Selling NYC coop yourself, without a broker?

what neighborhood is this in?
what is the price point?

I considered it and was happy that I changed my mind, got a broker and sold the place in about 6 months from listing date to closing. Between the number of people you have to deal with, the complexities of the board application process and the other things you will have going on in your life, I cannot imagine that it's worth it.

It might be different if you were selling property in another part of the US, and no a coop - but I think it will be tough... Best of luck in whatever route you choose.

In terms of an attorney - I was happy with Jessica Levitas at Abend Silber, LLC. She was sharp and stayed on top of everything.

Yup, you are too much of a novice. Brokers exist to help people like you. Your questions are worthy of a week long seminar but all right, here goes:

1. Not to worry. If your buyer is financially qualified to pass your board, you have to proceed. You dare not reject them because you think they have a legal job you don't like (e.g. blue collar instead of professional). If they have dogs and your building is pet free you can reject them. But just focus on the money and you should be OK. But Heaven help you if they are moneyed atheists and you don't approve of that, and so you push them aside.

Go to co-op open houses (you should be doing that now, and every weekend) to research your market, and you will see forms that brokers use to pre screen offers. If you don't see one ask. Then use that.

Be advised that people routinely lie on these things. And another thing a smart lawyer put into our co-op contract: the buyer had to attest that they have never been turned down by any co-op board. I would move that earlier in the process, as we had a buyer rejected because of criminal accusations that occurred decades ago in another state. If it's not their first rodeo you want to know that. And I would ask specifically about criminal accusations, not just convictions, before signing a contract with anybody buying a co op unit.

3. Oy, this question is why you shouldn't go it alone....but all right: You get your questionnaire filled out, you are of course intimately acquainted with what the board expects!, you negotiate a price because you're great at doing this, right? At that point you prepare the Deal Sheet. You can get that from the buyer's broker or by searching online. This you give to your attorney to prepare the contract.

Open houses do not sell property, as all real estate agents know. What they do is: 1. Recruit new clients for the agents and 2. Convey to buyers that your property is still available. This is especially useful with a stale listing (over 120 days in my book). Yes, experienced agents all have a story or two about somebody who walked into an open house and bought the place, but those people would have bought anyway.

All agents know this. So when I sold my condo with ilistproperties.com, I never had an open house. I did not want tourists walking through my home, for one thing, or those couples who use open houses as dating opportunities.

You might want to work with ilistproperties.com and get their enhanced services. They saved us $32,000 on a recent sale and so of course we just love them :)

Re: attorney Donald Fraser in Brooklyn just gave us the only closing in my life where nothing went wrong at the closing table. His reputation for keeping track of details is well earned.

I had bought and sold several properties with a broker and decided to list my apartment on my own. I set the price based on the recent comps for apartments, discounting the brokers' fees. I found I didn't have the time or the patience to deal with the buyers and their bids. The worst one was the lawyer who wanted to "sweeten the deal" by throwing in the legal costs on both sides for free. Big whoop, $ 2, 500 off the closing costs. I took it off the market, signed with a broker, and wound up netting a lot more money, even considering the broker's fees.

Hmm. "Please describe your job in 25 words or less."

As your own listing agent, think of yourself as juggling multiple constituencies: the board, your other neighbors, yourself, and the pool of buyers. Best way to deal with pool of buyers and not discriminate is to treat everyone equally. If you need to run a credit check to pre-qualify someone, then you do need to do that with everyone, whether they're googleable or not.

First thing to do is to call your managing agent, get a copy of the purchase application, and familiarize yourself with it. Also find out if board has any soft guidelines they will tell you about -- you can't knock out bidders for being annoying, but you can knock them out for not meeting your board's financial qualifications. Also also, find out what your building's rules for holding open houses are. Do you need to have one person in the lobby while another is in the apartment?

There is no "standard" prequal form. If you want a copy of the REBNY financial form, which some people use, just drop me an email and I'll send you one.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

ps: if you have a 2/2 or a convert-3 or a full 3 on the UWS, I'd love to hear about it.

Having watched this for the few years I have been an owner, your best shot at a no commission deal is a) sell to your neighbor for an expansion, b) sell to another building owner who wants to trade-up (if you have a larger place) or have a home office (if you have a 1Bed/studio), c) sell to a friend - i.e. anyone you have a relationship with that might know about your deal off the market.

A "preliminary app" is just a statement with the details of an offer plus the REBNY financial disclosure attached so you can figure out if the bidder would pass your Board.

If you decide to list on your own, there are plenty of services that will help you like realdirect. Keith Burkhardt even does it now- that will cost you very little compared with a traditional 5-6% of sales price deal. You need lots of time to deal with showing inquiries and a lot of patience to deal with inevitable flood of brokers calling as vultures. You may even be forced to pay co-broke fee to a buyer's broker of 2.5% to expand your buyer universe to the traditional represented market. Compared to that, you might be better off offering your building's sales market leader that 2.5% if he will bring buyers he knows of or can identify those people in the building he knows are interested. Me, I'd just stick something up on the message board in the mailroom and see if you can ferret out some interest for free.

if you're a stay at home spouse with nothing else to do (ie no kids or anything), then i'd say try it out. But realistically if you have any other things that take your time, I'd say its not worth it.
I've paid the 6% in the past but have been happy with my brokers...She'd show the place, help organize it to make it look pretty when she was showing it on short-notice etc.
#1 don't even risk it..today's sue happy people will look for any freebie...let the board be the 'bad guy'
#2 people will probably lie like crazy, but whatever, not your problem and honestly you really shouldn't really care where the money comes from as long as you get your money and the board accepts them.
#3 Personally for me the 3 places I've lived and purchased in all were seen from open houses. I'm rather low profile and like to look like I can't afford it, or can just barely afford it. That usually leaves it so that the person holding the open house tends to focus on other attendees which I like, as it gives me time to focus w/o any 'strong-sell' or 'diversion' from other seeing flaws. Maybe its just me but I like open houses.
You do need to put your valuables away though..I've seen some people leave what looks like some pretty expensive stuff around...Not sure if its a honey trap or what.

I can add a different perspective, as someone who purchased a Manhattan co-op apartment from a FSBO a few months ago. I didn't use a broker either, although I work in commercial real estate (though not as a broker), so I had some experience I could bring to bear.

From my perspective, the process was great. My interactions with the seller were always cordial, the board approval process was gentle, and everyone left the closing table happy. That said, I think the seller probably left a bunch of money on the table for a few reasons.

1) Listing quality is invariably sub-par. You can hire a professional photographer and floor plan draftsman for very little expense, but for the photos to have impact you'll need the place properly staged. And if it's your home, you won't have the unbiased eye required to stage a home for mass appeal. What's more, even the best FSBO outlets (e.g. RealDirect, ForSaleByOwner) look dumpy compared to Corcoran, Elliman, Sotheby's, etc. My seller’s photos were not impressive and probably turned a lot of people off upfront.

2) Showing is a pain. It’s not just having the daytime hours available to show – it’s being able to show on last-minute notice. If you go on a three-day weekend to the Catskills, that’s three days of not showing the property. And you’re probably not schlepping back to the city to open the door for fifteen minutes. Open houses are only a partial solution, as serious buyers will end up visiting your apartment two, three, four times before putting down a deposit.

3) The best agents are very good at what they do. They are constantly on-message, explaining to your potential buyers how great the building is, how this or that space can be easily improved with upgrades, and so on. They will know whether to do virtual staging or virtual renovations; before-and-after floorplans showing renovation scenarios; which units in the market are most comparable and seeing the most overlap between prospective buyers. They will have sold similar properties, and can use them as examples for potential buyers: “I sold a very similar Classic 6 just down the street, and my buyers ended up punching through the wall to add a breakfast bar.” You won’t be able to make that point convincingly.

Bottom line: You need a broker so you get top dollar for your apartment. From what I’ve seen firsthand, sellers who choose FSBO do so out of hubris. They think they’re good enough to beat the spread between a broker’s price net of commission, and the FSBO price, but this is almost never the case.