1. Decide How Much You Want To Invest.  There are too many properties for you to start looking without a budget.  The easiest and quickest way to make your investment ceiling too low is to pay too much money for your property. 

2. Don’t Do It Yourself.  Investing In New York City is not something you should start by yourself.  Make sure you enlist the advice and assistance of professionals to help you get the best return on your money.  Make sure you find a real estate broker to help you with your search.  You’ll also need the services of a real estate attorney to aide you in your transaction and perform due diligence on the building and contracts.  They are there to help and protect you, you’ll typically have to pay your attorney fees but the seller will cover the broker’s commission. 

3. Location.  This could have been rule number 1.  In real estate the location of the property is one of the most important factors in getting the best return.  New York City has a number of “good” neighborhoods so you’ll have some different options depending on your budget.

4. Quality.  You’ll remember the price when you buy, but the quality will help with rental return and eventual resale value.  If you have a million dollar budget it makes sense to get the absolute best property you can get for that million dollars.    

5. Find A Home.  You have to picture yourself or a friend being able to comfortably live in and enjoy the apartment.  If you can’t picture somebody enjoying the apartment, how do you expect to ever rent to tenants or sell the property again.

6. Action.  Waiting for the market to get to the bottom is not a smart investing strategy you’ll end up catching the market on the upside 99.99% of the time.  Pay attention to the cycles and buy when it makes sense for you.   

7. Buy Low, Sell High.  This is the most basic investment rule out there.  Make sure you treat real estate like a long term investment.  Just like any other investment I will advise you to monitor the value of your investment within the market.  In today’s market look for deals below fair market value and plan to hold them until they are above market value.

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