What should people consider when buying a townhouse?

The first thing people always ask about when buying a townhouse is security, but I maintain that the devices they make now are so sophisticated and advanced, security should not be a consideration. Townhouses are often a better choice than cooperatives because they are less expensive on a price-per-square-foot basis, there is no cooperative board to go through, you can finance as much of the purchase as you want, there is privacy that is lacking in apartment living, and a garden.

How many townhouses are there in the city?

There are only about 2,000 of them in Manhattan, although some are always being converted into single-family homes while others are being made into multi-family dwellings, so that number is ever-changing.

What advice do you give to buyers considering townhouses with tenants inside?

Tenants are a lose-lose situation. Tenants cause the value of a home to depreciate, whereby twin townhouses can be next door to each other, but one will cost half the price of the other because it has rent-stabilized tenants in it.

It is difficult to get the tenants to vacate the home, and while you can dance around the pole in the court system, the monetary and painful suffering make it better to buy something empty.

What is the profile of the townhouse buyer?

People who buy townhouses mostly cannot qualify for cooperatives because they are earning a lot of money, or are foreigners.

If you were advising a young couple buying a first home, where would you suggest they look?

Murray Hill has a number of good deals, and the neighborhood is perfectly safe and nice. Another good place to look is in Queens, especially Long Island City.