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According to the comps, the apartment I’m buying should appraise for $50K more than it has. Is there some reason that the bank has only appraised it to my cost?

This is a question I picked up from Trulia voices (the Q&A site on www.trulia.com) and I think it’s fascinating. Basically, I think the buyer wants a higher appraisal for his ego, and I told him to leave well enough alone.

Even in this day and age where we like other people to think we’re rich, you don’t want the appraised value of your property to go up too fast because there’s a chance that the tax man might notice. (Yes, even though you’re paying “maintenance” in a co-op, part of that payment is the building’s underlying property taxes.)

Secondly, and more importantly, you run the risk that the seller might decide that they’re leaving too much money on the table. Even in the case of a fully executed contract, the seller could pull the deal, re-sell the apartment to someone else at the higher appraised value, and let you chase them around the courthouse for years trying to collect your damages.

The moral of this story is, if you have an appraisal that’s good enough for you to buy the property off of, leave well enough alone.

As I put it to the questioner: “What park are you going to live in while you sue the seller for specific performance?”

Can a broker legally/ethically represent two bidders for the same property?

This one came from Urban Baby and it’s a great question. Legally, there shouldn’t be a problem, at least in New York and New Jersey. The broker is an agent of the seller, and bringing in two bidders and having them war against each other –that’s exactly what a broker is supposed to do.*

Ethically, though, it’s a thornier consideration. Whenever I am working with buyers and I bring someone in to see a property that I have shown before, I always say, “I just showed this to Client X.”

In the unlikely situation that both clients wanted to bid (I have never actually had this happen) I would hand one of them to someone else in my firm, setting up a Chinese wall so that each of them felt their confidentially about their bids and finances wasn’t being violated. I think that’s the only ethical way to do it.

*Update: the December 2007 issue of Realtor magazine mentions a Montana case {Zuazua vs. Tibbles, I am not making this up) where an agent represented two bidders, and the bidder who lost out sued and won.

As the article puts it: “The Montana Supreme Court decided that although the state’s license law didn’t specifically forbid representing two buyers, it did state that a buyer’s representative must ‘act solely in the interests of the buyer.’ That meant that an agent could represent only one buyer at a time in the same transaction, said the court.”

I don’t want to spend a lot on furniture, where do I start?

Time Out New York’s Helen Yun was intrepid enough to tackle this question in the magazine’s recent design issue.

Her picks:

For beds — Room and Board, 105 Wooster between Prince and Spring Sts, Manhattan (212-334-4343); and West Elm, 112 W. 18th St, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, Manhattan (212-929-4464)
For bookcases — Two Jakes, 320 Wythe Ave between Grand and South 1st Streets, Brooklyn (718-782-7780) and West Elm

For chairs — Room and Board; Urban Outfitters, various city locations, go to www.urbn.com; Two Jakes, Baxter & Liebchen (vintage), 33 Jay at Plymouth, Brooklyn (718-797-0630)
For curtains — Ikea, 1000 Ikea Dr., Elizabeth, NJ (908-289-4488)
For desks — Gothic Cabinet Craft, which has various locations in Manhattan and two clearance centers in Queens, www.gothiccabinetcraft.com

For dressers — ABC Carpet Outlet; CB2; Gothic Cabinet Craft; Muji, 455 Broadway between Grand and Howard

For entertainment centers — Gothic Cabinet; Z Gallerie

For Japanese clean-lined furniture — Muji

For rugs — Ikea; ABC Carpet Warehouse (and I have gotten rugs at both these places, and I agree)
For shades — Just Shades, 21 Spring St at Elizabeth St, Manhattan (212-924-3244)

For sofas — DWR annex, 55 Hartz Way, Seacaucus, NJ (201-325-8411); West Elm; CB2, 451 Broadway between Grand and Howard

For tables — Room & Board; Urban Outfitters

For general trendiness — Z Gallerie, 443 Broadway at Grand St, Manhattan (212-343-1045)

For knock-offs –White Furniture, throughout the city, go to whiteonwhite.com

Oldie but goodie: How do I get past the co-op board?

I love co-ops. I just put a client, a first-time buyer, in a co-op in a deal so complicated that most people thought it could not be done. The listing broker said it would not get done. One of my bosses said it would not get done.

Tell that to my client, who is now sitting pretty in his new home.

I’ve written about boards and packages and interviews several times, but since I just got asked the question again, I’m going to push the links up to this post.

“How do I get past a co-op board, I’ve failed before?” is here

“Can I have more of those tips about how to get past a co-op board?” is here

“I’m black, will I have trouble getting past a co-op board?” is here

“How long does it take to buy a co-op, from accepted offer to possession?” is here

“I’m preparing my co-op board package, can I black out my bank account numbers?” is here

We’re selling our home and buying a new one — but it looks like we might have to close on the purchase first. Help!!

In a slow market, when you buy, you put a sales contingency into your offer — you basically predicate your purchase on your the sale of your last home.

In a faster market, however, you won’t be able to do that — the seller of your new home won’t accept the risk.

Sometimes mortgage brokers would offer bridge loans, but in the current mortgage climate, they’re tough to swing.

So what you need to do is sit down with your mortgage broker or bank and tap the equity in your first home, either by using a Home Equity Loan or a Home Equity Line of Credit.

That will give you the cash you need to purchase the new home, and the loan or HELOC will get paid off with the proceeds of the old home.

The paperwork on these is pretty easy, but because of the potential for fraud that comes with tapping your home equity, I think it’s worth it to pay an attorney to review these papers.

Does a townhouse have common fees?

Well, it depends.

A “townhouse” is the phrase used to describe a house that is attached to other homes on one or both sides — i.e., a row house. They’re laid out vertically, with stairs — or for the really fancy ones, an elevator — providing the transportation from floor to floor.

So “townhouse” describes what the house looks like physically, but it isn’t a form of ownership.

Such a house could be a single one-family home — like the one that you saw Carrie Bradshaw come bouncing down the steps of on Sex in the City. In that case, the owner is responsible for paying city taxes — probably a five-figure bill — and would pay for maintenance costs like keeping the roof in good working order.

But such a house could also be part of a homeowner’s association, and be marketed as a condo, or more rarely, a co-op. In that case, there would be monthly common charges (in the case of a condo) or maintenance charges (in the case of a co-op) that would cover maintenance of common lawns and hallways, the salary for the super, etc.

So the bottom line is, when you see that cute townhouse and you want to know what its monthly bills will be, you have to ask.

I’m not good with land; a third of an acre is a pretty good amount of land, right?

It depends, really, if you’re coming from the city or the country; to a New Yorker, a third of an acre is a really good sized lot, with room for the kids to play and a garden.
In the suburbs of Little Rock, where I grew up, a third of an acre was a corner lot (as opposed to a mid-block lot) for a big house.

If it helps to think about feet at all, it’s 75 by 200 feet.

I just moved into The Link on 52nd Street, but I’m from L.A. Where do I shop in the neighborhood?

Mattresses: Every store sells the same mattresses under different names, making it impossible to comparison shop. We have had fine luck with both Sleepy’s in Herald Square, and 1-800-Mattress, a phone service, is also quite reputable. If you want to be fussed over a little more, Bloomingdale’s on 59th and Lexington has a nice mattress department.

Housewares: Anyone new to NY should know about Gracious Home, which survives due to its wonderful range of up-market products and despite its horrendous customer service. The East Side branch is slightly better about waiting on you, but the West Side branch on Broadway and 68th is closer if you want fancy sheets and towels, garbage cans, bridge tables, a vacuum cleaner. The cheaper alternative, where they’re actually nice to you, is Bed, Bath and Beyond, a stone’s throw away on Broadway around 65th Street. Dishes can come from Crate & Barrel, on the East side at Madison and 60th, or you can make a grand trip from the Port Authority on 8th Ave. and 42nd St to Ikea in Elizabeth, N.J. — on Saturday mornings there’s a bus.

Hardware: Hardware 54 between 7th and 8th aves is very helpful, but closed on weekends. There’s a Ninth Avenue store around 47th street, somewhere on the West side, that used to be called Lopez and is now called something else, that is open on the weekends, and they’re very nice. Janovic is the big paint store, on Ninth ave. and 51st/52nd, but you’ll have to sell your grandmother to afford window treatments. Also, not terribly friendly to D-I-Yers, so don’t forget to buy gloves, painter’s tape, and Scott cotton rags, because they won’t remind you.

Locksmith: Simon Key on 55th and 8th Ave, closed weekends.

Dry Cleaners: I trust Kim’s on 52nd Street and Ninth Avenue. I’m pretty fussy, and they cleaned my wedding dress.

Post office: You might think you’ve lucked out, living next to Radio City Station at 322 West 52nd, but it gets pretty crowded in the afternoons so go in the morning. Most newspaper vendors will sell you a stamp or two for a slight upcharge if that’s all you need. The 24-hour post office is Farley, at 31st and 8th Avenue, so if you absolutely have to mail something at 3 a.m., go there. Avoid the 1st of the month, when people from all over are sending in their rent.

Food: Stiles farmers’ market has produce that is cheap, often good, sometimes slightly bruised — 352 West 52nd Street; Whole Foods at Time Warner Center is offers expensive gourmet foods, but often-reasonable frozen convenience foods and a wide organic selection; Westerly Natural Market on 911 Eighth (corner 54th) offers an organic alternative; and the “regular” grocery stores in the are include Gristede’s on Eighth and 54th which is open late but has long lines; Food Emporium on Eighth and 49th, which has good produce but also long lines, and Associated on Ninth and 59th, which is generally the best of them. Please note that the D’Agostinos on 57th off Ninth is permanently closed.

If you want a good steak, either pay up at Whole Foods or schlep to Western Beef on West End (11th Avenue) and 63rd. For fish, De Martino’s Sea Food (Ninth between 54th and 55th) beats Whole Foods, though you have to shop early in the day, because they’ll be closed by the time you get home from work.

Coffee: Empire Coffee and Tea, on Eighth Avenue between 41st street and 42nd street. Hands down. They sell Tate’s chocolate-chip cookies, too, and cider in the winter.

Wine: No particularly good neighborhood wine store (prove me wrong, please!) Worth schlepping downtown to Bottlerocket or Crossroads or Astor Wine and Spirits or Landmark on 23rd between 6th and 7th in Chelsea.

I’m new to NYC, where and how do I lock up my bike?

Many buildings have “bike rooms” for just this purpose, and if you’re selling it’s a good feature to push.

However, if you do end up having to lock your bike up from time to time, check out these five tips, courtesy of Wired New York member Chi2NYC?

1) Make your bike look lousy, if you can stand to. Scratch brand names off your bike and its components, especially if they are nice. Put scratches in the frame and do a random and bad tape job.

2) Use one of Kryptonite’s “New York” series U-locks, with a non-tubular key. Use this to lock the rear wheel through the rear triangle portion of the frame. The smaller the U-lock you can use, the better, because it affords less leverage for cutting.

3) Vary where you lock your bike, so if thieves can’t get it one day, they can’t come back with better tools the next.

4) Get quick-release pedals. It’s hard for thief to ride off if you take your pedals with you.

5) replace all quick-release skewers (both wheels and for seat tube) with a hex-key bolt skewer that is rounded (can’t use wrench to unscrew it).

My friend said you can’t get a jumbo mortgage anymore — is that true?

Despite poor Jim Cramer’s recent bout of hysteria (see the “no idea how bad it is out there” clip here ) banks are still writing mortgages.

Really.

First, a little tutorial on some phrases used in the mortgage market — a bank lends you money to buy your home, and you put your house up as collateral on the loan. That’s a mortgage.

Now the bank does not really want to sit around with the Jones mortgage at 21 Elm Street and the Smith mortgage at 23 Main Street, etc., cluttering up its desk, so it resells those mortgages to people who bundle, or pool, them together.

In order to help home-buyers, the federal government helps that bundle and resale process through an agency called the Federal National Mortgage Association. That’s Fannie Mae.

Because the federal government — at least in this instance — doesn’t want to subsidize rich people, there are limits to the size of the mortgages it uses Fannie Mae to help. Smaller mortgages that fit, or conform, under these limits are called conforming loans. Bigger mortgages that do not are called non-conforming or jumbo loans.

The limits are re-set every year; this year, the line between conforming and non-conforming is around $400K for a one-family house.

But just because a jumbo mortgage isn’t supported by Fannie Mae doesn’t mean that other institutions — banks and other financial institutions — won’t package and resell them.

In fact, they still are. What people are saying when they say, “they’re not issuing any jumbo mortgages” is that fewer financial institutions are supporting them, so the prices are going up — rates on jumbos are pushing near 7%-8% as of this writing.

But you can still get one.