Last year, most financial experts — really, anyone who kept up with Fed moves — were certain that interest rates would finally begin to rise in 2014. Now, eight months into the year, mortgage rates are still at record lows and — surprisingly — consumers aren’t even taking advantage of them.

Mortgage originations have declined every quarter since 2012; but if interest rates only have one direction to go from here, why aren’t more potential home buyers jumping at the chance to lock into low rates for decades?

How low mortgage rates can save home buyers $200,000

There are many reasons locking into a low mortgage rate now is crucial. When it comes to 15- or 30-year mortgages, a 10th of a percentile can make a huge difference in terms of costs over the life of a loan, as well as month over month. And when rates do go up — which they will, sooner or later — home buyers will be looking at hikes of more than just a few basis points.

According to Freddie Mac, average mortgage rates reached a high of 16.63% in 1981, eventually dipping to pre-recession rates of 6.41% in 2006. At that percentage, total interest paid over the life of a loan (at the current median home price of $215,000) would amount to $215,718, with monthly payments of $1,301. Compare that to the 2013 average of 3.98%: Total interest would be almost halved, at $122,902, and the monthly payments would be more than $250 cheaper.

To demonstrate why 2014 is the year to take advantage of record-low rates — and highlight where consumers can find the best interest rates in the country — GOBankingRates partnered with RateWatch to survey average mortgage rates across the U.S., ranking the 10 most and least affordable states for taking out a home loan.

10 least expensive states for mortgage rates

10 most expensive states for mortgage rates

What affects regional mortgage rates

Several factors work in tandem to drive mortgage rate changes. On the national level, the prime rate, LIBOR, bond yields, inflation and mortgage-backed securities all affect interest rates. Regionally, factors like borrower demand, local property values, default rates, loan concentration and unemployment can play a part in mortgage rate variation, as well.

So where is the cheapest place to take out a loan? Of the 10 best states for affordable mortgage rates, six are located in the Northeast. Conversely, six of the 10 worst states for mortgage rates are located in the Midwest and Northwest.

These trends could be somewhat attributed to the local housing markets, specifically local home prices, according to David Donhoff, a certified mortgage planner.

“In the Midwest where loan amounts are small, rates are forced to be higher simply to cover the transaction costs in the rebate and yield of the rates offered,” Donhoff said. “On the coasts the loan sizes are larger, and that also creates more competition, so the two factors together drive average rates lower.”

Local mortgage rates are also largely dictated by the principle of supply and demand. If a region’s economy is struggling and the unemployment rate is high, people will be less likely to be buying houses, forcing rates to fall to entice borrowers. Likewise, if housing demand is high thanks to local job growth and a strengthening economy, buyer demand will increase, allowing rates to do the same.

Variations in risk can also affect the rates consumers are offered.

“Mortgage rates are largely driven by risk,” said Bennie D. Waller, Ph.D, professor of finance and real estate at Longwood University. “That is, areas with a higher risk of default will command a higher mortgage rate. Much like we saw different areas of the country encounter varying degrees of housing default in the 2007-2008 housing crisis, different areas will also have varying degrees of credit risk.”

Matt Shibata, CFA and portfolio manager, brought up an often over-looked mortgage influence: closing costs.

“Closing costs have lots of regional variations based in state and county laws, fees, and taxes,” Shibata said. “These closing cost differences are the main drivers of the regional variation people see in mortgage rates, since they impact the APR, which is the format that lenders must quote in.”

Mortgage rate predictions for 2015

Several months ago, James Bullard of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis predicted that interest rates will rise in quarter one of 2015, at which point we can likely expect mortgage rates to return to pre-recession levels as well — around the 6% mark last seen in 2006. Bolstering this prediction, the economy is regaining momentum; the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are all performing once more.

As various economic factors and Fed policies fall into place, mortgage rates will go up — eventually surpassing early 2000s numbers and hitting the rates last seen during the economic height of the 1990s — the 7-8% range. And before that happens, potential home buyers would do well to capitalize on the today’s record-low rates. Purchasing a home now rather than waiting could make all the difference — hundreds of thousands of dollars in difference — down the road.

See the complete rankings and methodology at GoBankingRates.com.

This article originally appeared at GoBankingRates.com. Copyright 2014. Follow GoBankingRates.com on Twitter.

SEE ALSO: This Map Shows The Wealthiest Person In Every State

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The tiny house movement might start looking really appealing to city dwellers — one roughly 172-square-foot house recently featured by Reuters looks nicer than many studio apartments you'd find in New York City.

The portable house has everything you need to be comfortable, including a a kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom, and tiny front porch. It even has a washer/dryer and air conditioner.

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company's Cyprus house comes in models ranging from 130- to 172-square-feet. To put that into perspective, the average American home is 2,600 square feet.

The Daily Mail notes that the tiny house movement is a product of rising debt among Americans and a desire to avoid a 30-year-mortgage.

The Cypress house ranges in price from $57,000 to $66,000, and monthly payments can be as low as $433 a month. One bed apartment rentals in New York City average about 750 square feet and cost $2,700 per month.

The house is on wheels, so transporting your home from place to place is easy.

The space is minimalistic, but the house comes with a washer/dryer and shelves in the kitchen for storage.

It doesn't look like there's an oven in the kitchen, but there is a sink and a cook top.

The living room area is small, but it can still seat three people.

The bedroom is lofted and just big enough to fit a mattress.

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has more photos of various models of the Cypress 24 house on its website. You can also check out floor plans.

Some models come with more than one bedroom, and the houses can be customized to include a full stove if the owner wishes.

Here's the floor plan for the Cypress 24 Horizon house:

SEE ALSO: 20 Surprisingly Beautiful Tiny Homes Around The World

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The CEO of J.Crew, Mickey Drexler, is selling his Hamptons home for a whopping $26.5 million. 

Douglas Elliman listed the 3,500-square-foot Wainscott home, which includes 315 feet of ocean frontage on one side and views of Wainscott Pond on the other.

Drexler bought the three-bedroom house in 2008 for $17 million. 

But don't worry, Drexler is not leaving the Hamptons anytime soon. He also owns two properties in Montauk, including a $30 million compound that belonged to Andy Warhol and an $11.4 million ranch. 

Welcome to Mickey Drexler's Hamptons home in Wainscott, New York.

The 3,500-square-foot house is nestled on 2.3 acres right in between Wainscott Pond and the ocean.

Taking a peek inside, it's no surprise that the CEO of J.Crew has good taste.

In the current environment of low interest rates, investors are scrambling for yield, and many have turned to real estate.

Typically investors buy and flip homes, or they invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs), which own different types of properties.

But Sharestates is offering both accredited investors and the public a real estate crowdfunding platform that lets them dip as little as $100 into a project. The idea is to bring real estate to the masses.

The evolution of the E-Trade of real estate

Walking to class while at NYU, Allen Shayanfekr looked at properties he passed and wondered who owned them. Shayanfekr, the legal adviser and cofounder of Sharestates, also wondered why he and his friends could not pool their money together and own one of those. It occurred to him that the market wasn't accessible.

Separately, Wayne Geffen, who is a portfolio manager at First Serve Asset Management, a long/short energy focused fund, and who acts as an adviser to Sharestates, had been working on R-exchange, "an exchange for real estate, the way the New York Stock Exchange is for stocks."

In summer 2013, Geffen and Shayanfekr happened to be at a real estate networking event hosted by a mutual friend. Geffen and Shayanfekr hit it off, and Geffen realized Sharestates was already in the "sixth or seventh inning" and decided to collaborate with them instead of pushing forward with R-exchange.

Geffen thinks of Sharestates as the E-Trade of real estate. E-Trade was the first platform to aggressively market itself as the platform that opened up trading of stocks, bonds, and other securities to mom and pop investors. Geffen and Shayanfekr wanted to create such a platform for real estate.

Real estate is traditionally an illiquid investment. "There's two components to something being liquid, the actual product, and the ability to get to that product," Gaffen said. "That's essentially what we want to do. We just want to make an illiquid market open and transparent for retail investors."

Regulation-A

One of the biggest hurdles to this is filing a property under Regulation-A: an exemption from SEC registration for securities offering up to $5 million in a 12-month period. Reg-A offerings have to come with a prospectus and can be offered publicly. Each property that Sharestates lists needs Reg-A qualification.

Why hasn't this been done before? "It's difficult," Shayanfekr said. The average Reg-A qualification time is about nine months, and some can take as long as 18 months. And once the SEC qualification is done, one must go through state regulators as well.

The site itself is pretty intuitive. After you've filled in some personal information, Sharestates prompts you with some basic questions on the type of property that interests you, the kind of project (fix and flip/ground up investment), your risk tolerance, holding period, and so on.

With an account set up, investors can peruse through projects that are still looking for funding. Investors can look at the type of offering (equity offering, buy & hold, private loan), the minimum investment, and the amount of the project that's already funded. And once they have picked a project, they can dig through all the additional data and see if it's right for them.

The implications of a failed project are probably among the most common concerns investors could have. And Sharestates doesn't guarantee any projects. "We generally take personal guarantees and security agreements on projects in order to protect investors,"Shayanfekr said. "That way, if a project goes south, they’re generally in a senior 'lien position.'"

"One way we try to hedge investors against losses is through negotiating preferential treatment on returns of invested capital," Shayanfekr said. "For example, the 345 Lenox Road deal requires the sponsor to pay back investors before paying himself. Another way is to be conservative on loan deals and loan on low to moderate loan to value ratios."

Investors also need to remember these are illiquid investments. The money in a project will be tied up until it is completed. They can however sell the securities to other investors. Sharestates will inform its network to help the investor look for a buyer.

"If you look back historically, the wealthiest people in this country have created and maintained their wealth through real estate acquisition," Shayanfekr said.

Now Shayanfekr and Gaffen hope to offer that opportunity to everyone.

SEE ALSO: There's A Huge Shortage Of Truck Drivers In America — Here's Why The Problem Is Only Getting Worse

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New York sees plenty of eye-popping price tags on luxurious homes, from a record-busting $88 million penthouse condo sale at 15 Central Park West to $95 million listings like the 16-room penthouse at the Pierre Hotel.

But as any homeowner knows, buying the property is only the beginning. Once a buyer is in, they have to shell out big bucks to maintain their palatial pads. Condo fees, taxes and, of course, the staff that keeps these properties in multimillion dollar shape can add up fast.

This month, The Real Deal examined the ongoing costs for five pricey properties in the New York City area — running the gamut from penthouse condos to hotel co-ops to Hamptons’ horse farms. Below is a rundown.

The Pierre Hotel

The priciest unit at the luxury co-op residences atop Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel is late stock titan Martin Zweig’s former pad. The triplex, which takes up the entire 41st, 42nd and 43rd floors, is on the market for $95 million — down from an earlier ask of $125 million.

If that isn’t enough to throw a buyer into sticker shock, the apartment, which features five master bedrooms and a 75-foot-long salon and dining area that occupies the original hotel’s ballroom, comes with maintenance charges of $42,720 per month, according to listings website StreetEasy. Those maintenance charges include a range of amenities at the hotel, along with the service of two full-time staff — a “houseboy and maid,” said Brenda Powers of Sotheby’s International Realty, who holds the listing along with partner Elizabeth Sample and fellow Sotheby’s broker Serena Boardman.

“The setup at the Pierre is very interesting structure because the shareholders also own part of the hotel,” Powers explained.

The Pierre, which includes 70 residences and just over 200 hotel rooms, is owned by a partnership comprised of all the shareholders of the co-op — that is to say, the residents who live there. The hotel rooms are then sublet to Taj Hotels, which operates and rents them.

A $24 million mortgage on the building that the co-op owners are responsible for accounts for roughly half of the shareholders’ monthly charges. Real estate taxes are built into the mortgage payments, explained Brown Harris Stevens broker Martha Kramer, who has an $18.25 million listing for a three-bedroom apartment in the building. The monthly maintenance for that unit is $10,000, which pays for twice daily maid service, an additional “heavy cleaning” of the apartment once a month, as well as hotel discounts for guests and concierge services, including dog-walking.

“I’ve even seen them walking cats,” Kramer said of the concierges.

15 Central Park West

Nobody would expect buying an apartment at 15 Central Park West, the Robert A.M. Stern–designed tower that’s home to a slew of boldfaced names, to be cheap.

Until the middle of last month, the priciest unit on the market in the building — where former Citigroup head Sanford Weill broke a record when he sold his penthouse to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in late 2011 for $88 million — was a $65 million, 6,000-square-foot, five-bedroom. (The apartment was temporarily taken off the market because it was rented, but it could still be sold while the tenant is in place.)

The property was the only two-unit combination to be listed since the building launched. The 35th-floor unit has been gut renovated, has panoramic views in three directions and has its own elevator landing, according to the listing, which was held by BHS’ Paula Del Nunzio.

Any buyer can expect to pay monthly common charges of $7,872, plus $10,273 in monthly taxes — for a total of $18,145 per month. That pays for more than just magnificent park views. In addition to the building’s daily upkeep and staff, the monthly maintenance covers the property’s many amenities such as the gym, movie theater, billiards room and, of course, restaurant.

The 14,000-square-foot fitness center, managed by Wright Fit, has state-of-the-art machines, including a Power Plate, which vibrates to help develop muscle tone — a feature most public gyms don’t have, according to Core broker Emily Beare, who’s handled rentals and sales in the building.

Meanwhile, the 75-foot lap pool, located in the fitness center, is lit with skylights from a reflecting pool on the floor above. And, the 20-seat movie theater is available for anything from kids’ parties to Super Bowl get-togethers to private movie screenings.

In addition, the restaurant also caters private events hosted by residents in their homes, said Beare, who added that the restaurant prices are not over-the-top.

“It’s not astronomical,” she said. “You’re not paying a premium for having it in your apartment building. The prices are in keeping with what a normal restaurant would be — it isn’t necessarily $100 per person.”

The building also has a floor devoted to studio apartments, which owners can purchase for their staff. Those, of course, come with tacked-on common charges and taxes.

Two Trees Farm

The owner of Bridgehampton’s Two Trees Farm, Dumbo-based developer David Walentas, first put his famed 115-acre property on the market in 2010 for $95 million. He quickly reduced the price to $55 million, where it stood until a few weeks ago.

Now Walentas has divided the property into several separate sites — two of which are up for sale, as TRD reported last month.

Walentas, who has been trying to secure a zoning change to subdivide the property into 18 individual parcels, recently won final approval, the Corcoran Group’s Susan Breitenbach told TRD.

One of the two listings is comprised of five of those 19 parcels and totals 12.2 acres of developable land. It’s listed for $25.9 million with Terry Cohen of Saunders & Associates.

Walentas has already started to build houses on the 13 yet-to-be-listed parcels, said Breitenbach, one of several brokers who previously listed the entire property. It was not immediately clear when those sites will be listed or at what stage in the development process.

Meanwhile, the second listing is for the 65-acre horse farm, which is now on the market for $25 million. It includes the 2,500-square-foot main residence, a guest house, all three horse stables, two indoor equestrian areas, a pool, tennis court, staff housing and at least four other buildings to house maintenance equipment. Douglas Elliman’s Morgan White, who declined to comment, has the listing for that spread, which is protected as preserved farmland.

To keep up the farm property, the buyer will have to consider a staff of at least 15 to maintain the fields and stables, plus an estimated $1,000 to $3,000 per year to maintain the tennis court, sources said. And on average, tennis courts must be resurfaced every seven years to the tune of between $4,100 and $5,500. However, because the property is a farm, some costs would likely be tax-deductible.

Paul Brennan, Douglas Elliman’s Hamptons regional manager, who is not affiliated with the property, said it’s hard to gauge how much it would cost to foot the Two Trees’ annual bill.

“That’s scary. I wouldn’t even want to,” he said of estimating the upkeep costs. “You have the farm maintenance costs, which aren’t cheap, but it’s just something that has to be done, and if you have things like a horse farm or grapes, they come under agriculture, and so you get a huge [tax] break.”

Still, the taxes on the horse farm are $25,000 annually, according to listing information on Elliman’s website. Walentas declined to comment.

One57

The priciest pad up for grabs at Extell Development’s One57, a $41 million condominium on the 62nd floor measuring just over 4,400 square feet, is actually not that outrageous on a monthly basis — relatively speaking, that is.

The unit will cost its new owner just $7,095 in monthly common charges, and a little over $500 in monthly taxes, according to StreetEasy. The unusually low taxes for such a pricey property are thanks to a controversial 421a tax abatement passed in Albany last year.

Still, despite those relatively low monthly fees, Extell estimates that the building will generate $8.25 million in its first year of operations, with the biggest chunk of that, over $7 million, coming from residential common charges, according to filings with the Attorney General’s office that TRD has cited in the past.

The monthly fees cover the building’s plush amenities, including a private fitness center and yoga studio, an indoor pool with live music pumped in — under water — from nearby Carnegie Hall, private dining, a full catering kitchen and screening and performance rooms. The building has also earmarked $1.57 million for salaries, wages and benefits for its 18 employees, according to its filings. The building also projects that it will spend $2.5 million for heat and hot water annually, $1.43 million on electricity and nearly $1 million on “services and supplies.”

Unlike other Manhattan condos with on-site hotels, however, residents are only charged for hotel services like massages if they use them.

“I did not personally receive any pushback from my numerous customers regarding maintenance fees at all,” said Sotheby’s broker Nikki Field, who told TRD she has sold units to buyers in the building ranging from $8.9 million to $50 million. “The carrying costs are far lower than all the other in-the-ground competition. Most other hotel condos like the Sherry Netherland or the Pierre have exorbitant monthlies due to the included hotel services, whether the owner uses them or not.”

16 Gin Lane, Southampton

The sprawling nine-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot Tudor-style mansion at 16 Gin Lane, which hedge-funder Scott Bommer purchased from shoe mogul Vince Camuto last year for $75 million, just sold again for an undisclosed amount.

But there is little doubt that the new owner will have to dig deep to cover the monthly and annual nut for the 7.5-acre Southampton oceanfront property.

In total, big estates like this one on Gin Lane can run their owners $250,000 a year or more in maintenance costs, according Elliman’s Brennan, who was not involved in the recent sales of the property but is familiar with it.

That’s on top of the nearly $115,000 in annual taxes, according to the property’s most recent listing. Corcoran’s Tim Davis, the listing agent, did not return calls for comment.

Perhaps the most expensive feature to maintain will be the formal gardens, which require a team of full-time workers, according to Brennan. The estate, of course, also has a tennis court and pool.

“I’d hate to think what that costs year over year,” Brennan said of maintaining the property. “The hedges alone would be more than I make in a year.”

The exact cost of maintaining the grounds and gardens depends on exactly what is planted. A rose or vegetable garden, for instance, is more labor-intensive and therefore more costly, said Elizabeth Lear, co-owner of Southampton-based luxury landscape design firm Lear Mahoney.

“Some companies just do the general maintenance: hedges and lawns, fertilizing, spraying,” she said. “People who do specialty gardening generally charge an hourly rate, anywhere from $20 to $50 per hour, depending on who it is and where they are.”

SEE ALSO: The New 'It' Buildings In New York's Luxury Real Estate Market

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If you're looking for a pricey vacation home for the end of summer, we've checked out what $5 million can get you in real estate around the world. 

Our friends at Point2Homes helped us find everything from a tiny apartment in Monte Carlo to a 16,000-square-foot mansion in Qatar. 

Needless to say, $5 million should get you pretty far no matter what city you live in.

In Singapore, $5 million buys a 6,000-square-foot, semi-detached home with five beds, five baths, and a pool.

Price: $5,038,790 (6,300,000 SGD)

Click here to see the home.

In Moscow, for $4.94 million you can get a furnished home with eight beds, eight baths, a pool, and an elevator in a 7,427-square-foot house.

Price: $4,943,779 (179,042,740 руб)

Click here to see the home.

In San Francisco, for $4.95 million you can get a 3,426-square-foot townhouse with three beds, a zen garden, and a roof deck with water views.

Price: $4,950,000

Click here to see the home.

Malibu residents aren't only clamoring for palatial mansions with gated entries — many have been forking over millions for mobile homes in a trailer park.

But this isn't your run-of-the-mill trailer park. The pristine location of Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, set on a cliff side along the Malibu beach, means these trailers are selling in the millions. 

Paradise Cove mobile home park was built in the early 1960s as a beach rental vacation spot, and at the time had only 71 homes. A decade later, the park was sold to the infamous Kissel developers, who built 200 more spaces.

Today, the park comes with some major perks. It's a community with 270 homes, all with direct access to the private beaches of Point Dume. Some of the trailers even have superb ocean views.

All the residents also have access to a large clubhouse, tennis court, basketball court, and children’s playground.

One of these homes recently hit the market for an all-time high of $3.75 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The four-bedroom home was 2,200-square-feet with a hot tub and two-car garage. 

Another home that sold for $1.275 million included a fireplace and walk-in closet in the master bedroom, plus stone bathrooms, multiple decks, and a spa.

The park attracts more upscale residents. One couple who retired from the film industry purchased a two-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot trailer for $1.25 million dollars. Actors Matthew McConaughey and Pamela Anderson were even residents of Paradise Cove at one point.

And while these properties may not look like the average trailer home, "all of them have a trailer axle hidden somewhere underneath and can be moved, at least technically,"according to the Wall Street Journal.

SEE ALSO: 21 Buildings You Need To See In Your Lifetime

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New York City is one of the most stable real estate markets in the world because it is both highly transparent and under-leveraged.

As a result, it's a hot location for people looking to invest in property who don't necessarily plan to live there.

“Everyone has access to the same inventory,” Wei Min Tan, a Manhattan condominium buyer's broker for real estate firm Rutenberg Realty NY, explained to Business Insider. “In a lot of countries the market is not so open and only one broker may have access to those listings. Here, everyone has the same access.”

And in order to buy, you must be a good fit financially. “To own property in NYC, you have to be financially responsible,” Jarrod Randolph, founder of JGR Property Group, told us. “And when I say responsible, it’s more than just having the money in the bank.”

Both Wei Min Tan and Jarrod Randolph specialize in crunching the numbers for their high net-worth clientele to help them make the most informed investments in Manhattan real estate.

And while they both represent some very wealthy foreign buyers, their advice holds true for everyone investing in New York City residential properties. Here are five things you should know before you invest.

1. Condo Vs. Co-op

The biggest question buyers face is co-op versus condominium.

“The majority of property in NYC is cooperative,” Randolph said. “A very simplistic breakdown is that on the island of Manhattan, there are 847,000 residential units. Only 22.7% are privately held. That’s roughly 192,000 units — that’s it. Of that 192,000, two-thirds (or 128,000 units) are cooperative. And the other 64,000 are condominiums and townhouses.”

Because there are more co-ops, they are usually significantly cheaper (by as much as 30% to 40%). But cost isn’t everything. The approval process and rules for a co-op are much more strict than for a condo, requiring proof of net worth, liquid assets, tax returns, and brokerage statements, not to mention a down payment of at least 20% of the purchase price.

“With condos, there’s a lower barrier to entry, and they’re not as stringent,” Randolph said. “They also have the flexibility — you can rent to whoever you want, you can sell without issue. It’s an easier format for ownership.”

Of course, stringent requirements aren’t necessarily a negative. Strict entry rules generally mean your neighbors will be financially secure.

The major downside with co-ops is that they can be hard to rent out. “A condo may be more expensive, but a condo let’s you rent it out whenever you want and it doesn’t require board approval,” Tan told us.

If you’re going to buy a condo, your best bet is to invest in a new development. “It appreciates disproportionately higher to the rest of the market,” Randolph explained. “There’s no barrier to entry, plus the business economics are more stable, appliances are warranted, and it’s usually higher quality.”

But buyers have to act fast to get a new condo. Of the 64,000 condos in Manhattan, Randolph told us only about 10% of that marketplace is considered “new development” (property built in the last 5 years).

2. Know Your Neighborhood

Location is important, but don’t worry too much about neighborhoods, especially if you’re investing in Manhattan properties where many zip codes are considered prestigious.

This is especially important for foreign buyers who plan to rent their properties out. “Most of my foreign buyers only know a few locations,” Tan said. “They know Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and Wall Street. But just because an apartment is in Times Square doesn’t mean it’s going to be desirable to tenants.”

So instead of focusing solely on a “hip” neighborhood, know what’s in walking distance. “One of the key components you want to look at are the auxiliary services around the development: the proximity to the subway, where the closest nail salon or dry cleaners is located, where’s the grocery store, and so on,” Randolph said. “Your retail landscape and transportation options are what make up a neighborhood.”

3. Research The Building And Developer

If you’re buying a condo, it’s important to research the building’s developer and have a good understanding of their past. “You want to know that the developer has some kind of track record,” Randolph advised. “Work with a broker and do your own research. Know their past products, how they’ve performed, and that will tell you if you’re buying into a quality product.”

If you’re buying a co-op, find out everything you can about the cooperative board and have a good understanding of what future changes could be made to the building. Knowing whether the co-op rules might change to no longer allow pets or if there are plans to completely redo the lobby (requiring you to pay a large monthly assessment) could sway your desire to live in the building.

4. Know Your Best Price

Your “best price” doesn’t mean the best deal, because there’s really no such thing as a “good deal” in New York City real estate.

Instead, it’s about knowing why you’re investing. Ultra-net worth individuals may be buying $20 million+ condos as pied-à-terres that they can use whenever they’re in the city. “They’re buying them because they’re hedging bets against the marketplace,” Randolph explained. “Within the next 3-5 years, they’re hoping the condo will be worth 1.5x more than what they purchased it for.”

Those buyers may leave their apartments empty for months at a time. The vast majority of investors, however, are buying condos and apartments to rent out and turn a profit, which has a vastly different price point.

“For renting purposes, the price is up to $3.5 million, and that can be for a 2-bedroom or a 1-bedroom,” Tan says. “A cheap price gets you cheap rent, and a higher price point gets higher rent. The very expensive apartments have difficulty getting rented since it’s rare for someone to want to spend $15,000 renting a one bedroom, and your average 1-bedroom is often around $4,000.”

Randolph agreed. “The best investment if you’re looking to buy something to rent out would be a 2-bedroom apartment in the $2 million to $5 million price range,” he said. “Two to three bedrooms rent at higher rates per square foot because you can have multiple tenants in the apartment.”

5. See It For Yourself

“I always advise my clients that if its your first time investing in the city, you need to go and see the apartment,” Randolph said.

If you can, get a feel for the neighborhood, make sure there are no hidden downsides to the apartment, and check out the building.

But if coming to see the apartment is not a possibility, get a trusted broker to tour the place for you. “90% of my clients go and see [the place],” Randolph said. “But there are some clients where I send them the floor plan and tell them about the area and they’re all for it.”

Tan also stresses seeing the apartment, but notes that technology has rendered it almost unnecessary for foreign buyers. “Some of my clients only come here to close, and some of them don’t even come here at all,” he said. “It’s not like in the olden days where there was no Skype or FaceTime and they had to go and touch the apartment.”

SEE ALSO: This Is The $20 Billion Future Of Manhattan's West Side

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Over the past two years, home prices have seen double-digit percentage price increases in some cities, and more modest percentage increases in others.

But overall, there are more buyers vying for fewer homes in many markets across America.

As that happens, it is inventible that you are going to make a few offers on a few homes that won’t win the deal … but don’t dismay.

Now, you may be able to turn that next rejection into your dream home!

Here are eight reasons why you may be able to change that “Sorry, you didn’t get the house” to a “Welcome home!”

1. A Backup Offer Is A Secret Weapon 

So, you lost the house to someone else, and you may never know why. Maybe they offered more money, or their terms were slightly better than yours. However, you can ask the seller to accept your offer as a backup offer, even if it was slightly less than the accepted offer. It costs you nothing! You don’t have to put out any money, yet you are in line to get the property if the current buyer falls out.

2. Sellers Love The Heat Of Backup Offers 

Sellers love backup offers because it puts pressure on the original accepted offer to close the deal quickly, knowing that there is another buyer standing in the wings, hoping to take center stage.

3. It’s All So Close, They Can Taste It 

Once a seller has a deal on the table and it is progress, they are already psychologically starting to move out. They are picturing the closing day, handing over the keys and seeing the moving trucks arrive. If something goes wrong, and the deal abruptly comes to a screeching halt, the seller is now in a frustrating position and much more willing to move forward with a backup offer that is already in place, even if it is a little less than the first offer, just to keep that momentum going.

4. Chances Increase After The Inspection 

I have won big in backup situations where there has already been an inspection and the house falls out because there are problems that the buyer doesn’t want to deal with, can’t handle, or the seller won’t credit or fix. But, in reality, the good news for you is those issues won’t go away. The buyer may realize he can’t pay so hardball, and may now be more willing to work something out with you, rather than lose the deal a second time.

5. We’re In An Era Of Tougher Loan Qualifications 

As loan qualifications become tighter and more scrutinized, more home buyers are finding they can’t get their loan approved, and they may have to back out of the deal. In this situation, you have the advantage of jumping in to ‘save the day.’

6. Set A Thirty-Day Time Limit 

Make your backup offer expire after 30 days. The longer it takes to complete the current transaction, the greater the chance the two parties are struggling to work through their differences. A time limit will force the hand of your competition, which may make them unable to close the deal.

7. Get First Right of Refusal 

Ask for this clause in your back up offer. You’re not bound to take the property, but once they’ve accepted your backup offer, they are bound to ask you first.

8. Get The Terms of the Backup in Writing 

Lock those sellers into you. Once the seller agrees to accept your offer as backup, make sure to get a fully executed agreement, signed by both of you, that clearly outlines price and terms. Make sure that they are obligated to sell to you within a certain period of time at the agreed-upon terms if the property becomes available.

Extra Bonus For The Backup Buyer

Legally, the sellers have to disclose any problems the first-position buyers uncovered, even ones that made them bolt! As a result, you will know the property’s recently uncovered flaws ahead of time. It saves you time and lets you know about some of the red flags, even before you start to spend the time and money on your own inspections.

SEE ALSO: This Strategy Could Make A Millionaire Out Of Almost Anyone

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Fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger is relisting his impeccably designed Manhattan penthouse for a very hefty $80 million, according to Curbed— making it one of the most expensive American homes on the market.

The condominium is located at the top of the Plaza Hotel on the 18th and 19th floors. The listing on StreetEasy shows that it includes unobstructed views of Central Park, five bedrooms, five and a half baths, and over-the-top decor.

The duplex was originally marketed as a "fixer-upper" for $50 million in 2008, but was never sold despite a $20 million renovation and price bump to $80 million later on.

Now Hilfiger is trying his luck again, adding new photos of the penthouse that show the "glamour of a bygone era coupled with 21st century conveniences," which basically translates to a lot of chandeliers and paintings. 

Welcome to Tommy Hilfiger's duplex at the top of New York's Plaza Hotel.

As you can tell, the decor is quite grand. It's unclear whether the Warhol paintings actually come with the apartment.

Here is his all-American foyer.

Last year my wife and I decided to make the biggest change in our 12 years of marriage. 

We decided to pursue our dream of living by the coast. 

We sold our house in Dallas, Texas, packed our belongings, and moved to sunny SoCal! Well, it wasn’t exactly that simple. It took almost a year of praying, planning, and a lot of work. But we did it, and almost a year later we’re still pleased with our decision and enjoying our new lives in the sand and sun.

As you can imagine, there were a lot of considerations for our move, with housing and finances being amongst the most important. We knew that our dream and moving to an extremely high cost of living location would require a lot of changes in how we live. Obviously, we knew that based on my current income we wouldn’t be able to afford our Texas house in California. The real estate prices where we live in South Orange County are at least three times as expensive as North Dallas.

But we felt downsizing to less than half our square footage and becoming renters indefinitely was worth the change for us. We’ve always owned our homes and of course rented apartments when we were just getting started with our post college lives. Years ago, I bought my first house when single because the value of home ownership had been instilled into me from reading all the personal finance gurus as well as through discussions with family and friends. I thought buying a home was the right thing to do when you graduated school and finally start receiving a decent salary.

After all, a home has always been considered an investment. Why rent when you can put your money towards owning an asset with appreciation potential, right? In general, I agree that this makes a lot of sense for people, especially in moderate cost of living areas. Higher cost of living areas, such as the Northeast and California have always had renters because it provides for more affordable housing. I would also venture to say that’s more socially acceptable. So, we’ve become renters and quite honestly, we’re loving it.

Why? Experiencing our move to California has broadened my perspective on the renting versus buying discussion. Again, I don’t think home ownership for many reasons is a bad decision. But, home ownership has a lot of hidden costs and responsibilities that most people don’t know they’re signing up for when they buy. On the other hand, renting eliminates a lot of these responsibilities and costs and in my opinion, greatly simplifies life.

Let’s explore some of these hidden costs …

Some hidden costs of home ownership

Cosmetics. Assuming you keep a house for the full term of the mortgage, the property will never look the same after that 20-30 years. It will need new cosmetic replacements such as flooring, painting and other remodeling to simply keep it up and on par with the latest styles. Otherwise, it won’t be marketable when you’re ready to sell. And even if you want to keep it forever, you or your spouse are likely going to want some of these changes too!

Maintenance. We owned a new house in Dallas, but in less than five years I had to pay for two air conditioning unit repairs. I was also responsible for keeping my lawn trimmed and fertilized. I also spent money each spring and fall replacing mulch, trimming shrubs and planting flowers. Did I mention that I also paid for a kitchen faucet replacement and when we moved the inspector found the windows needed to be resealed? We shelled out more money than I care to mention for those repairs when we sold our property!

More expenses. Think about all the money it takes to get buy a home! Fees you’ve paid to close (more hidden costs) and prepaids such as insurance. You’ve paid all of these fees and expenses to get in, invested 20% and then you get to drain more savings to buy furniture for the dining room of this house that just might have more square footage than you need. Let’s not forget the 6% standard real estate commissions when you sell which further eats away at your investment and the equity you’ve tried to create!

Temptation to spend. We owned a large home in Texas (everything is big there, right?). Our larger home of course opened up discussions about furniture. Furniture for the sitting room, dining room, media room, play room, guest room, bathrooms, back porch and so on. Not that we had all of these rooms filled, but we certainly talked about doing so, and the temptation did drain our savings account a few times. And don’t forget that furniture needs to be replaced from time to time, so you enter into a never ending cycle. My point is that the more square footage, the more stuff you accumulate to fill it!

Debt. While a home is an asset you certainly don’t own it until it’s paid off. Until that time, you carry a lot of debt and if the market drops, your asset might just not pay for itself if you need to sell it (remember the mortgage crisis?). Of course, you don’t have to worry about this if you have a long-term ownership plan, but keep in mind, investing in or buying a home as an asset isn’t necessarily as risk free as what people had once made it out to be.

Taxes and interest fees. While you’re paying your mortgage down and increasing your equity pennies at a time (in the early years), you’re also obligated to pay taxes and interest. Interest is certainly not as much of a concern as it used to be, but it is an expense and so are the large amount of property tax money you’ll spend year to year. Yes, you certainly get a tax deduction come tax time, but deductions are only provided if you’re paying taxes and that deduction isn’t a dollar for dollar reduction in your costs!

It’s not liquid. Do you need cash out of your home? Sure, the approach people use is to apply for a home equity loan or line of credit to get their cash and you’ll of course, pay more fees! And you may be aware that it isn’t so easy these days with all of the strict requirements and regulations. What if your home dropped in value and has eaten into your equity? It’s even tougher to get your money! Unfortunately, there isn’t much liquidity in home ownership.

So, what do you get after 30 years of home ownership? Yes, you get a home you can call your own and that’s certainly a great benefit. You’re debt free with no more house to pay for. And that’s a great advantage, but you’ve certainly spent a lot of money along the way that might not have accounted for or thought about when signing those papers.

As I said before, there are hidden expenses and responsibilities with home ownership. It’s not a bad decision long-term, but know what you’re getting into and definitely don’t depend on your home as a safe investment because it carries risks just like anything else.

Why I’m loving renting

All of the above quite honestly makes me ill to think about these days. If I had enough money for a 20% down payment in SoCal today, I’m not sure I would sign up again for home ownership. Housing for us now is just an expense line in our monthly budget. We’ve downsized considerably, don’t require near as much furniture and my landlord just came over last week and replaced the kitchen faucet.

Here’s some things I’m liking about being a renter:

Flexibility. Renting offers a lot of flexibility in that we can sign a one or two year lease. If we’re tired of the area or don’t like something about it, no problem, we’ll just move when we complete our lease and find a new place to rent. I don’t’ have to think about preparing a house for sale and certainly don’t encounter all of the expenses of closing the deal! Should we need to move because of a life change a house could sit on the market for a long time and we could even be forced to sell low! You can’t beat the flexibility renting offers! 

No debt on our balance sheet. We don’t have debt from housing anymore, again, just the expense. Yep, but you won’t have an asset in 30 years, someone might say! Not so. The equity we got from our house in Dallas is an asset as we have it invested as part of a long-term plan. That asset, if it stays on par with what the market has done on average would pay for that home in Dallas should we ever decide to move back. Yes, we’ll have capital gains taxes, but again, there are taxes and those hidden costs with home ownership.

Low maintenance. I’ve already discussed this quite a bit, but I’ll just go one step further and let you know that I’m so pleased in that the time I used to spend maintaining my house is now invested in my family and spending time enjoying fun things to do in SoCal. I sold my lawnmower and many tools (more hidden expenses) that were required to be a home owner. I no longer plant shrubs or have to paint my fence. Nope, our landlord does that.

Liquidity. While our money is invested in the market, we can get to it in a few days if needed. Yes, we might be forced into selling some investments low to get some cash, but at least we can get to the money quickly. I don’t have to apply for a loan or worry about not having enough equity in my house to draw upon.

What spending temptation? If my wife wants to upgrade the kitchen cabinets, we can either ask our landlord to do it, or simply move to a property we like better when our lease is up. We also don’t have the temptation to spend to fill a media room and other spaces in a big house because we simply don’t have the rooms to fill today. In our Dallas house, we had considered at least four rooms that needed a couch (ridiculous!). In our new SoCal space, I’m pleased to report there is only enough room for one couch! The more stuff you have, the more your life is crowded and the more time it takes to maintain it all. Renting for us has greatly simplified life.

Location, location, location. Unless you’re super wealthy, you can’t live wherever you want to live. It costs too much to buy in THAT neighborhood, right? Well, renting is typically cheaper than home ownership as a monthly expense. That said, it may just offer you the opportunity to explore a dream and live by the coast, in the mountains or some other desired location that wasn’t possible before.

Thinking different. I love how our lifestyle has completely changed because of pursuing a dream to live by the coast. A big home is no longer a priority because we simply don’t stay inside very much. The weather and beauty draws us outside daily. Yes, there are some drawbacks to renting one needs to understand, but for us, is simpler approach. It’s flexible, provides the location we desire and reduces housing expenses.

Final thoughts on renting vs buying a home

In summary, I want to say that I’m not making a case against home ownership. It’s just a different perspective and there is certainly no one size all or right or wrong answer. Home ownership can be a very good plan if you can afford the down payment and stick to a long-term plan to stay in the house and ride any market swings.

There are many advantages of home ownership, such as outright owning your property. But again, please don’t be shortsighted in thinking that home ownership is the best answer. It’s often said owning a home long-term is cheaper than renting. Maybe, but there are lots and lots of home expenses to consider along the way that aren’t always part of the discussion and nearly impossible to calculate like the value of your time no longer fixing and maintaining!

There are simply too many advantages to ignore for today’s renter for this not to be a serious part of the discussion. I didn’t realize it at the time, but owning a home for me was a huge weight of responsibility carried on my shoulders. I’m walking lighter these days and enjoying cool evenings on the front porch with my wife under a roof we still call home and when friends come over to visit.

SEE ALSO: This Flowchart Could Help You Decide Whether To Buy Or Rent A Home

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Smart sellers spend a whole lot of time and energy strategizing about how to sell their homes for top dollar.

They factor in buyer demand, the competition, the job market, the mortgage market and their agent’s track record.

And that doesn’t even account for all the time spent understand recent home sales in the area as an indicator of how local buyers will react to this listing.

Many a smart seller will also try to time their listing just right, too. And most often this looks like waiting until they feel buyers are sufficiently ready, willing, and able to pay a good price for the property. One timing consideration that sometimes gets short shrift is this: the calendar.

There’s a season for everything, as you might have heard. And recent Trulia data revealed some powerful geographically-specific seasonal trends in search activity for homes, adding proof to what agents have long known — the calendar portends various shifts in buyer activity, which sellers need to note.

If you’re gearing up to list your home for sale, you should definitely take advantage of this interactive tool we’ve created to help you understand how these shifts play out in your area, and connect with your agent to discuss whether and how you might want to factor that into your home sale action plan.

But there are also a number of calendar-based factors you should just be thoughtful about as you put your plan for selling together. Here are a handful of calendars that should be – and stay – on every home seller’s radar screen:

1. The Academic Calendar. 

Families with school-aged children often find it less disruptive to house hunt in the late Spring/early Summer with the aim of moving in before school starts. Of course, we all know what they say about the best laid plans, so by no means should you let this stop you from listing your home at another time of year. Just know that demand for homes with convenient proximity to strong schools can uptick during the summer school break and around other times of year when kids are not in school.

2. The Tax Calendar. 

I cannot count the number of relatively unmotivated, looky-loo type buyers I’ve worked with over the years who got sudden, intense motivation from a massive, looming tax bill. For instance, many new professionals will seek to close escrow on homes between the time they graduate and the end of that same year, in an effort to deduct their closing costs and mortgage interest from their newly large incomes and avoid a big tax bill the following April. Similarly, just after tax time in April, a flood of newly motivated buyers come into the market, advised by their CPAs that the mortgage interest deduction is their best bet for not having to write as big a check to the IRS next year.

Fortunately for sellers, more buyers and more motivation means more demand and – all other things being equal – can translate into a faster sale at a higher price than at other times of the year.

3. The Weather Calendar. 

Many sellers who live in cold-weather climates are aware that wintry weather conditions can dramatically cut down on the numbers of buyers who are out viewing properties. This is why buyer searches for homes on Trulia peak earliest, in January, in warm-weather states like Hawaii and Florida – and not until after the Spring thaws in the Midwest, the South, the northeast and most of the West.

But what’s not as obvious is that the combination of what’s happening on the weather calendar and the specific features of your home can interact to impact your home’s prospects for sale – and its ultimate sale price. Behavioral economics researchers have found that homes with swimming pools sell for more in the summertime than they do in the winter. “When it is sweltering outside, a swimming pool just looks attractive. There’s an emotional connection because it reminds us of fun times we have in the summer,” said Jaren Pope, one of the study’s authors and an assistant professor of economics at Brigham Young University.

So, if you’re selling a home with ski slope access in the summer, you might want to paint the picture of a cozy, fun-filled winter by staging the place with ski gear and other items that help prospective buyers visualize how much fun they’ll have when winter comes. And vice versa -if you’re selling a pool house in the winter, consider making sure it is steamy and heated, if it has those features. Stage it with lounges, towels, lights – anything that showcases the pool to offset cold-weather buyer’s psychological tendency to discount the appeal of a pool in the winter.

4. The Holiday Calendar. 

During the holidays, many buyers simply prefer to spend their downtime celebrating with family and friends vs. house hunting, especially in locales where the winters are wet or cold. Our listing search databacks this up: nationwide, December is the slowest month of the year for home searches, and November is the second-slowest.

Does this mean the holidays are a bad time to have your house on the market? Not necessarily: some homes just show beautifully when all lit up and tastefully dressed up for the holidays. And the truth is that there is a hardy contingent of buyers motivated to close by year’s end for tax purposes, every year in every market. While buyers might be fewer in number, those who will brave rain, sleet and snow and forego holiday parties to house hunt can be some of the most motivated buyers of all.

5. The Gregorian Calendar (the regular old January through December calendar, that is). 

A survey just released by Fidelity Investments revealed that 54% of Americans said they typically consider setting New Year’s Resolutions related to their personal finances. This year, 26 percent of respondents said they are in a better financial situation today than last year (only 19 percent said so in 2012) and 28 percent say they are less in debt (vs. 25 percent in 2012).

Home buying tends to be a popular resolution among those with money on their minds at this time of year – and also among people looking forward to career promotions, developing their love and family relationships or relocating to a new home town. Make sure your home is well-represented on sites like Trulia at the beginning of the year (i.e., now!), when these life and financial change visionaries start searching the web for their next nest.

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The size of recent investments from Chinese firms and individuals in New York real estate has commanded headlines. Generally speaking, the properties being bought are familiar to those in the New York City property business.

Those doing the buying, however, are less well known. In reality, the wave of Chinese investment in New York City property is being led by some of the biggest names in real estate in the People’s Republic. Some of these investors hope to fill American condos with wealthy Chinese home seekers and stock U.S. offices with China’s outwardly looking companies.

For others, buying into U.S. assets represents a logical next step in expanding highly diversified portfolios. At the same time, Chinese developers — particularly residential developers — are facing a serious slump in the business, as home prices fall and vacancies rise in the country’s cities.

Indeed, a number of the nation’s big builders have flagged overbuilding and high land prices as causes for concern. That helps explain, in part, why some of China’s real estate titans are seeking out residential investments in overseas markets like New York. Here, then, is a look at six major property players in China that are making waves in New York.

1. China Vanke

Given China Vanke’s position as the largest residential developer in China, one could say the company is starting small in the U.S. In February, a partnership comprised of Vanke, Aby Rosen’s RFR Holdings and Hines broke ground on 610 Lexington Avenue, a 61-story condo building designed by Norman Foster. Vanke will also develop a four-building, 656-unit condo development in San Francisco called Lumina in partnership with Tishman Speyer. Vanke was founded in 1984, and began focusing on real estate in 1988. Since then, the company says it has built more than 500,000 homes in 70 cities. Vanke focuses on developing small residences for China’s growing urban population. Last year, it constructed 160 million square feet and brought in $28 billion in revenue. Vanka recently voiced concern that prices are overheating in some Chinese cities, Reuters reported. Vanke president Yu Liang told a real estate forum the company could well plow 10 percent of its overall investment into overseas markets in the next five years. The company’s preferred destination in the Western world? The U.S., according to the news service.

2. Greenland Holding Group

It’s no wonder Forest City Ratner chose Greenland Holding Group when it sought a partner to help expedite the construction of the Atlantic Yards project (recently rechristened Pacific Park Brooklyn). Greenland is Shanghai’s largest state-owned enterprise. Since 1992, the company has built urban complexes, industrial parks and business districts in more than 80 Chinese cities. The company also specializes in developing ultra high-rise towers and has some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers in its pipeline. Greenland is ranked number 268 in Fortune Magazine’s Global 500 last year — two spots above Goldman Sachs – and has $58 billion of assets under management as of 2013. In addition to real estate, Greenland has significant interests in energy, finance, construction and hotel and commercial center operations. 

3. Fosun International

Fosun International’s $725 million purchase of 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza was the biggest foreign investment in commercial office space last year. That feat is no surprise when one considers the scale of Fosun’s business. Formed in 1992, Fosun is China’s largest closely held conglomerate. Its cofounder and Chairman, Guo Guangchang, has been called the Warren Buffet of China, making Fosun the Berkshire Hathaway of the Middle Kingdom. The company has nearly $30 billion in assets under management and posted about $1.3 billion in profits last year. Most of Fosun’s $8.3 billion in revenues in 2013 came from industrial operations, which include pharmaceuticals, property development, steel production and mining. It plans to aggressively develop its other main businesses — insurance, investment and asset management – over the coming decade.

4. Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi

Last year, the wife-and-husband team of Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi partnered with Brazilian banking magnate Moise Safra to take a 40 percent stake in the General Motors building for $700 million. The deal made Zhang and Pan stakeholders in one of the most valuable real estate assets in the US. The duo is no stranger to big deals. Zhang and Pan serve as the chief executive and chairman, respectively, for SOHO China, the country’s largest developer of high-end office space. Founded in 1995, the company focuses on developing architecturally distinct buildings in Beijing and Shanghai by collaborating with notable architects such as of Zaha Hadid. Forbes puts Zhang and Pan’s fortune at $3.9 billion. Last year, SOHO reported a profit of $1.3 billion on revenues of $2.4 billion. The company also transitioned to a business model focused on operating rather than selling buildings. SOHO has built about 32 million square feet of office space and has a total development portfolio of 58 million square feet.

5. Wang Jianlin

Few details have emerged since Wanda Group chairman — and China’s richest man — Wang Jianlin said last year he would invest $1 billion in a New York hotel and residence. But Wang has shown his ability to execute. He purchased cinema chain AMC group for $2.6 billion in 2012. He also spent $900 million on a 90-percent stake in a Chicago mixed-use development earlier this year. Last week, he won the right to develop a former department store in Beverly Hills with a $1.2 billion bid. Wang topped Forbes Magazine’s China Rich List with an estimated wealth of $14.1 billion last year. Wanda Group’s assets under management totaled $62.8 billion at the end of 2013. Wang spent 16 years in the army and did a brief stint with the Dalian city government before establishing Wanda Group in 1988. Initially focusing on urban reconstruction in the seaport city of Dalian, the company embarked in 1992 on residential development in Guangzhou, China’s third largest city. Since then, Wanda has diversified into four major businesses: commercial real estate; hotel development and management; department stores; and cultural enterprises, including movie theaters, film production and theme parks.

6. XIN Development

In 2012, XIN Development purchased a Williamsburg condo site for $54 million. The firm has since begun construction on the Oosten, a 216-unit development designed by Dutch architect Piet Boons. XIN Development is the U.S. arm of the Beijing-based homebuilder Xinyuan Real Estate. Founded by chairman and CEO Yong Zhang in 1997, the company has a simple strategy: it acquires land in China’s high-growth, second tier cities and develops middle-income housing. As of last year, Xinyuan had completed 28 projects comprising more than 42,000 apartments. Between 2009 and 2013, Xinyuan has grown revenues 50 percent to nearly $900 million, according to its last annual report. Xinyuan became the first Chinese real estate company to list on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2007. Investors don’t appear to be entirely sold on the company, however. Xinyuan, which has a market cap of just $315 million, has seen its stock price tumble 73 percent since going public.

SEE ALSO: 8 Real Chinese Dishes You Should Order Instead Of The American Knockoffs

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It’s a strange relationship, that which exists between journalists and those in the marketing biz.

For the most part, it’s a game whereby the marketing firm tries to a) Convince the journalist that people will read about the product they’re flogging; or b) and if ‘a’ doesn’t work, try to get their attention with a viral campaign or stunt.

The journalist responds by either a) Getting their back up and thinking to themselves ‘I’ll determine what people are interested in thank you very much’; or b) Justifies covering the stunt/viral “because everyone else is” and the easy hits are hard to ignore.

Most of the time the two circle each other warily and keep the friendship just warm enough, because to survive, one needs exposure and the other needs content.

But there are plenty of times when, to borrow a phrase, the streams cross, like a couple of weeks ago when we ran the story: “ONE LUCKY B…..D’S JOURNEY: From Melbourne To Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Assistant In 10 Tweets“.

The Terminator star and former California governor was, according to several media reports, eyeing off a property just north of Newcastle, NSW.

Check out this #property the #bossinator likes http://t.co/TzqbKtBoT6 #letthehuntbeginpic.twitter.com/6zXbfi3uv8

— Dylan Blocke (@dylanblocke) July 28, 2014 

What caught our eye was the line about Arnie’s “brand spanking new assistant Dylan Blocke”, who after a quick search, turned out to have a Twitter account started just two weeks previously which seemed to track his progress from Melbourne filmmaker to Arnie’s LA doorstep.

There was some internal wrangling about whether it was a hoax. “Dylan Blocke” having no social media presence before flying to LA was the obvious bell-ringer. He had no online history apart from a blank LinkedIn profile, and while happy to follow me on Twitter, refused to answer any direct messages.

There was however, no doubt Arnold Schwarzenegger was a genuine part of whatever “Dylan” was plugging.

In the end I decided something newsworthy was going on, with Team Schwarzenegger on board, that involved an Aussie. The details would no doubt come out in the wash soon enough. And we’re a business publication, and there was obviously business involved here somewhere.

As it turned out, Dylan Blocke was indeed a fictional character created by Melbourne ad agency BWM for REA, the owner of realestate.com.au.

Two weeks after Blocke – revealed later as Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate Wade Briggs – started tweeting, the first of several ads starring his “new boss” Arnold Schwarzenegger began to appear on Australian screens, TV and online.

It’s a great campaign. Schwarzenegger, who has never been shy of playing self-deprecating roles in movies from The Last Action Hero right through to The Expendables, is clearly enjoying hamming it up as a noob investor in Australian real estate. (Because he really knows Austrian real estate, right?)

And for a young screen hopeful with a couple of theatre roles and a recurring part on Josh Thomas’s ABC sitcom Please Like Me, Briggs looks comfortable enough alongside one of the biggest movie stars in screen history.

But a couple of questions remain for anyone watching the ads and anyone who followed Blocke’s “journey” to Hollywood. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger agree to plug an Australian real estate website? And when do the benefits of running a viral hoax outweigh the risks of alienating your target audience?

How to get a date with Arnold Schwarzenegger

BWM’s executive creative director Murray White and managing director Mark Watkin walked us through the process of securing a Hollywood superstar.

Watkin said the team never set out by targeting Schwarzenegger, nor any celebrity. The entire premise of the campaign started with the line “Australia Lives Here” and what that meant for property buyers and owners wanting more information on their investments.

“The whole idea was based on the confusion on Austria/Australia,” White said. That’s what led us to Arnie as the most famous Austrian in the world.

“How we got him, it’s simply down to the fact he really, really liked the idea and the writing in the script.”

“He’s very cooperative. He loves the script and the writing, and – this is unusual – the scripts as they were written changed barely a few per cent to what was actually shot, so that was a real credit to our team.”

BWM approached Arnold through a Hollywood director who was a mate of White’s, John Hamberg. Hamburg directed Along Came Polly and I Love You, Man, but you’re probably familiar with his work as the co-writer of the Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers andZoolander.

“Through a number of contacts, we managed to secure time with John and Arnold together,” Watkin said.

“Arnold invited John over for breakfast and Arnie cooked oatmeal and they discussed the idea.

“John spoke to Arnold about how he understood the idea, that it would never be endorsement, it would be performance and he was just tickled by it. He’d never done something like that before.”

The campaign is three ads in, with four more to launch in the next couple of weeks. The social media campaign started about six weeks, with Blocke’s speculative “trip to LA”.

The team’s hopes were for Arnold to get the eyes first, which would then translate into interest in the Blocke backstory.

“From the very beginning, we had a creative idea that we knew we wanted – a brand experience we brought to life over three stages,” White said.

Stage 1 was to create the backstory of Blocke’s journey through social media. Stage 2 was using TV to link Arnie’s interest to Australian property to realestatecom.au, and show how the site gives someone with zero knowledge of the Australian property market the tools they need. Stage 3 is simply a follow-up, ensuring that future news advice and products “really substantiate that confidence we’ve started to build.”

As for Briggs, he got the gig as Dylan Blocke through the usual screen test route, but Watkin and White say he had no idea where his success would take him.

“Wade didn’t find out until two days before the shoot or probably the day he was getting on the plane to LA. We wanted to protect the confidentiality of the project.”

“We wanted to give him time to prepare but not enough to give it away, so we told him that morning what it was about, or something pretty close to it.

“He was a cool player. He had to audition with one of the scripts we disguised, but he made a few deductions.

“He may have thought he was going to work with De Niro.”

How to convince your client they need more Arnold

The ad campaign is just the end product. All up, it represents a nine-month proposition for BWM.

“This has always been brand reposition project,” Watkin said. “We spent the first four of nine months just finding realestate.com.au’s brand position and understanding the needs an wants of customers and determining the best way to catapult that into the market.”

White said the proper credit for the project had to go to REA.

“If you talk to them, they’ll all say the moment we presented the work it stood out but their immediate reaction was ‘Wouldn’t that be great but nah, we can’t.’

“It was more a case of ‘I hope we can get him’. We had it on the wall, we knew both Mark and I had worked with celebs in the past, big names.

“We knew the process we had to go through, we knew who to talk to and we would never have presented an idea we never had a chance of realizing.

White said “there was a lot of laughter” when the idea went up on the wall, followed by “Oh wait, can we really do this?”

“Then at the end of the week the weekend test suddenly on Monday turned it into “We’ve got to do this!,” he said.

“I think on their way back home it started to dawn on them how powerful this idea could be.”

The dangers of going viral

White said Schwarzenegger hasn’t actually been out to Australia, and while the campaign lured interest through the development of a false, but plausible, Twitter account, there were no moral complications on BWM’s behalf.

“The Twitter campaign was based on something we thought was appropriate and permission was granted, it was all above board.

“The tweets Arnie puts out are hashtagged #ad. When it’s part of the campaign or advertising you have to do that.

“In the US it’s pretty much mandated now. There have been cases where promotion by a celebrity has been misleading that but certainly wasn’t the case here.”

“The whole thing was annotated correctly.”

I’ve been saving my favorite places on http://t.co/EjWAsiMw2b for later. Because, I’ll be back.@realestate_au #ad #ausliveshere

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) August 10, 2014

Internet history in particular is littered with PR stunts that backfired, in some cases taking entire businesses down, but Watkin said there was always a proper way to manage such risks.

“It’s an interesting one. It goes back to the strength of the idea and whether it’s got enough tolerance in it to create really good PR,” he said.

“(The Arnie campaign) is very principled because there’s that ‘Is he or isn’t he?’ aspect and because he is who he is, it’s very interesting for viewers.

“Positive sentiment on the campaign is at 98 per cent right now, and we’re incredibly proud of that. It’s not just people loving the ad, it’s fans of Arnie saying ‘We love that you used him in that’.”

While they’re unwilling (or unable) to share any figures about the cost and ROI, both Watkin said the campaign, with several ads to go, has been “hugely successful”.

“We’ve exceeded every target we set, even at this very early stage.”

And there’s unlikely to be any sequels starring other celebrities. White said the initial task was one of “discovery”.

“It’s not something you can repeat over and over,” White said. “We just needed people to discover the many products, tools and services themselves; that’s why the initial creative idea had to be so strong.”

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In a bold attempt to create a building that contains practically everything humans could need to survive, architects at Studio Cachoua Torres Camilletti designed a multi-multi-purpose skyscraper for Hong Kong.

Called "Rice Terraces," the design is an effort to meld agricultural space and big cities. It features two uniquely shaped towers connected by braces, trusses and bridges. The larger tower on the right would be for commercial use, with space for offices, retail, and entertainment. The thinner tower on the left would be for residential use, with lobbies that contain transparent bridges connected to the commercial tower. Some of the more unusual features of the building are a rain water collector on top, an algae facade, floor-sized fish farms and water filters, and a nuclear reactor in the underground parking garage. True to its name, the bodies of the towers would be actual rice paddies. The Mexico City-based architects said they were "inspired by the idea of natural rock canyons, and found poetry in their contours and in the way that they generate their duality, a male and a female shape, which could be joined together." 

While "Rice Terraces" could be entirely powered by renewable energy, there are no plans to actually build it at this time.Cachoua Torres Camilletti is currently betting that the next generation of nuclear reactors, like those defined as 4S (Super Safe, Small and Simple) will power the tower.

SEE ALSO: Meet The 6 Chinese Real Estate Titans Who Are Snapping Up Property In New York City

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A unique Napa Valley home is set to be auctioned off on September 10th.

The 22,882-square-foot Villa De Madre was originally listed at $22 million in 2011. Now the seller, Willis Johnson, founder of Copart, Inc., a publicly traded, global online vehicle auction company, is holding an auction instead.

The gated property in Suisun Valley includes nearly 80 acres, a caretaker's house, three auto barns, and 63 acres of Cabernet vineyards.

The home itself has six bedrooms, eight baths, a game room, and indoor pool.

Johnson is auctioning the estate off because he wanted to expedite to sale, according to the company auctioning off the home, Premiere Estates Auction. 

The driveway to the gated Villa de Madre in Suisun Valley is lined with olive trees.

The property is surrounded by 63 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon vines. The front of the home is marked by a large fountain.

California chic.

Alchemy Properties’ offering plan for the condominiums at the Woolworth Building was just approved by the New York Attorney General’s office, and The Real Deal headed over to the AG’s real estate finance bureau to take a peek at it.

The plan reveals that the $110 million penthouse atop the iconic tower — a unit that has been christened the “Pinnacle” — will span 9,400 square feet with just under 500 square feet of outdoor space.

This means Alchemy is asking about $11,700 per square foot for the aerie atop the landmark tower, by far a record for Downtown and one of the priciest listings ever to hit the city.

Overall, the average price for the 34 condo units collectively known as the Woolworth Tower Residences is $4,172 per foot, with a total sellout of $443.7 million. Prices start at $3.9 million for a 1,290-square-foot pad on the 44th floor, suggesting Alchemy feels even more bullish about sales prospects than it did in June, when Bloomberg News reported that the unit was asking $3.5 million.

According to the floor plan for the Pinnacle, the penthouse will have three bedrooms, three bathrooms and three powder rooms, as well as a private elevator. The 50th and 51st floors, with more than 4,700 square feet between them, will contain the main living and dining spaces.The 2,456-square-foot 53rd floor will boast a room of more than 1,350 square feet, and the 55th through 58th levels in the cupola will offer a library or media room and an observation deck at the very top.

Alchemy opted to keep sales at the tower in-house, as TRD reported earlier this week. Representatives for the developer declined to comment for this story. 

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When it comes to buying or selling your home, what you don't know can cost you — literally.

Whether it's not doing your research or getting too emotionally involved, making the wrong choices can wind up costing you tens of thousands of dollars.

To avoid this fate, check this list of 15 of the biggest real estate mistakes made by both buyers and sellers — and make sure you don't commit any of them.

On the buying side

Not researching the neighborhood: Is this some place you really want to live? What amenities are nearby? How is the school district? What does the traffic and street activity look like when you drive by it at different times of day, like Sunday morning and Monday evening rush hour?

Not getting an inspection: This is one of the biggest investments you'll ever make, and you'll be living with it for years to come. Don't pinch pennies — shell out $400 for an inspection. Make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for.

Buying (or not buying) based on the decor: Paint color can be changed. Tiles and cabinets can be changed. What you want to look at are the bones of the house. Will it meet your needs? Does it flow well? Does it have enough space?

Buying the priciest home on the block: Hate to break it to you, but the most expensive home on the block isn't a good deal. It will only depreciate over time, and you could have trouble selling it when buyers can see plenty of more reasonably priced options in the same neighborhood.

Being unrealistic with your budget: Just because you qualify for a $250,000 mortgage, that doesn't mean you can afford it, especially when you factor in the other costs that come with homeownership. Be real and only look at houses you can realistically afford.

Being unrealistic about your DIY abilities: Will you really (truly) want to tear down that wall to make a master suite or gut the entire kitchen to make it work for you? Don't let too much HGTV and delusions of grandeur drive you to buy an ongoing project you'll regret taking on.

Making a tiny down payment: If you can't put down 20%, you'll face private mortgage insurance (aka PMI) payments and a higher monthly mortgage payment overall. It may be worth saving up for an extra year or two to reduce your long-term costs.

Buying when you're not ready: Are you ready financially (like having that decent down payment) — but also, are you ready emotionally? Are you sure you want to stay in this area for years? Does your income feel stable? Are you prepared to take on all that yard work and the repairs you avoided as a renter?

On the selling side

Not keeping resale in mind when renovating: The custom changes that make your house work better for you may not appeal to potential buyers. Not everybody loves that bright green paint color — no matter how much you personally adore it. Make sure any big changes you make will increase, rather than decrease, your home's value.

Sticking around during the open house: No one wants the current homeowner hovering over them as they tour the house — it's a lot of added pressure and can prevent them from giving the honest feedback that could ultimately help you sell your home. Go out for lunch and let your Realtor handle showings.

Waiting to list til warmer weather: Yes, most people house hunt in the spring and summer, but that's also when most people list their homes. List yours when it's available and you'll reach those buyers who need a home now and aren't finding much on the market.

Setting the price too high: What your home is worth to you and what it's worth on the current market can be vastly different. Take a good look at comparables in your area and make sure you're being realistic about your home's value.

Not doing enough marketing: Just putting up a "for sale" sign isn't enough. Talk with your realtor about other options, like online listings with virtual tours to attract buyers who aren't looking in the classifieds.

Not getting a real estate agent: Unless you've had plenty of prior experience, going the "for sale by owner" route is probably not a smart bet. Realtors can give you crucial insights, marketing advice and, most importantly, can get your property on the multiple-listing service (or MLS), which gets it in front of other agents. (You can, however, hire a "discount agent" who will just list your property on the MLS but offer little advice. Not recommend for first-timers.)

Not staging your house: You need to help buyers envision themselves in your home. This includes removing any clutter and overly personal items (like family photographs) and making sure furniture flows well and demonstrates the purpose of each room.

Paula Pant owns five houses — yes, five. No, she's not rich, but she's a real estate investor who built a portfolio of rental properties that cover her entire cost-of-living. She's 30 years old, and she invites you to check out all the details about her real estate purchases — including the numbers — on her blog, Afford Anything.

SEE ALSO: How $268,000 Of Student Loans Barred Us From Getting A Mortgage

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The personalized New York City townhouse of celebrated architect Paul Rudolph is on the market for $28 million. 

The residence, in Midtown by the East River, is a four-unit townhouse that includes the architect's unique penthouse addition.

Rudolph purchased the building in 1976 and continuously worked on it, earning two awards from the American Institute of Architecture. 

And while he died in 1997, other architects spent three years updating and preserving the home from 2004 to 2007.

The modernist home includes three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a terrace on each floor, a wood burning fireplace, and four interconnected levels. 

Paul Rudolph's townhouse is located at 23 Beekman Place in New York City's Midtown East, practically on the East River.

Rudolph bought the townhouse in 1976 and added on the modernist penthouse during his 30 years there.

The 3,000-square-foot interior includes a lot of glass windows, bridges, and cantilevered floors.

A horrifying YouTube video showing a “luxury” New York City two-bedroom apartment is making the rounds today. The catch? It’s filled with 11 bunk beds for 22 roommates.

The video, which was first spotted by Brokelyn, was uploaded back in January, so unfortunately, this stunning real estate gem is probably already filled — or shut down. We're skeptical that it's even real, given the complete absurdity of the place, which looks like a camp bunk for recent college grads.

In the video, an anonymous landlord/broker shows off a tiny space he means to fill with 22 people. “People are serious here (students & young professionals),” the YouTube description says, “this is not a place to party.”

Things start to get weird at the 30-second mark when our tour guide says that this “huge” closet is going to be converted into the manager’s room. Fancy!The living room is filled with three bunk beds that are “mixed,” meaning that both guys and girls will be sleeping here.This tiny terrace can be used as an outdoor storage space, or where some of your 21 other roommates will smoke, the broker says, adding that perhaps he'll “put a grill out there and you can enjoy yourself."Apart from the living room bunk beds, there is an all-men’s bedroom (with three bunk beds) and a women’s bedroom (with five bunk beds, pictured below) with “plenty of closet space.” The women’s room even has a “private bathroom” for the 10 women who will be sleeping there.No price is given for this Manhattan real estate steal, but the apartment is supposedly on 27th Street and 3rd Avenue, and does not allow drugs or alcohol. According to the listing, people who stay here do so for two to six months (!!) with a minimum stay of 30 days.

Gothamist points out that this is definitely not legal. According to NYS housing law, “The maximum number of persons who may occupy any such apartment shall be determined by dividing the total liveable floor area of the apartment by 80 square feet.” Basically, there's no way each of the 22 unfortunate people living here have 80 square feet of space to themselves.

We’re not even sure this video is real, but given how awful New York City real estate has become, it just might be. Watch the full video below.

SEE ALSO: These Are The Worst Rooms For Rent In New York City

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