Karla Saladino Discusses Renters Turning Their Sights Towards Long Island City

As transit options are changing and new developments are popping up across the NYC, many renters are making the move to Long Island City. Compared to Manhattan, the Queens neighborhood has lower overall pricing, features new luxury high-rises with more new wave amenities, and has access to less traditional transportation, including City Bike and the MTA ferry. 

Mirador Real Estate's Managing Partner, Karla Saladino says, "developers in areas such as Murray Hill and Kips Bay, for instance, must now contend with their lower-priced neighbors across the East River in Long Island City. For the first time ever, most would-be renters are looking at both neighborhoods." Read more about what Karla has to say in the full DNAInfo article here. 

Karla Saladino Responds to StreetEasy's New Broker Fees in DNAInfo

Since StreetEasy began charging brokers a listings fee two weeks ago, the number of listings on their site plummeted over 50%. Founded in 2005, StreetEasy has been the go-to site for New Yorkers searching for rentals. Regardless, many real estate professionals predict this new policy will affect StreetEasy's popularity since the $3 per day listings fee will discourage brokers from using the site completely. 

Mirador Real Estate's co-founder and managing partner, Karla Saladino is featured in DNAinfo sharing a more positive response to StreetEasy's new policy. "Now there’s less competition for my listings to be seen on StreetEasy," she says. However, will this policy change mean more competition for renters to get an apartment? Read more here.

Karla Saladino Weighs In on StreetEasy Paid Rental Program

In light of the recent release of StreetEasy's paid rental program, some of New York's top brokerages have decided to opt out. However, Mirador managing partner Karla Saladino has a different approach. “If we feel the marketing is worth it, we pay it,” she said. “If our agents opt out of StreetEasy… I don’t want it to be because of the $3 a day fee.”

For the full article, click here.

Karla Saladino Featured in The Real Deal on StreetEasy Broker Fees

PC: Lexi Pilgrim for The Real Deal

Our managing partner Karla Saladino was featured in The Real Deal on broker fees for listings on StreetEasy. The company recently made a statement refusing to work with the Real Estate Board of New York's Residential Listing Service. StreetEasy also announced it would be charging brokers a daily fee to keep their listings on the platform. "If you have a lot of listings, it can add up quickly," Karla says.

Read the full article here.

Mirador Featured in DNAinfo about New York Becoming Dog Friend

Apartment hunting in New York can be difficult for dog owners. Many buildings have restrictions on the number and kind of dogs they’ll allow residents to have, and the facilities are rarely accommodating for pooches. Small elevators and bathrooms often mean renters can’t keep large dogs, or more than one, in their homes.

There’s good news for dog lovers, many  buildings across the city are specifically targeting pet owners by lessening restrictions, lowering fees, and offering more space and facilities. As DNAinfo reports, “With the current rental glut, especially in the high-end of the market where prices are slipping and concessions are rising, dog-friendly policies are the latest incentive to lure tenants, experts say.”

One of the experts featured in the article is Mirador Real Estate’s Managing Partner, Karla Saladino. Karla tells DNAinfo, “It used to be maybe one dog was allowed in, and ‘We’re going to weigh it, interview it and analyze it.’ Even a year ago, it was very hard to find something if you had a 40-pound dog or a Lab retriever. It was like, ‘What three buildings can we visit?’ Now it’s 10 buildings.”

The website also spoke with Anna Sankova, an agent for Mirador Real Estate, who relates an anecdote about finding a home in New York for a couple from Boston and their two mini Australian Labradoodles. “We found them an apartment within one weekend while they were visiting,” Anna says. “More landlords, especially in condos, were willing to take two dogs, which was surprising to me. It was not the case before.”

Read the entire article – and see a picture of those adorable Labradoodles – here.

New York’s Mirador Real Estate Forges Strategic Alliance with New Jersey’s ERA Justin Realty Co.

Mirador Real Estate is proud to announce our new strategic alliance with ERA Justin Realty Co., a residential brokerage that operates across the entire Northern New Jersey area. This partnership will allow us to expand our reach into the New Jersey markets, while we in turn will work with ERA Justin Realty Co. to enable their expansion into New York. Our firms will share resources, marketing strategies, and outreach to better serve clients who have a foot in both states and help them find the best real estate opportunities wherever they need.

Jennifer Darby Metzger, owner of ERA Justin Realty Co, said, “It is unusual to find a partnership with a similar vision and set of values, but that is how we felt with Mirador Real Estate, and we are happy to be aligning ourselves with them to provide additional resources for our crossover clients.”

Mirador Real Estate’s managing partner, Karla Saladino, agreed, saying, “I’m approached often about forming alliances, but often they wouldn’t be an appropriate fit for our team. When I met Jennifer, I knew this alliance was exactly the right match I had been looking for in New Jersey.”

Read more about the strategic alliance at Citybizlist.

Mirador Real Estate Launches Development Marketing Division with Project in Connecticut

Mirador Real Estate has long offered a wide range of marketing services for our clients. To bring these services together under one roof, we recently launched our brand-new Development Marketing Division, which will increase awareness of major developments among their target audiences through national advertising platforms, digital marketing campaigns, and numerous other endeavors. The Division is already hard at work for its first major partner: the Highgrove, a luxury rental development in Stamford, CT.

In its most recent issue, industry magazine Mann Report Residential highlighted our partnership with the Highgrove. The article quotes Kevin Saunders, the Highgrove’s Business Manager, as saying that the goal of the partnership is to enable the property to have “a more global presence and reach an even larger client base.” The article also quotes Mirador Real Estate’s Managing Partner, Karla Saladino:

“We are asked to apply our unique marketing initiatives–we have over 150 of them–to projects all over the world, but Highgrove was the first one that compelled us to prelaunch our marketing division ahead of the originally planned Q2, 2017 schedule to service it,” says Karla Saladino, managing partner. “While we are only about 50 percent done with the implementations I feel the building deserves, we are excited to share this unique project, which is unlike anything we get to see in New York City for the price point.”

The article can be read on page 34 of the magazine’s digital edition.

Mirador Development Marketing Announces Partnership with Highgrove

The newest division of Mirador Real Estate, Mirador Development Marketing, is excited to announce its partnership with luxury rental development, Highgrove. A project located in Stamford, Connecticut. Mirador’s marketing plan will give the property more exposure through digital marketing, social media targeting, and other advertising platforms. 

Karla Saladino, Mirador Managing Partner, says, “We are asked to apply our unique marketing initiatives (we have over 150 of them) to projects all over the world, but Highgrove was the first that compelled us to pre-launch our marketing division ahead of the originally planned Q2, 2017 schedule to service it.” To learn more about the partnership and Highgrove, check out the full article here.

The Real Deal Checks in With Mirador’s Managing Partner Karla Saladino on the Over Saturation of New Development in Manhattan’s Condo Market

Karla Saladino on the Current Manhattan Market

The Real Deal reportsthat the mid- and high-level Manhattan real estate markets – those units priced $5 million and above – are becoming increasingly favorable to buyers. The price-per-foot has actually lowered for properties $10 million and up, and there are signs the decreasing prices will reach the mid-level market. On the other hand, prices for entry level units – those $2 million or less – remain high, with buyers still likely to pay more than the asking price.

To discover the reasons for these opposite trends, The Real Deal spoke with Mirador Real Estate’s managing director, Karla Saladino:

Overall, the median sale price in Manhattan was $1.1 million during the second quarter, up about 13 percent year-over-year from $980,000, according to real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

Karla Saladino, managing partner of Mirador Real Estate, said that jump was a byproduct of an oversupply of new development units across most price points — with the exception of the entry level.

“You can’t dump thousands of units onto a marketplace in a three-year period and not expect the market to correct or flatten out because of it,” she said.

Saladino also noted that some buyers who can afford apartments in the $5- to $10-million range simply don’t want to be saddled with such a large asset. As a result, they trade a tax deduction for flexibility and rent an apartment for $10,000 to $15,000 a month instead. “Young entrepreneurs value freedom of everything. So purchasing a home and leveraging yourself doesn’t appeal to them,” she said.

Read the entire article here.

Mirador’s Managing Partner Karla Saladino featured in this week’s Observer

Our Founder and Managing Partner Karla Saladino Weighs In on Current Rental Market Costs

The Observer recently asked Mirador Real Estate’s managing partner, Karla Saladino, for her expertise, quoting her about the recent decrease in average Manhattan rents. Many landlords, rather than lower rents, are offering more incentives to entice people to sign. Karla explains that in newer buildings, these incentives are offered not to bring in more rent money, but to bolster rent rolls and fulfill promises made to investors:

Karla Saladino, managing partner with Mirador Real Estate, suggested, however, that outside of a few neighborhoods like Midtown West and Long Island City that have seen a surge of inventory in recent years, landlords are more often using incentives less out of strict necessity than a desire to goose their buildings’ values.

“We are seeing more concessions because the landlords want to hit certain rent rolls, and the secret is out that you can do that with concessions,” she said.

Established landlords with high levels of equity in their building will often cut prices instead of offer incentives, Saladino noted. On the other hand, she said, “In new developments a lot of times [owners] were promising investors certain [rent] levels, so they will incentivize sort of non-stop.”

But wait, who do they think they’re fooling? Surely an investor can do the math and figure out that 12 months at $5,000 isn’t actually $60,000 a year if you’re giving away a month free, right?

“That’s not always disclosed,” Saladino said. “I’ve seen marketing contracts that put incentives into the marketing costs, and sometimes investors look at the marketing costs and don’t realize that’s in there.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Mirador’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner featured in this week’s Observer!

The Great Space Debate: Is Volume-Based Pricing a Valid Means of Assessing Apartment Marketability or Merely an Alternative Method Falling Flat– Karla Weighs In

Imagine standing in the checkout line at a grocery store, contemplating the exact cubic footage of the food you are about to purchase before reaching the cashier. I mean, who really knows how many cubic feet are in a package of cheese?

Similar questions have been coming up over into the real estate world, with some brokers questioning the merits of the traditional methods of pricing properties. Some salespeople feel that relying solely on square footage for evaluating a space is not adequate when it comes to ultra-luxury listings. In these instances, some feel a volume approach towards pricing would be best when it comes to accurately evaluating distinguishing amenities, such as high ceilings.

Our Managing Partner, Karla Saladino believes this to be much ado about nothing. When broaching the subject with her landlord clients, Karla told the Observer “they literally laughed themselves to death.” She continued on to explain that the landlords “thought it was just more broker babble and ridiculousness,” she said.

There are so many components that go into determining the value of a listing. Basing calculations on something such as ceiling height without taking into consideration all of the other attributes, would be inaccurate, not truly reflecting the competitive pricing market.

Bottom line: Karla doesn’t believe buyers are going to fall for the hype when it comes to this alternative method of arriving at an appraisal. In the article, Karla describes that using volume is “like using the word ‘cozy.’ Clients will see right through it. It’s like listing in centimeters to get more numbers into my listing.”

To read more on what Karla had to say, check out the full article here.

Mirador’s Founder and Managing Partner Karla Saladino Featured in The Real Deal

The Upsurge of Airbnb Usage has Some Brokers Boggled – But Not Our Managing Partner Karla Saladino! Hear Her Proactive Stance on Airbnbs and What Brokers and Buyers Should be Doing

Airbnb has exploded on the rental market, even superstars like Queen B herself have utilized the service when looking for short-term rentals.  Who can forget the lavish images of the luxury Airbnb mega mansion splashed on her social media page while in town for her slay-worthy Super Bowl stint? Even oversea businessmen and techies are attracted to the allure of temporary rentals on Airbnb, as it allows them plush temporary housing for extended off-site work travel.

The recent rise of temporary rentals on Airbnb, especially in New York, makes it easy for ‘hosts’ to market their space as a temporary hotel and turn a profit, all under the radar.  In many cases this goes against building bylaws and New York State’s Multiple Dwelling Law (making it illegal to sublease for fewer than 30 days without the property owner or leaseholder present).

Our Managing Partner, Karla Saladino is not ok with this, and has recently shared her firm stance on the issue with The Real Deal.

“When it comes to rental buildings, the answer in New York is always no.  You don’t mess with it at all.  If they’re caught, the landlords are hit with tremendous fines.  If we catch people using Airbnb at the buildings we manage, we move to evict immediately.”

Karla and her colleagues at Mirador have tackled the illegal use and misuse of Airbnb head on by implementing tight screening methods to weed out would be short-term renters.  This not only prevents violations, it saves landlords hefty fines and the headache of a potential lawsuit.

Her methods have been so effective that Karla and her team were able to break up a “giant ring” of fraudsters that were illegally misusing the service.  Want to learn more about Karla’s proactive stance and the polices Mirador has put into place to protect against this issue?  Get the full scoop here.

Mirador’s Managing Partner Karla Saladino featured in Observer

Life is about to get a bit more difficult for commuting Brooklynites and Brooklyn-based brokers alike, if the MTA goes full steam ahead with its potential plans to interrupt the heavily populated L line subway service within the next several years.

Since news of this disconcerting disturbance slipped, many affected L line commuters are left feeling disgruntled, as it not only disrupts their current mode of transportation into Manhattan, but it could displace them out of their neighborhoods, as the attraction of being conveniently located near the L line stations would no longer be an appealing factor.

Just the potential of a temporary shut down already has affected areas taking action. People are putting properties on the market, that otherwise might not have been put up for a few years, and renters attention has begun to shift from Williamsburg and Bushwick to different neighborhoods and areas, more conveniently located to the JMZ lines.

This is something Our Managing Partner, Karla Saladino knows all to well, sharing her thoughts on this shift with the Observer. In the article, Karla elaborates on the momentum and boost that other areas, such as Astoria, have been seeing – in just this past month alone!

Read more about what Karla had to say on the issue here and see how you might be affected if the MTA’s plans come into fruition.

Mirador’s Managing Partner Karla Saladino Weighs in on Ground Floor Apartments

Starting to despise the hike up the stairs to your third-floor walkup? Ground-floor units starting to look appealing? Mirador Real Estate tells you everything you need to know about life on a building’s main floor in this week’s Buy Curious. 

Read the full article here.

Karla Saladino Talks L Train Closures in DNAinfo

BROOKLYN — If the L train’s tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn shuts down for a prolonged period of time — as is currently being discussed by the MTA — you can expect rents in neighborhoods along the line to dip, brokers said.

The areas hit would include Williamsburg and Bushwick.

But nearby neighborhoods that have easier access to other modes of transit — such as Greenpoint, South Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant — could see rents rise as would-be L train riders seek alternatives, said Jeffrey Schleider, a Williamsburg resident and founder of Miron Properties.

Click here to read the full article.

Should you Buy or to Rent in NYC? Karla Saladino featured in DNAinfo

Many New Yorkers often rack their brains over the question of whether to buy or rent.

Well, the data crunchers at real estate search engine StreetEasy believe they have the answer: It makes financial sense to consider owning if you plan to stay in the city for more than 5 years (and have the down payment to do so).

For Karla’s take, read the full article here.

Karla Saladino Featured in DNAinfo on Foreign Investors Impact on New York Markets.

As world economies and political situations shift, so too do their influence on New York City’s real estate market.

Much has been made of the effect of foreign investors on driving up New York real estate prices, with some local real estate companies specifically soliciting foreign buyers for upcoming projects before soliciting New York residents.

Read more here.

Karla Saladino featured in The Real Deal

As the Fed finally increases interest rates for the first time in seven years, New York City brokers are weighing in on the effects on homebuyers’ approach. For Mirador’s managing partner Karla Saladino’s impressions, read here.

Mirador’s Karla Saladino on Helping Landlords Fight Off Illegal Airbnb Activity in DNAinfo

Airbnb – regardless of whether you love it or never cared to use it, the fact of the matter is that short-term rentals like the ones listed on the home-sharing site are just not legal in New York City. The transient nature of Airbnb guests in a city as densely populated as this one creates trouble for a plethora of reasons, including health and safety concerns within buildings and neighborhoods. In DNAinfo yesterday, Mirador’s managing partner Karla Saladino discusses her approach to protecting her landlords against the illegal activity of some of their tenants, and stopping the Airbnb problem before it starts. For more, head here.

Mirador’s Karla Saladino in DNA Info. The Boomerang Tenant: Returning to the Apartment You Once Loved

Mirador’s very own “Boomerang Tenant” Karla Saladino was recently featured in DNA Info.

The Boomerang Tenant: Returning to the Apartment You Once Loved by Irene Plagianos illustrates how finding the perfect building, apartment or neighborhood can keep you coming back, eventually, even long after you’ve gone. So what made Karla want to come back to the building where she is now? Take a look here!