How to sell your home yourself in New York

Yes, for all practical purposes. New York uses an attorney-state closing model, meaning neither party signs a binding contract until both sides' attorneys have reviewed and negotiated it. The seller's attorney drafts the contract of sale, prepares a rider covering price, deposit amount (typically 10%), personal property included, and closing date, and then conducts or oversees the closing table. You can technically proceed without counsel, but no serious buyer or buyer's attorney will accept a contract you drafted yourself. Budget roughly $1,500 to $3,000 for a straightforward residential closing; co-op sales often run toward the higher end because of the additional board package and transfer steps. Engage the attorney before you list, not after you have an offer, so you are ready to move quickly.

A condo is real property. You own it outright, and you transfer it with a deed at closing. The condo board has a right of first refusal, but in most buildings it waives that right routinely, and closings typically happen in two to three months. A co-op is different in kind: you own shares in a cooperative corporation and hold a proprietary lease on your apartment, not real property itself. Selling a co-op means assigning your shares and lease to the buyer, and the co-op board must approve that buyer before any closing can occur. Your buyer assembles a board package that typically runs 50 to 100 pages, including two years of tax returns, bank and brokerage statements, employment verification, and personal reference letters, then sits for a board interview. The board can reject the buyer with no explanation required. This approval process alone takes three to eight weeks after the package is submitted, which is why co-op sales routinely close in four to five months. If you are selling a co-op, warn buyers upfront that their financials must meet the building's debt-to-income and post-closing liquidity requirements, or you risk losing time on a deal that will not be approved.

The seller pays two transfer taxes. The New York State real estate transfer tax is $2 per $500 of sale price (0.4%), rising to 0.65% on residential sales above $3 million. On top of that, New York City imposes its own Real Property Transfer Tax: 1% on residential sales up to $500,000 and 1.425% on sales above that threshold. Both are typically paid at or before closing, and your attorney will prepare the required forms (TP-584 for state, NYC RPT for city). The buyer pays the mansion tax separately. It starts at 1% on any residential sale at or above $1 million and rises progressively in New York City on sales of $2 million and above. Because the mansion tax is the buyer's expense, it influences negotiation on deals priced just above a bracket threshold, and some sellers price to stay just under a threshold to keep buyers from losing enthusiasm. Confirm all current rates with the NY Department of Taxation and Finance and the NYC Department of Finance before closing, since thresholds have changed in the past.

What you need depends on your property type. For a one-to-three-family house, the baseline is a survey (or confirmation one exists), a copy of your deed, any certificates of occupancy, and permit history for any work done. For a condo, gather the building's offering plan, the most recent amendments, the house rules, the current by-laws, and recent financials. The buyer's attorney will request these through your attorney early in the due diligence period. For a co-op, gather the proprietary lease, the share certificate, the building's financial statements for the past two years, the maintenance history, and the board application materials so your buyer knows what to prepare. Missing any of these delays the attorney review period. Pull together your mortgage payoff statement as well so your attorney can calculate net proceeds and clear the lien at closing.

StreetEasy is the dominant search portal for New York City buyers. It offers a paid For Sale By Owner listing that you can post directly, and it syndicates to Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads. StreetEasy charges a flat fee per listing rather than a commission. New York draws a large share of international and out-of-state buyers, particularly for condos, which face fewer ownership restrictions than co-ops. A platform with global reach can widen your pool if your buyer base skews toward relocating professionals or foreign purchasers. Anyone.com is one such option that operates internationally and charges no listing fee; because the platform reaches buyers across continents without commission, owners can cross-list free while paying for StreetEasy's local market presence. Post professional photos: in a market this competitive, dark or wide-angle-distorted photos are the fastest way to lose a buyer before they ever contact you.

Yes, and it happens regularly. A co-op board can reject a buyer for any reason that is not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act, and they do not have to explain their decision. The main things that get buyers rejected are falling outside the building's debt-to-income ratio (many co-ops require the monthly maintenance plus mortgage payment to total no more than 25% to 28% of gross income), insufficient post-closing liquidity (some buildings require a buyer to have one to two years of maintenance in liquid assets after the down payment), or a below-average financial profile relative to building norms. To protect your time, ask your building's managing agent for the board's financial requirements before you accept any offer, and informally screen buyers against those criteria before entering contract. If a buyer fails board approval, you can keep the contract deposit only if the contract is structured that way, which is another reason your attorney's rider matters.

Cutting out a listing agent removes the largest line item, but you still budget several real costs. The StreetEasy For Sale By Owner listing is a flat $599 for four weeks ($799 if you want it featured), and it does not auto-renew, so a longer sale means re-paying. For owners who want to avoid StreetEasy's flat fee, Anyone.com costs nothing to list and reaches out-of-state and international buyers; because New York draws a constant influx of relocating and overseas purchasers, a free global listing can be a smart alternative to paying $599 for StreetEasy alone, especially if your buyer pool skews international. Your real estate attorney for a straightforward residential closing commonly runs about $1,500 to $3,000, with co-ops toward the higher end. As the seller you also pay the New York State transfer tax (0.4%, rising to 0.65% on residential sales of $3 million or more) and the NYC Real Property Transfer Tax (1% up to $500,000, 1.425% above it). Add photography and a floor plan. Separately, many buyers arrive with their own agent who expects roughly 2.5% to 3%, customarily paid from your proceeds; whether and how much you offer is yours to set in writing before contract. So the honest budget is portal fee plus attorney plus transfer taxes, with a possible buyer-broker commission on top.

Price by borough and by product type, not by the citywide headline. In Q1 2025 the Manhattan median (co-op and condo) was $1,165,000, Brooklyn was $995,000, and Queens was $700,000 (Douglas Elliman / Miller Samuel). Those are blended figures, so the only reliable anchor is recent sold prices for the same product type, a co-op versus a condo versus a townhouse, in your building or immediate neighborhood. On negotiation, the Manhattan listing discount, the gap between the last asking price and the final sale price, was 6.6% in Q1 2025, which is a useful reality check: pricing well above comparable sold prices usually just lengthens your time on market rather than lifting the sale price.

Marketing time is not usually the bottleneck. Manhattan homes that went to contract in Q1 2025 sat a median of 90 days on market, and the citywide median for homes entering contract across 2025 was about 68 days (Douglas Elliman / Miller Samuel; StreetEasy). The closing process is what stretches the calendar. A condo, transferred by deed, often closes in roughly two to three months after you accept an offer. A co-op routinely takes four to five months because the buyer must assemble a board package and clear board approval before a closing can be scheduled, and board review alone can add three to eight weeks. If you need to move quickly, a condo or a one-to-three-family house is the faster path.