NYC property-records guides
What is a BBL number, and how do you look one up?
What a BBL (Borough-Block-Lot) number is, why the city assigns one per tax lot, how it differs from a building's BIN, and how to search one directly to see everything tied to a NYC property.
Which NYC building violations actually cost you money
Which NYC building violations follow the property to the next owner, which are somebody else's bill, and how to read the difference in DOB, ECB, HPD and DOT records.
How to spot a flipped NYC house before you bid
How to read a NYC house's deed and mortgage history to tell a real renovation from a fast flip, with the citywide base rate for quick resales and what it means for your offer.
What NYC flood risk actually costs you
Why FEMA's flood zone and the neighborhood's actual paid flood-insurance claims often disagree, and what the gap between them means for a buyer pricing an offer and a policy.
Can you add a floor to a NYC townhouse?
How to check, before you bid, whether a townhouse lot has unused zoning floor area to build with and whether the Landmarks Preservation Commission gets a say in what the addition looks like.
Why your NYC property tax bill won't match the listing
The property tax figure on a NYC listing is the seller's current capped bill, not a preview of what a buyer will pay, and for most Class 1 homes it sits well below what the city's own math already says the house is worth.
Does it matter if your NYC landlord is a company or a person?
What NYC's open housing-maintenance violations actually show about corporate, individual, co-op and public ownership, and why building size predicts a landlord's upkeep better than ownership type does.
Does this NYC apartment have a lead water pipe?
What DEP's water-service-line record and HPD's lead-paint violation history each show about a specific prewar building, and why an assurance from the seller is neither of them.
What your NYC co-op is about to bill you for
What a NYC co-op's energy grade and facade filing status show about a capital assessment the board minutes haven't mentioned yet, and how ordinary a bad reading on either one turns out to be.
Does a nearby contamination site affect your house?
Why a former gas station or dry cleaner down the block is the wrong thing to check, and what an E-designation or an open cleanup on the specific lot actually requires before you can renovate.
How many noise complaints is too many for an NYC apartment?
What a building's 311 noise-complaint history says once it's normalized by unit count, why a raw count is meaningless across building sizes, and what to file first if the problem turns out to be yours.
Will this NYC apartment be cold this winter?
Why a cold radiator at an October showing tells you nothing, what NYC's heat season actually requires, and how to read a building's heat complaint history against its size before you sign.
How to tell if your NYC apartment is rent-stabilized
The three building facts that put an NYC apartment under rent stabilization no matter what the lease calls it, and how often each one actually applies, by borough.
How to tell if a NYC listing is priced too high
A NYC listing's price per square foot only means something once you know the real range for homes actually like it nearby, not the three comps a broker happened to send over.
What a shorter subway walk really costs in NYC
Comparable NYC houses near a subway stop carry a real per-square-foot premium in some boroughs and none at all in others, so price the walk before assuming a farther, cheaper listing is a walking discount.
Will this co-op bill you for Local Law 97? (draft)
How to tell, before the board brings it up, whether a benchmarked co-op or condo already owes a Local Law 97 penalty, and how much tighter the cap gets in 2030.
Does an E-designation kill this deal? (draft)
What actually happens when a title search turns up an E-designation or an OER cleanup site on the lot you're under contract for, and how to tell dormant zoning paperwork from a live remediation.
Has this NYC building been to housing court? (draft)
What a pending HPD litigation case, a vacate order and a tax lien notice each actually mean for a lease, and how common a pending case turns out to be for a building your size.