should you buy a townhouse in new york city we'll demystify this topic in the
following video i'm Nick at Hauseit visit hauseit.com to learn how to save money
if you are looking to buy sell or rent here in new york city long island the
hudson valley or south florida so let's get started
so we're going to go through several reasons why you should buy a townhouse
here in new york city the first reason to consider buying a
townhouse over an equivalently priced apartment is the matter of you yielding
a greater amount of square footage and overall lot size relative to your
financial investment to cut out all the jargon basically what
we mean is you usually are going to get more for your money the quote unquote
price per square foot may be much lower you're just going to get more lot size
more acreage more space more land that is your own and theoretically over the
long term you know the greater exposure you have to an asset class i.e the more
square footage you have the more size is associated with your lot potentially
would give you more upside so that's one reason to consider buying a townhouse or
some sort of you know single or multifamily property or structure in new
york city compared to a typical condo or co-op apartment another reason why you
should consider buying a townhouse in new york city is because of the fact
that you can actually obtain a multi-family property which can help
minimize your costs associated with carrying the property over time in other
words if you have like a two unit or three unit townhouse you live in one of
the apartments the rental income that you will generate will make it less
expensive for you to own what would otherwise be a rather
expensive and substantial monthly payment
over the course of ownership and of course as a result you know you're going
to have a lower stress lifestyle people are basically helping fund your mortgage
payment and you know you have a bit more of an
investment angle associated with your property whereas if you just bought a
apartment your own apartment you know you cannot subdivide it you don't have
other tenants so you're on the hook for that full amount of your mortgage
payment every month another reason why you should buy a
townhouse in new york city is the ability to customize
now you might be asking well can't you just customize a condo or co-op of
course you definitely can do that as well but the reality is it's a lot
easier to renovate and customize a townhouse
and that's because you don't have a bunch of people who have been you know
forcibly inserted into the process who you have to deal with for example the
management of a building the condo board neighbors who might complain there's
just so many people that you have to appease and generally speaking
appeasement in new york city when it comes to condos and co-ops means money
out of your pocket which is not something you'd have to worry about when
you're renovating a townhouse of course you still have the department of
buildings and you know you do have to play by
a certain amount of rules but you just have that major red tape removed again
the condo building the board the peculiarities of potential neighbor
people on the board you just don't have to worry about it with a townhouse and
we view that as a net positive now on a related note another reason why you
should consider buying a townhouse is you don't have to deal with condo or
co-op rules now of course the rules for a typical
condo or co-op are generally speaking not unreasonable however the problem is
in the unequal application of these rules which is a common occurrence is
particularly for co-ops but also even for small condo buildings in new york
city to put in another way perhaps some
owners are held to a higher standard and held
to every last rule for example in the condo house rules compared to other
owners who maybe are on the board have a more privileged position possibly having
held an apartment for longer so if you're not a fan of politics like me
then i think that is one of the main reasons why you should consider buying a
townhouse instead of a condo or co-op in new york city so we've gone over a few
reasons why it's a good idea to consider buying a townhouse in new york now we're
going to give you a few reasons as to why you should maybe not buy a townhouse
here in new york city now one of the main reasons is the actual cost and time
associated with maintaining the property most people who are first-time buyers in
new york city have been accustomed to living in apartments over the course of
their years in new york city as a result the responsibility for repairs and the
coordination for problems has been born fully basically by the
landlord or by the you know building super the management of the rental
building or the building where the apartment was located so in other words
the typical first-time buyer in new york city has essentially no experience in
dealing with repairs and actually owning a property
now of course when you buy a condo or co-op you still have to deal with
maintaining your own unit certainly but you have help you also have limitations
on the scope of work that may be required you'll never have to directly
repair a roof yourself if you own a condo or co-op the building takes care
of it you'll never directly have to deal with
a facade or a structural issue because the building is the one who's
responsible but when you own a townhouse you are responsible for literally every
single side of your building you have to deal with the roof you have to fix the
facade you have to fix the sidewalk you have to deal with mechanicals the boiler
and boiler inspections fire sprinkler systems it's a lot of things now it's
not overwhelming of course you know like anything in life if you're at the point
where you're buying a townhouse you've achieved many things and you definitely
can figure out how to manage your property but there's a bit of a learning
curve and obviously it does take time so you know if you're the kind of person
who's unfamiliar with home repairs or you just don't necessarily have the time
or patience to involve yourself in that type of thing we would encourage you to
actually reconsider buying a townhouse and probably refocus more on condos or
co-ops now one other reason why you should
potentially not buy a townhouse is the issue of lack of light and exposure
many people in new york are very familiar and accustomed to having
properties on say higher floors properties with southern exposure bright
apartments apartments with views a lot of people that's why they're in new york
they like to feel like they have that view and that commanding poise and
position when they're in their home office and such now that's not to say
you cannot get that with the townhouse but
functionally it's a lot harder i mean for starters of course the ground floor
that's a wash that's not something you're you're going to be able to
tolerate if you expect to have you know a bright home
of course you have the parlor level which is typically the most
you know premier and high value area in the townhouse but it's still not
you know that high off the ground we certainly have high ceilings and large
windows and stuff which do bring in a fair bit of light depending on the
exposure but it's still never going to be anywhere remotely close to that high
floor of course you have the higher floors in the townhouse third or fourth
floor you know if you buy a multi-family townhouse and you're okay with a
smallish apartment and you're not looking for like a duplex you could
potentially rent out the lower floors and maybe reside in the highest floor
unit in of course the townhouse so you know there are ways around it but just
to be clear i mean if you are looking for a full-blown
you know loft type of experience with excellent exposure or just maybe a newer
condo building really high floor super bright you know see the sunrise see the
sunset type of thing a townhouse
probably is really not going to do it for you
and of course at the end of the day notwithstanding the benefits of buying a
townhouse we talked about in terms of getting more acreage and more square
footage and more exposure to the asset class you're ultimately going to live
there so you know if it's not bright enough for
you if you don't like the view um if you're afraid of you know critters
and things like that that tend to reside on the ground floor in new york a
townhouse is just not going to be a good idea for you as a primary residence
so there you have it we went through a couple of reasons why you should buy a
townhouse a few reasons why you should not it's ultimately your decision but if
you are looking to buy a townhouse in the city we can help you save money
through our Hauseit Buyer Closing Credit service learn how by visiting
hauseit.com and you can also send an email to team@hauseit.com or give us a
call at 888-494-8258 to discuss your particular
search i'm Nick at Hauseit and we'll see you on the next video