Pay a premium to buy neighbor's apartment?

I'll put aside the rent v. buy argument for now.

Pros of buying neighbor
1) You don't have to move
2) Transaction costs are lower
3) Don't have to go through board process w/ different building

Cons
1) Layout may be awkward - this is the greatest negative, IMO, you don't want to end up with something
impractical that you will never be able to sell
2) Greater mtce/square foot than an apt of the same size in bldg
3) Renovation hassles

Get a floor plan of the two apartments, and try yourself to figure out how they would be combined or hire someone to do that for you. You can buy software relatively cheap that will let you play with floor plans and layouts, and even see what furniture would look like in the rooms. But, many apartments do not combine well. You need to think about the the rules of your building (no wet over dry, can't move plumbing, gas, no w/d, etc.). When you figure out whether there is any configuration that would make you happy and if so what you would do, now figure out (a) about how much cost/time is involved, and (b) do you need to live elsewhere during the renovation.

At least from this point you will have something upon which to base whether this would be worthwhile at all, and whether you would be saving any money or hassle vs selling and buying something else comparable to the combined unit (also think about whether you are going to have a taxable gain if you sold the current apartment).

For combo would there also be some hassle involved from the standpoint of city records/taxes. also if you have a mortgage on existing unit and get financing for new purchase, how does that work?

When I want cheap I go to auction. To negotiate against yourself in this market is Fking ridiculous!!!!!!! Hahjajaaaaaaaa. Flmaozzz.

Omfg! Howz about you list yours for sale and see if neighbor overpays for your unit? He'll why not lock your gains and rent a bigger place for 3yrs???!!!!!! Flmaoz. Ninnies everywhere! Ninnies!

rivas: condos are a little more complicated. Very straightforward in the case of co-ops and financing is not an issue.

i disagree about combinations not working, lots of rinky dink property in NY could do with some opening up.

we did it in brookllyn heights - joined 2 studios for a floor through, love it. plan is to buy two more downstairs once the timing is right.

Considering that your neighbors aren't selling right now, you should expect to pay them the market rate and then some in order to have them leave. I recently was working with an owner in a top condo who wanted to buy the neighboring apartment. It was worth $4.5m according to the most recent comp. The owners of the neighboring apartment turned down offer after offer, all the way up to around $5.5 million (a $1m premium). The neighbor then offered $6m. They accepted, and then ultimately decided it wasn't worth it to them, and didn't go through with it after being offered $1.5m over what it was worth.

I absolutely think it is worth offering them something, or at least starting that conversation, but it may end up making more sense to find a new apartment elsewhere.

(Matthew Russell - Brown Harris Stevens)

when you try to buy the apt next door, any idiot seller knows there is unique value to you--a normal buyer can shop the rest of the building, any building, any neighborhood, can walk away--if there is no broker, this can help but, as a buyer who needs to buy that specific property to execute your specific scheme, you are likely to get squeezed, if the seller has half a brain

my friend bought a nextdoor condo a num of years ago and had his lawyer represent him as an "out of state heir who would pay cash"--the seller was in fact a very savvy broker--when she saw my friend/her neighbor at the closing, and learned that he was the buyer, she said OMG if you'd told me it was you, I would have given you a better price---we laughed over that