How to Buy a Townhouse in NYC (2020) | Hauseit®

Buying a Townhouse in NYC. Learn more: hauseit.com/buying-a-townhouse-nyc/

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When Do Most Houses Go on the Market?

If you’re lucky enough to be able to buy your own townhouse in New York City, then you’ll be one of the few New Yorkers who won’t have to deal with neighbors or board members.
You’ll never have to worry about internal politics or condo or co-op board fines and rules. Given how small minded some people can be, it’s a great relief to be able to be the master of your own house.

However, buying a townhouse is NYC is akin to buying your typical, free-standing house in the suburbs. You won’t have a managing agent to handle the management of the property so you’ll be responsible for all of the maintenance and repairs. That means you’ll be responsible for calling and hiring contractors to get the boiler fixed, to repair the roof and so on.

Furthermore, you’ll have to keep a close eye on how fast your property taxes are rising. In a typical condo or co-op building, the managing agent will hire a law firm specializing in tax certiorari to dispute property taxes on behalf of the entire building.

Buying a townhouse in NYC may mean that you have to hire a tax certiorari firm yourself or go through the complex process yourself.

If you’re buying a single-family townhouse, you should double check the Certificate of Occupancy for the property to confirm that the building is designated for single family occupancy.

We recommend buying a townhouse that is already certified for single family occupancy vs. looking for a multi-family townhouse to convert to a single family home. The latter process involves significant amounts of time, money, renovations, patience and changing the building’s Certificate of Occupancy.

Changing a building’s Certificate of Occupancy can open up a whole new can of worms if the building needs to be brought up to code. For example, applying for a change of CO could mean that you’ll now need to install a sprinkler system across the building which was previously not required.

What about a multi-family townhouse?

Buying a multi-family townhouse can be a great investment in New York City. You’ll be able to live in one of the units if you wish, and keep a close eye on your tenants renting out the other units.

Besides the ability to earn rental income from a relatively stable asset vs the stock market, buying investment property in NYC comes with many other great benefits such as the ability to expense almost any costs associated with the property.

For example, assuming a property is fully rented out and you are not living in any of the units, you may be able to deduct the mortgage interest, property taxes, property insurance premiums, cost of maintenance and repair against your rental income. Furthermore, residential property investors can fully depreciate their cost basis over 27.5 years.

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