BrickUnderground

You may pride yourself on your Wikipedia-like knowledge of the best/worst rooftop bars and smartest/dumbest places to hail a taxi at rush hour, but you're not really a New Yorker until you pass through the Five Stages of Real Estate Grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance)...and the following NYC real estate truths no longer shock you:

1. You may be an adult with no curfew, but your doorman will always judge you for coming home late/drunk/both.
2. The super expects a holiday tip even though you haven't seen him since last Christmas and Task Rabbited your clogged sink last week.
3. The neighbors you can see walking around naked in their apartment are rarely the ones you want to see naked. Ditto the ones you can hear having sex.

This $3,250 two-bedroom in Crown Heights has got condo-like amenities. Just check out that kitchen.

This brand-new construction in Crown Heights features 14 units, including this $3,250 two-bedroom (note: that's the net effective rent, taking into account that one month is being offered free).

Pros: The newly built apartments have condo-like amenities, and all units have central A/C, a washer-dryer, stainless steel appliances (including a dishwasher), designer kitchen, bathroom, and lighting fixtures. Plus, as stated above, they're offering one month free rent.

Cons: Though it's far from tenement-style, the building is a walk-up.

If you’ve got a growing brood, you’ll be glad to know there are two more bedrooms in this $875k Park Slope co-op...and no underlying mortgage.

Families with big broods seem to have been on the hunt for apartments this week, as StreetEasy’s Most Wanted--the 10 sales listings those browsing StreetEasy.com this week saved more often than any others--is populated by an assortment of three-bedroom and could-be-three-bedroom apartments across the city.

An $875k three-bedroom, one-bathroom (perhaps you can anticipate some morning traffic jams?) co-op on President Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in Park Slope is versatile in that the third bedroom could also work as a home office. The floor-through is finished with prewar details such as crown moldings, pocket doors and a working marble fireplace in the living room and a decorative one in the master bedroom. Each bedroom has a closet, on top of two additional closets within the unit and one in the hallway just outside. The walk-up building has relatively low maintenance at $650/month, no underlying mortgage or flip tax, and a shared garden.

Q. I want to expand my kitchen into my dining room  but there's a gas line in the way that's connected to my gas meter.  Can I move it or do I have to work around it?

 A. It sounds like what you're referring to is actually a gas riser, which begins in the basement of your building and terminates at the top floor.  Getting authorization from your co-op or condo board to move it is probably not possible.

“If you alter a gas riser, you have to shut down the riser in the basement,” says construction professional Mike Kaler. This shutdown affects everyone whose appliances receive gas from that particular riser.