Real Estate Law for a City Where Nothing Is Simple
New York real estate has its own vocabulary — board packages, flip taxes, alteration agreements, air rights — and its own capacity to surprise people who bought and sold property easily everywhere else in the world.
Buying an apartment here is not like buying one anywhere else. It isn't even like buying one in New Jersey.
We translate. That's the job. Whether you're a first-time buyer facing a co-op board, a foreign national purchasing from abroad, or a family deciding what happens to a building nobody wants to sell, we turn New York's peculiar rules into a plan you can actually follow.
What We Handle
- Co-op and condo purchases and sales. Contract negotiation, due diligence on the building's financials and minutes, board package guidance, and closing. Co-ops especially are creatures unlike anything else in American property law — you're buying shares in a corporation, not real property, and the difference matters at every step.
- Houses and multi-family homes. Contracts, inspections and their consequences, title issues, and closings across the five boroughs.
- Foreign-buyer and foreign-seller representation. A signature practice. Non-U.S. purchasers face a layer most attorneys see once a year and we see every month: FIRPTA withholding, ITIN applications, entity-versus-individual ownership decisions, currency and financing logistics, and co-op boards' particular caution with overseas applicants. We represent international clients buying and selling New York property from anywhere in the world. Talk to us about buying from abroad.
- Real estate inside estates. When property passes at death — the probate sale, the transfer to heirs, the sibling buyout, the co-op that needs board approval to move to the next generation. Our real estate and probate practices work as one team on these files. See What Happens to a House During Probate?
- Small-business premises. Commercial leases for the shops and restaurants we form and license — reviewed by the same firm that handles the entity and the liquor license, so the lease actually fits the business plan.
- Ownership structuring. LLCs for rental property, deed transfers between family members, and title cleanups — the unglamorous work that prevents expensive problems a decade from now.
The Cross-Border Advantage
Here is where this firm is genuinely different. A large share of our real estate clients are crossing a border as well as closing a deal: the investor buying a condo from Dublin or Singapore, the green-card holder adding a rental property, the family inheriting an apartment whose owner wasn't a U.S. citizen, the founder whose visa strategy and property purchase need to not contradict each other.
Most real estate attorneys handle the closing and wave goodbye at the tax and immigration questions. Because we practice immigration and estate planning in the same office, the advice connects: how you hold the property affects your taxes, your estate, and sometimes your visa posture.
We've been on both sides of that border — literally — and the counsel shows it.
Our Real Estate Services
Why Clients Close With Us
- A founder who bought into this city the hard way. Danny Grace came to New York from Limerick, Ireland — University of Limerick School of Law, New York bar 2011, firm founded 2012. He has personally been the foreign buyer: the outsider deciphering American contracts, wiring funds across an ocean, and learning what a co-op board actually wants to see. His foreign-buyer practice was built from that experience, and it's why international clients — Irish and otherwise — find this office. Super Lawyers, 2022 through 2026.
- Court-honed diligence. Managing Attorney Douglas Mace spent eight years as a law clerk in Kings County Civil Court before private practice — years watching property disputes that all began the same way: a document nobody read carefully at closing. That's the standard of review your contract gets here.
- The whole transaction under one roof. Purchase, entity, lease, license, estate plan — connected counsel from a firm that practices all of it, two blocks from the courts at 225 Broadway.
Where This Firm Earns Its Keep
Co-ops Understood Properly
You are buying shares in a corporation, not real property, and that changes every step.
Foreign Buyers and Sellers
FIRPTA, ITINs, and entity decisions we handle monthly rather than once a year.
Read Before You Sign
The best time to call a real estate lawyer is before the contract, not after.
Property Inside an Estate
Probate sales, transfers to heirs, and family buyouts, run jointly with our probate team under one roof.
How You Hold It Matters
Ownership structure affects your taxes, your estate, and sometimes your visa posture too.
Why Buyers and Sellers Choose Us
We Translate
New York's own vocabulary, and its capacity to surprise people who buy property easily everywhere else.
Cross-Border Routine
Buying from Dublin or Singapore, or selling with heirs overseas, is ordinary weekly work here.
Diligence Learned in Court
Reviewed by an attorney who watched disputes begin with a document nobody read at closing.
The Whole Transaction
Purchase, entity, lease, license, and estate plan from a single firm that practices all of it.
A New York property practice fluent in the city's own rules.
At Danny Grace PLLC, board packages, flip taxes, alteration agreements, and air rights are ordinary vocabulary. We review what you are actually signing, surface the problems while they are still cheap to fix, and carry the transaction through to a clean closing.
Our Mission
To handle every transaction with the care we would want for our own investment.
Our Standard
Documents read closely, risks named early, and closings that hold up years later.
Protecting New York Buyers, Sellers, and Owners Through Every Transaction and Transfer
Before the Contract
The earliest review is always the one that saves the most money.
Plain Translation
New York's peculiar rules turned into a plan you can follow.
Connected Counsel
Immigration, estate, and business questions answered alongside the closing itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an attorney to buy an apartment in New York?
Practically, yes — New York custom puts attorneys at the center of residential deals, and co-op/condo contracts are negotiated documents, not forms. Sellers' and lenders' counsel will expect yours at the table.
What's the difference between buying a co-op and a condo?
A condo is real property; a co-op is shares in a corporation plus a proprietary lease. Co-ops mean board interviews, stricter financial scrutiny, and transfer rules — cheaper per square foot, but with gatekeepers.
I live overseas. Can I buy New York property without traveling here?
Yes. With powers of attorney and coordinated logistics, we close for international clients remotely on a regular basis. Plan extra time for financing, funds transfers, and any board process.
What is FIRPTA and does it affect me?
FIRPTA is the federal rule requiring tax withholding — generally 15% of the sale price — when a foreign person sells U.S. real estate. Buyers have obligations too. Managed early, it's routine; discovered at closing, it's a fire drill. This is core practice for us.
Should I buy through an LLC?
Sometimes — for liability protection on rentals, privacy, or estate planning — but it can complicate co-op approval and financing, and ownership disclosure rules apply. It's a ten-minute analysis worth doing before you sign, not after.
What does due diligence on a building involve?
Reviewing the building's financial statements, board minutes, offering plan, and house rules — looking for assessments, litigation, deferred maintenance, and rules that don't fit your plans. It's where bad purchases get caught.
How long does a New York closing take?
Commonly 60 to 90 days from signed contract for financed deals — longer for co-ops with board approval, shorter for all-cash condos. Estate sales and cross-border sellers add their own steps; we set the timeline honestly at contract.
We inherited a property. Do you handle that?
Yes — estate transfers, probate sales, and family buyouts are a core practice, run jointly with our probate team, including the date-of-death appraisals that protect everyone's tax position. Start here.
Do you handle commercial leases?
Yes, for the small businesses we serve — the restaurant, the shop, the office suite — where the lease is reviewed alongside the entity and the license by one team. Large institutional transactions aren't our lane, and we'll say so.
What do your real estate services cost?
Residential purchases and sales are generally flat-fee, quoted up front. Foreign-buyer matters and estate transactions are quoted based on the added scope. No surprises at the closing table — that's rather the point of hiring us.
How Can We Help?
