Recent Blog Posts
Holding LLC-Owned Real Estate in a Trust
When your ambition is to start a business, people often enthusiastically encourage you to choose the limited liability company (LLC) business structure when you incorporate. They make it sound like an LLC is as versatile as the Thneed that brought good fortune to the Once-Ler Corporation in The Lorax, to the detriment of the… Read More »
Real Estate Agent Faces Criminal Charges for Defrauding Homeowner Into Transferring Ownership of Home
Almost every aspect of the real estate market is prohibitively expensive, even if you have savings or are experienced in business. Buying a house is expensive, so expensive that first-time homeownership is out of reach for everyone except those whose parents own a home and can contribute money to the down payment or co-sign… Read More »
FHEPS Increases Tenants’ Contribution for Some Beneficiaries
One of the first things landlords look at when considering a prospective tenant’s application is whether the tenant’s income is high enough to afford the rent for the apartment. Usually, the applicant’s income must be high enough that rent does not exceed 30 percent of the tenant’s monthly paycheck. In other words, rent is… Read More »
4 Types of Real Estate Properties That Are Decreasing in Value
If a woman on the far side of 40 who puts a lot of effort into her appearance speaks knowledgeably and with conviction about how certain housing markets are likely to change in the near future, she is probably a real estate agent. If a man of similar age and level of personal grooming… Read More »
Who Needs a Senior Breakfast When You Can Get a Mortgage?
The logic of 30-year mortgages used to be that you would borrow one when you were in your 30s and ready to settle down. By the time you pay it off, you are close to retirement age, and then you get to enjoy your retirement in your paid off home. Of course, present circumstances… Read More »
What Happens If You Rent Out an Apartment and Later Decide That You Need It for Yourself?
Real estate ownership seems like a reliable way to ensure financial stability during your retirement. If you own a house, you will always have a place to live, and if you stay there long enough, eventually you will pay off the mortgage. If necessary, you can open your house to younger family members who… Read More »
Who Will Make Social Housing Affordable?
Affordable housing is supposed to be a win-win situation. Landlords get incentives to rent out some or all of their units at rent-stabilized prices. At first, everything is fine. Then time marches on, and the buildings start to need repairs. Social housing landlords, who collect less money in rents than landlords who rent out… Read More »
The Net Operating Income Paradox
New York has been prohibitively expensive, from its Gilded Age days as a feast for the senses to the 1970s, when the Big Apple devolved into an urban jungle where even sewer rats feared to tread, through the “I heart NY” era of the 1980s, and all the way to today. New Yorkers are… Read More »
Why So Much Controversy Over the FARE Act?
The conversation at housewarming parties with new homeowners is mind numbingly predictable. After a few cursory remarks about the décor, you can be sure that the host will launch into a long litany of complaints about the burdensome expenses of homeownership. First, you have to put together money for a down payment, and then… Read More »
Can Landlords Do Criminal Background Checks on Prospective Tenants?
Tenants complain vociferously about how New York’s policies about rental real estate cause financial hardship, and they often take their grievances to the ballot box. Economic conditions mean that landlords cannot afford to make repairs, but tenants cannot afford to move out of poorly maintained apartments due to financially burdensome security deposits and broker… Read More »