Caroline Biggs

The one-bedroom co-op is in a pet-friendly building. Otten, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, was fostering two abandoned dogs in her apartment that were in desperate need of forever homes.

“I thought if I could bring my foster pups with me on buyer tours, then I could expose them to a larger pool of potential adopters,” she said.

Otten, like a growing number of brokers and real estate agents across the country, has been bringing her love for animals to work and using some of her listings to bring exposure to shelter animals.

For some agents, this means partnering with local animal shelters to host adoption events at open houses, showings and properties. For others, like Otten, it’s as simple as bringing a small foster dog along in her purse on a property tour.

“A lot of co-ops have weight and breed restrictions, so bringing certain foster dogs to showings can be tricky,” she said. “Purse dogs are a good way to play it safe.”

Otten has been working with Paws4Survival Rescue, a nonprofit organization that rescues abandoned dogs and cats in Puerto Rico, since 2013.

In support of the organization, Otten fosters up to two dogs at a time in her Brooklyn home, which often requires weekly trips to the airport for their transport. When she has showings at pet-friendly apartments, she brings the foster dogs with her in hopes of finding them a home while also closing a real estate deal.

Clients and potential buyers or renters are rarely put off by the presence of an animal in need, Otten said, but she takes care to bring dogs along to listings and viewings only when she knows the client is an animal lover. “I do my best to be mindful and get permission beforehand,” Otten said. “Most of the time, people are just super excited to see a dog.”

Michael Zuckerman said he was thrilled when Otten asked permission to bring a dog to an open house at the former home of his late aunt at 80 East End Ave., which he had been tasked with selling. The building is dog-friendly, and Zuckerman said that even if Otten brought a big dog, “what better way to demonstrate that all kinds of dogs are allowed in the apartment than to have one present at a showing?”

Otten has helped place 15 dogs in permanent homes in the past three years. Word of her work on behalf of rescue animals also has helped her drum up some real estate business.

When Eileen Mandel, a retired fashion designer from Milwaukee, started her search for a pied-à-terre in Manhattan, she sought out Otten. Mandel and her husband, Barry, have three rescue dogs, including one adopted from a shelter in Puerto Rico. So securing a pet-savvy broker was an absolute must. “My top priority was finding a place that would accommodate all of my dogs,” Mandel said.

With Otten’s help, she bought a one-bedroom co-op in the Hampshire House at 150 Central Park South in 2017. “I just feel like when you meet someone that’s so dedicated to helping animals in need, there’s a certain level of trust present that doesn’t need to be built over time,” Mandel said. “You already know they have a good heart.”

The presence of a four-legged companion doesn’t necessarily help sell a property, but “even if a potential buyer doesn’t want to adopt, bringing the dogs on showings still helps generate leads,” Otten said. “Having a cute little thing running around brings a levity to the whole experience.”

At 420 E. 51st St. in Turtle Bay, Domingo Perez Jr., an agent with Warburg Realty, was searching for an innovative way to draw attention to the pet-friendly building, where he has several listings. The Morad Beekman, unlike many co-op buildings in the city, has no restrictions on weight, breed or number of pets allowed — as well as a 1,300-square-foot first-floor terrace that residents (and their animals) are free to use.

In late June, he and Kathryn Landow, a fellow Warburg agent who formerly worked for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, partnered with Animal Haven, a nonprofit organization that finds homes for abandoned cats and dogs throughout the tri-state area, to host an adoption event with rescue animals during a real estate preview on the terrace.

The event, which drew a crowd of around 50 and featured two kittens and three dogs from the shelter, allowed Perez to present the spacious outdoor terrace, as well as the homeless animals, to a whole new crowd of people — including potential buyers, sellers and adopters.

“We’re in the business of finding a home for everyone, both two- and four-legged,” Landow said.

Last October, Ryan Serhant, an associate broker with Nest Seekers International, hosted an event to showcase a model residence at 145 Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, a pet-friendly building that includes 17 condos and a town house.

In addition to having an ice-cream truck and a Halloween-themed party with face-painters and refreshments, Serhant called on Bideawee, one of the oldest no-kill animal welfare organizations in the country, to bring over a mobile adoption van that was filled with adoptable puppies and was parked in front of the building for the duration of the event.

“I wanted to do something that engaged the neighborhood and not just potential buyers,” Serhant said.

And it worked. Serhant said that traffic was “backed up and down the street” and that he sold the town house right after the preview party ended.

“We got a lot of families who just came through to see the dogs and then wound up interested in the properties instead,” he said.

These kinds of combined showings and adoption events aren’t unique to New York City — or to dogs and cats.

In Los Angeles, agents Lori Cordero and Sara Magers make up The Rescue Realtors team at Pacific Playa Realty. Whenever they come across a listing that offers enough outdoor space (and has the homeowner’s approval), they call on Linda Baley, of Redondo Beach, California, who runs Too Many Bunnies Rabbit Rescue, to hold an adoption event during the open house, with homeless bunnies and sometimes a dog or two.

“We’re not just helping a potential buyer or seller with real estate, we’re helping raise community awareness about the homeless animal population,” Cordero said.

Real estate agents have also found ways to use their offices or facilities at apartment buildings to help homeless animals.

In Westhampton Beach, New York, Ashley Farrell, a Corcoran associate broker and rescue-dog owner, regularly hosts mobile adoption events with Bideawee in her real estate office’s parking lot on weekends, when there’s more foot traffic in the area.

“We love working with Realtors because they’re at the forefront of finding people new homes and lives,” said Leslie Granger, the president and chief executive of Bideawee. “That may include finding a four-legged family member.”

In May, Dog City, the full-service dog care program run by the Related Cos., which currently serves five of its buildings, held a canine adoption event with Animal Haven in the courtyard of Abington House, a rental building on West 30th Street.

The adoption event was part of Related’s Spring Into Wellness Event, an annual showcase that is open to all Related residents and this year drew over 400 residents (and potential adopters). It included yoga, guided meditation, healthy food samples and a handful of shelter pups.

“The more eyes you get them in front of, the more likely they are to find homes,” said Shannon Kirkman, director of marketing at Animal Haven. “Being able to visualize having a dog in your new home doesn’t just help market the property — it helps a homeless animal in need.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/realestate/can-a-puppy-help-sell-your-home.html" id="8a3eedc9-dd55-3fa4-a354-654ff113cef8">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — When Kelcey Otten, a Compass agent, recently received a listing at 80 East End Ave. in Manhattan, she immediately saw an opportunity.

The Selling Power of Puppy Eyes

<h1>In a market that feels oversaturated with new developments, old school design lovers and architectural enthusiasts in New York often opt to live in prewar buildings created to accommodate the population boom in the city during the decades preceding World War II.</h1>

Properly restored, the Old World details that define a prewar interior can offer more than aesthetic charm; they can add some serious value to your real estate, too.

Unfortunately, bringing a prewar property back to its original glory is no easy feat. In addition to any necessary infrastructural upgrades, like plumbing and electrical updates and the installation of central air conditioning, chances are it’s going to take a small army of master craftsmen to bring it back to life.

That means highly skilled wood strippers, plasterwork molders, carpenters, tile restorers and floor refinishers who are so well versed in their respective crafts that they can unearth, salvage and replicate just about any prewar architectural element. Decades of wear and tear, plus the occasional plumbing disaster or misguided renovation attempt, can wreak havoc on wood floors and plaster moldings.

But don’t get discouraged; with the right help, you can restore any prewar property, piece by piece, if necessary. Here are some of the types of highly skilled workers to consider calling if you want to restore a prewar space, and some examples of the kinds of work they do.

It is not uncommon when restoring a prewar property to discover that beneath all the layers of paint slathered on over the years is some beautiful woodwork. But it will take a good wood stripper to find it.

So the story went for Kate Hosford, who, along with her father, Charlie Hosford, an architect, and her contractor, Tim Wulfing, enlisted Dean Camenares of East End Woodstrippers to restore the extensive woodwork in her Brooklyn brownstone.

“If you’re going to live in a brownstone, it’s kind of the responsibility of the tenant to preserve it as much as possible,” said Kate Hosford, a children’s book author. “You don’t have to turn it into a Victorian mansion, but you shouldn’t rip everything out either.”

Built in 1899, Hosford’s four-story landmark town house is brimming with original woodwork, including burl-veneered panels, double hand-carved pocket doors and black walnut moldings, which are often found in parlors, foyers, stairways and other areas traditionally used for entertaining.

In many cases, woodwork like this has been painted over dozens of times, often with lead paint that requires special handling and removal. Once the paint has been stripped, you could discover an intact wall with lavish moldings or one destroyed by rotting wood.

“You never know what you’re going to find under there,” Camenares said. “It can either be beautiful or problematic.”

If it is in good condition, all that might be necessary to restore it is a little sanding and a new finish. But sometimes you’ll find mismatched woods from different periods, which might require more extensive stripping techniques (like hand-stripping the wood with a wire-bristled brush) and refinishing, a process that Camenares said could cost upward of $25,000 to $40,000 for an entire house.

“An alternative to a full restoration, doable by the homeowner if they’re looking to cut costs, would be to refurbish any existing varnished woodwork by cleaning, touching up and re-coating,” Camenares said. “While this wouldn’t change the overall color of the woodwork, it would help it look in much better shape and potentially save you thousands of dollars.”

Plasterwork molders

Before the widespread use of drywall during the 1940s and 50s, most interior walls were built using layers of plaster, a mixture of gypsum, lime, sand or cement that resulted in ultra-sturdy, soundproof walls and ceiling that were often embellished with ornamental moldings and sculptural elements — think tracery ceilings, crown cornices, frieze moldings, columns and capitals. Plaster wasn’t just a more durable surface, it was a more decorative one.

Unfortunately, water damage (from things like leaky steam pipes and overflowing bathtubs), paint jobs and inadequate repairs can cause sagging ceilings and rotting walls that often require new plasterwork.

Such was the case for Alexa Hampton, who, after years of renting in a 1928 building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, opted to buy three apartments to combine into a larger home when her building went co-op in the late 1990s.

Decades of poor treatment by renters had resulted in unsalvageable plaster walls and falling ceilings, so Hampton, an interior designer, sought the help of Johnny Donadic, a contractor, and Adrian Taylor, a principal at Hyde Park Mouldings.

“I had chosen a prewar apartment for the lovely details inherent to prewar buildings,” Hampton said. “So it was my turn to salute the unique bones of the apartment by restoring and elevating them.”

This meant modeling, molding, casting, fabricating and eventually installing custom neoclassical plaster embellishments throughout her home, including egg-and-dart moldings, coffers and ceiling medallions, to bring the apartment back to what it was originally. Taylor, a fellow and chairman at the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, estimated that similar work today would cost between $45 and $75 a linear foot.

Taylor suggested a couple of less expensive alternatives in case you don’t have the budget for new plaster walls or ceilings. “If your plasterwork is structurally intact, patching may be possible to repair holes,” he said. “Or you can paint your existing moldings in a monochromatic matte finish to render them as unobtrusive as possible.”

One of the most recognizable elements of a prewar interior is the millwork, which includes crown moldings, baseboards, wainscoting and window and door casings. In a typical prewar apartment, it can be found in some form in almost every room.

Often damaged from decades of water leaks, sun exposure and layers of paint, antique millwork usually requires highly skilled carpenters to restore or replicate it.

That was true for Friedrike Merck, who enlisted Andre Tchelistcheff, an architect, and Silvina Goefron and Curtis Royston, contractors, to oversee the restoration of her condo at 34 Gramercy East — one of the oldest landmark luxury co-op buildings in New York — only to discover that the wood trim throughout her apartment was not original to 1883.

“I was committed to completing a true historic renovation on the apartment,” Merck said. “So trims that only dated back to 1901 just wouldn’t do.”

Miraculously, a neighbor was also in the midst of a renovation and had stripped out the old millwork and hired someone to replace it. Merck’s team stumbled on the neighbor’s stockpile of original trim, which was about to be discarded as it was not in good enough condition to stain or cover in a clear coat. So Merck hired Andres Montiel, the owner of Evolution Projects, to restore, paint, assemble and install the old trim, piece by piece, throughout her apartment.

A few feet short of enough trim to embellish a few remaining windows and door casings, Montiel reproduced the original millwork by hand-carving it, using tools and techniques from the late 19th century.

“They did an incredible job, not just putting the old trim back together but replicating the new,” Merck said. “You can’t tell the difference between the two.”

Montiel, who was studying to be an engineer when he left to start his woodworking company in 2004, also makes wainscoting, custom cabinetry, radiator covers and wood escutcheons for doors and light fixtures, old and new.

Montiel offered a few other options for those who can’t afford the cost of fully restoring or recreating lavish millwork throughout their prewar apartments. “Doors can sometimes be salvaged or fixed, sans moldings,” he said. “And if the existing millwork is in good condition, it might only require some refinishing.”

In some cases, recreating a vintage baseboard could start at about $10 a linear foot, Royston said, while certain refinishing jobs — depending on the intricacy of the millwork, the labor required and the desired finish — could cost up to 25 percent less.

Tile is typically found on the walls and floors of prewar kitchens and bathrooms, and around fireplaces, so tile restoration, fabrication and installation are often an unavoidable part of refurbishing a prewar home.

“Water damage and leaking pipes are the main cause of prewar bathrooms looking like ‘patchwork quilts,'” said Michael Redmond, of Dublin Tile Co., which restored the tile in Merck’s apartment. “The second biggest culprit are the holes left behind from mounting non-original accessories onto tile walls; they’re almost always just filled with grout.”

In Merck’s apartment, Redmond restored the fireplace in the master bedroom fireplace and the renovated walls and floors in the bathroom.

To patch up the fireplace, Redmond reconstructed the hearth using pieces of the apartment’s original tile that the building’s super had saved. When there wasn’t enough tile to cover the entire hearth, custom tiles were fabricated and finished to match the old glazed ones.

The previous owners of the apartment had updated the bathroom and kitchen with modern tiles, so Redmond and his team removed them and installed handmade Moroccan mosaic tile inspired by the aesthetic movement, which was popular when the apartment was built.

Redmond said that while projects like this could start at $30 to $35 a square foot for just the cost of the tile and installation, there are a number of affordable alternatives. “In some cases, existing bathroom tile can simply be reglazed if it’s in OK condition,” he said. “And with all the advances in adhesives, it’s also possible to install new tile over old tile — as long as the existing tiles are secure — which completely eliminates the demolition process.”

Floor refinishers

The most intricate parquet wood floors in prewar homes tend to be in areas that receive heavy foot traffic, like entryways and dining rooms, where finer woods were more likely to be seen. But the wear and tear of that traffic can chip, dent, scratch and warp hardwood, requiring these floors to be sanded, refinished and sometimes replaced.

“Over the course of a hundred years, most floors have been sanded and finished multiple times,” said Stephen Estrin, president of I.J. Peiser’s Sons Inc. “If there isn’t enough ‘meat’ left in the original wood to sand, the only options are to live with it as is or replace the floors altogether.”

Charlotte Worthy, a New York architect, knows the struggle of restoring original wood floors all too well. Overseeing the restoration of an early 1900s town house on the Upper West Side, Worthy discovered that the detailed marquetry borders in the public rooms could withstand no additional sanding. So she and her team designed new borders and decorative patterns that would look authentic, and Estrin and his crew of carpenters used the designs to construct and install new floors.

With a careful combination of white-oak wood grains, the updated flooring changes shade depending on how the light hits it. “The light that rakes in from the windows — and, to a lesser degree, from the light fixtures in the room — reacts differently depending on the angle of light and the direction of the grain,” Worthy said. “The wood looks darker where the light is being absorbed on the end-grain pieces, and lighter and reflective on areas along the grain.”

Of course, not all prewar renovations will require such sophisticated repairs, and there are less expensive options available, Estrin said. “One can simply replace the existing prewar flooring with a new prefabricated and pre-finished wood floor,” he said. “Quite often, these types of floors are easy to install and will end up being less costly than refurbishing an existing prewar floor — you’d just be losing a lot of charm and history by doing so.”

Worthy added: “If you are fortunate enough to acquire a project that involves restoration, you must prepare yourself for the ups and downs that any construction project will deliver. But in the end, you’ll be saving a part of the living history of architecture.”

Take a look inside any restored prewar apartment, and it’s not hard to see the appeal. Spacious layouts with soaring ceilings, intricate parquet floors, and delicate wall and ceiling moldings are the stuff of prewar charm.

Executing your restoration drama

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Caroline Biggs

Articles written by the author

The Selling Power of Puppy Eyes

Executing your restoration drama