Our Services
For Renters
Your lease may be up, and your landlord is asking for an exorbitant increase. You may be relocating to New York. You may be expanding your family.
New York City’s rental market is fast-paced, deceptive, and expensive. Its rooms are too dark, its kitchens too small, its intercoms don’t work. Two bedrooms online transform into one bedrooms in-person. Asking rents increase 20% within one year. Prospective tenants compete for closets. The money you spend on a month of rent could get you a round trip to Japan, hotel included.
Acknowledging these realities, our Highline team is street-savvy and client-driven. On your first appointment, we ask you: What is your lifestyle? Your budget? Your priorities? We place you with a Highline agent who is an expert on your target neighborhood. Our agent hunts, as tirelessly as Frodo Baggins, for your dream space. Unlike other agents, we take care to view properties beforehand, and do not waste your time showing properties that don’t match your expectations. Because providing the right support makes all the difference.
In its agents, Highline values certain qualities: ethics, talent, intelligence, and generosity. Highline agents are selectively hand-picked, and better supported than any other agents in the city. Our proprietary technological platform allows us to research properties in a uniquely accurate and exhaustive manner. We communicate with clients round-the-clock using a modern, multimedia support system.
Our company commitment is to provide a transparent and effective rental process. We are proud to service a large number of dedicated, repeat customers.
For Buyers
“Will I get a better deal on an un-renovated unit?
“What’s my timeline?”
“Will I pass a Co-op board approval process?”
As a buyer in New York City, you are making a unique kind of choice. Few financial commitments are quite as large as the purchase of property. In addition to finding the best home, you have a vision regarding your investment. Whether you intend to sell the property in five years, or your family will own it for generations; whether this is a rentable property or not: you are expecting a return.
The soundness of your investment depends on the acquisition moment (the purchase price), your cost of money, and your future plans. Highline will assist you in preparing a 10 year financial model for your investment. Our agents are skillful financial advisors. We evaluate your current finances, future budget, property holding strategy, and expected return on investment. This analysis allows us to understand your personal and financial objectives.
Highline agents further assist you in deciding what kind of property to buy. We build detailed property comparable charts, customized to hone in on what matters most to you. Different neighborhoods; Ownership types and owner rights; whether the unit’s building has an underlying mortgage; the break-up of common fees and real-estate taxes; whether there is a tax abatement; and so forth. Maintenance fees vary widely, and are only comparable based on additional building data. We go the extra step to gather property data through several city websites. Highline believes that empowering our clients, and allowing them to be more knowledgeable than other buyers, makes them smarter investors and more competitive bidders.
Beyond analysis, our property search process is hands-on and practical. Highline agents have intimate market knowledge, and know offhand of new developments, and current and upcoming market listings. We take care to examine properties before showing them, and specialize in particular neighborhoods and property types. We minimize your physical time in the street, only showing properties that fit your lifestyle demands.
Our work does not end when we find your dream home. We nurture the deal, helping you through the negotiation process; legal process; financial process; co-op process. Our agents are experienced, shrewd deal-closers. Finding a deal is only the beginning of an increasingly supportive client-agent relationship. We help bring the puzzle together, dealing properly with unexpected occurrences, and efficiently communicating with all parties to avoid time delays.
For Sellers
A seller nowadays is in a tough position: Contradictory pricing advice; stalled timing; market volatility. Upon finding a prospective buyer, success remains distant. The buyer needs to be scrutinized: Is she for real? Will my building accept her?
One seller approach—the more common approach—is trial and error. Sellers wait a certain amount of time and drop their prices; change agents; leave and return to market. Sellers make and lose buyer commitments. They replace furniture, renovate their master bathrooms. They anticipate calls for their ads. They upgrade their ads. More than anything, sellers wait and hope.
To sell a property effectively, the seller’s agent has to be a talented businessman. He needs to have an intelligent, active sales strategy that avoids trial and error. If your agent is not a unique individual, fire him.
What in reality is your agent doing for you? What’s his time expense? How much does he promote your property? Does he hire a graphic designer to build modern, attractive ads? Does he passively wait for phone calls, or does he go to networking events every evening? Will he hold your buyer? Do you trust him?
Highline agents concentrate on packaging and promoting your property, including: valuating, advertising, staging, and negotiating. Regardless of whether your property is unique or standard, representation plays a huge role in demonstrating your property’s value, and achieving your desired price. Marketing a property is no different than marketing a pair of pants or a toothpaste: the prospective buyer subscribes to a concept, a lifestyle, a brand, a solution.
Highline’s sales team knows how to distinguish your property. Our agents are aware of the current demands of the market: what properties are hot, what buyers want, what units are common and need to be individualized in order to sell. We are cognizant of the fluctuations of your local neighborhood as well as of the larger city landscape: who you are competing against, and how they are doing it. On the basis of this research, Highline agents identify, brand, and project your property’s best qualities for a targeted audience. Our agents advise you on furnishing and renovation with an eye to the most effective, value-added improvements. We create marketing material in your target audience’s visual and verbal language. Our graphics designer, brand specialist, and cutting-edge website technology make your property truly stand out.
Highline’s superior presentation allows us to firmly stand by mid to high-end prices. We do not under-value your property in order to sell easily. Neither do our properties languish on the market. Our sales agents are carefully chosen for unwavering time commitment, energy, and interpersonal skills. We emphasize the psychology of maintaining long-term, committed relationships with real buyers. Our agents are also well versed in the financial and legal knowledge required to assist both the seller and the buyer, expedite the process, and get the deal done.
Selling a property requires self-motivated business acumen, and huge drive. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many months of time, are the loss/gain difference between the results of standard and superior strategy. Highline agents concentrate on packaging and promoting your property, including: speaking, valuating, advertising, staging, and negotiating. Regardless of whether your property is beautiful or sub-par, representation plays a huge role in demonstrating your property’s value, and achieving your desired price. Marketing a property is no different than marketing a pair of pants or a toothpaste: the prospective buyer subscribes to a concept, a lifestyle, a brand, a solution.
For Landlords
You might own a condo unit, a 6-unit townhouse, or a high-rise rental property. You might self-manage or hire a managing agent. You might rent your own units out, hire an in-house rental team, or have a relationship with a brokerage. You are a New York City landlord, and we are your best partner. This is why:
Highline’s rental agents are smarter, faster, and more sophisticated than agents at other firms. Our agents are trained by both property managers and brokers. We understand the fundamentals of what makes your building tick. When we approach an apartment in your building, we don’t just see 300 square feet on 28th Street with no elevator. We understand the fundamental issues you deal with, and the objectives you seek to achieve.
At Highline, we understand the importance of controlling one important aspect of a landlord’s business: The tenant body. When leasing units, your foremost concern is to avoid vacancy loss. Our agents rent most standard apartments within two weeks. In a small building, even a small vacancy loss makes a large hole in the cash flow.
However, we also believe that high quality—paying, law-abiding, quiet, clean—residents, are the foundation of a profitable, well-run building. All too often, landlords do not pay sufficient attention to their choice of residents. They merge leasing with their general management affairs. As a result, they do not consistently rent to reliable residents, and have longer vacancy periods, and rent loss. Our agents have years of experience in carefully choosing quality residents.
A simple example: A mid-range rental in Brooklyn Heights has a new tenant. He pays rent regularly, but goes to work one day and leaves his tub faucet on. He floods his bathroom. The water breaks through the ceilings of several bathrooms below him. The landlord pays $35,000 to fix the apartments. He sues this tenant, to no avail.
Vetting potential residents is our career, our obsession. A resident is both the basis of your profit, and a liability. Highline agents are trained to conduct rigorous credit and background checks.
We are careful to call multiple references, employers, and prior landlords. We ask for bank statements, tax returns, and employment letters. Our investment lies in our relationship with the landlord. We’d rather not make the money from a rental deal than ruin our credibility by referring a bad tenant.
For Developers
Feasibility Analysis
Property Due Diligence
Development Planning – Unit Mix, Unit Sizes, Unit Layouts
Design & Architecture services
Contracting services
The Brand
Develop a marketing plan
Create marketing materials, brochures, videos, website, signage, etc
Hire public relations firm to get maximum exposure
Staging & Branding
The Finances
Financial Modeling, Budgeting, and Forecasting
Unit pricing based on market analysis
The Broker
Sales representative – Property showings & Inspections
Identifying qualified buyers
Negotiation with qualified buyers
Manage entire legal process
Closing