Selling Your Manhattan Residential Property

Anthony Guerriero, 2/13/18 12:04 PM

If you’ve reached the decision to sell your Manhattan real estate property, you’ll be doing so in a fast-paced real estate climate. You’ll need to find a way to stand out in the crowd, impress people with your home’s layout and decoration, and then make sure you’re getting the best return on your investment possible. The following tips should help you to efficiently sell your Manhattan residential property as a foreign buyer.

Set Your Listing Apart

In a city as large and populated as Manhattan, there are going to be thousands upon thousands of listings available to interested buyers. This means that regardless of how updated, modern, or unique your property may be, you’ll still be competing with the masses to gain attention. Because the primary mode of searching for homes happens online, there are a few tips to ensure your post gets the most traffic possible and stands out among the rest.

  • Boost keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We are in a different era these days. No longer can you simply list the property for sale on aggregator websites and expect to have instant results.  Instead, your viewers will find their way to you through a targeted web search, so consider what types of phrases they may be using and include them in your description. Include style details, neighborhood information, street names, and nearby amenities. You never know if someone is going to search long-tail key words such as “Luxury apartments in Chelsea near galleries.”

  • High Quality Photos

A visitor checking out your listing is going to be quick to click away if they can’t take a good, long look at your space. There should be multiple shots in each room to ensure they get a full view of every angle. Also, consider experimenting with different shot distances; one room might benefit from a wider frame to get the best feel for the area, and another might be best shot up close to show the details of the design. 

  • Virtual Staging

Often, potential buyers don’t have a great imagination when looking at photos of properties that are unfurnished. In this case, you should have the photos professionally virtually staged. Virtual staging is a great way of showing furniture placement, provide a better idea of the actual size of the space, and provide the buyer with a version of what the apartment would look like fully furnished. With current technology, often someone will see the virtually staged photos online, come to visit the property and not even realize the apartment photos were virtually staged. We find that virtual staging will attract more showings because the rooms will look so much better.

  • Staging

For more expensive properties, staging the property might work best, but can come at a much higher cost and has to be done to perfection in order to work. Though you may be happy with your current decorating skills, when selling your home, you are looking to appeal to crowds of people who may not share your design sensibilities. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property in less time and for a higher price. Hiring a staging expert will allow you to present the property in its best light. The stager will come in and make decisions on furniture placement (or replacement), painting and wall accents, and decluttering.  We suggest you seek an Accredited Staging Professional, who we can recommend, as they will be either bonded or insured, and they will able to save you money by already have their own supplies.

  • Post to Several Aggregate Search Sites

If you enter a search for “Manhattan Apartments” you’ll find at least a dozen websites boasting the best real estate listings in the area. For most apartment-hunters, they’ll click through several of these sites in search of an ideal post, so make sure your broker has your apartment listed on all the most important sites for Manhattan, such as Streeteasy.com and NYTimes.com. In addition, make sure your broker syndicates the listing to show on over 25 different portals, ensuring the widest exposure. 

Be Aware of Taxes Involved

When determining to sell your property, it’s important to understand the taxes involved. A seller in NYC will pay a combined 1.825% in transfer taxes for New York City and New York State.  In addition, sellers are required to pay capital gains taxes, which is a maximum rate of 23.8% for Federal Tax plus 8.8% for New York state tax. If you are a foreigner, however, you are also required to remit Foreign Investment in Real Estate Property Tax (FIRPTA) of 10% to 15% of the selling price, which is a withholding tax. This withholding of the sales proceeds is refunded to the seller once he or she pays off all their obligations, such as capital gains taxes, to the IRS.

"NYC Real Estate Taxes"

Choose the Right Broker

Navigating any real estate market can be a trying experience, but Manhattan can be especially complicated. That’s why it’s important for you to partner up with the right broker who has the experience and connections to get you the highest price for your apartment.  They’ll be able to advise you on the best times to list properties so they don’t languish on the market. They’ll also be able to utilize their connections with other agents and brokers to ensure a quick sale.

That’s exactly where Manhattan Miami comes in. We have personal, in-depth relationships with real estate agents and brokers and will take care of every step of this process, including listing the property for sale, digital marketing using the latest technology tools, hosting open houses, negotiation the terms of the deal and closing the deal.  

 


January,25th 2019:

Manhattan Market Update:

As reported on our latest post: "Why Now is The Right Time To Buy Manhattan Real Estate", over the last 75 days, the New York City real estate market has really turned and we are currently in a full blown buyers market. Looking at the data, including contracts signed in October, however, it does look like the market is trying to find a bottom. 

Seller's looking to list their New York apartment for sale, should keep in mind that buyer's have the upper hand in this current market and the ones that are out there shopping are looking for GOOD VALUE properties. So what this means to sellers? It means that they need to understand the current reality, don't be greedy and price their properties to sell right of the bat. 

Our insights and tips to sellers that are looking to sell now:
  • With our easy access to information these days, buyers have never been as intelligent as they are right now.
  • There's a price adjustment happening right now in the Manhattan Real Estate market so sellers who are slow to listen will have their apartments lag on the market longer.
  • As reported on Noah Rosenblatt's podcast: “In rising markets, buyers adjust quickly. In slowing markets, sellers adjust slowly”.
  • Sellers should entertain and engage all offers, even the low ball ones. Everybody is lowballing in this market because no one wants to overpay.
  • Buyers of new development units are getting tons of incentives so sellers of existing units should adjust to that and be competitive.
  • The job of us realtors is to give sellers real time information regarding the market. That means our relationships with other brokers will come in hand when trying to figure it out the price of other units currently in contract. This will help us figure it out the right price to sell!
  • And finally, sellers should be patient and forget about the average time in the market.

 

If you have more questions and wonder how we could help you sell your apartment, please schedule a time to chat with me or fill out our form Sell My Manhattan Condo.

Warmest regards,

Anthony

Selling Your NYC Apartment Condo or Coop 

 

 

Additional Resources:

"Why Is Your Miami Condo Not Selling?"
"Excellent First Offering Prices at Lantern House Condo"
"Park Loggia is The Latest NYC Condo in Columbus Circle"
"How Capital Gains Tax Can be Reduced or Deferred When Selling Property" 

 

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