Yankee Blog Swap: Channeling Noah

Posted by urbandigs

Tue Dec 19th, 2006 11:03 AM

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A: Today is the much-anticipated Real Estate Yankee Blog Swap. Bloggers from all across the country agreed to switch places for a day. My opponent today is Kris Berg of San Diego Home Blog. Kris and her husband Steve are brokers in beautiful San Diego and the publishers of a very educational real estate blog that is a worthy read on the other side of the country! The points that are discussed on their blog can go a long way towards further educating your real estate investing style and it always helps to get a different perspective from the craziness of NYC real estate once in a while. As for this first Yankee Blog Swap, we all owe a big shout-out to Mary at RSS Pieces for organizing this circus!



Today I have the challenge or, shall we say, honor of channeling Noah. We are participating in the Real Estate Yankee Blog Swap. I don't have the foggiest notion where the "Yankee" came in, but I have to assume this reference alone gives Yankee Noah the edge. Our blogs and personalities could not be more different. It is a classic case of East meets West; I am San Diego based, and Noah, of course, is doing time in the Big Apple. My style tends to be a little more laid back (what else would you expect from a California girl?), and I generally work the 'burbs; Noah is Big-City-Stats-Man.

Clearly, I know as much about New York City Real Estate as Michael Richards knows about detante (sorry, French people - I don't know how to put the little thing over the "e"), so saying this a challenge for me is the understatement of the year. Further, the "rules" include "writing a blog that fits the corporate culture of the blog you are paired with." I guess this means I should know what the "A:" with which Noah begins most entries here stands for. Sure, I could have asked, but it is more fun to speculate. Is it the "Answer" in the Jeopardy fashion, with the question following? Does it stand for "Analysis", like these sentences are the Cliff Notes to what follows? Is "A" the first initial of the name of his ghost writer? Beats me. So, on with the swap. It is quite possible that in one simple blog exchange, I could nuke every ounce of readership that Noah has worked so hard to capture in the past two years. My attorneys are standing by.

A: I have been to New York once in my life, if you exclude a couple of airport layovers. I hurled the entire time. Helmsley Palace has lovely accommodations, but a San Diegan's idea of "dressing for dinner" involves wearing the "good jeans". Getting a cab is a contact sport; riding in one is certain premature death. In San Diego, we own cars and drive them ourselves. Garages come with our homes and are not purchased separately. An apartment in California is a rental unit, and we do not have coops.

Put down that Letter to the Editor! New York did not make me sick, in the strictest sense. It is just that the sights and smells of the streets of Manhattan are no match for a woman in her first trimester. New York, was however, responsible for my swearing off knishes for the next year or so.

Sidewalk Knishes

Asking price: Approximately $3.50
Size: Approximately 3 inches, if memory serves me.
PPSF: Nothing compared to the price I paid later.

Thirteen Block Cab Ride

Asking price: Equivalent to one San Diego mortgage payment.
Size: Not sure. I never got one.
PPSF: See "size".

Dinner at Helmsley Palace

Asking price: No idea. They wouldn't let us in in our jeans.
Size: From our vantage point of noses-pressed-against-the-window, it looked rather intimate.
PPSF: Priceless.

We dutifully followed the concierge's advice and dined at the Stage Coach Deli, where he no doubt perceived that our western blue-jean wearing selves would go largely undetected, or would at least be tolerated. I, for one, did not want to be responsible for irreversibly destroying the upscale image of the City That Never Sleeps.

Stage Coach Deli Sandwich

Asking price: $4 million
Size: 12 meters
PPSF: No idea. I don't do metric.

We were lucky enough to visit the lobby of Donald Trump's "building", Trump Plaza. It had shiny floors and looked very expensive. The real estate nomenclature of New York remains largely a mystery to me; you guys talk funny. We speak of houses and you, at least in Manhattan, don't speak of houses at all. You speak of buildings, we speak of complexes. Your apartments are our condominums, our apartments are your rentals, and your coops are, well, your coops. Sometimes, just to confuse us, you use the words building, apartment and coop to describe a single "home".

Trump Plaza building 27E coop apartment

Asking price: $875,000 - Marketed by Carol Friedman of Nest Seekers
Size: 1400 SFT
PPSF: $675 (Keep in mind, this is a lease and not real property).
Floors: Very shiny.

Scripps Ranch San Diego condominium

Asking price: $430,000 - Marketed by Kris Berg of Prudential CA Realty
Size: 1387 SFT (including, gasp, a garage!)
PPSF: $310 (You own it!)
Floors: Not shiny.

I want to thank Noah for allowing me to hijack his blog today. Some day, I hope to visit your fine city again. I will remember to pack my fancy clothes, and the knishes will be on me!

A BIG thank you to Kris Berg for agreeing to partner with me and write this post for UrbanDigs! Here are the other blog participants:

Transparent Real Estate’s Pat Kitano vs. Zillow’s Drew Meyers