Flat-Screen TVs Have Become the Newest Amenity By VIVIAN S. TOY IT’S only in the last few years that boxy television sets with giant cathode ray tubes have gone the way of rotary phones and typewriters.…... Read more >

Flat-Screen TVs Have Become the Newest Amenity
By VIVIAN S. TOY

IT’S only in the last few years that boxy television sets with giant cathode ray tubes have gone the way of rotary phones and typewriters.

But since flat-screen televisions now reign, and they don’t necessarily get packed up with the rest of the furniture when someone moves out, they have become the newest punch-list item that must be considered in an apartment sale.

If a television has been mounted to a wall, does it stay or go? If it goes, does the bracket stay or go? And if the bracket goes, who repairs the gaping holes left by the now-removed bracket?

“It seems to be a topic of discussion in every walk-through now before we close on an apartment,” said June Gottlieb, a senior managing director at Warburg Realty. “If a seller is taking their flat screen with them, I always will ask if they plan to fill and patch the holes left by the brackets, because I’m not going to let my buyer walk into a mess.”

Unlike kitchen appliances, air-conditioners and light fixtures, mounted flat-screen televisions and their hardware are not part of the boilerplate language for items that automatically come with an apartment in a standard co-op or condominium contract. This means the fate of a mounted flat-screen television is entirely open to interpretation. It’s not a given that a seller will leave a television and its bracket, nor is it a given who is responsible for repairing any wall damage caused by an unwanted bracket.

“It’s something that people have to take into consideration,” said Steven D. Sladkus, a Manhattan real estate lawyer. “If they want something left behind or repaired, they have to make sure they specify it. Otherwise, you might go on a walk-through and be surprised that something you expected to be there has been ripped out of the wall.”

Ms. Gottlieb had one recent buyer who didn’t want the existing bracket but wanted to have her own contractor make the repairs. So Ms. Gottlieb helped her negotiate a $300 credit from the seller before they completed the sale.

“I would counsel buyers to do this because then you know the work will be done to your own standards,” she said. “Otherwise a seller might not fix it exactly the way you want it, and that’s a fight at the closing that doesn’t have to be.”

Mr. Sladkus said that in his experience, “more and more buyers are considering the brackets a freebie.”

In a recent sale, he had a buyer who asked a seller to leave the television bracket in place, aware that he might wind up taking it down and refinishing the wall at his own expense. “But he finally convinced his wife that the television looks better hanging up, so he got a free bracket and free installation,” he said. “He figures he saved about $400.”

Brackets can range in price from under $100 to as much as $1,000, for a motorized model that can swivel and swing out from the wall. Installation services start at $150, but can also cost several hundred dollars, depending on whether a contractor has to open up a wall.

Some sellers have chosen to market a mounted flat-screen television as part of an apartment sale.

Jill Sloane, an executive vice president of Halstead Property, said she had worked on several sales in which sellers opted to leave mounted flat-screen televisions. “For some of them,” she said, “it’s just been more convenient because they don’t want to have to get the wall patched up. But for buyers, as long as it’s not a really big and heavy older model, they’re finding it to be a plus because they don’t have to go through the process of buying and installing a television.”

In a current listing she has for a studio on the Upper West Side, the owner has agreed to make the flat-screen a selling point. “It’s on the fact sheet and on the listing itself that the flat screen stays,” Ms. Sloane said. “There are a few other studios on the market in the building, so we’re trying to make it more attractive.”

So, in addition to a renovated kitchen and hardwood floors, she said, the flat screen ranks as a bonus.

 

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MANHATTAN: 167 East 61st Street (at Third Avenue), #12C A three-bedroom three-bath co-op with central air-conditioning and a wraparound terrace off the living room in a postwar doorman building. June…... Read more >

MANHATTAN: 167 East 61st Street (at Third Avenue), #12C

A three-bedroom three-bath co-op with central air-conditioning and a wraparound terrace off the living room in a postwar doorman building.
June Gottlieb, Warburg Realty
212-439 4565; www.warburgrealty.com.

UPPER EAST SIDE CO-OP
$1,750,000
MAINTENANCE: $4,305 a month

PROS: The open city views are impressive from every room. The entire apartment was recently renovated — with new oak floors throughout, an expanded windowed kitchen, a separate shower and tub in the master bath, and custom closets in each bedroom.

CONS: Maintenance is on the high side and there is a 2 percent flip tax for buyers.

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Bonus Pain Is Dish Still Served Bold This Year on Wall Street, Credit Traders Frown; A Commodities Feast By AARON LUCCHETTI November 7, 2007; Page C1 Not everyone on Wall Street can define a collateralized…... Read more >

Bonus Pain Is Dish Still Served Bold
This Year on Wall Street, Credit Traders Frown; A Commodities Feast

By AARON LUCCHETTI
November 7, 2007; Page C1

Not everyone on Wall Street can define a collateralized debt obligation, but everyone from secretaries to the top brass will soon know how these beleaguered bond instruments will affect their paychecks.

Two compensation experts are set to release projections for bonus payments this year on Wall Street, and the numbers aren't pretty. One executive-search company, Options Group, projects bonuses will decrease 5% to 10% from last year, the first overall drop in five years.

Compensation consultant Johnson Associates has a rosier view, saying Wall Street bonuses will be flat, thanks to a relatively strong stock market and big profit gains in the first half of the year.

The pain (or relative pain, of course, since few are poor on Wall Street) won't be spread equally. Traders in stocks and commodities are expected to do better than those working with bonds and mortgages, and companies that have taken significant hits recently, such as Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc., could give smaller bonuses than those by more-successful rivals.

Both compensation companies say times are getting tougher on Wall Street and probably won't turn around soon. "The market has clearly softened, but virtually all of the problems are in one or two businesses," said Alan Johnson, managing director at Johnson Associates of New York. "Virtually all of our clients agree that 2008 will be harder."

Bonuses are a driver of job satisfaction. For many bankers and traders, bonuses can be five or 10 times larger than their base salaries. The average investment banker, for example, is slated to receive a bonus of about $2.25 million to $2.75 million in 2007, up about 10% from last year, Options Group says.

"With the way markets are going, banks are going to be careful about the way they compensate people," said Michael Karp, chief executive officer of Options Group, which plans to release its pay study next week.

Wall Street faces a dilemma this year. Revenues are under pressure, but if firms cut bonuses too much, top talent will leave for greener pastures, notably hedge funds, many of which have done well this year and are willing to pay up.

Typically, half of all revenue at firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley goes to pay employees. Investors and employees will get a preview of what is to come in mid-December when many big firms release their fourth-quarter and year-end results, which will show how much was set aside in fiscal 2007 for compensation.

Commodity Winnings

There are bright spots this bonus season. Commodities trading is having a big year, and stock and derivatives traders are doing pretty well, due in part to the oil- and gas-price boom.

However, in the bond market, the driver of a lot of profits in recent years, the dropoff could be severe. A senior seller of mortgage-backed securities will likely see a bonus of about $1 million, down from about $2 million in 2006, Options Group says. "If you're in the CDO business, you'll be dramatically down if you even have a job," Mr. Johnson said.

Still, it is probably too soon to start feeling sorry for the Wall Street crowd. Bonuses surged 15% to 20% last year and 20% in 2005, according to Options Group, which says its numbers for 2007 may change as it digests the recent impact of multibillion-dollar write-downs and CEO ousters at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.

Some bankers "have had a wonderful year, but a lot of people have gotten slammed," said June Gottlieb, a senior managing director at Warburg Realty, a New York real-estate brokerage company. She says business is good, but some clients who work in finance are waiting until bonus season to see what they can afford.

Hold the Credit Crunch

Not everyone is feeling the hit. At San Pietro, an exclusive Italian restaurant in New York, co-owner Gerardo Bruno says the high-powered clientele often discusses huge market losses but still orders risotto with white truffles at $150 per plate.

Mr. Johnson's survey of 10 large investment and commercial banks shows they spent 57% of their pretax, precompensation profit on compensation and benefits over the first three quarters of 2007, down slightly from the same period in 2006.

Many analysts predict the bonus season this year and maybe next will include lots of restricted stock in lieu of cash, which these days may be scarcer than in recent years.

Options Group's projections call for an average 15%-20% decline in bonuses for people in bond and currency departments and a 10% rise for those in stocks. Those working in mortgages could see a 30% decline. People working in Wall Street firms' hedge-fund units may see slight declines, while investment bankers and those in private equity and venture capital will see bonuses increase 10%.

 

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Friday, December 26, 2003 SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 34 WALL STREET WINDFALLS A BONUS FOR CITY By Joanne Wasserman The guy from Wall Street told jeweler Pamela Sherbow he'd had a great year, complete with a "super-duper"…... Read more >

Friday, December 26, 2003
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 34

WALL STREET WINDFALLS A BONUS FOR CITY
By Joanne Wasserman

The guy from Wall Street told jeweler Pamela Sherbow he'd had a great year, complete with a "super-duper" Christmas bonus.

So he wanted an appropriately "super-duper" gift for his wife.

He walked out of Fortunoff on Fifth Ave. with a pair of flashy, 8-carat diamond studs with a five-figure price tag.

"They sparkled," Sherbow said. "They more than sparkled."

So do the piles of money Wall Street bankers and investors are spending on luxury gifts like jewelry, fancy Manhattan apartments, houses in the Hamptons and cases of rare wine.

Wall Street bonuses increased by about 25% this year from 2002, according to state controller Alan Hevesi. Wall Street firms were expected to pay out $10.7 billion in bonuses, up from $8.6 billion in 2002.

For this year, that's an average bonus of nearly $66,800 to the 161,000 financial industry employees.

June Gottlieb, managing director of Warburg Realty Partnership, recently sold an Upper East Side apartment to a woman who "runs a trading desk at a major firm." Her six-figure bonus made her approval by the co-op board a slam dunk.

At Sherry-Lehman, an upscale liquor store on Madison Ave., "the high-end stuff has just been flying out of here," said Chairman Michael Aaron.

That would be cases of Dom Perignon champagne and Chateau Petru wine with price tags of $500 to $1,000 a bottle.

Then there was the 28-year-old high flyer with a $250,000 end-of-year bonus. He traded up from his one-bedroom in the West 70s to a spectacular $1.5-million Tribeca loft.

"It's a two-bedroom with a 600-square-foot living room and a stainless steel kitchen," said Scott Durkin, chief operating officer of the Corcoran Group.

The young man, said Durkin, "had never gotten a bonus. When he came into the [financial] business, bonuses were a thing of the past.

"He's a very, very junior guy now working his way up, and this was never expected."

Copyright 2003  New York Daily News

 

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