A Bushwick Real Estate Agent Searching for Real Buyers in NYC

I’m a Bushwick Real Estate Agent now – but at one point I briefly thought about being a real estate investor.

I once found a property to buy with my brother – but the truth is that we were never very serious about buying it.

It’s 2015 — I’m 25 years old and working in telephone sales at a tech company in midtown (my real estate career didn’t begin until 2017), and my brother, Harry, recently graduated from Pratt with a degree in sculpture. We had been pretty interested in buying real estate (even though we didn’t have much money). Harry wanted some kind of place in Brooklyn to have an art studio, and I had seen new developments going up around Brooklyn and thought maybe I could be a part of the boom (with my limited financial capital and zero experience real estate investing this was never going to happen).

Harry had stumbled onto some listing for a one family house on Vermont Street in Brooklyn, close to Broadway Junction, the twelfth stop in Brooklyn on the L train. We went and toured this decrepit house with a real estate agent several times — but we never bought it (no surprise there).

We were never going to buy this house, no matter how many times we toured it with the real estate agent. Harry and I know nothing about construction and we didn’t even have enough money for the down payment, let alone for hiring an architect and contractors to help us re-build the property.

As a New York City real estate agent, I encounter property owners who are working to sell their properties themselves but they are having trouble finding buyers to actually transact. In a lot of situations, a buyer gave the seller an amazing (above-market-price) offer, and the deal fell through. But the property owner is still expecting to get the price that this buyer submitted.

If you’re fielding offers for your property, I think it’s a good idea to know who you’re talking to. Is the buyer you’re talking to experienced and real? Or are they like me and Harry? By understanding who you’re talking to, you can gauge whether or not the offer you’re getting is serious and real.

It’s not always about previous buying experience — it’s usually more about interpreting the behavior of a potential buyer.

As a real estate agent in New York City, I’ve become good at sensing who is a real buyer and who isn’t. For example, last year I listed and represented a building in Bushwick that had apartments which had been deregulated — they were once rent stabilized, but not anymore. Converting rent stabilized apartments to market-rate ones used to happen a lot before New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 significantly limited the ability to deregulate.

While I was working on this building, I had some buyers ask me the most basic question of all: what’s a rent stabilized apartment? This is usually the first question asked by any real buyer in NYC. Having rent stabilized apartments is a big thing to consider.

In the example above, the buyer who had asked about rent stabilized apartments did actually submit a good offer for the property, but withdrew it shortly after sending it to me. I was excited to have received the offer — but I wasn’t surprised that he backed out. His initial question about rent stabilization in the beginning of our interaction didn’t make me super confident he was ready to transact.

On the other hand, while I may be weary of people who ask basic questions, I also understand that every purchaser was once a Sam or Harry — they were once completely inexperienced. If you’re an owner talking to a potential buyer, instead of focusing on the questions they may ask, interpreting their behavior is a better indication about whether or not they’re real. Does the buyer follow up quickly or do you have to chase them and wait days or weeks for them to return your calls? When buyers are serious, they follow up right away, or when I call them, they pick up, no matter what.

When it’s time to go to contract — do they give you their attorneys’ information willingly? Do they sign the contract in a timely manner or are you waiting weeks for them to sign? If you’re waiting weeks for any signed contract or for them to call you back, I encourage you to forget it — whoever you’re talking to is not serious.

Also, a lot of agents and owners use “proof of funds” as a way to measure if a buyer is serious — but I don’t really think that’s the most effective way to understand if someone is real. There are a lot of people out there with the funds to transact — but we should measure their realness by considering them with a Proof of Chutzpah test. It takes a lot to buy and manage real estate — especially an investment property which isn’t someone’s primary residence.

Harry and I would have never passed the Proof of Chutzpah meter (nor the proof of funds test for that matter). We didn’t have the guts to buy this house on Vermont street which needed tons of work.

Further, you can avoid being fooled by an unserious buyer if you have an idea of what the market value of your building is. I understand that you may have your own idea of what your property is worth — and you should. You probably invested a lot of time and money into it and you deserve top dollar. But when you go to sell — and if you are really committed to selling — you’ll be at the mercy of what the market dictates is the price for your property. A real estate agent with solid experience (like me!) can tell you around what price you might have to consider if you really want to make a deal to sell. And by understanding this number, you can likely avoid entertaining offers from unserious buyers (like Sam and Harry) that sound too good to be true — whether you plan to sell your property yourself or through a real estate agent.

Do you need real buyers in NYC for your condo or investment property? I have been a New York City real estate agent for nine years. I have real buyers and I’m always looking for more. Call me.

Are you a property owner that wants to sell their condo, investment property or needs to rent an apartment or retail space in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.

Do you know a property owner that might need real estate help? Refer me! I provide great and professional real estate services across all five boroughs.