About Manhattan's Upper East Side

Recently I was contacted by a writer for a real estate magazine and she asked me what are the five decorative items I use most often when staging a home for sale and why I use them.

After giving it some thought, I came up with the following, which can also be used to perk up any space even if you're not selling your home:

1. Throw Pillows - do wonders for both the living room and bedroom. Use pillows in bright contrasting colors to the couch, chair or bedding color. Because it's important to use neutral colors on the walls and in furniture when staging a home for sale so that it appeals to the broad range of buyers, throw pillows are your opportunity to add punches of color to a room without overwhelming the space.

2. Throws - are also an opportunity to add a punch of color to a neutral-colored room, however more importantly, it allows the buyer to envision curling up on the couch or chair with a good book or a glass of wine, and relaxing.

3. Colorful Fruit - whether real or fake, can also add pops of color to the kitchen, and make it enticing to a prospective buyer. I use red apples, green apples, oranges, or anything with a bright color. You can place them in a clear glass jar, in a bowl, or on a fruit stand.

4. Orchids - whether real or a good fake, add a touch of elegance to any room. You want buyers to aspire to a certain lifestyle when they view your home, and orchids portray a luxurious lifestyle. I particularly like using them in bathrooms, either on the tub surround or the vanity. They also look great on a console table in the foyer.

5. Decorative Balls - of any texture, such as glass or twigs, in a bowl placed on a cocktail table or as a centerpiece on a dining room table, add pop and interest.

What are your favorite decorative accessories?

Last week I introduced Part I of No Cost Ways to Improve a Home. To recap, they were:

• Curb appeal enhancement
• Decluttering
• Clean, clean and clean some more
• Lighten and brighten
• Eliminate odors

In Part II of this series, here are FIVE more things that can be done at no cost:

1. Depersonalizing - You may be proud of photos of your children, their artwork, your trophies and diplomas, as well as your collection of antique salt and pepper shakers, but buyers will not be able to imagine themselves living in your home if your home reminds them too much of YOU!
2. Define the space - while the dining room works perfectly well for you as your home office, once the home is on the market, you don't want buyers to be left to figure out that the space with the desk and computer in it is actually a dining room or dining area. And the living room should be just that, a place to entertain and relax - not a play or storage area for children's toys. This will lead buyers to think there's inadequate space or storage for their children.
3. Basic maintenance and repairs - don't think that buyers won't notice a light switch that doesn't work, a drip in the tub, or a cabinet door that doesn't shut properly. Buyers will think two things: 1) "If the owner can't fix these minor things, what larger problems does this house have?" and, 2) "I wonder how much I can deduct from the asking price because of all of these needed repairs?".
4. Master Bedroom - Bedrooms should feel like sanctuaries for rest and relaxation. Think HOTEL when reviewing and enhancing yours. Make sure it's easy to walk around the bed, so get rid of excess furniture. Clear nightstands and dressers of clutter. Make sure linens are clean and fresh and the bed neatly made. Closets must be clean, organized and as sparsely filled as possible. Let in the natural light.
5. Kitchens and bathrooms ...sell houses. We've all heard this before. Both should be sparkling clean. Clear the kitchen counters of clutter, including appliances. It will make the counters appear to be more spacious. Go through the kitchen cabinets and discard or pack away unused items, neatly place remaining items and even go so far as to organize pantry items such as jars, boxes and spices by type and size, with labels all facing out. Take the magnets and everything underneath them off the refrigerator. Bathrooms should appear as if they belonged in a hotel, so that means storing away your shampoo and toiletries during showings, and displaying the nice, fluffy show towels. Toilet lid down and wastebaskets emptied. Plungers and cleaning supplies off the floor.

BEFORE DECLUTTERING & DEPERSONALIZING AFTER DECLUTTERING & DEPERSONALIZING

Staging a home for sale doesn't mean money has to be spent.

How much does it cost to live in one of the city's poshest 'hoods?

Not as much as it used to. If you're seeking a rental near many of the city's wealthiest denizens, you'll find an assortment of deals on the Upper East Side.

"Last year, if you were looking for a studio [on the Upper East Side], you couldn't find anything for below $1,500," says Dan Marrello, a managing director for Citi Habitats.

But things are different now.

"It's really unheard of that we're seeing studios at $1,000 to $1,400 -- but we are," says Adjina Dekidjiev, rental director for Manhattan Apartments. "I've got 39 [listings for] studios under $1,400 on the Upper East Side."

Of course, mansion-lined blocks aside, the Upper East Side has always been a little cheaper for renting than much of the rest of the city.

"The Upper East Side is a very established neighborhood, with every amenity you could want or need," says Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats. "What you're missing is the transportation factor."

That's especially true of rentals along First and Second Avenues, several long avenue-blocks away from the Lexington Avenue 4/5/6 trains. And, as other Manhattan neighborhoods have adjusted downward, so has the Upper East Side.

According to Citi Habitats' just-released May market report, the average studio on the Upper East Side rented for $1,619 -- almost $150 cheaper than the citywide average of $1,765 and more than $300 cheaper than last year's Upper East Side average. One-bedrooms rented for $2,190 -- more than $250 per month cheaper than the city average of $2,426. And a two-bedroom went for $3,029, compared to the city average of $3,444. (Three-bedrooms, however, were $719 pricier than the rest of the city, averaging $5,376.) Moreover, the vacancy rate is at 2.27 percent -- the highest in the city.

Upper East Side deals should come with the normal warning labels: The cheapest apartments are usually far east and are located in walk-up buildings that don't have particularly great amenities. Or, they're north of the 96th Street subway stop, just before the Upper East Side officially becomes East Harlem.

While most of these deals aren't on Lexington Avenue, they're not all on York Avenue, either. "I've got a studio on 89th Street between Second and Third for $1,050," says Marrello.

And big buildings aren't immune to the pressures of the market. "We have a building on York Avenue, and in that complex studios are in the $1,300 to $1,325 range," says Wayne Hattingh, a manager with SW Management, which handles several large rental buildings in the neighborhood.

Marrello is representing a building called the Hub on 101st Street, between First and Second avenues, that is paying brokers' fees and offering two months free rent. The building is new, has top-grade appliances, a doorman and landscaped roof deck. One-bedrooms are starting at $2,145 per month -- something extremely modest by luxury doorman standards.

And the Hub is hardly the only rental complex to offer such incentives -- there are eight Upper East Side buildings owned by major landlord Glenwood that are offering a month of free rent.

"Landlords are always trying to keep rent rolls high," says Marrello, "Now they're starting to advertise lower prices."

Now just might be the time for the posh seekers to pounce.

Hot Dog Real Estate in New York City

They say location is everything when it comes to real estate. Well, in the world of selling New York City hot dogs that saying has been put to the test. A hot dog vendor has agreed to pay the city $81,701 more a year to sell his hot dogs on the north side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art entrance than on the south side 100 feet away. It doesn't stop there.

The New York City Parks Department auctioned off the food-vending rights to the north-side entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $362, 201 and the south-side entrance for $280,500, both to the same first time vendor, Pasang Sherpa.

Why did Sherpa pay $80,000 more for the rights to the north side location? That [north] side is busier," explained Sherpa. Many museum visitors use the nearby 86th Street/Lexington Avenue subway express stop to the north.

So Sherpa has both the north and south sides of the museum entrance which is located on 5^th Avenue and 82^nd St covered. So you would think that spending so much money for the rights to these spots would give you exclusive rights, so that nobody else could sell hot dogs for at least a block radius, right? Well that's not the case. Other vendors who were grandfathered into the current system of auctioning off the prime spaces can still sell their hot dogs on the block, but just not in the main area.

Why did he do this? He pays over $540,000/year for just the location rights to sell hot dogs! The Metropolitan Museum of Art gets over 5 million visitors a year and his carts are right in the middle of all this action. There are no restaurants for blocks, making this some of the most lucrative hot dog selling real estate I would estimate in the entire country.

So he probably charges a real premium for his hot dogs, right? That's not the case; under the contracts of the Park's Department a vendor cannot set their own prices. The maximum they can charge is $2/dog!!!

Okay, time for some math. Let's say the average customer buys 1 hot dog, 1 soda, and 1 bag of chips for a grand total of $6.00. He needs to sell to 107, 117 people/year to break even for the rent. That's not counting the costs of his food. But with that being said 107,117 people is just 2.14% of the total number of people visiting the museum every year. I like those odds that he only needs 2 people out of 100 to break even for rent. Even if it costs $1 for the hot dog, soda, and chips the net profit for each transaction is $5.00 that makes the break even point, 128, 540 people and 2.57% of the total number of visitors to the met every year.

So let's say the vendor gets 3% of the gross, or 150,000 transactions at $6.00 or $900,000.00-$542,201(rent)-$150,000(food) = $207,799.

Not a bad take for selling hot dogs!! This is exactly what makes New York City Amazing!

You can contact me directly at morgan.evans@elliman.com

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Only in New York. This is a first for me. Buyer dies..seller keeps downpayment money...only in New York.

1150 Park Avenue

In a recently settled lawsuit, the seller of an Upper East Side cooperative unit got to keep a down payment from a buyer who died before the closing.

Glen Altman was in contract to buy a co-op for $2.3 million at 1150 Park Avenue, between 91st and 92nd streets, and paid a $230,000 down payment. She was approved by the board, but before closing on the unit, she passed away.

Altman's estate wanted the down payment to be returned, but the Manhattan Supreme Court ruled that the seller could keep the money.

Ira Matetsky, an attorney at the law firm Gafner & Shore, who was not involved with the lawsuit but wrote about it in his firm's newsletter, said the seller won the suit because there was no provision in the contract stating that if the buyer died, the contract could be broken.

"In some situations, a contract contains a standard provision that if a purchaser should pass away before the closing, the contract is null and void," Matetsky said. "This case arose, and the contract didn't say one way or the other."

Altman, who passed away in 2005 at age 74, was survived by her daughter, Tracy Altman Warner. Warner, a Corcoran Group agent, and her attorney were not immediately available for comment. Altman and her husband, Edwin, who passed away in 2003, ran a wholesale diamond company called M.B. Altman Sons. The lawsuit was settled in October.

According to the lawsuit, the estate argued they were not obligated to go forward with the purchase because the contract called for occupancy by Altman only. However, there was no provision in the contract to cancel the deal.

JoAnn Schwimmer, an associate broker at DJK Residential, said she had never heard of a situation like that before. "It seems immoral," Schwimmer said of the seller keeping the down payment.

Roberta Axelrod, director of residential sales and rentals at Time Equities, said that in a few of her deals, lawyers have requested that a provision be put into a contract that would cancel the deal if the purchaser passed away.

"None of my purchasers have ever died," Axelrod said, "but the way it technically works is that unless you put it in the contract that you have the right to cancel it, the estate is bound to [the purchaser's] obligation."

If a purchaser buying a condo passed away, the estate would have to buy the unit if there wasn't a provision in the contract canceling it. In the case of a co-op, however, the estate has to be approved by the board.

The co-op board president at 1150 Park Avenue, Herbert Appel, testified that the estate did not submit an application to go forward with the sale, and if the estate had wanted to purchase the unit, its application would have been considered by the board, although an estate has never bought a unit in the building.

Matetsky the attorney said, however, that typically a co-op board -- which has stringent requirements for approval -- would not allow an estate to buy a unit as it wouldn't know who from the estate would move in.

And in a case where an estate is required to go forward with the sale, Time Equities' Axelrod said, the seller can still decide to cancel the contract and return the money.