An article in the Sunday issue of the New York Times (“A House Divided:  Uncivil War on E. 73^rd Street,” December 10, 2006) describes a dispute between a landlord and an unhappy tenant in a tony Upper East Side brownstone of New York City.  A battle like that is always a case of someone’s word against the other, but if you read through the article, it becomes easier to decipher who is in the wrong, so to speak. 

Mr. Pavia, the landlord, rented out some floors of his luxurious brownstone to several tenants.  Along came Mr. Couri the tenant.  Mr. Couri started to have problems with a longtime tenant, a gay designer, who lived above him, complaining of noises, music, and partying.  He sent the designer letters citing “lies… late p.m. homosexual escapades,” and threatened to disgrace him by writing to interior design agencies and magazines.

The designer, who never had problems with other tenants or Mr. Pavia before, moves out.  Mr. Pavia eventually sued Mr. Couri for obnoxious and harassing behavior, and Mr. Couri countersued by saying that his landlord refused to disclose the rent-stabilized status of the building.

The article, however, mentions that Mr. Couri, who dresses impeccably in a 3-piece suit, has a history of suing people (nearly 150 times since 1972).  He also has pleaded guilty in the past of defrauding a bank.  If Mr. Pavia had done a background check on him, the problems might have been prevented.

We’ve also had some issues with tenants.  Years ago, when my husband was looking to rent out his apartment, a friend of his who worked in theater introduced to him a young man who was an actor.  I even met the guy; he was good-looking, personable, a little jittery maybe, but seemed like a nice guy.  But jittery was the part we should have focused on.  He turned out to be a crack addict.  Luckily, his family stepped in and moved him out so we didn’t have to begin eviction proceedings.

Unless you personally know the potential tenant well, a background check on a potential tenant should be performed.  A check on credit history and from a tenant-screening agency can be done easily and should be done even when a tenant comes with a referral, as ours did.  For more information, check out on what landlords should know from the FTC.

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Tags: biggerpockets, city, dispute, East, landlords, New, renter, Side, tenants, Upper, York

For city dwellers with children, there is always this dilemma of whether one should move to the suburbs. The case for the suburbs is pretty cut and dry: there are the obvious lifestyle reasons such as more space for children to run around, and also financial ones, like being able to send kids to great public schools where you don’t have to fork out private school tuitions in the $25,000-to-$30,000 range (per child, that is).

In our family, thoughts about moving to the suburbs always lurk in the background, even as we go apartment hunting in the city. In fact, one year, the lure of the suburbs was so strong for my husband that we even went house hunting in various towns in Westchester and New Jersey. Obviously in the burbs, you get more for your money. A spacious house, a nice yard, maybe even a swimming pool if you’re lucky. The pitfalls of moving to the suburbs seem so few, aside from the inconvenience of having to drive everywhere (it’s a given anywhere else, I know, but for Manhattanites, it’s a huge deal!). And oh yes, the high taxes. This is especially true in good school districts in Westchester and Long Island.

According to the New York Times (“Leaving the City for the Schools, and Regretting It,” November 13, 2006) however, there is an interesting upward trend of people who move to suburbs like Westchester choosing to send their children to private schools. That seems to defeat the whole purpose of moving to the suburbs in the first place. The high property taxes AND the tuitions? Apparently, many of these families did not plan to do this when they moved out there but decided to do so after finding public schools a little less than ideal, even in the good districts. The common complaints are that the programs are under-funded, too many kids in each classroom (many of them unmotivated), the administration is not responsive to parents’ needs, and the list goes on.

Guess you can’t have everything, even in the burbs. I’m just glad that we are still in the city, paying just the tuitions but not the high taxes. Of course, it’s not a given that you’ll find the schools in the burbs unacceptable; plenty of families are very happy there. But there is always that “What if?” You can bet that I will be showing my husband this article every time he muses about moving out of the city.

Tags: city, estate, manhattan, New, real, schools, suburbs, Taxes, Westchester, York

Thank you, Josh, for inviting me to join the Biggerpockets.com blog community! And I also wanted to congratulate him on his recent nuptials & honeymoon to Thailand & Hong Kong. I’ve spent some time there myself, & they are such amazing places to visit, Thailand with its exquisite beaches & Hong Kong with its fast-paced vitality. Speaking of fast-paced, vital cities, I’m writing from New York. Love it or hate it, there’s always something happening here! It’s fun to be living here, & although the competitive nature of the place gets to me sometimes, I still can’t imagine living anywhere else.

New York City has probably led the country in the real estate run-up, & though many say that prices are softening, I don’t really see all that much of it. Maybe the bidding wars of years past have subsided somewhat, but prices here can still take your breath away. There’s still a lot of new construction going on, & those prices are still astounding. Here’s 2 examples of some family-size apartments in these new developments that I have personally looked at for my family of 4:

170 East End Avenue: Apt. 12 B (3 BR, 2,716 sq. ft.) at $5,395,000

310 East 53^rd St.: Apt. 11C (3BR, 2,313 sq. ft.) at $3,550,000

Both are beautiful, glass-encased beauties, with the one in midtown (E. 53rd St.) slightly priced better, probably because of its midtown location, a less residential area that is further away from most schools. The developments downtown in the financial district are priced even better, but who wants to spend the whole day in transportation in getting the kids to and from school?

Of course, when my husband & I visited the sales offices for the properties listed above, our eyes sort of just glazed over. They are so far from what we are able to afford, but yet as middle-class citizens of Manhattan, is it so ridiculous for us to be interested in a nice, new 3BR apartment? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Meanwhile, we retreat to the comforts of our cramped rental apartment & the search continues….

Tags: city, estate, manhattan, midtown, New, real, rental, York

Location…Location…Location. The battle cry of real estate brokers. And, location is what a new “landmark” plan for middle-income housing in New York City has: Directly across the river from the United Nations in Queens…24 acres!

New York City Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement and, according to Jill Gardiner’s account in The New York Sun, the city is buying the land from the Port Authority for $146 million dollars.

The Mayor reportedly said of the deal that it is a “landmark moment in affordable housing.”

The last time the city undertook such a large project was back in 1974 with the development of Starrett City in Brooklyn.

Tags: bloomberg, city, housing, income, middle, nations, New, queens, united, York