Using the Internet To Manage, Locate, Investigate and Increase the Value of Real Estate. By Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq and Colin Kaufman, Esq.

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1 Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq. Colin E. Kaufman, Esq. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. 26 Broadway, 21 st Floor New York, NY Tel: Fax: Using the Internet To Manage, Locate, Investigate and Increase the Value of Real Estate By Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq and Colin Kaufman, Esq. Use of the internet is a necessity for today s property investor or manager. While it does not replace traditional research skills, the internet and the resources available on it permit a speed and breadth of research unimaginable just a few years ago. CAVEAT: The websites listed here are used by us in our practice. However, since we have no control over their content, we take no responsibility for their accuracy or currency of information. Information about laws and regulations is no substitute for consultation with a lawyer specializing in this area. Basic Internet Tools To Find Anything About Everything On the Internet 1. Internet Connection a) Four components: i) Computer (1) Speed v. storage v. RAM (2) convenience v cost v power ii) Operating System (1) e.g. Windows (many flavors), Linux, Sparc iii) Line (1) dial up (2) DSL (3) T-1 (4) fiberoptic, dish, etc iv) browser a software application which permits the user to interact graphically with the web (1) Most popular: Internet Explorer (2) most versatile: (IMHO) Mozilla (3) may need/want more than one (Netscape, Opera, Firefox, AOL Explorer, Apple Safari ) (a) (b)

2 2. Basic Tools a) Search engines i) E.g. Google (by far the most popular and usually the most useful), Yahoo Windows Live Lycos Clusty (for more, see b) Meta-search i) E.g. Dogpile Webcrawler metacrawler surfwax search.com ii) New and interesting: goshme.com refers searcher to specialized search engines iii) One of the best, (I think) is A9 which allows a single search for web, books, images c) General drill-down databases a/k/a directories i) E.g. About.com Yahoo Directory The Open Directory Project d) Specific topical databases (many not indexed by spiderbots from the search engines) i) E.g. New York State Corporate Listings ii) NYS Professional Licenses iii) New York City Administrative Decisions 3. Using Search Engines a) Search strategy i) Where do you want to end up (1) Searching for general information about an area/topic/person (2) searching for specific information (3) seeking to confirm ii) What particular search areas do you want to query (1) General v. specific iii) Query language(s) (1) Go to Help (2) Always use Advanced Search until you are familiar with the search engine iv) Refining or expanding your query (1) Add or subtract terms (2) Alternate spellings

3 (3) Other search engines (4) Specialized searches b) Maximizing internet searches, i) Query Construction (1) structure (2) choice of words (3) stemming (4) quotes ii) Pay attention to the supported grammar of the engines (1) operators (2) advanced v basic search Due Diligence on a Property 1. Due Diligence: Navigating the Internet to Locate and Learn About Property a) Finding investment properties i) Using the internet to find property (1) establish criteria (a) geographic location (i) neighborhood (b) last sale price (c) comparables (d) zoning ii) Online News (1) More General (a) NY Times Real Estate (b) NY Post Real Estate (c) NY Sun Real Estate (2) Real Estate Oriented (a) The Real Deal (b) StreetEasy (c) Costar Group NYC Commerical Real Estate News (d) Wall Street Journal, Real Estate Journal (e) NY Observer Real Estate and (f) The Cooperator (g) New YorK Magazine Real Estate (3) Buildings and facilities (a) Today s Facility Manager (b) Buildings.com

4 iii) Blogs (Web logs) (1) find at (2) (3) (4) iv) RE Searches (1) every broker (2) Citifeet: CommercialRealEstate.aspx?PartnerPath=& v) NYC Lien Sale Notices es vi) Business Improvement Districts (1) 125 th Street: (2) Columbus Avenue (3) Grand Central (4) Times Square: (5) Downtown Alliance: (6) Lower East Side: (7) Full listing of BID s: or 2. Decisional law i) Lexis (subscription), hform (free but very limited) ii) Westlaw (subscription) iii) Findlaw Hieros Gamos and guide/states/new_york.htm iv) OCA online search (Supreme Civil and some Supreme Criminal) CASE.show_parms v) New York Official Reports (Court of Appeals, Appellate Divisions, some trial court decisions) CH vi) Great general legal source vii) American Law Sources onlone

5 3. Statutes and Regulations i) NYS laws ii) NYC Building Code and updates iii) NYC Electrical Code iv) NYC Index (by Topic) to Selected Department of Building Directives, Memoranda, Policy & Procedure Notices and Interpretations 1. v) Rent Stabilization Code vi) Emergency Tenant Protection Regulations and vii) Selected DOB Rules and Reference Standards viii) Current New York City Administrative Decisions: 4. Governmental Agencies a) US Government portal b) NYS portal c) NYC portal and (to search) xml_no_dtd&site=default_collection&ie=utf-8&oe=utf- 8&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&ip= &proxycustom=%3cadvanced/%3e d) HUD: e) NYS DHCR f) NYC Board of Standards & Appeals: g) NYC Council Land Use: h) NYC Dept of City Planning i) Zoning Maps ii) Zoning Text iii) Land Use Application Status i) Department of Buildings i) DOB Building Information System bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp j) NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal k) NYC Rent Guidelines Board l) NYC Environmental Control Board

6 m) NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission n) Worker s Compensation Board Forms o) Useful Items Not Available on the Internet as of Date of Lecture (1) Housing Court Decisions (2) Title Reports (3) Lis Pendens (there are some commercial services; we have not used them and therefore cannot recommend them) (4) Department of Housing and Community Renewal decisions and judgments Purchase Information 1. General Property Shark (free and subscription) Real Estate Board of NY (subscription) 2. Other addresses for the premises a) NYC Housing Preservation & Development 3. Sales prices a) Top Real Estate Brokers in Area b) Comparable Sales Prices i) Real Estate Board of NY (subscription) ii) Property Shark iii) Zillow iv) Real Estate ABC v) Home Price Records c) Recorded Documents ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System) Property Shark d) Number of floors Property Shark e) Year built/pre-war/post War Property Shark f) Elevator/Walkup Property Shark g) Floor plans brokers (also search building for old listings, retrieve cached pages) h) Locating a Seller ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System) Property Shark p) Determining Information About a Property

7 i) Owner (1) HPD Registration (2) Deed/filed leases ACRIS (3) Who is paying taxes NYC Department of Finance ii) Managing agent HPD Registration iii) Taxes (1) Amount of taxes: NYC Department of Finance PropertyShark iv) Certificate of Occupancy (1) NYC Department of Buildings v) Information on Neighborhood, city and street (1) NYC Office of Operations My Neighborhood Statistics (2) Infoshare (extremely detailed census information) (3) Map/Graphical info and/or vi) Ownership history and information to contact owner vii) Documents filed with County Clerk ACRIS viii) Filed Liens ACRIS ix) Legal and administrative decisions OATH New York City Administrative Decisions x) Legal descriptions (i.e., metes & bounds) ACRIS xi) Mortgages (filed) ACRIS xii) Past and Outstanding Violations (1) Open Violations HPD Registration (2) Department of Buildings, Building Information Services (BIS) xiii) Boiler Information xiv) Emergency repairs HPD Registration xv) Landmark Status (1) NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (2) NYC Department of Buildings

8 (3) Property Shark xvi) Job Permits (1) Department of Buildings, Building Information Services (BIS) xvii) Elevator Records (Inspection and Violation) 5. Maps & photos i) Pictures of Property (1) Google Earth (free download at ) satellite, some aerial change POV (2) Windows Live (map, aerial, satellite change POV) (3) A9 (maps, street level) (4) Google Maps (map & satellite) (5) Yahoo Local Maps (Beta) (map & satellite) (6) Mapquest (maps) (7) MSN Maps (8) Microsoft Terraserver (aerial, topographic) (9) US Geological Survey Maps (a) Multiple overlays The Internet Is Not A Panacea 1. Why the internet is not enough a) Many sites are not monitored by anyone for correctness b) Sites/pages may not be updated 2. What else you have to do (minimally) a) Title report b) Engineer report c) Inspection of premises d) Rent roll, financials e) Walk-around Determining A Tenant s Primary Residence 1. Illegal Sublet and Non-Primary Residence Cases a) Building a Case i) Hire a good lawyer ii) Hire a PI iii) Tools (1) Zaba Search (free + purchase) \ (2) MerlinData (subscription)

9 (3) PeopleFinders (free + purchase) (4) US Search (free + purchase) (5) KnowX (purchase) (6) Date of birth (not all and not always easy to determine by name: (7) Reverse directories if you have an address or telephone number (a) Langenberg.com (b) Skiptools (c) Infospace and (d) Netscape (e) Infobel and 2. Researching a Person a) Always do one or more general searches b) Public records directories: i) Search Systems ii) BRB Publications iii) PublicRecordFinder.com iv) c) Department of Motor Vehicles i) Beware the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) CONSULT A LAWYER (1) Text: (2) Civil & criminal penalties for violation ii) Need MV-15GC Authorization for Release of Personal Information plus iii) MV-15 Request for Driving and/or Vehicle Record Information d) Property Address i) Same investigation as above, however local governmental agencies e) Social Security i) Usually unavailable f) Voting Records i) NYC Board of Elections ii) Check in all jurisdictions suspected to be primary residence g) Campaign contributions i) Opensecrets.org ii) Political Moneyline iii) Campaignmoney.com iv) NYS Board of Elections

10 v) Other State (reference articles) and h) Banking send her a refund check i) Licensed professions licensing authority, disciplinary authority NOTE: Noodling on the net is not a substitute for professional help. You are going to need a lawyer sooner or later and he or she should know how to do, or at least to supervise an investigation. He or she should also know enough not to run afoul of local, state and federal privacy laws; you may not and could end up in trouble, criminally or civilly. What is set forth above is a general outline of some initial steps you may want to take before retaining a professional.

DUE DILIGENCE REPORT

DUE DILIGENCE REPORT 362-370 W. 125 TH STREET NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 BLOCK 1951 LOT 7 HPD MULTIPLE DWELLING REGISTRATION #: 39508 DHCR REGISTRATION IDENTIFICATION #: N/A PREPARED FOR MONARCH REALTY HOLDINGS,