Location, Location, Location

[Don Konipol]

As the old jokes goes, what are the three most important things in real estate?  Location, location and location.

This point was driven home to me on the golf course this past Thursday. A golfing friend of mine has just received at offer on his NYC co op apartment. He purchased the apartment 42 years ago when the area was bad ( meat packing district in Manhattan ), the landlord defaulted on property taxes, the city foreclosed and offered the property to existing residents for $1500. My friend bought the apartment for $1500, put another $3,000 into the HOA, and has lived in the 1700 square foot apartment since. It's a 4th floor WALK UP - no elevator. He just went under contract to sell for $2.15 million.

Place the same apartment 10 miles away in the South Bronx and it would be worth $50,000.  You know what the three most important things in real estate are?  Location, location and location.