condo or co-op unit being purchased or sold was previously 2 or more separate units. The goal is to teach agents 1) how to identify a combined unit and 2) how to tell if the proper steps were taken to ‘legally’ combine it (both from the building’s requirements as well as the city’s DOB requirements). Further, the talk discusses how to get past common roadblocks and issues (if the unit is NOT properly combined) and creative ways to keep a deal alive and get it safely to the finish line while managing expectations of all parties involved.

So far, Michael has spoken at The Corcoran Group, Warburg Realty, and Oxford Property Group. With plenty of great feedback and more talks scheduled for October, be sure to keep an eye out on our blog and email us if you are interested in having this talk at your office!