Through the pandemic, Margy Waller joined a weekly Zoom name together with her closest associates from her school days at Northwestern College. Three lived on the Higher West Aspect of Manhattan, and one was in Pittsburgh. Ms. Waller would log in from her hometown of Cincinnati, the place she’d returned in 2009 after years of working in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
“These calls made me assume severely about being nearer to those individuals, who’re my best associates on this planet,” mentioned Ms. Waller, 65.
[Did you recently buy a home? We want to hear from you. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]
Making a transfer appeared extra believable than ever. Over time, her profession as an advisor for nationwide arts organizations had change into largely distant, permitting her extra flexibility. And he or she had lengthy dreamed of residing in New York Metropolis, the place she may immerse herself in nice artwork and structure.
A few years in the past, Ms. Waller arrange an alert on StreetEasy for prewar residence listings in Manhattan priced underneath $400,000. Then she determined to spend a month within the metropolis to ensure it was a spot she actually wished to stay, relatively than simply go to. She stayed at a lodge in Harlem.
“It was about two weeks into that have that I knew for certain that I wished to make the transfer,” she mentioned. “I had a way of time increasing as a result of every thing was new. There was a lot to do and see, and I used to be going to the theater or a live performance 5 nights every week.” And, after all, her pricey associates had been shut at hand.
As she scoured listings, she ready to promote her rowhouse in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, which she’d purchased for $85,000 and totally renovated. “It turned out to be a really inventive undertaking,” she mentioned. “You may make every thing precisely the way in which you need it.” (The home offered final spring for $470,000.)
Ms. Waller started her hunt in New York with some open homes. After a nasty expertise with one viewing — after she schlepped out within the pouring rain, the agent was a no-show — she reached out to Erin Whitney, a licensed salesperson at Bohemia Realty Group, whom she’d met at an open home in Inwood.
“Erin had an amazing skill to establish issues that you simply may not discover and that is perhaps an issue, just like the format may not work or {the electrical} panel would wish updating,” Ms. Waller mentioned.
Then there have been the town legal guidelines that have an effect on buildings and may portend pricey upgrades — for instance, Native Legislation 11, which requires facade inspections and repairs each 5 years. “How not too long ago has that been accomplished and paid for?” Ms. Whitney mentioned.
Ms. Waller’s associates satisfied her that she wanted a doorman, and in addition steered that she contemplate a constructing’s power ranking, which might have an effect on prices. Although she was comfortable to do some enchancment work, she aimed to maintain her monthlies near what she was paying in Cincinnati. Her $425,000 finances meant both a one-bedroom co-op in Northern Manhattan or a studio on the Higher West Aspect.
One weekend, whereas she was staying with a university buddy, one other buddy steered all of them meet for a stroll in Central Park. “I spotted that if I lived in Inwood, that will not be potential,” Ms. Waller mentioned.
That sealed the deal: It could be the Higher West Aspect. She sought a prewar constructing with an elevator and a laundry room. The studios she noticed had round 500 sq. toes.
Amongst her choices:
Discover out what occurred subsequent by answering these two questions:
