Welcome to Front Porch LLC

How do I find out what school an apartment is zoned for?

New York City schools vary wildly in quality, and being zoned for a “good” school district can add greatly to your home’s value.

While your real estate agent will tell you, this is infomation you should double-check yourself by calling 311.

To look up zoning on the Internet, go to the New York City schools site.

(In my experience this method ends up being more correct than going through a real estate site, such as trulia.com)

Hit the “Our schools” link on the nav bar

On the map that pulls up, hit the “zone search” tab

and enter the address of the target property.

Once you have the name of the school, you can go to www.insideschools.org to read a profile of it.

I didn’t get a rental unit that I wanted. How do I know if the landlord turned me down because of my credit rating?

By law, if anyone uses your credit history against you — to deny you an apartment, insurance, or anything else — they have to tell you that. Legally, under the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, they also have to tell you the agency that reported the poor credit, as well as its address and phone number so that you can contact it.

To get more information on your consumer rights under the FCRA — or even to read the Act itself — hit the Federal Trade Commission consumer website.

Can I put window gates on a fire escape window?

Legally, you must put guards on your windows in you have a child under 10 in your apartment . . . but you’re also not supposed to block a fire-escape.

The solution is window gates with a finger latch — you have to push your finger up and in to release the latch, so it takes an adult to do it, but you can work them in the dark, which is important for fire safety.

Two providers to check out: Artie’s Hardware in the Village and Manhattan Gates & Locksmiths at 2449 Broadway (in the Nineties) on the Upper West Side.

Expect to pay $300 and up for a custom-fitted gate, but the peace of mind is worth it.

Where can I run my dog downtown?

James’ Dog Run at Madison Square Park — East 24th Street at Fifth Avenue — new umbrellas courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Open dawn to dusk.
West Chelsea Dog Run at 22nd Street and 11th Ave (Thomas Smith Park). Voted “best of New York” by New York mag here. Stylish and noisy. Open dawn to dusk.

George’s Dog Run in Washington Square Park. (For large dogs, there is a separate run for small dogs). West Fourth Street and Thompson. Open dawn to dusk.

Tribeca Dog Run. Membership required. Warren between Greenwich and Chambers. Open 24 hours.

How do I know if the bedroom will fit a queen-sized bed?

Raise your arms out to the sides like you’re making a “T”. For most people, the distance from fingertip to fingertip is their height.

So if you’re more than five feet tall, your wingspan is larger than the width of a queen-sized bed.

To do the long way, do your wingspan plus two paces. Your foot is probably nine to twelve inches long; the length of a queen bed is eighty inches.

For a chart of bed sizing, click here.

How do I know if my views are protected?

This has to be one of the most-asked questions, especially because first-time new condo buyers tend to like new, tall buildings . . . and want to know when they’ll be stuck looking at other new, tall buildings.
One thing you should do is start reading the local papers. The Tribeca Trib, for instance, has great information about upcoming real estate developments.

But in general, you should assume your views aren’t protected unless your broker can prove otherwise. Some of the provable situations would be: 1) you’re on a park (for example, if you’re in 225 Fifth Avenue looking at Madison Square Park, what can they build between you and the Park?); 2) you’re next to a low-rise zoning area (although zoning can change, it is generally assumed that an area zoned low, such as the Forties around Eighth, is going to stay low, or at least you will have years to get out; or 3) there will be building, but you know what its outlines will be (for instance, when I showed in the Marais on 23rd Street, we knew that a Boymelgreen building would be going up in our sightlines, but we knew the height of it, so we could sketch in the air to what degree our buyer’s High Line views would be affected, and to what to degree they’d be safe).

What’s this about a family-friendly Hamptons summer share?

Ah, ten years ago, when I and seven friends paid $11,000 (that’s total) for a four-bedroom in Wainscott in the town of East Hampton.

At the time, we did the popular “A and B” share — alternating weekends. The “A” slate was there the 1st and the 15th, the “B”s on the 8th and the 22nd.

Well, you know how hard that would be with kids. So what’s happening now, says our beach realtor Michael Daly at RE/MAX Beach, is that four families will buy a summer (which is sadly, now, around $60,000) and each will take three weeks — the “A” family gets the first three weeks of June, the “B” family gets the last week of June and the first two weeks of July, and so on.

Makes transport with the kids that much easier.

What’s the forecast for 2007?

A lot more of the same.

I have read the gurus that write for the big financial publications, but the blogger Property Grunt gave the best advice:

“Those of you need to buy, make sure you can afford the payments and stay the hell away from interest only or exotic mortgages. Stick to the tried and true fixed rate. Those of you who wish to invest, remember to do your due diligence and if the deal doesn’t make sense. Walk away. The cashflow has to make sense or you are going to royally screw yourself over.

If you are a seller, exercise common sense and consider reducing your prices if you are not generating interest. ”

I live in a small apartment. How can I be happy during the holidays?

There are lots of ways. Here’s an excerpt from my Christmas column for the New York Blade:

1) Low ceilings enable you to save by buying a budget tree.

2) Constant traffic noise lets you know other people aren’t having completely idealized magical holidays either.

3) In-building holiday parties (hic!).

4) It’s not your job to hang the decorations in the lobby. Which means you don’t have to remember where you stored them last year, which means no fights with the family over who was the last person to put away the box marked “tinsel.”

5) Radiator heat = no chimney cleaning.

6) You may have to tip the super, but you don’t have to tip suburban garbagemen, who can “forget” to take your trash away if they don’t like their envelope.

7) No musical Christmas displays across the street (I grew up with my neighbor’s roof playing “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” for two straight weeks.)

Hooligan kids throwing snowballs usually can’t reach the twelfth floor.

9) Tilty pre-war flooring makes dreidel anybody’s game.

10) In a glamorous urban pied-a-terre, it’s easy to hear It’s a Wonderful Life on the TV in the living room even if you are in the kitchen making cookies.

11) If you live in a doorman building, you get cheerful, helpful doormen for the entire month of December.

12) If you don’t live in a doorman building, you don’t have to tip your doormen. Go take the money you’ve just saved and buy yourself some peppermint bark instead.Happy and Healthy Holidays, and new co-ops to all!

How do you hand over a rent-subsidized apartment?

With all the Kofi Anan apartment scandal (click here for story) people keep asking me, “how do you hand over a rent-stabilized apartment?”

The answer is that you can transfer the lease to certain relatives (sister, brother, mom, dad, kids, grandkids, but not nieces or nephews) if the relative lives with you for two years before lease transfer, or for one year before lease transfer if you’re a senior citizen.