During the pandemic, Margy Waller joined a weekly Zoom call with her closest friends from her college days at Northwestern University. Three lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and one was in Pittsburgh. Ms. Waller would log in from her hometown of Cincinnati, where she’d returned in 2009 after years of working in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
“Those calls made me think seriously about being closer to these people, who are my very best friends in the world,” said Ms. Waller, 65.
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Making a move seemed more plausible than ever. Over the years, her career as an advisor for national arts organizations had become mostly remote, allowing her more flexibility. And she had long dreamed of living in New York City, where she could immerse herself in great art and architecture.
A couple of years ago, Ms. Waller set up an alert on StreetEasy for prewar apartment listings in Manhattan priced under $400,000. Then she decided to spend a month in the city to make sure it was a place she really wanted to live, rather than just visit. She stayed at a hotel in Harlem.
“It was about two weeks into that experience that I knew for sure that I wanted to make the move,” she said. “I had a sense of time expanding because everything was new. There was so much to do and see, and I was going to the theater or a concert five nights a week.” And, of course, her dear friends were close at hand.
As she scoured listings, she prepared to sell her rowhouse in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, which she’d bought for $85,000 and fully renovated. “It turned out to be a very creative project,” she said. “You can make everything exactly the way you want it.” (The house sold last spring for $470,000.)
Ms. Waller began her hunt in New York with some open houses. After a bad experience with one viewing — after she schlepped out in the pouring rain, the agent was a no-show — she reached out to Erin Whitney, a licensed salesperson at Bohemia Realty Group, whom she’d met at an open house in Inwood.
“Erin had a great ability to identify things that you might not notice and that might be a problem, like the layout might not work or the electrical panel would need updating,” Ms. Waller said.
Then there were the city laws that affect buildings and can portend costly upgrades — for example, Local Law 11, which requires facade inspections and repairs every five years. “How recently has that been completed and paid for?” Ms. Whitney said.
Ms. Waller’s friends convinced her that she needed a doorman, and also suggested that she consider a building’s energy rating, which can affect costs. Though she was happy to do some improvement work, she aimed to keep her monthlies close to what she was paying in Cincinnati. Her $425,000 budget meant either a one-bedroom co-op in Northern Manhattan or a studio on the Upper West Side.
One weekend, while she was staying with a college friend, another friend suggested they all meet for a walk in Central Park. “I realized that if I lived in Inwood, that would not be possible,” Ms. Waller said.
That sealed the deal: It would be the Upper West Side. She sought a prewar building with an elevator and a laundry room. The studios she saw had around 500 square feet.
Among her options:
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