Interviewed for "5 Secret Ways to Make Money on Your Home"

•   By Holly Hammersmith
 
• July 4, 2015

Summertime, and the living is easy. If only the same could be said about selling your New York home.

Whatever your reason for selling — perhaps you want to downsize, or maybe your family has grown or you have a change in your personal life — applying some expert advice can entice buyers and help you gain the biggest return.

GOBankingRates.com reached out to real estate experts for tips on how to succeed in the country’s largest market.

1.  Set a Welcoming Stage For Buyers

Simple changes can help set the scene for a sale, make a space appear especially welcoming and irresistible to potential buyers, said Wei Min Tan, a real estate associate broker and Manhattan condominium buyer’s broker at Rutenberg: The Smart Brokers, based in Manhattan. To accomplish this, he suggests removing clutter, minimizing furniture to make an area look more spacious and displaying fresh flowers.

3 Highlights Of The Manhattan, New York Property Market in Q2'2015

After a slower first quarter, one which saw prices level off, the second quarter saw a total 180◦, setting a historic, record high for the average sales price for Manhattan apartments, now at a whopping $1.87 million. While there are a number of different key themes from the past 90 days, the overarching one is, quite simply, the obvious lack of inventory on the market. Those subthemes, however, include:

• # 1:  Stalled Inventory Growth – The consistent lack of inventory, despite last quarter’s slight uptick, is what produced these record-setting, headline-making prices this past quarter. The lack of inventory and strong demand makes it a total seller’s market and as long as that demand remains, whether it’s coming from foreign or domestic buyers, those prices will continue to remain high.