No two buildings are the same in New York City, which makes navigating a sale or moving to a rental its own unique experience. Even so, there’s no need to make the mistakes of those who’ve gone before you.

Here’s Brick Underground’s best advice, culled from our first-person column, Inside Stories, with tips from buyers, renters, and transplants about some of the hazards they experienced trying to achieve their NYC real estate goals. We’re talking bait-and-switch listings, neglectful landlords, horrible floods, and much more. 

Read on and click on the links to avoid some NYC major real estate pitfalls and how you can spot them yourself.

[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post was published in February 2019. We are presenting it again in case you missed it.]

Moving from out of state

Long distance moves have plenty of stress factors. Be wary of signing a lease on an apartment that needs a gut renovation before you can move in. Also watch out for listing photos of the model unit or another apartment in the same line as yours; it might look nothing like the one you signed a lease for. Another tip: Review your building’s move-in rules before the big day. 

Worried about how the kids will adjust to a big move? We spoke to parents who have some advice to share. 

Once you get here, you might find that living in a building with a doorman requires some adjustments, like getting over how much they know about your comings and goings. 

Rental tips

Be very wary of basement apartments, they can be prone to flooding, and no one wants their toilet to turn into a geyser. And if you’re couch surfing with kids while you find the right place, an apartment with a cat can be a good distraction.

Nothing motivates a landlord like losing money. If you have building-wide issues or say, it rains in your kitchen, document the problems and fill out a form for a rent abatement.

If you’re looking for affordable housing—remember you won’t have a stake in the lottery if you don’t apply. That’s the advice of one military veteran who won her apartment. Moving to a high-end rental developments can also create some culture shock, as one lottery winner found out.

Buying in NYC

When you put in an offer on an apartment, you should already have talked to an attorney—waiting until the last minute to find a lawyer is like looking for an ob-gyn as you’re about to give birth.

Check out these tips from one buyer who looked at 150 apartments before buying in NYC. If you’re taking the co-op plunge, make sure the board has a capital plan. Board meeting minutes may not be enough to tell whether the building is being mismanaged. And make sure you take a look at the building’s basement—and if you notice rat droppings, run. Also, talk to everyone, including the doorman, the super, and the residents to get a feel for a building if you find an apartment you like. 

Buying a sponsor unit allows you to avoid the interview process, but if you do have to go through it, don’t stress—not all interviews are bad. 

If you’re buying a property and are told it comes with a parking space, make sure it has a deed. If the sale falls through, remember there will be another property.

Avoiding renovation headaches

When you are embarking on a remodeling project, especially in a co-op, double the time you’re told it will take. Board approval for renovation plans is time-consuming. If you’re eyeing your neighbor’s apartment to expand into, an invitation for coffee and a chat (and some patience) might pay off.

But don’t waste your time waiting to go ahead with a project, especially if you have a shed at the end of the garden—get on and renovate it—and don’t skimp on new flooring. Turns out salvage stores can turn up some surprises, including beloved woodwork from your former apartment.

Check out these tips when combining apartments and consider buying some hallway space to open up the layout. 

Since joining Real, Ravi Jani has had a big hand in driving the company’s financial strategy and growth. During his tenure, the company’s agent network has grown from 12,000 to over 27,000 agents.

The waterfront home on one of the Sunset Islands was listed for rent last week by Corcoran’s Isaac Lustgarten, who previously worked with the Alexanders at Official. The home spans 4,267 square feet and has four bedrooms.

After years of identifying the housing market as unhealthy — culminating in a savagely unhealthy housing market in early 2022 — I can confidently assert that the housing market in 2024 and 2025 is on better footing. This transformation sets an extremely positive foundation for what’s to come. Some recent headlines about housing suggest that demand is crashing. However, that’s not the case, as the data below will show.

Today on CNBC, I discussed this very point: what is happening now is not only in line with my price forecasts for 2024 and 2025, but it’s why I am so happy to see inventory grow and price growth data cool down. What we saw in late 2020, all of 2021 and early 2022 was not sustainable and we needed higher mortgage rates to cool things down — hence why I was team higher rates early in 2021. The last two years have ushered in a healthier market for the future of existing home sales.

Existing home sales

Before the existing home sales report was released Thursday, I confidently predicted a month-to-month decline, while estimating the existing home sales print to be just a tad above 4 million. That’s precisely what occurred — no surprises there, as every month in 2025 has consistently exceeded 4 million. However, it’s important to note that our weekly pending home sales data has only recently begun to show growth compared to last year. We have an advantage over the data from the National Association of Realtors since our weekly pending home sales data is updated weekly, making their report somewhat outdated.

The notable surprise for me in 2025 is the year-over-year growth we observe in the data, despite elevated mortgage rates. If mortgage rates were ranging between 6%-6.64%, I wouldn’t have been surprised at all because we are working from the lowest bar in sales ever.

Purchase application data

If someone had said the purchase application data would show positive trends both year to date and year over year by late April, even with mortgage rates not falling significantly below 6.64%, I would have found that hard to believe. Yet, here we are witnessing consistent year-over-year growth. Even with the recent rate spike, which has clearly cooled demand week to week, we are still positive. If mortgage rates can just trend down toward 6% with duration, sales are growing.

Housing inventory and price growth

While my forecast for national price growth in 2024 at 2.33% was too low and in 2025 at 1.77% may be too low again, it’s encouraging to see a slowdown in price growth, which I believe is a positive sign for the future. The increase in inventory is also promising and supports long-term stability in the housing market.

We can anticipate that millions of people will continue to buy homes each year, and projections suggest that we’re on track for another nearly 5 million total home sales in 2025. As wages rise and households are formed, such as through marriage and bringing in dual incomes, this influx of inventory returning to normal levels provides an optimistic outlook. This trend in inventory data is truly heartening.

Conclusion

With all the data lines I added above, you can see why I have a renewed optimism about the housing market. If price growth significantly outpaced inflation and wages, and inventory wasn’t increasing, I’d be discussing a much different and more concerning state of affairs. Thankfully, that’s not the case.

Historically, we’ve observed that when home sales dip due to higher rates, they may remain subdued for a while but ultimately rise again. This is common during recessions, as I discussed in this recent HousingWire Daily podcast. As you can see in the existing home sales data below, we had an epic crash in sales in 2022 but found a base to work from around 4 million.

This trend has shaped the landscape of housing economics since post-WWII, reminding us that resilience and recovery are always within reach.

Following a tour of the Oneida Tribe reservation in Wisconsin this week, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced that the department will be adding $2.2 million to the Tribal HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program.

Turner toured the reservation with tribal leaders and U.S. Rep. Tony Wied (R-Wis.). The new funds are the result of $2.2 million in unspent fiscal year 2017 funds that will be redirected into the VASH program for tribes.

VASH provides “rental assistance for Native American veterans who are — or who are risk of becoming — homeless in Tribal communities across the nation,” according to HUD’s announcement.

The funds are “now available for grants to support the expansion of rental assistance for Native American Veterans who qualify,” the department added. Tribes and Tribal Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) are invited to apply for benefits through a dedicated form.

“It was informative and inspiring to see how Oneida Tribal leadership serve their members, including by providing housing and wrap-around services to create economic opportunity and pathways to self-sufficiency for Native American families,” Turner said.

“For about a decade, the Oneida Tribe has utilized HUD-VASH to support Native American veterans with a specialized set of tools and resources. Today’s announcement of newly available funds will help expand this impactful program to more Native American veterans across the country.”

Turner also described the role that HUD-VASH has played for tribal communities nationwide.

“Alongside our partners at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the HUD-VASH program offers tailored services by combining HUD’s housing voucher rental assistance with case management and clinical services provided by the VA,” he said.

“The Tribal HUD-VASH program is currently housing over 500 veterans in 29 tribal communities across our great country. Over 1,000 veterans have been served since the program’s inception.”

Tehassi Hill, chairman of the Oneida Nation, added that the tribe’s partnership with HUD dates back to the early 1960s.

“Across the country, tribes continue to have unmet needs on reservations, and projects such as VASH move tribes closer to closing the gap,” Hill said. “We’re pleased to have Secretary Turner come to Oneida for a firsthand experience and tour of our housing community.”

VA Secretary Doug Collins added that his department “look[s] forward to working with HUD to put this additional funding to great use helping Native American Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness find shelter and self-sufficiency.”