Buying a Home in NYC

The Inspection Nobody Gets

You wouldn't buy a car without looking under the hood. But every week in NYC, people close on properties worth hundreds of thousands - sometimes millions - without anyone checking the plumbing beyond flushing a toilet and turning on a faucet.

Standard home inspections are surface-level. They'll note a dripping faucet but won't camera the sewer line, test the water pressure properly, check for galvanized pipe corrosion, or verify gas line compliance. These are the things that cost $15,000-$40,000 to fix after you close.

What a Plumbing Audit Catches

A dedicated plumbing audit runs $500-$1,500 and covers what a standard home inspection misses. We check:

Sewer line condition (camera inspection showing root intrusion, bellies, offsets)

Water supply pipe material (lead service lines, galvanized risers)

Water pressure and flow rates at multiple fixtures

Gas line compliance with current NYC code

Open DOB and ECB violations on the property

Drainage system condition and venting adequacy

Heating system type, age, and condition

I've saved buyers tens of thousands of dollars by finding problems before closing. In some cases, the audit findings were severe enough that the buyer walked away from the deal entirely - which was the right call.

The Violation Problem

NYC properties can carry open plumbing violations from years or decades ago. These violations don't disappear when the property changes hands - the new owner inherits them. ECB violations carry fines. DOB violations can prevent you from pulling permits for future work.

Before buying any property in NYC, search it on the DOB BIS portal. Look for open violations, check the permit history, and verify that previous renovation permits were signed off. A building with multiple open violations is a building with deferred problems - and you'll be the one paying to resolve them.

Frankenstein Buildings

NYC has buildings where four different owners over 80 years have each made plumbing changes without coordinating with what came before. I call these Frankenstein renovations. You'll find copper connected to galvanized connected to PVC with no isolation valves, vents that were cut off during a kitchen renovation two floors up, and gas lines that were abandoned in place rather than properly capped.

These buildings aren't necessarily unsafe, but they're expensive to work on because every project requires untangling the previous owner's decisions before you can do new work. The articles below cover specific scenarios and what to look for before you buy.