Here is a great article with some eye popping statistics about the growth of Brooklyn markets (courtesy of Gothamist.com).
The Brooklyn Real Estate Bubble Will Never Pop
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Happy to Announce
I am happy to say that I am now a Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker after completing the required course and exam to elevate from a Licensed Salesperson. I want to thank Keith Burkhardt for the opportunity to work with and learn from him these past 5 years. The volume of deals that I have been involved with gave me invaluable experience and has allowed me to further my education and career. Watching his selfless, customer driven manner has taught me what is important to succeed in this industry. Taking pride in your work and continuing to educate one's self in your craft is also key to being a professional. I hope that all the work put in only results in a better experience for our clients.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Calculating Property Taxes using the NYC Department of Finance website
Luckily for today's NYC buyer there is a wonderful thing called StreetEasy... all the important information about an available property from the sales price all the way to the distance in tenths of mile to the nearest subway (I hear they are adding a Whole Foods distance calculator as well :) However, there is something called human error and occasionally information gets inputed incorrectly by the listing agent, or things have changed since the listing was posted - this often happens with property tax figures. Additionally, for the many new developments that have received a tax abatement, how do we figure out what the un-abated taxes would be today? Thankfully NYC makes it pretty easy to figure this out:
1. Visit the Property Benefits page of NYC Dept. of Finance.
2. Unless you have the Block & Lot handy, you will need to "click here to search by address" at the bottom. Enter the address and apartment number (remember to select the correct borough).
3. This is the screen you should see:
Finance Home > Property Portal > Search Property > Exemption Details
4. As you can see this screen has some great information on the property. For our purposes I highlighted the two pertinent figures in red, Assessed Value and Tax Rate. It's interesting to note that in NYC the value assigned to the property for tax purposes by the tax assessor is always significantly different than the actual price (this apartment is worth well over $1 million).
5. To arrive at the annual taxes multiply the Assessed Value by the Tax Rate: $85,532 X .12855 = $10,995/year or $916/month. This amount will always represent the taxes before any benefit or abatement. This particular property has an abatement, let's investigate that...
6. If there is a tax exemption of some kind you will see the line at the bottom of the apartment information. In this case we click on "421A Exemption - Click here to see details." The following screen appears:
Finance Home > Property Portal > Search Property > Exemption Details
7. From this screen we can see the start date, end date, total benefit amount, and also click through to "View Calculation Method" to find out what the taxes should be for each year of the exemption. Most exemptions "step in" after a certain period of time has passed, meaning that the taxes will reach their full value gradually over the course of the abatement.
NYC raises or lowers taxes annually by re-assessing all of the properties, after they have calculated the coming year's tax burden (how much money is needed for schools, police, etc). This means we can't exactly predict what the taxes for a property will be 10 or 20 years from now when an abatement ends. All we can do is see what they would be today (in our example $916/month) if the abatement were gone - a good indicator and point of comparison when deciding whether or not to purchase a property. The purchaser's real estate attorney should also confirm the taxes as part of their due diligence prior to contract signing.
UP NEXT: Using the NYC Department of Buildings information website.
1. Visit the Property Benefits page of NYC Dept. of Finance.
2. Unless you have the Block & Lot handy, you will need to "click here to search by address" at the bottom. Enter the address and apartment number (remember to select the correct borough).
3. This is the screen you should see:
Finance Home > Property Portal > Search Property > Exemption Details
 Printer-friendly |
Property Tax Benefit Information 
Exemptions
Exemptions| Owner Name(s) | XXXXXXXX | |
| Address | XXX MANHATTAN AVENUE | |
| Apartment Number | XX | |
| Zip Code | 11222 | |
| Borough | Brooklyn | |
| Year Built | 2008 | |
| Number of Buildings | 1 | |
| Number of Stories | 8 | |
| Number of Units | 1 | |
| Building Dimensions | 0.00 X 0.00 ( 0 Square Feet) | |
| Lot Size | 156.83 X 91.54 ( 14,356 Square Feet) | |
| Corner | ||
| Building Area | 1,069 Square Feet | |
| Current Tax Year | From July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015 | |
| Building Class | R4 - Condominiums__CONDO UNIT IN ELEVATOR APARTMENT | |
| Tax Class | 2 | |
| Tax Rate | 12.855 % | |
| Market Value | $198,044 | |
| Assessed Value | $85,532 | |
| Proposed Assessed Value | $85,068 | |
| Land Assessed Value | $13,637 | |
| Proposed Land Assessed Value | $13,636 | |
4. As you can see this screen has some great information on the property. For our purposes I highlighted the two pertinent figures in red, Assessed Value and Tax Rate. It's interesting to note that in NYC the value assigned to the property for tax purposes by the tax assessor is always significantly different than the actual price (this apartment is worth well over $1 million).
5. To arrive at the annual taxes multiply the Assessed Value by the Tax Rate: $85,532 X .12855 = $10,995/year or $916/month. This amount will always represent the taxes before any benefit or abatement. This particular property has an abatement, let's investigate that...
6. If there is a tax exemption of some kind you will see the line at the bottom of the apartment information. In this case we click on "421A Exemption - Click here to see details." The following screen appears:
Finance Home > Property Portal > Search Property > Exemption Details
| Printer-friendly |
Property Tax Benefit Information Exemptions
Exemptions
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7. From this screen we can see the start date, end date, total benefit amount, and also click through to "View Calculation Method" to find out what the taxes should be for each year of the exemption. Most exemptions "step in" after a certain period of time has passed, meaning that the taxes will reach their full value gradually over the course of the abatement.
NYC raises or lowers taxes annually by re-assessing all of the properties, after they have calculated the coming year's tax burden (how much money is needed for schools, police, etc). This means we can't exactly predict what the taxes for a property will be 10 or 20 years from now when an abatement ends. All we can do is see what they would be today (in our example $916/month) if the abatement were gone - a good indicator and point of comparison when deciding whether or not to purchase a property. The purchaser's real estate attorney should also confirm the taxes as part of their due diligence prior to contract signing.
UP NEXT: Using the NYC Department of Buildings information website.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Kind Words...
Keith, Christian and Lance,
Thank you for guidance and support during our home search. We're delighted to be moving to [Downtown Brooklyn condo] and are looking forward to living high above Downtown Brooklyn! The Burkhardt Team never let us down during our search and was always ready to make a call, send an email or meet us a property (sometimes more than once!) We were impressed by everyone's work, and are particularly happy that we had the chance to work with Christian the last several months. His calm, professional and friendly manner helped us always feel like were in good hands.
Thank you for guidance and support during our home search. We're delighted to be moving to [Downtown Brooklyn condo] and are looking forward to living high above Downtown Brooklyn! The Burkhardt Team never let us down during our search and was always ready to make a call, send an email or meet us a property (sometimes more than once!) We were impressed by everyone's work, and are particularly happy that we had the chance to work with Christian the last several months. His calm, professional and friendly manner helped us always feel like were in good hands.
We hope to work with the team again in the future....just not in the too near future! We'd like to settle in to this place for a couple of years before scratching our itch to move to the next place! :-)
Take care, and best wishes for a successful 2015!
Tom and David
Keith, Christian, and Lance,
Wendy and I just wanted to sincerely thank you for all of your patience, help, and advice these last several years during our NYC house hunt. You guys saved us from a few poorly thought through purchases (thanks Keith and Christian!) and have truly earned our trust and respect. We both feel lucky to have had you guys as our agents. If/when we move on to our next real estate deal in NYC, we will certainly be contacting you guys again.
-Steve
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
The Burkhardt Group has a New Website!
Please have a look at our new and improved site. I think it's sleek and relays all the pertinent info about what we do!
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Don't Worry, Be Happy!
A nice piece from Bloomberg on Optimism and it's effect on markets and our future. Certainly a lot of optimism in the NYC Real Estate market over the last two years!
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Happy New Year!
I just wanted to say thank you to all our wonderful clients who we were able to help purchase their homes in 2014. Looking forward to making more dreams come true in the coming year!
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