On almost every transaction you get to the point where you’re close and both sides start digging their heels in and rationalizing why their last counter offer should be the final price. Here is some advice to both buyers and sellers of rent stabilized buildings. Sellers (Including Lenders): If you put a rent stabilized building on the market with the intention to sell – just sell it. Every day since June of 2019 the price has gone down and there’s nothing in the forecast indicating that help is on the…

Wall Street will sell you SpaceX at a $1.75 trillion valuation on roughly $18.7 billion of revenue. That’s almost 100 times revenue for a company that lost nearly $5 billion last year. Meanwhile, rent-stabilized apartment buildings in New York City are trading around 5 times gross rent roll. Comparable metric. One is priced at 5x. The other at 100x. And the one at 5x is the one people are afraid to buy. What SpaceX is actually asking you to believe.   SpaceX wrote in its own S-1 filing that it…

From the early 90’s until June of 2019, NYC real estate only got better. There were a couple of bumps along the way, but those were relatively short lived. Enter HSTPA and owners need to adjust entirely to the new reality. Those that adapt survive, and those that wallow with indecisiveness risk everything. For the most part early adopters of change have been rewarded. For 25 years, the buildings provided cash flow, upside, AND asset appreciation. The trifecta! NYC rent laws were adjusted in 1993 to allow for individual apartment…