The Client Guide to
New York City Real Estate

You will need three people: a buyer’s agent, a mortgage broker unless you are paying cash, and a New York real estate attorney. In this state the attorney writes and negotiates the contract, which means the one you choose matters more here than in most markets. Choose all three before you need them.

1. 01

   Establish your real number, not your loan approval

   A mortgage broker will tell you what a bank will lend against your income and assets, and will issue the pre-approval letter you need before you can credibly offer on anything. Get it early. Buyers lose apartments waiting on that letter more often than they lose them on price.

   The approval is not your budget, though. Your budget is the price plus everything that sits on top of it, and in New York City that stack is meaningful. Work out the all-in number before you start looking, because it will change which apartments you should be seeing.

2. What a buyer actually pays on top of the price

   • Mansion tax. One percent of the price on residential purchases of $1,000,000 or more, paid by the buyer, per the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
   • New York City supplemental tax. On residential conveyances of $2,000,000 or more, an incremental rate between 0.25 and 2.9 percent depending on price, also paid by the buyer, per the same state schedule. At the top of the market these two together are the largest line on the closing statement after the price itself.
   • Financing costs. Mortgage recording tax, bank and appraisal fees, and title insurance on a condominium or a house. A co-op has no title insurance because you are buying shares rather than real property, which is one reason co-op closing costs are materially lower.
   • Building and sponsor costs. Application and move-in fees, and in new development the sponsor commonly asks the buyer to pay the sponsor’s transfer taxes and attorney fee, plus a capital contribution. That is negotiable, and in a softer sponsor market it is one of the first things I ask for.

   A cash purchase avoids the mortgage recording tax and title insurance entirely, which is a large part of why a cash offer is worth more to a seller than its face value suggests.

3. 02

   Separate what you want from what you will use

   Every budget compromises somewhere. The work is deciding where, before the market decides for you. Location against size and finish. A doorman and a gym against the monthly charges that carry them for as long as you own. Pets. Sublet policy, which is where co-op buyers are most often surprised and which matters enormously if there is any chance you will move and hold. Light, exposure and floor, which are the things you cannot renovate.

   Amenity buildings charge you for the amenities every month, permanently. It is worth being honest about whether you will use the pool.

4. 03

   See enough to calibrate

   Most buyers need somewhere between ten and thirty viewings before the market resolves into something legible. The first several are not shopping, they are calibration. You are learning what your money buys, what a good layout feels like against a compromised one, and what the difference between two similar buildings actually is. An agent who knows the inventory shortens that stretch considerably, but it cannot be skipped.

5. 04

   Offer, and know what you are really negotiating

   Price is one of roughly ten terms. Financing amount and whether the offer carries a mortgage contingency, closing date, inclusions and exclusions, who pays the sponsor’s costs in new development, the flip fee in a co-op, and the strength of the board package you can present. A seller weighing two offers is weighing all of it.

   The room in that conversation has narrowed. Across the three months to 31 August 2026 the median Manhattan sale closed 3.54 percent below the last published asking price, tighter than a year earlier, which is analyzed in detail in the current issue of Insight & Opportunity. Practically, that means the strength of your offer increasingly lives in the terms rather than the number.

6. 05

   Contract and due diligence

   An accepted offer is not a deal. In New York nothing binds either party until both have signed the contract and the deposit, customarily ten percent, has been delivered into the seller’s attorney’s escrow account. Until then either side can walk, and sometimes does.

   In the days between, your attorney reads the building. Financial statements, reserve levels, the offering plan, recent board minutes, any litigation, the underlying mortgage in a co-op, arrears among the other owners. This is the single most valuable week of the transaction and it typically takes about five business days.

7. 06

   The board package

   A condominium board generally has a right of first refusal rather than an approval power, and the process is usually a matter of weeks and largely administrative. A cooperative is a different exercise: full financial disclosure, personal and professional references, and an interview, and the board may decline without stating a reason. Expect two to eight weeks depending on the building.

   Assembled properly, the package is a non-event. Assembled carelessly, it is where deals die. This is the part of the process where having someone who has been through it many times is worth the most to you.

8. 07

   Clearance, walk-through, closing

   While the board reviews, your lender issues a clear to close. Before closing you are entitled to a walk-through to confirm the apartment is in the condition it was in when you agreed to buy it, and that anything included is still there. Most closings in the city are now handled in escrow rather than around a table. The keys are released, and it is yours.

Selling well in New York is mostly a pricing and preparation problem. The marketing matters, but it cannot correct a price the market has already rejected, and the cost of finding that out is measured in months.

1. 01

   Choose the broker on evidence

   Ask any broker you interview for three things: their own closed transactions, their ratio of sale price to original asking price, and their average days on market in your building or a comparable line. Ask what they would price your apartment at and make them show you why. Chemistry matters, because this is a long and personal process and you will speak constantly. Evidence matters more.

2. 02

   Price to the market, not to your basis

   What you paid, what you owe and what you need are not inputs the market accepts. The inputs are recent closed comparables in your building and line, the inventory you will be competing against on launch day, and the pace at which your segment is absorbing.

   Buyers in this market are transacting within roughly three and a half percent of the last published ask. In a market like that, an ambitious price does not buy you a higher sale. It buys you a longer one, and usually a lower one after two reductions have told every buyer watching that you were wrong the first time. Credibility is the whole strategy.

3. 03

   Prepare before you photograph

   Paint, declutter, deep clean, fix the small broken things, and light every room properly. If you are asking a premium price the apartment has to look and feel like a premium property, in person and in the first photograph. Staging earns its cost in an empty apartment far more reliably than in an occupied one.

4. 04

   Launch as a campaign, not a posting

   Photography, a measured floor plan, video where the apartment earns it, full syndication to the portals, direct circulation to the brokerage community, and targeted outreach to the buyers and agents most likely to transact. Treat the first fourteen days as the whole campaign, because the attention your listing receives is front loaded and does not come back.

5. 05

   Show, constantly

   Access is the variable most within your control. Private appointments, open houses, broker previews, evenings and weekends. Every restriction you place on showing an apartment is a restriction on the price it will achieve.

6. 06

   Evaluate the buyer, not only the offer

   Proof of funds, the size of the loan, post-closing liquidity, debt to income against the standard your co-op board applies, flexibility on timing, and whether their attorney is someone who closes. The highest number from a buyer the board will decline is not the best offer in front of you. It is the most expensive one.

7. 07

   Contract

   Your attorney drafts, the buyer’s attorney conducts due diligence and negotiates the rider, and the customary ten percent deposit is held in your attorney’s escrow account. Speed matters here. The longer a contract sits unsigned, the more opportunity there is for a buyer to change their mind.

8. 08

   Approval and closing

   Your side works with the buyer and their agent to get a complete, persuasive board package submitted, because your closing depends on their approval. Once the board consents and the lender clears, the attorneys and the managing agent schedule the closing.

9. What a seller pays in New York City

   • New York State transfer tax. Two dollars for each $500 of consideration, effectively 0.4 percent, paid by the seller, per the state transfer tax schedule.
   • New York City Real Property Transfer Tax. For residential property, 1 percent where the price is $500,000 or less and 1.425 percent above that, per the New York City Department of Finance.
   • Additional base tax. A further $1.25 for each $500 on residential conveyances of $3,000,000 or more, paid by the seller, per the state schedule.
   • The rest. Brokerage commission, your attorney, a co-op flip fee where the building charges one, managing agent and payoff processing fees, and any capital gains exposure, which is a conversation for your accountant and not for your broker.

   On a sale above three million dollars the tax line alone is close to two percent of the price before commission. It belongs in your net proceeds calculation from the first conversation, not the week of closing.

The strongest tenants in New York are not always the highest earners. They are the ones who can produce a complete file the same day they see the apartment. Good inventory in this city is frequently gone within seventy two hours, and the application that arrives finished wins over the one that arrives enthusiastic. Assemble the file before you start looking.