Peter Comitini is committed to Fair Housing

What Does Technology Mean To a Real Estate Business?

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:38:46 -0500

"Technology is a great way of connecting with people, but it's also created a super transparent marketplace here in New York City" explains Corcoran's Peter Comitini, and while technology has facilitated unprecedented change in our market, as Peter accurately points out, it's all about what he as an agent can bring to the table that goes beyond just finding a listing online. Hear Peter explain the importance of customer service, and how the internet, and his blog in particular, has truly taken his business international.

Robert Shiller on investing in the housing market

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:44:05 -0500

I never seem to like this man's opinions, but occasionally find myself in reluctant agreement. Enjoy! Nobel laureate Robert Shiller talks with WSJ.Money contributor David Wessel about the wisdom of investing in real estate and his provocative proposal to arrest the growth of inequality in the U.S. Courtesy WSJ

New York's streets? Not so mean any more

Sat, 02 Nov 2013 22:29:36 -0500

This TED talk highlights some of the many changes in traffic flow and transportation we've seen about town in recent years. Making New York City a better place to live. As commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, Janette Sadik-Khan is responsible for the smooth running of a New York that hides in plain sight... the streets, highways, bridges, signs and lights that make up the bustling metropolis. Janette Sadik-Khan was appointed commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation in 2007. For six years, she managed nearly 5,000 employees and was responsible for the operation and management of some 6,300 miles of streets throughout the city's 5 boroughs. Despite her access to a budget of some $2 billion, Sadik-Khan adopted a designer's approach to urban innovation: rapid testing and regular iteration. In other words, try an idea to see if it would work; if it didn't, try something else, no harm done. In Times Square, an iconic New York City location visited by 350,000 people every day, this involved the creation of pedestrian zones by painting the asphalt and putting up some lawn chairs. The success of the approach allowed her to create 50 pedestrian zones throughout the city, in the process repurposing 26 acres of space previously allocated to cars. In 2013, she helped to introduce the instantly-popular Citi Bike bicycle-sharing program to the city, making New York one of the cycling capitals in the United States.

Experience Harlem

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:12:19 -0500

I'm pleased to announce the first showings of my brand new townhouse exclusive at 165 West 126th Street, this Saturday and Sunday, April 6th and 7th from 11 AM to 3 PM. We'll be open to visitors both days showing this fully renovated, two-family brownstone. It's a luxurious home featuring an owner's garden duplex with finished basement, and an income producing upper duplex too. This building is in excellent condition mechanically, with nicely updated kitchens and baths. Its location is exceptional, sitting on a beautiful brownstone row, and convenient to great shopping, dining, and transportation; 15 minutes to mid-town. This townhouse can be delivered vacant or with income producing tenants in place. The Real Estate Board of New York's Harlem Open House Expo features over 45 properties on view, and we're proud to be a part of it. No appointment needed, please stop by! Asking price: $2,500,000 | 4 stories | legal two-family | real estate taxes $923 monthly See the full listing for 165 West 126th Street » Harlem Open House Expo info »

Market Snapshot: January 2013

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:28:44 -0500

No surprise that even with a seasonal Q1 bump in inventory, the number of apartments and lofts available for sale in Manhattan, remains 23% tighter than at this time in 2012. This can be frustrating for buyers who have few choices in any particular size category. It can be good news for sellers who can deal with largely recovered or appreciating values; and shorter times on the market. I would love to list your property today! Download the full Manhattan Snapshot as a PDF » Download the full Brooklyn Snapshot as a PDF » Market Snapshots are compiled from both Corcoran's proprietary information regarding contracts signed, and public sales records. Excerpt below:

Remembering Mayor Ed Koch

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:50:14 -0500

The NY Times has a great video interview from 2007 about the legacy and life of Ed Koch in his own words. Arguably the quintessential New Yorker, I always respected the mayor's taste in restaurants. Even in my regular haunts like Odeon, Bridge Cafe, or Union Square Cafe, seeing him there somehow elevated the stature of the place in my mind. In much the same way, his three terms as mayor began the rise of New York City from it's grittiest and darkest days, to the international beacon it is today. He gave everything he had to this city out of love, passion, ego, and drive; never loosing the common touch that endeared him to many of its citizens.

seller's market

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:25:42 -0500

download the latest report

2013 opens with a strong market for sellers. The Manhattan market has clearly recovered. Available housing inventory in the Fourth Quarter of 2012 logged its seventh consecutive year-over-year decrease, reaching its lowest point in seven years. With such limited choices available to them, prices have continued to rise: median price is now $827,000 (up 8% versus Q4 2011) and price per square foot is $1076 (up 3% versus Q4 2011). That means that demand is far exceeding available inventory. I have buyers waiting to see the right home in almost every size category.

Apartment and loft sellers that have asked me for a market opinion recently, have been surprised at how robustly the market has turned around. Luxury properties are up 7% year over year. Downtown buyers found coops to be very desirable homes, driving pricing up year over year in one bedroom (+4%), two bedroom (+20%) and three bedroom (+54%) categories. I also market townhouses and live/work, mixed-use buildings, as homes and investments. I have simply never seen demand higher for them in Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn. I help sellers acheive maximum value for their properties.

The overview is in Corcoran's current Market Report. Download your copy here. How does it apply to your property? Ask me for a free analysis of what your apartment, loft, townhouse, or building is worth. That answer may surprise you.

with gratitude for a great year!

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:45:06 -0500

Time Lapse Video: 30-Story Building Built In 15 Days

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:47:49 -0500

What can you accomplish in 360 hours? The Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group, has achieved another impossible feat - building a 30-story tall hotel in 360 hours.

Design-intelligent urban development

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:46:27 -0500

This is a fascinating keynote by architect and urban planner Vishaan Chakrabarti, Director of Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate or CURE. There are some big ideas presented here about the future of New York City's development built around sustainability, economic return to the city, and unlocking the potential of underutilized land, by creating well-designed urban density and mass transit to service it. One statistic that jumps out is that there are about 4 billion square feet of unused FAR (development rights) in our city today. This is actually land unused because of regulation which, if intelligently developed, could provide valuable economic growth and infrastructure for future generations of New Yorkers. The proposed creation of LoLo, a new lower Manhattan land mass connecting Governor's island with the Financial district is presented too, giving us a glimpse of what thinking out of the box really looks like, when not being used as a marketing punchline. From the CURE web site: CURE identifies, shares, and advocates solutions for a rapidly urbanizing world. CURE redefines sustainability as dense, mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-based urban development. From climate change and energy dependence to the socioeconomic and political upheaval they engender, CURE addresses emerging and current global issues through the lens of urbanization. visit the CURE site »

A Co-op With Elbow Room, The Times covers my work again!

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 19:11:26 -0500

The New York Times' The Hunt covers the often intense ups and downs of people searching for homes in New York City. For the second time this year, I'm privileged to have my clients profiled. It was an exhausting apartment hunt that I brokered, poetically culminating full circle, with my customers Evan and Natalie buying the apartment literally across the hallway from the one where I had met them months earlier, at an open house for one of my exclusives at 350 E 77th Street. It was a real roller-coaster of a search. Times writer Joyce Cohen tells the whole story in A Co-op With Elbow Room, in today's Real Estate section. We saw over 50 Upper East Side apartments, had three accepted offers, with wrenching disappointments as two of them didn't work out. Throughout the process, I built a strong client relationship with Evan and Natalie. Few things motivate me to be on my best game more than the loyalty and sincere appreciation of customers like these. They relied heavily on my expertise as I helped to guide them through a fairly complex maze of available inventory. Helping to validate coop values, making strategically savvy offers, negotiating well, and closing on a great value for them. We encountered everything from difficult coops to sellers rescinding their acceptance. In the end we had a few laughs, and great satisfaction as we closed on their perfect, first, NYC home. read the full article in The New York Times: A Co-op With Elbow Room

Springtime in Chelsea never felt better

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:10:32 -0500

We've just redecorated, planted, and improved the asking price by $105K to $2,395,000, on this unique Chelsea triplex. Massive terraces on two levels are what makes this boutique property the perfect home for entertaining al fresco. Imagine barbecuing with your friends and family, on over 900 square feet of terraces, connected by outdoor and indoor stairs, providing great flow throughout the apartment. Step inside and you'll find three floors with 1800 square feet of living space, with designer finishes by Andreas Escobar. Modern to the core, it has the feeling of a small townhouse, but comes with the services of a luxury condominium, like a full-time doorman, private gym, pet spa, bike room, and a full-time super. This unit comes with a deeded storage room too. This is one of the first resales at Slate, 165 West 18th Street, off Seventh Avenue; built from the ground up as new construction in 2006— there is truly nothing else like it on the market downtown. Check the full listing for the latest open house schedule, or contact me for an appointment. see this listing: 165 West 18th Street, #1A » Download a fact sheet

The New York Times covers my apartment hunt

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:09:19 -0500

It was a real privilege to be covered in the New York Times last week. The Hunt columnist Joyce Cohen covered my nearly two year apartment search for Dr. Christopher Leggat. After one deal went sour at the Victoria in The Village, we closed nearly a year later on an apartment at the new development Tempo on East 23rd Street, that he loves. We searched a corridor of Manhattan accessible to the PATH trains that stretched from Battery Park City to Greenwich Village, Gramercy Park and Chelsea. Outstanding client relationships are truly the way that an agent's real estate practice grows. Few things impact one's life as much as buying property. It involves a lot of local knowledge, market research, and number crunching, Chris appreciated that my experience in evaluating those things created real value for him in the process. I'm fortunate to have great clients like him. see the article in the NY Times »

Building Sold! 12 West 104th Street at Central Park West

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:57:08 -0500

I'm pleased to announce that I've closed a deal for a 16 unit apartment house on West 104th Street right off Central Park West.The seller had his choice of eight offers on the property. Selling close to asking price, with an all cash buyer. My office at Corcoran specializes in the marketing of small buildings, including multi-family and mixed-use properties. Starting with owner's advisory services and local market intelligence; then driving that into a real marketing strategy with true global reach. I achieve these kinds of results for my sellers by pricing correctly, co-brokering openly, and negotiating with discipline. But I provide them with a unique edge on their business with my office's unique design and marketing capabilities. It's where real estate agency meets advertising agency. Delivering essential information to decision makers, putting it in context, and using the language of design to speak about quality, in ways that words and numbers alone cannot. It helps my clients' properties stand out from the crowd, attracting attention and bidders. Dedication to my client's success has consistently ranked me in the top 1% of our agents nationally. If you are considering selling a property, please contact me to find out how much I can achieve for you.
See this listing: 12 West 104th Street

Home staging tips from Open House NYC

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:22:18 -0500

In this Tips of the Trade segment from Open House NYC, stager Cathy Hobbs gives us a common sense walk-through on the importance of properly presenting a property for sale. Staging on my exclusives can range from working with me to make recommendations on painting, and tweaking the placement of your furniture— to more industrial strength work with professionals, who are able to create the aura of a complete home, with furniture, linens, and tooth brushes, in an otherwise vacant apartment; and all points in between. Turning it into an attractive product for sale, by neutralizing the owner's imprint on their home, into a place that your buyer can imagine themselves living in. There are some tips worth watching in here.