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Seth Glasser

ArticleMarket Insights

2024 Sellers: How To’s & What’s Coming

My team and I often get asked: who are the buyers and sellers, and are deals actually getting done? Transactions are happening but there are more obstacles than ever before. Our team has taken on a record amount of new inventory and the pace seems to be increasing each month. The motivation behind new inventory is driven by maturing or rollover debt, sellers not seeing a path to profitability, inability to complete or pay for compliance mandates, and general management fatigue. Rent stabilized buildings aren’t selling themselves. The broker, as…
Seth Glasser
July 9, 2024
ArticleMarket Insights

Sell Now or Wait? Things To Consider Before Deciding

People decide to sell real estate to solve a problem, capitalize on an opportunity, or realize a profit.  Management fatigue is also motivating people to transact. Our team receives countless requests for opinions of value and often the client says, “I can’t sell at that price.” What I’ve noticed is that the people who are contemplating selling are looking for a mathematical reason why it makes sense. The math doesn’t look great, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell. We continue to sell rent stabilized buildings at negative leverage on…
Seth Glasser
April 8, 2024
ArticleMarket Insights

Step By Step Process: How I Executed My 1031 Exchange

Listen to an audio narration of this article I’ve been helping clients sell apartment buildings and buy triple net leases for almost 15 years. In almost every scenario the client is initially hesitant to get into something new. After all, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. With the challenges facing property owners in New York, this sentiment has started to shift. Private clients are starting to look for the exit ramp but don’t know exactly where to go or how to get there.  I wrote…
Seth Glasser
February 8, 2024
ArticleMarket Insights

How To Prioritize Expiring Debt

Multifamily operators today are finding themselves playing defense more than offense. They wake up each morning thinking about which fire to put out first rather than how to grow their business. A rising market allowed mistakes to go unnoticed or erased with a refinance or a sale. As Warren Buffett said: it’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked. This article offers a roadmap of how to prioritize the important items related to expiring debt today. Until the laws change to allow rent…
Seth Glasser
January 10, 2024
ArticleMarket Insights

How To Move Forward in Today’s Multifamily Market

There are 60,000 vacant stabilized apartments in NYC (not including 4,800 from NYCHA), yet we have rents hitting all-time highs and people living on the street. Something has to give. The city is running out of resources and eventually it will have no choice but to incentivize the private sector by cutting the red tape. If you believe something has to give, then this is a great reason to buy multifamily buildings in New York. Do I Own Rent Stabilized Or Affordable Housing? Right now, prewar buildings are not inherently…
Seth Glasser
December 4, 2023
ArticleBlog PostMarket Insights

What Happens Next To The Multifamily Market In New York?

On October 2nd, the Supreme Court of the United States put to bed CHIP v HSTPA by denying hearing a challenge to the rent laws of 2019. Since SCOTUS historically takes two percent of the cases that come to their desk this wasn’t a big surprise but more like a batted down Hail Mary pass. For the most part, the market has already priced in a SCOTUS denial because rent stabilized buildings have been selling for the past four years mostly based on interest rates, location, and property condition –…
Seth Glasser
October 24, 2023
ArticleBlog PostMarket Insights

3 Events That Will Change the Multifamily Market

We are entering the fourth quarter of 2023 with investment sales velocity down 50% over the same period last year. Valuations are down and owners have been slow to divest their assets. Rates have soared in the past 18 months to unsustainable levels so much so that Signature Bank, one of the premier lenders, went belly-up. Low sales velocity is not sustainable and it’s reaching its tipping point. There are three events that are converging on the multifamily market, seemingly all at once, which will shape the market for years…
Seth Glasser
September 11, 2023
ArticleMarket Insights

10 Ways To Be A Successful Multifamily Seller

In today’s market we have two types of sellers: proactive and reactive. Or as the results would indicate: successful and unsuccessful. Market dynamics change and as a result what is required of you as a seller will also change. Here are 10 pieces of advice for sellers to set yourself up for a successful transaction. 1. Know your numbers and set goals You would be shocked how many owners don’t know how much income they earn from their property. Whenever I meet with a client about selling, I ask them:…
Seth Glasser
August 14, 2023
Blog PostMarket Insights

Extend and Pretend: A Glimmer of Hope

In real estate, there exists a strategy known as extend and pretend. It refers to a practice where loans are extended and losses are deferred, all to maintain the façade of stability and prosperity. However, this once popular and seemingly effective approach is now standing on the precipice of collapse. The cracks in its foundation are becoming increasingly apparent, and the consequences of it loom ominously overhead. Nowhere is this truer than in the New York City multifamily marketplace. Four years ago, the business included 3 caps, cheap debt, generous…
Seth Glasser
July 13, 2023
Blog Post

New York City Rent Guidelines Board Testimony

On June 13, 2023 I submitted my testimony to the New York City Guidelines Board - you can submit yours too by June 15, 2023 here. Below you can watch and read my testimony. I'm Seth Glasser, a New York City multifamily commercial real estate broker and cohost of the New York City Multifamily Podcast. I am not speaking to you as an owner, rent stabilized tenant or even New York City resident. Think of me as a concerned citizen.  I'd like to highlight a hard truth—costs are rising in…
Seth Glasser
June 15, 2023