All Time High
New York Residential Property Values are reaching all-time highs, as demand continues to push up prices.
What can current owners do to further increase the value of their buildings, and help them stand out from their neighbors?
Here is a list of a few ways that owners and boards can help increase property values:
First, cut costs.
There are basically two ways to do this.
Reduce cost of current products and services
Reduce the usage of current products and services
In this post, we will use heating as an example. As a primer for those who are new to their board, heating is used for heating the common areas and residential units, as well as for heating water. It is quite common that both heat and hot water used by the residential units are not metered, but included in the maintenance or common charges.
Reducing costs would entail paying less for current use.
- Switch the source. For instance, if oil is more expensive than natural gas, switching to natural gas would accomplish this.
- You should also use competitive pricing and buy the current heating source at a lower rate. Ask your managing agent if they take advantage of bulk rates and if so, put you into that program.
Reducing the use of energy
- Insulate the envelope of the building, including the windows, doors, façade and roofs.
- Adjust the boiler to run optimally.
- Install thermostats in the units.
- Insulate around the A/Cs and remove window A/Cs in the winter.
- Install an EMS (Energy Monitoring System) to centrally monitor and adjust heat for the entire building.