The Apple Peeled
The Apple Peeled is our proprietary, long-running newsletter delivered once-per-month right to your inbox. We gather everything you need to know about real estate and other worldly happenings that may affect the market and report them in an easy-to-digest format. In this everchanging world we’re in, there’s nothing quite like keeping our buyers and sellers armed with timely information that can dictate whether or not transacting right now makes sense for them.
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Latest articles
Your Ready-to-Sell To-Do List
As we gear up for what is shaping up to be a strong 2022 selling season, we've been getting many inquiries of ways our buyers can start the process of getting their homes in the right shape to sell so there's less work, and ultimately less to stress about later on when that time comes. We wish...
October 2021 in NYC Real Estate
Ten months into 2021, the number of real estate transactions in Manhattan continued to rise across all property types. At the same time, the number of listings rose again for the second consecutive month. While all types of properties showed annual gains this month, condos have been leading the...
Ask the Experts + At the Core
Archives
October 2021 in NYC Real Estate
Ten months into 2021, the number of real estate transactions in Manhattan continued to rise across all property types. At the same time, the number of listings rose again for the second consecutive month. While all types of properties showed annual gains this month, condos have been leading the...
The History & Evolution of E|A
Marie Espinal and Jeff Adler have been on a long professional journey together, where throughout it all, one thing remains constant: their drive to improve the industry for the benefit of the client. This fall, amidst the unpredictable markets of a world navigating the recovery of an unprecedented...
September 2021 in NYC Real Estate
Has Miami dethroned New York as the most expensive housing market in the nation? Not quite, but it has surpassed Los Angeles to claim second position and is nipping at our heels, according to RealtyHop’s latest data, which factors median home prices against median incomes to form the rankings....
James Stanley NY Improves The Industry
Real estate and construction go hand in hand, which is why ESPINAL|ADLER maintains a long-term relationship with James Stanley and his design/build firm James Stanley NY. With a background in engineering, design, and architecture and decades of hands-on experience, James knows the industry—and has...
August 2021 in NYC Real Estate
August was a roller coaster of a month, but the good news is we’re heading back towards equilibrium. Of course, data suggests we can count on Manhattan to break the mold with its unwavering allure regardless of what’s happening in the rest of New York or the nation. Manhattan’s signed contract...
15-year vs. 30-year Mortgages
This month we're featuring an easy-to-digest audio format for our Molingo (mortgage lingo) section of The Apple Peeled. This month's conversation features a conversation with Matt Jablonski and Marie Espinal, where they discuss financial situations when it may make more sense to go with 30-year...
All about Appraisals
This month we're shifting to an easy-to-digest audio format for our Molingo (Mortgage Lingo) section of The Apple Peeled. This month's conversation features Q+A with Al Rapoport, SVP at Cross Country Mortgage, on everything you need to know about appraisals, and what to do when appraisals come in...
A Deeper Dive into 108 Leonard
We are thrilled to announce that ESPINAL|ADLER is now the exclusive broker for 108 Leonard, the stunning 167-home luxury residence born from McKim Mead & White’s landmarked Clock Tower Building in the heart of Tribeca. Using the synergy between Jeff Adler’s qualitative nature and Marie...
July 2021 in NYC Real Estate
New York is back, baby! And if you’ve been toying with the idea, now is the time to buy. The demand stream in the market is steady, which means you’ll have some competition, but there is inventory out there and mortgage rates won’t stay this low forever. All of this demand (some experts are saying...
Post-Pandemic with Inez Gomez
Don’t let her short tenure as a licensed real estate salesperson fool you into thinking Inez Gomez doesn’t know the ins and outs of New York real estate. With more than 16 years of mortgage banking under her belt, this NYC native knows homes and she knows finance. In this Ask The Experts...
June 2021 in NYC Real Estate
Can you believe it? The year following the largest disruption of our lifetime is just half over, and the resurgence we’ve seen in the City has been nothing short of phenomenal. Not to mention a huge relief. The one thing it’s not? A surprise, in the least bit. Perseverance is the standard...
Are FHA Loans Appropriate in NYC?
In this space I often try to provide a perspective that would be difficult to find published anywhere else, mostly because the subject of mortgage finance just isn’t stimulating enough to attract an audience. For most people, it’s a boring subject that you only really care about 4-6x in your life...
Can You Hear Me Now?
The average real estate agent has more conversation partners per year than non-agents. That must be true. Last week, we averaged over 157 conversations per day, give or take. Some were routine arrangement-making conversations, but other conversations were more complex and required advanced...
Timing the Market in Westchester
The math says homeowners in suburbs like Westchester County have all the leverage and they might earn a small fortune if they sold their home now. But some people haven’t had time to figure out where they’d go if they sold. Fortune favors the bold. What’s bold? Timing the market perfectly and...
Property Searching with Preston Maguire
Team members never know the questions in advance, and they’re never told that they’re being interviewed until the moment of the interview. Once asked, they are given up to 60 seconds to think about and answer each question. These are their candid answers, surely the closest any real estate...
Concessions and Club Sandwiches
There are a lot of layers in every mortgage transaction. It’s at least a club sandwich. The seller’s concession is one of them. Maybe it’s the bacon. Since sandwich humor can only take me so far, let’s get back to basics. The seller’s concession is a very effective tool that can help put a lot of...
Somebody Went and Changed the URLA
“It’s a train wreck,” one seasoned loan officer told me of the mortgage industry’s new Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). “It’s a nightmare,” said another. Personally, I’m not sure what to think quite yet. Perhaps it’s a nightmare about a train wreck, but I’m totally open to the...
Manhattan Real Estate is on Fire. The Good Kind of On Fire.
February heated the hell out of the New York City real estate market. Anecdotally, several of our clients were operating with a heightened sense of urgency because they found themselves bidding against several other parties. It seems like less than a month ago when nobody bid up to asking price,...
Negotiating with E|A Partner, Marie Espinal
Apple Peeled Question: Do New York City real estate negotiations ever get contentious? Are they always professional? Espinal: They 100% can get contentious. What is most unrealized both on the sell side and the buy-side, what’s just as important as your negotiation skillset is and your level of...
Demand Not So Pent-Up Anymore
All the pent-up Demand showed up, and it might have just kicked down the door. That’s the sensation we’re getting anyway. There’s a new energy in Manhattan and it’s palpable, at least inside the actively listed condo and coop units that weren’t used to having visitors before the holidays. In...
Ambush Q&A with Jeff Adler
Question #1: From a qualitative standpoint, what is something that home buyers don’t think about enough during their search for a home? Adler response: The age and quality of the finishes and appliances. They don’t think about that enough. Which is why it’s good to have us. Question #2: Sunlight...
Why Does 625,500 Ring a Bell?
Six Twenty-Five, Five Hundred. Oh man! That’s a number I used to have to remember. I saw that number on a screen the other day, and it felt like I found an old memory I lost somewhere in the back corner of my brain like a tchotchke in a bin in the attack. 625,500. Damn. I haven’t said that number...
Study: Mortgage Bankers Kill 133 Trees
In just my first year in the mortgage business, just a little after the turn of the century, me and the people I worked with killed over 133 trees. Usually, people are all “Loosey-Goosey” when they throw around numbers like that, fudging stats to prove whatever point they’re trying to make at the...
Technically Speaking
We’ve always thought technology was sexy as hell. Even the packaging is hot. And we love that new phone smell! Sure, technology has its flaws… For instance, human beings, in general, would probably be in better harmony with one another if social media was erased from our memories and from...