New York Values #9 - Visitors

Today’s New York Value is inspired by one of the reasons I’m so tired today: visitors! 

After college, I moved home to Virginia to save up money before heading up to the Big Apple. I come from a beautiful part of the Shenandoah Valley. It’s amazing; it’s special; it’s historic. And yet, how many people visited me during that time? One. And it was just en route to DC. I’ve had more visitors than that this month. It's so routine now that I have friends just text me dates in advance so I can block them off my Airbnb calendar. 

It’s fun, and exhausting, and occasionally stressful, but I love experiencing the city through an out-of-towner's eyes. Of course there are the occasional pleas to check out Time Square (you can go by yourself), but for the most part everyone has a unique list of things they want to see, places they want to go, and, most importantly, what they want to eat and drink.

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When a visitor decides to move here, in real estate they’re called a relocation, or “relo” client (aren’t I so cool with the realtor lingo now?). I’m currently working with a few of these. A lot of these, actually. They can be buyers or tenants, and there are positives and negatives to working with relos rather than people who already live here.

Pros:

• Have limited days to come tour, so process is more efficient

• Less likely to be working with multiple brokers at once (don’t do it, guys!)

• Realize they know very little about NY real estate

• Enthusiastic about moving to the city

Cons:

• Timing is always the hardest part of this job, and timing is even more complicated here

• Require more guidance if they have never lived here before

• Communication can be harder depending on where they currently live

• Some places will not be available to see on the dates they can come to the city (very annoying and common)

Alright, everyone. Next week’s will be longer, better, faster, stronger, but right now I need to finish confirming tomorrow’s tour and take a NAP! Stay rested.

xo

Anna

New York Values #7 - Referrals

Yesterday, everyone in the office who gets NY Times alerts on their computer (read: a lot of us), was notified that due to a tip from Meuller’s investigation, the FBI raided Trump’s attorney’s office to seize thousands of documents related to a number of different issues. The word referral was used repeatedly in the coverage to emphasize that this is not actually part of Mueller’s Russia inquiry, but instead something he passed along to a different agency. It got me thinking about how big a part of this industry is referral-based, and how a lot of people don’t really know the way that works. 

As a kind of half-assed NY Value, it was cool to see people at work talking about breaking news in a non combative and simply “wow did you see this?” kind of way. We don’t all agree politically here at Compass, but we all treat one another with respect. I’ve noticed that when I’m outside of the city I have to go more out of my way to stay informed. Here, strangers at bars will tell you that Trump is going to meet with Kim Jung Un minutes after the news breaks (literally how I found out). There have been events I only learned of because a protest was already organized the same day. 

Walking to meet a new referral

I don’t think it has to do with intelligence as much as a focus on being on top of everything all the time here. Information of all sorts is thrust in your face constantly, a barrage of data ranging from the totally interesting to the violently irrelevant. Have you ever been on the subway? Every car is plastered with ads and PSAs, and free daily newspapers are given out in many stations. So even during your commute you’re pummeled with information. Thanks, New York, for basically being a giant billboard factory populated by town criers. 

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And now, real estate referrals! I actually got two referrals in the past two days, one from a friend who is an agent in a different state, and one from a current client. These are handled slightly differently, and I’ve broken it down to hopefully make it clearer. 

The least stressful, most pleasant way to do real estate (in my opinion), is to work by referral. If you are working with the people you know and then the people they know, you are more likely to get along and do well together than if a complete stranger reaches out blindly. A lot of the work I am doing now is to build a system where I don’t have to advertise myself; I can simply rely on working hard for the people I know and the clients I have, and letting my performance lead them to pass my name along. 

Questioning why she hasn't sent him any referrals

What a lot of people don’t necessarily understand is the monetizing of referrals. It is illegal to give a financial reward, a kickback or cut of any deal, to someone who isn’t a licensed agent. My client who referred his friends, were he to ask me to give him something in exchange for this referral, would be asking me to break the law. However, these sort of financial incentives are completely standard between agents. If I end up closing a deal with the guy sent by my friend who is an agent in another state, I will give her a percentage of my commission as a “referral fee.”

I have someone in Martha’s Vineyard with whom I’m setting up a referral exchange, meaning we will have a written agreement denoting the exact financial terms of our system. I will send her any business I hear about in MV, and she will send me anything she hears of in NYC. And in each instance, the person sending the referral will receive X percent of the other’s commission once a deal is done. I don’t have an official exchange set up with my agent friend mentioned above, but we have a friendship and a verbal understanding. So it doesn’t always have to be an official thing, but it is technically best to have in writing to avoid any misunderstandings about expectations. 

I hadn’t explained this early on, and ended up missing out on the opportunity to help someone find a broker I can vouch for in a different state. Yes, I missed out on part of the commission, but I also missed out on a chance to build a stronger relationship with an agent in a different region. I’m actually attending Compass’s east coast Retreat in DC in May, and while I’m there I will ideally connect with more brokers in more markets who vibe with me, and whom I would feel comfortable referring to people I know. 

Feel free to shoot me an email at anna.klenkar@compass.com if you currently need someone in a different state, or if you have any questions.

xo

Anna

New York Values #6 - Clean Trains

Today I’m going to be optimistic. It may have snowed yesterday, but it’s still kinda spring (April showers, yo!). The trains may be awful, but they can only improve from here (because Cuomo wants to keep his job). A woman on my commute may have cussed out another person on the D and then started reading “What does the Bible Teach Us?”, but no one sat on or shoved me (Jesus would be so proud). 

OK, maybe I’m still a little negative about the trains, but today was a good commute day overall, and the process of keeping the cars not-totally-disgusting was also featured in NY Today’s email blast. 

If you’ve taken the subway home late at night, you’ve probably seen the track sweeping/vacuum cars, or the garbage hauling cars clearing the tracks. You may, like myself, have accidentally ended up in a station they were power-washing the platform with bleach. You’ve also, maybe without noticing, found yourself on cars in very different states of cleanliness. But you’ve probably never seen or even heard about the massive cleaning endeavor that happens once every 2.5 months.

In one of 13 facilities around the city, dirty subway cars are scrubbed top to bottom, an individual cleaner spending 3.5 hours scraping gum off seats; polishing the doors and poles; erasing graffiti with “Genie Wipes”; and killing the massive amounts of (mostly harmless) bacteria that call these cesspools home. Worth noting: they use Fabuloso, the cleaner also championed by my bodega The outside of the trains are pressure washed more often, once per month, so just because a train looks good on the outside doesn’t mean it’s clean inside!

As a horrifying thought experiment, can you even imagine the condition of the trains would be without this? From the adults who insist on eating fried rice en route, to the people throwing trash (or throwing up) on the floor, to the children who ooze germs on everything they touch, it would be next-level gross. It’s like if we didn’t have street cleaning — how many feet of garbage would cover my block? Maybe 25? Thanks, New York, for acknowledging how disgusting we are and helping us mediate it. 

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This real estate value is about this commercial:

This commercial bothered me immediately, because it completely misses the mark on an agent’s role. Yes, we should be helping you choose places to view, but that is far from the biggest job! We are supposed to help you GET the place you want. Nowadays, nearly all listings are available online and consumer searchable, especially sales, because a seller wants as many eyes on a property as possible in order to get the best price. Off-market listings are not entirely a thing of the past, but they’re rare, so the era of needing insider info is largely behind us. 

There are plenty of reasons you shouldn’t just go with the first broker in the phonebook (are phonebooks still a thing?), but “they won’t show you what you really want” isn’t high on that list. It falls squarely behind “they won’t be professional,” “they won’t provide value; they’re just looking to make a commission,” “they won’t listen,” and, the very worst, “they dropped the ball putting in an offer/closing and I lost a place because of it.”

So definitely shop around and work with someone you trust, but also know that this commercial is silly and manipulative. 

New York Values #5 - Guns

My first New York Value lauded the civic engagement of schoolchildren, specifically their work getting an honorary street named for Elizabeth Jennings. And now, starting with the Parkland survivors, we are seeing massive nationwide civic engagement in kids/teens regarding gun control. 

I had to write about guns this week, because on Saturday NYC was home to one iteration of the March for our Lives, with hundreds of thousands in attendance. I was too busy recovering from a stomach flu to go cry-march with everyone, but I was still inspired by the vast showing of support. Anyone who knows me knows where I stand on guns, but this isn’t about me. It’s about this city’s long history of successful gun control reform having a lasting, positive effect on its populous. 

In 1911, a murder near Gramercy Park moved the state congress to pass New York State’s Sullivan Law, which required residents to obtain a police-issued license for any “concealable firearm.” The law made carrying a concealed weapon without such permit a felony. It was the FIRST of its kind and has been the blueprint for similar laws throughout the country. 

This article has a very interesting breakdown of the whole inception of the bill and how it was really spearheaded by a gangster as well as a lawmaker! https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/100-years-ago-the-shot-that-spurred-new-yorks-gun-control-law/

The real power of this law, though, is the strictness with which it is enforced. Even if you pass a background check and meet the permitting criteria, law enforcement can still deny you a weapon. I’m not going to get deep into the second amendment debate, but it does not grant citizens carte blanche to own weapons; that’s a complete misreading of the law. You’re entitled to apply for the permit, but not entitled to be accepted. Why do you want a gun here, anyway? To hunt rats and pigeons? Just go to a range and shoot their guns; it’s still fun!

There was a drive-by shooting two doors down from me when I first moved to my apartment, and it was terrifying. I am incredibly grateful that it is not more common largely because of the barriers to gun ownership that exist here. Thanks, New York, for being ahead of the curve and keeping me safe.

(Note: After the Sandy Hook shooting, NY passed the SAFE Act, banning outright all assault weapon sales in the entire STATE.)

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The real estate value today is perhaps self-justifying, but it’s to clarify something that has come up a couple times recently. 

You really cannot work with two unrelated RE agents, because one of them is going to end up getting forced out. It happens a lot: your mom knows someone and your friend knows someone or you know someone and your roommate knows someone so you reach out to both. And they both send you listings and put in time, show you around, etc. And you kind of just go along with it until you end up deciding on a place, telling the other agent that you’re all good now and they can stop the search on their end. 

It’s like shitty dating. You’re seeing someone and it seems to be going well, you’re getting more invested, and then all of a sudden they tell you they’re getting back together with their ex, or they met someone else they really like. And you’re left FOREVER ALONE. 

This is also why many agents aren’t particularly excited about tenant-side rentals. At least in a sales transaction one broker is guaranteed to be part of the final deal, and it’s explicitly stated that you should only work with one agent at a time. But in the free-wheeling rental world there are all kinds of communal living or leasing agency options, so not only are some clients working with an array of agents, they’re also exploring other options on their own. It doesn’t feel great to spend a bunch of energy on something only to be told you’re no longer needed! At least if a boss fires you he has to pay you two weeks severance on top of what you’ve gotten for “time served.” In this industry, that’s not a thing. 

This isn’t a lecture or me complaining about my position. Instead, it’s a call to both sides to make sure expectations are laid out early on. As non-agents, if you are up front with anyone you consider working with about all the potential inevitabilities, that person can weigh their options and know what they’re getting into. They should do it on their end as well, but by being smart, savvy consumers, you can take the first step and also impress any potential agent with your awareness. Plus you’ll get the best from anyone you work with because you’ll be an absolute DREAM client!

As always, direct questions to anna.klenkar@compass.com, and I’ll be back next week!

New York Values #4 - Kushner

OK, let’s talk Kushner for a moment. Not white-house-failure Kushner, but NY real-estate-jerk Kushner. It broke last week that his company lied about whether certain buildings they owned had rent-regulated tenants as residents before beginning construction. As the chair of New York’s Committee on Public Housing put it, “The Kushner’s appear to be engaging in what I can the weaponization of construction.” It’s a way to force protected tenants out against their will, by making a building so unlivable they decide to just bail. It’s also illegal.

As the leaseholder of my own rent stabilized apartment that has often gone un-repaired to the point we ended up in court, I feel for these tenants! My situation is more apathetic negligence than outright deceit, so screw you, Kushner, you fart. How dare you. You’re making my landlord look good by comparison!

This all doesn’t really seem like a NY Value, but do you know what is? The fact that a watchdog agency looked into this and tried to hold the Kushners and similar landlords responsible, and how many similar agencies exist to protect tenants, especially the low-income or otherwise at risk.

Kushner’s misdeeds were discovered by a housing watchdog group, the Housing Rights Initiative. There is a NYC Council-founded tenants’ rights hotline you can call for help on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. There are law students who provide pro-bono legal help to those trying to represent themselves in housing court. There are sites where you can look up information about violations tied to a landlord or specific property. There are multiple NYC.gov websites specifically devoted to tenant info, and SO MANY OTHER third party organizations whose sole purpose is to help protect tenants. I wanted to include an actual list, but I’m putting my first deal together today (!!!!), so I ran out of time. I will try to compile for next week.

It’s hard to live here, sometimes, especially on a tight budget. As discussed last week, moving is EXPENSIVE! So the fact that the city does provide resources and protection for its low income tenants definitely qualifies as a NY Value.

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As promised last week, I’m going to quickly explain the different types of agents, for those who don’t know.

Agent: This term refers to anyone licensed to buy or sell real estate, either a salesperson or broker.

Salesperson: As a new agent, you begin as a salesperson. In NY, to get your actual state license, you need to be sponsored by a broker. You cannot be licensed as a salesperson unassociated with any brokerage, so finding said broker is just as important as the classes and exams.

Broker: After two years as a licensed (i.e. sponsored by a broker and registered) salesperson, you can complete an additional 45 hour class to get your broker’s license. Being a broker means that you are now able to start your own company (brokerage) and hire other brokers and salespeople.

Brokerage: The company, like Compass, that is run by at least one broker, and provides insurance, resources, etc. to their agents in exchange for a cut of their commission. Traditionally, this cut begins around 40-50% of commission for newer or lower producing agents, and the percentage decreases as you earn more.

There are more specific demarkations within these groups, but I’ll leave it here for now. And if any of you have specific real estate questions you’d like me to answer, feel free to comment, message, or email me at anna.klenkar@compass.com.

<3

New York Values #3 - Snow

Last week’s NY Value was long and rambling, so today’s will be short and sweet (and full of facts). Since we are currently experiencing our third snowstorm in the month of March, it focuses on how good the city is at handling winter.

Stats from https://gearpatrol.com/2015/11/19/how-nyc-prepares-for-blizzards/ and https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/nyregion/blizzard-winter-storm-stella.html

New York City is home to 8.538 million people driving on 6,500 linear miles of roads. The city has 3,000 snow plowing routes, with more than 1,500 plows and over 500 salt spreaders. There are 29 permanent and 14 seasonal sites storing 300,500 tons of salt rock to prepare for each winter. 

From Mid-November to early April, city sanitation workers—who are also responsible for the snow removal process—switch to 12 hour round-the-clock shifts, meaning there will always be a team ready if a snowstorm kicks up, day or night. They receive winter preparedness training anually before this schedule change. 

Image courtesy of Business Insider

Once 2” of snow collect on a roadway they start plowing via a three tier system of attack. First are the dedicated first responder routes that connect hospitals, NYPD, and FDNY to major public streets, densely populated areas, JFK, and LaGuardia. Tier two is all side streets, followed by tier three's dead-end roads and limited-access streets. At 6” of accumulation, they also break out the haulers and industrial melters to remove plowed snow.

When a BLIZZARD hits, they open up a 130 seat “war room” in BK Heights where reps from energy, infrastructure, sanitation, etc. meet in one room to coordinate the attack. When interviewed about their storm approach, Edward Grayson, COO of the Bureau for Cleaning and Collection, explained that it's better to overcommit than leave the city’s population vulnerable. And in today’s weird, hyper-everyone-for-themselves America, that is a beautiful thing. Thanks, NY, for committing to me so hard. 

Image via Vivienne Gucwa

And now for the extremely long-winded part: your real estate value.

For today’s real estate value, I’m addressing some questions I’ve encountered in tenant-side rentals. These are things that I didn’t understand before starting classes, so it makes sense that there would be confusion. To clear it up, I’m answering the questions I’ve gotten below. For these purposes, “broker” means any kind of real estate agent (next week I’ll explain the different kinds):

FIRST AND FOREMOST: If I use a broker, will I pay extra? 
NO!!!! If you are viewing an apartment by responding to an ad, attending an open house, or contacting a listing you saw online, YOU WILL BE PAYING THE FEE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU BRING YOUR OWN BROKER TO THE TABLE. Let me say that again: YOU WILL BE PAYING THE FEE WHETHER YOU REACH OUT YOURSELF OR GO THROUGH A BROKER. In fact, you will likely end up paying MORE if you reach out solo, because you are not being represented, and are now dealing with someone who has the landlord’s interests in mind rather than yours. It’s like turning down a court appointed lawyer and representing yourself; you are missing out on an expert’s help in the hopes of saving money when it’s actually free. And, unlike a court appointee, you get to CHOOSE your broker (i.e. me). 

What about no fee apartments, though? 
No fee apartments are divided into different categories, some with the landlord paying a fee, some with the fee baked into the rent. Even if you're dead set on limiting your search to no fee places, you should still talk to a broker you trust first (emphasis on trust). Depending on the place, there are a few things you need to look out for, which I may discuss further in a later post. 

But if I can find all these places on my own on Street Easy, why would I use a broker? 
Again, it’s like representing yourself at trial: you don’t save any money and you are likely to make a mistake or miss out on an opportunity. You don’t pay a broker to FIND you apartments; there are millions of apartments and you have access to most of them online. You pay a broker to GET you the apartment. We have relationships with others in the industry; we know how to make your application most attractive and nip any issues in the bud. Also, many NY rental listings are in co-op and condo buildings, meaning your agent will need to put together a massive stack of paperwork and deal with the building’s board. This is complicated, precise, and should be done by a professional you trust, not whomever happens to be representing the apartment’s owner. 

But I don’t want to pay a fee. I shouldn’t have to pay to get a new apartment!
Why not? I see the train of thought: you may have found the apt yourself; you walked in there and decided you wanted it; you got all your documents together. But, as discussed above, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, and a broker has to do the rest. There may be a low barrier of entry to be a real estate agent, but it's still a barrier! If you really want to avoid paying, you’ll need to take (and pay for) the 75 hour course plus two exams, find a broker willing to sponsor your license, and pay the licensing fee as well as REBNY dues. You’ll have spent over a hundred hours and may save about $500. I’m not a lawyer, doctor, or CPA, but I still had to go to "school" for this, and I still provide a valuable service.

My friend is the broker; they need to give me a discount!
Again, I see the logic here. Why wouldn’t you get a friends and family discount?  It’s not that simple, though. The fee you pay does not go directly to your friend. Depending on the apartment, I may only be getting 25% of what you shell out. So if you insist on a price cut, I either have to get everyone else on board, or essentially work for free. Can I come to your place of business and ask you for free shit? If so, please let me know where you work and I’ll be there! Joking aside, I now work 100% on commission. That’s exciting but terrifying. Think about your friends who are creative freelancers; would you ask them to film a video or build a website for you for free? Well, maybe you would, but that's an issue, and Fiverr has an entire ad campaign surrounding that! Respect your friends’ jobs and skills by paying them for their work. 

But it’s so expensive!
Yeah, it is. Moving in this city IS expensive! So are gym memberships. But I can’t guilt Equinox into waiving its fees for me. Moving in NY, at least if you want to be on a lease, is an ordeal. And you should be ready for that. Even without the broker fees, you still need first, last, deposit, application fee, credit check fee, and moving costs, potentially plus an additional move-in fee for condos or co-ops. If all of this is too much, you’re probably better off finding a room in a shared apt. There is nothing wrong with that! It's how I moved here! It just won’t get you on a lease.

I've been asked more questions in this vein, but instead of writing another 1,000 words I’ll instead leave you with Compass’s NY rental guide (linked here) and circle back next week. Until then, thanks for reading, tip your waitress, and stay warm out there. 

<3

New York Values #1 - Elizabeth Jennings

Because I thrive on content creation, especially about the city I’ve grown to love so intensely, I’m beginning a weekly column of sorts called New York Values, a play on the insult lobbed at us metropolitan folks by those who want to paint urban dwellers as Godless and out-for-themselves. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, and I’ve seen at least as much behavior that would make Jesus (or whomever) proud here as in my time spent living in rural Virginia or traveling through devout lands.

Because I do real estate now, it’s going to also include another “value”: a listing, tip, or fact about renting/buying/selling that I’ve learned on the other side of the looking glass. Who doesn’t like learning or looking at pictures of gorgeous apartments? Weirdos, that’s who.

And, because it’s me, this first post is about a strong woman standing up to some bigotry.

Portrait of Elizabeth Jennings in 1895, courtesy of Listverse

Inspired by NY Times New York Today, Feb 22, 2018:

One summer morning in 1854, Elizabeth Jennings, a young black schoolteacher, was headed to play the organ at her church. She hailed a horse-drawn streetcar; the conductor didn’t want to let her in because of her race, but she prevailed by jumping in and hanging onto the window frame when he tried to forcibly remove her.

He got the police involved and an officer pushed her out of the streetcar. But she was able to find a lawyer, future president Chester A. Arthur, to help her sue the streetcar’s operator, winning her $225 in damages and creating a precedent that allowed African-Americans to take any public transportation provided they were “sober, well behaved, and free from disease.”

This led to the city’s public transportation becoming largely desegregated within five years. And now, over a century later, the subway boasts an impressive diversity, with its passengers uniformly opposing the intoxicated, poorly behaved, and/or diseased (looking at you, person who gave me the flu on the A train).

Corner of Pearl & Chatham St. where Jennings hailed the streetcar, courtesy of NYHS

Obviously this was a long time ago and doesn’t speak to the current character of the city, but a few things do.

1. This was spotlighted by the New York Times in 2018; they do a daily NY news blast and it’s often focused around a personal interest story about a community activist. It’s probably where a fair amount of these little articles will originate, and it’s a nice way to start your day before you cram onto a crowded train to smell someone’s breath for 30 minutes #doweneedtobetouching.

2. In 2007 the city put up a sign reading Elizabeth Jennings Place on a street corner blocks from where she made her stand. There are spots like this all over NY, with roughly 1,600 honorific street names immortalizing people like musicians, activists, and religious leaders. Who’s Godless now?

3. The reason this street was honorifically named? A group of third and fourth graders at nearby P.S. 361 were so moved by her story that they asked the city. It took them a year, but through petitions, meetings, and a campaign of pressuring local officials, they made it happen. If I had learned this valuable civics lesson at 9 years old I would be way more excited about government.

Elizabeth Jennings Place, courtesy of Narrative Network

And now for the real estate part: fun mortgage info!

Did you know that nationwide people are speculating about how the impending mortgage rate hike will affect the RE market? Did you know that some agents are very stressed about how this will affect their business? Did you know that I am zero percent concerned because people will always buy homes and I do not yet have a consistent income I’m afraid to lose?

However, as my senior broker Joe Quiros likes to say, “You don’t live in in the PRICE; you live in the PAYMENT.” So, for every percent the rates increase, your monthly mortgage payments on a 30 year loan increase 12%. Essentially what this means is that while people will not stop buying, their dollar will not go as far, because the same priced apartment will now cost them 12% more per month than if they had locked in earlier.

For example, for every $100,000 borrowed at 5% interest, you owe $59.40 per month MORE than you would at a 4% rate. That's not a huge difference on a small loan, but NY loans are often sizable, meaning this scales to more like $500/month additional.

If you have any questions about this, send me a message and we can talk numbers. And if this inspires you to GO BUY IMMEDIATELY, then I am clearly an incredible salesperson and we can work together.

There you go, it’s your first NEW YORK VALUE!!! I’ll see you back here next week with another little essay about how awesome NY is and how we are not all giant assholes; we just walk quickly and don’t like things in our way.

<3

Anna