3 ways to get top dollar for your NYC home
September 30, 2025
How to Sell Your Home for Top Dollar in a Buyer’s Market
Dear friends,
I have been savoring these 75-degree early fall days! It might not feel like fall in the temperature, but the leaves have started turning, both in NYC and upstate. Like a cliché, I discovered upstate New York and the Hudson Valley during the pandemic lockdown. My in-laws gifted us their 16-year-old car (in great condition but every time something broke, the repair was so expensive because the parts were hard to get!) so we could visit them in Columbia County without paying $600/weekend for a rental car.
It’s been 5 years since I have kept a long-term rental upstate, but I’m finally making a piece of upstate my own! I’m in contract to buy a cute cottage there!! I can’t wait to share more after we close.
A word of advice: If you have wanted to experience the foliage in New York State but haven’t made plans, now is the time, before Airbnbs and hotels get booked up. Peak foliage in the Hudson Valley is the second to third week of October. Reply to this email if you want my best recommendations on food, hiking trails and other exciting things to do upstate.
Yesterday, I shared some seller tips with my fellow NYU alumni on a live webinar about how to sell your home for top dollar in a buyer’s market. Most of you probably weren’t there, so I kept some gold nuggets for you!
If you’ve been watching the Manhattan real estate scene, you know it’s been a buyer’s market for a couple of years. What you might not have heard is that, back in Q2, sales volumes reached the highest level since 2023. Sure, inventory is at its highest in 5 years, and buyers have options. But here’s the thing: homes are selling, and at strong prices—if they’re positioned right.
So, if you’re thinking of selling in the next six months, here are three tips from my recent webinar that can make all the difference (reply to this email if you want the full deck!):
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1. First impressions matter: prep counts
You don’t need a gut renovation to wow buyers. Sometimes it’s as simple as:
Paint - Fresh walls make everything feel new
Declutter - Yes, even the closets
Staging - Helps buyers imagine themselves living there
You can either DIY paint, declutter and buy some cute stuff to rearrange and stage your home, or hire painters, home organizers, and stagers to help! Stagers will bring their furniture and accessories to your home and make it look appealing, and their contracts are a minimum of three months, with one-month renewals.
If you do decide to renovate your home before selling to increase its value, here are the three best bangs for your buck:
Floors - The first thing they see when they walk in the apartment!
Kitchen - An older kitchen instantly makes buyers feel emotional resistance that will need additional reassurance to rationalize... like a discounted price! If you don’t want to redo the whole kitchen, you could update your appliances (stainless steel > white), upgrade the countertop, and refresh the cabinet doors.
Bathroom - There is a lot you can do without gut-renovating it and breaking and replacing all the tiles. For example, you can regrout the tiles, reglaze the bathtub, replace the mirrors, lights, medicine cabinets and vanities, and install a fresh toilet seat! It makes a bathroom look less tired without spending a lot!
I once sold a Midtown South condo that had sat on the market for two years with 11 price drops. After floor sanding and some DIY staging, which cost $5,000 in total, we kept the asking price the same—and it sold in two weeks!
2. Price strategically, not emotionally
I won’t be shocked if it’s the first time you have heard of this. Buyers in come in three waves: the serious ones, the “let’s see” browsers, and the bargain hunters.
The first wave of buyers always gives the highest offers, and they come in the first 30-45 days.
The market watchers don’t have to buy, and if they make offers, they tend to be lower than the first wave of serious buyers. They often wait until the first price drop to make their offer.
Once the listing has been through the first two waves of buyers, the final third wave of buyers, the bargain hunters, would not pull the trigger unless there is a heavy loss to the seller. They give the lowest offers.
Position your property strategically to attract the most first wave of buyers to come through the door, make the biggest splash in the buyer pool, create competition, and even higher prices. More eyeballs = more offers = more negotiating power.
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3. Market like it’s 2025 (because it is)
Buyers today aren’t just on StreetEasy. They’re scrolling Instagram, TikTok, even WeChat and RedNote. And no, it’s not enough to just strut around the apartment and point out the appliances’ brands and where the bathrooms and closets are. Buyers and viewers want to see more to stop scrolling and start imaging their lives in that apartment.
As an English major, I love telling stories! For each of my listing, I relish in creating a unique story, told in many different formats, so the buyers can feel like they are seeing this listing everywhere: on the inner cover of the New York Post, on Robb Report, on Zillow and StreetEasy, but also as fun catchy videos on social media with bilingual subtitles (Chinese and English), and not just one social platform, but eight!
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Linkedin, Wechat, RedNote and Douyin.
For each listing, I like to make at least three videos, and I try to make it fun. See this video where I had the resident pug give the property tour!
This property sold in a month, and most buyers that came to see the apartment referred to it as the apartment with the cute dog. Thank you Charlie!
I also make videos about the neighborhood the listing is in, showing buyers the lifestyle they will have. I highlight parks, small local businesses like coffee shops, independent bookstores, restaurants and yoga studios, estheticians and physical therapists, dry cleaner shops and more!
This helps buyers fall in love not just with the apartment, but with the life they can have when they live there.
A successful seller remembers that they are not only selling the real estate property but a lifestyle.
The bottom line
Selling in NYC is a long and challenging journey, thanks to the complicated world of management companies, co-op and condo board packages, and other transaction parties such as attorneys —but with the right prep, strategy, and marketing, you can absolutely come out ahead, even in a buyer’s market.
If you’re curious about what your apartment might be worth, or just want to talk through timing, let’s chat. No pressure, just honest advice.
With warmth,
Judy Yi Zhou
Douglas Elliman Real Estate