The Right Way to Comparison Shop for your New Home

Ever wonder why prices for similar property for sale vary so widely?

Or why similar apartments for rent in Brooklyn could have such a wide range?  What could make one apartment or property more valuable than the other?

If price is supposed to imply value, should we assume that any property for sale or apartment for rent in Brownstone Brooklyn is offered according to what their worth?

Knowing the price of something and its value are two different things.

And since value is determined best by doing a side by side comparison, what’s the best way to shop for your new home in Brooklyn?

Measuring value

If you’re sporting a shoe size like mine, you may have an idea what 2 feet can cost for a new pair at the shoe store.

But as far as real estate goes, there’s only one way to compare apples to apples; Price per Square Feet.

With hundreds of apartments and properties available in Brownstone Brooklyn, people have traditionally evaluated offers solely by one criteria: Decor.

Home buyers make this mistake more than apartment hunters, but all are equally guilty of committing the same offense.

Being swayed by what’s bright, shiny and new is often the first sign that your overpaying to live in your new home.

Calculating Price per Square Feet

Instead of the right side of your brain being influenced by the feng shui of the space,  allow the left side to have its say by using this simple calculation.

Using the Price per Square Feet calculation will make it easier to compare the cost for each place you consider making your new home, right down to the cost for every square foot you’ll be living in.

For example, let’s look how much a property for sale costs that you’ve seen that you want to make an offer to buy.

You’ve viewed a 2 family house in Bushwick, Brooklyn where the asking price is $495,000.

You know the home offers 3,600 square feet.

After doing this simple calculation, you’ll learn the Price per Square Feet for this property is $137.50.

Now that you know what the seller and agent believe the value of a 12 inch by 12 inch is in the above example, that alone won’t help you make an offer until you’ve compared that house alongside others using the same calculation.

Can Price per Square Feet help my Apartment Search?

Absolutely.  In fact, I think using the PSF calculation as a side by side comparison shopping method in your apartment search will help you get more apartment for your money.  And here’s why…

You’ll compare the Rent to what the unit offers based on Price, Size and Amenities

Just because the landlord asking the most to rent their apartment in Brooklyn doesn’t mean their offering you more than other comparable apartments to live there.

In case you weren’t aware, pricing apartment rentals in Brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods is poorly done by most Landlords and Agents without much of a process.

Basically, landlords quote the rent they want for their vacant unit and Agent’s attempt to get the renting public to pay it.  This makes for a largely inefficient apartment rental market in…

• Bedford Stuyvesant
• Prospect Lefferts Gardens
• Fort Greene
• Bushwick
• East New York
• Brownsville
• Crown Heights
• Prospect Heights
• Clinton Hill

Savvy apartment hunters can use this to their advantage by applying the PSF calculation in their comparison shopping for their new place.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering how the hell you’re going to calculate and compare all this information by hand and make a decision to buy or lease before someone jumps on the opportunity before you.  Not to worry.

Right after we release our Foreclosure Short Sale E-Book

We’ll be adding some tools here to help you buy and rent right the first time.

In fact, I’m betting as soon as you get your hands on our home comparison shopping tools, you’ll be subscribing  to My Brooklyn Report to get email updates on topics about buying, selling, owning and renting in Brownstone Brooklyn as often as we publish.

So if this has been informative and helpful, we’d appreciate you sharing with others on Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon (heck, we’ve even made it easy to bookmark it on Delicious).

See you back here soon .