Featuring real estate articles and information to help real estate buyers and sellers. The Nest features writings from Georges Benoliel and other real estate professionals. Georges is the Co-Founder of NestApple and has been working as an active real estate investor for over a decade.
Nicole Fishman Benoliel co-founded NestApple in 2017. She's a lawyer admitted to the New York bar - her law degree is from La Escuela Libre de Derecho in Costa Rica, with further study at IE Business School in Madrid and an LLM from Fordham in New York. She does not act in a legal capacity at NestApple; every client is referred to an attorney who handles real estate deals full time.
Quick answer: Before you make an offer on an NYC apartment, check five free city sites beyond ACRIS: DOB BIS for building violations and complaints, HPD Online for landlord history and housing court cases, ZoLa for zoning, FloodHelpNY for flood… Read More
Quick answer: ACRIS is New York City’s free property records database, covering Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx from 1966 to today. No login, no fee, at a836-acris.nyc.gov. It will also test your patience. Co-op sales often show no price.… Read More
Quick answer: ACRIS covers deeds, mortgages, and liens, but it doesn’t touch building violations, illegal work, zoning limits, flood risk, or contamination history. For that you need a handful of other city and federal databases: DOB NOW for permits and… Read More
Quick answer: A cooperative apartment lien search is a public records check your attorney orders to confirm the seller’s co-op shares and proprietary lease aren’t tied up by debt. Because co-op shares are personal property, not real estate, they aren’t… Read More
Quick answer: eAccessNY is New York State’s official portal for real estate license records, run by the NY Department of State. Anyone can use the free Public License Search to check a broker or agent’s license. It shows whether the… Read More
Quick answer: Westchester County doesn’t use ACRIS. Its property records are maintained by the Westchester County Clerk’s Land Records Division and are searchable through a separate portal called Westchester Records Online (WRO) at wro.westchesterclerk.com. You can search deeds and mortgages by… Read More
Quick answer: RP-5217, the Real Property Transfer Report, is a New York State form. It must be filed with every deed recorded in the state, including NYC. This report feeds the state’s property assessment data. It is not a tax… Read More
Quick answer: You can look up any NYC property’s tax bill for free through the Department of Finance’s Property Tax Bills and Payments portal, using either the address or the property’s BBL (borough-block-lot) number. The same BBL is what links… Read More
Quick answer: New York’s pied-à-terre tax is a new annual surcharge on non-primary-residence properties in NYC — houses over $5 million and condos/co-ops over $1 million — effective July 1, 2026. Rates range from 0.8% to 6.5% of the full… Read More
Learn how a real estate rebate works, how much you can save, and whether it’s legal and tax-free — plus how NestApple pays buyers up to 2% back at closing.
The biggest ways to save money buying a house are a commission rebate, shopping your mortgage, negotiating seller credits, cutting the taxes you can, and using first-time buyer programs. On a $1 million home, the rebate alone can be $10,000… Read More
NJ closing costs split differently between the parties: buyers usually pay loan, title, inspection, survey and escrow charges, while sellers pay the Realty Transfer Fee and, for covered transfers over $1 million, a 1% to 3.5% Graduated Percent Fee. New… Read More
A mortgage co signer signs the loan with the borrower and takes on full legal responsibility for repaying it, usually needing a credit score of 620 or higher. They get no ownership and aren’t on the deed. The loan appears… Read More
FROG stands for finished room over garage. It’s a heated, finished space above an attached garage, used as an office, playroom, guest room or gym. It is not automatically a bedroom: that needs 70 square feet, a 7 foot ceiling… Read More
A patio home is a small single-family house on a zero lot line: it sits directly against at least one boundary of its plot, inside a development run by a homeowners association. You own the house and the land under… Read More
