Surf Online To Find Out What Your Neighbors Paid

Finding out the selling price of your neighbor’s apartment no longer has to be a hungering, unfulfilled curiosity. Satisfy that craving using a new Web site: www.condo-sales.com.Yale Robbins, whose eponymous company launched condo-sales.com a few months ago, said he is starting to market the Web site to the public.For decades, the firm has published the Yale Robbins Condo Sales Report, a hard-copy version of what’s offered on the Web site. The report is filled with columns of date about condominium sales and has established itself as an industry standard. So far, he said about 100 users have paid to use the online service.While the prices of condominium apartments are public information, finding them takes some digging on the Department of Buildings Web site. To research prices, visitors to the site must input such mystifying digits as block and lot numbers, a process that puts off many of even the most inquisitive homeowners.A new software program, however, has made the process easier. Now, finding out prices is as simple as typing in an address and paying a $35 access fee. In return, information is made available on any condominium sold in the last five years in Manhattan.“We are continually updating the data in our system so it is accurate,” Mr. Robbins said. “This software is meant for anyone looking to buy or sell a condominium.” About a quarter of the Manhattan housing market is comprised of condominiums, and most new residential developments are condos.And the possibilities go much further than finding out the sale price of the apartment down the hall. For example, those nervous newlyweds, unsure of whether they are bidding too high for a 400-square-foot studio that costs half their combined salary, can compare the prices of similar studios in the neighborhood. Potential sellers can research how much they could ask for their home without having to contact a broker who will, from that point on, aggressively try to persuade them to put their apartment on the market.The president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, Jonathan Miller, said the product could be useful for consumers but certainly doesn’t replace brokers, who can provide contextual information to buyers and sellers.“No one ever got wealthy providing raw data, you really need someone to interpret it,” Mr Miller said. “This program doesn’t say why one apartment may have sold for more than another one of equal square footage – that possibly it is because one had a better view, or that the price structure of one building is better than another.”“This is by no means the Holy Grail,” he added. “Brokers already have all this pricing information, and they can put it into context for you. However, I can see how it could be useful to have access to this information to compare apartments, or if you are interested in finding out roughly how much your apartment is worth if you are thinking of giving it to your kids, or possibly for estate-tax purposes.”The Web site, which compiles reports by location, size, and price, charges a minimum of $35 for information about the first 35 apartments selected and $1 for each additional apartment. The reports, which come formatted as PDFs, include photographs of the buildings, floor plans, square footage, price per rooms, most recent date of sale, and latest sale price.“The information is public, but no one has taken the time to compile this information the way we have and give individuals this kind of easy access,” Mr. Robbins said. “Can’t you imagine someone sitting there at midnight, faced with having to make a bid in the morning, and not sure if it is the right bid, and this could be a great tool to help them do research and see if the price is right.”

Surf Online To Find Out What Your Neighbors Paid

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