Debt-to-Income Ratio Requirements in NYC Real Estate You need far more than a down payment to buy a co-op in New York City. Just because a bank is willing to approve you for a loan, doesn’t mean a co-op board will also approve you. When buying a co-op in NYC, you will also need to meet the building’s requirements, including their post-closing liquidity and debt-to-income ratio requirements. Many NYC...
Post-Closing Liquidity in NYC Real Estate You need far more than a down payment to buy a co-op in New York City. When buying a co-op in NYC, you will need to meet the building's post-closing liquidity and debt-to-income ratio requirements. Many co-ops have specific requirements, while others take a holistic approach to evaluating a buyer’s financials. This information, along with just about everything...
Giving Clients Commission Rebates and Discounts Since 2014 Happy New Year! Our Digs family keeps growing thanks, in large part, to you! We all hope 2020 brings you an abundance of happiness, good health, love and tolerance. Thank you for making 2019 spectacular for Digs and for helping us along this exciting journey to achieve our mission of making home ownership more affordable without sacrificing...
Digs Realty is fully operational in Westchester! After almost six years of success in New York City, and many requests from clients moving to the burbs, Digs has expanded to be a full service rebate broker in Westchester. More companies have adopted our model in recent years, in particular in NYC, but we haven't seen the commission sharing model being utilized in the surrounding areas of NYC. Homebuyers...
Steering and Discrimination - What Prompted the Recent Chatter? In an article published by Newsday on November 17, 2019, Newsday reported that almost half of all black homebuyers and renters on Long Island are likely to face discrimination from real estate agents and brokers. Newsday conducted a three-year undercover investigation of real estate practices in Nassau and Suffolk counties to reach this...
Is The Real Estate Broker Commission Rebate Legal in New York? Dan's first blog post was on the topic of whether broker commission rebates are legal in New York. 5+ years later, I thought it would be good to remind you the answer to the question are real estate rebates legal? The answer is, in New York, the real estate broker rebate is most definitely legal. Section 442 of New York's Real Property Law...
NYC Holiday Tipping Guide I can't tell you how many people have asked me in the last few weeks what they should tip their building staff, etc. Nobody wants to be the worst tipper, but people also don't want to over tip. It goes without saying that tipping is not required, but it is a nice way to say thank you for the work your staff does throughout the year, in particular for those you don't tip on a...
Affordable Housing Lottery at 55-75 West End Avenue 55-75 West End Avenue is a luxury rental complex just off 66th Street and West End, built in 1994. A housing lottery just opened for spots on the waiting list. The housing lottery will accept 200 people onto a waiting list; however, there is no specific timeline of when apartments might become available. There are 1,000 units in the building. The...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dABXhTgXIUk What do you mean you pay me to buy a home? It’s true! When you buy a home with Digs Realty, we pay you up to 67% of our commission at closing (that’s up to 2% of your purchase price, or 10% of your down payment if you’re financing 80%). Or, if you’re selling a home with Digs Realty, we charge you far less than the standard broker commission, saving you as...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9C4EB7Vyxk A Healthy Way To Buy a Home in NYC and Westchester With hesitation, I did my first podcast (and this one has video in addition to audio!!). I was a bit unsure of what the process would be like, but I figured, why not try it? I was a little uncomfortable in front of the camera (cut me some slack, I've never done this before), as you can see from my wandering eyes....
First Time NYC Homebuyer Guide Being a homebuyer in NYC is unlike being a homebuyer anywhere else. It's much more complicated (unless you're buying a house) because of the co-op and condo board process and requirements. We've put together this guide to help walk you through the steps of buying a home in New York City from start to finish. Our homebuyer guide starts with what you'll need to do to prepare...
What is a Land-Lease Co-op? In November 2014, Digs wrote a blog post about the perils of land-lease co-ops. In a ground lease, the owner of land leases it to a developer with the intent that the developer will build something valuable on it. The term of a ground lease is typically very long (for example, 99 years). The developer pays the ground lessor a fixed rental payment (like any other lease). This...