Every contract of sale, proprietary lease, and co-op board package in New York is written in English, and the English version is the one that binds you. What a bilingual broker changes is who explains those documents to you. In my transactions that person is me, in Spanish, in the same meeting, instead of a relative translating on the phone between the attorney and the kitchen table.
That is the whole promise of this page, and it is a practical one rather than a slogan. Below is what the service actually consists of, step by step through a New York purchase or sale, plus the Spanish-language tools and market data already published on this site so you can start reading before you ever call me.
What working bilingually looks like in a real transaction
Every document explained, before you sign
A New York purchase generates a stack that intimidates people in their first language, let alone their second: the buyer representation agreement, the offer sheet, the contract of sale with its riders, the co-op proprietary lease or the condominium offering plan, two years of building financial statements, the board package with its reference letters and financial disclosure, and the closing statement. I go through each of those with you in Spanish, clause by clause, before anything is signed. The documents stay in English because that is what the law and the building require. The understanding does not have to.
Negotiations and attorney calls interpreted live
The moments that decide a deal are conversations, not paperwork. The counteroffer call, the attorney review, the lender's conditions, the managing agent explaining what the board wants added to the package. I run those in real time, translating both directions as they happen, so you are participating in the negotiation rather than being briefed after it. I also work with New York real estate attorneys who take client calls in Spanish, which is worth arranging at the start rather than the week of contract signing.
WhatsApp in Spanish, the way clients actually communicate
Most of my Spanish-speaking clients work with me on WhatsApp at 917.416.7433, and that is deliberate. Listings, floor plans, building documents, and voice notes all move through it, and a question sent at nine at night gets an answer instead of waiting for an office to open. Phone, text, and email work the same way in either language. The point is that the channel you already use is the channel the transaction runs on.
Market data and calculators published in Spanish
Most brokers who advertise Spanish service offer it in conversation only, and every number and guide they send arrives in English. This site is built the other way. The market reports, the buyer guide, the closing math, and the blog are all published in Spanish, and they are linked at the bottom of this page. Run the numbers yourself, in your own language, before you talk to anyone.
Who I am
I am a native Spanish speaker and fully bilingual, and I have been licensed in New York since November 2001. I work as a Licensed Real Estate Associate Broker with Keller Williams NYC, out of 360 Madison Avenue, 9th Floor. More than 1,100 transactions I have marketed, leased, or sold are tracked at miltoncoste.com/listings, sorted by price point, so the record is something you can read rather than something you have to take my word for.
I cover all five boroughs of New York City plus the Hudson Valley. That range matters for a bilingual client more than it might look, because families often search across two or three boroughs at once for reasons that have nothing to do with any single area: a commute, a price point, a school-age child's schedule, or an apartment that needs to hold two generations. One broker across the whole map means one set of comparable data and one person answering for the advice.
Where you buy is your decision
This is a language service, available to anyone who wants it, and nothing more than that. I do not recommend or discourage areas based on who lives there, and I do not assume anything about what a client wants from the language they speak. You set the criteria: budget, size, commute, building type, monthly carrying cost. I show you everything on the market that fits them, in either language, and I hand over the data behind each option. Fair housing law requires exactly that, and it is also the only way the advice is worth anything.
Buying, selling, or investing
On the buy side the sequence is pre-approval, a written representation agreement, the search, the offer, attorney review, contract and deposit, and in a co-op the board package and interview. The buyer guide lays out the English version and the guía del comprador is the Spanish one. If a co-op board package is what is in front of you, the board readiness tool shows how the numbers in your file are likely to read to a board.
On the sell side it is pricing from comparable sales, preparation, marketing that I shoot and produce myself, offer review, and the buyer's board approval if the building has one. Sellers who want the arithmetic first can start with the mansion tax calculator and the co-op flip tax calculator, both of which have Spanish versions.
Income-restricted co-ops come up often enough to mention: HDFC apartments carry income caps and resale rules that a market-rate purchase does not, and that page is published in Spanish as well. At the other end, the luxury market page and its Spanish counterpart cover the high end.
Renting rather than buying? New York City's FARE Act changed who pays the broker fee in residential rentals. The rules are laid out at the FARE Act page, in English and in Spanish.
Hablemos en español
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell me what you are trying to do and I will tell you what it takes, in whichever language you would rather have it in.
Everything on this site that is published in Spanish
- Página principal en español, the Spanish home page and the entry point to the rest
- Blog en español, market and process articles written in Spanish rather than translated
- Guía del comprador and guía para vender
- Calculadora del mansion tax, del flip tax, and de preparación para la junta
- Apartamentos con límite de ingreso (HDFC) and casas de Brooklyn Heights
- FARE Act para inquilinos and vivienda justa
In English, the FAQ library answers the questions that come up most: co-op buying, selling, HDFC, and the high end. If you want the longer argument for why the language matters at the negotiating table, I wrote it up in why work with a bilingual agent in NYC.
Frequently asked questions
Does working with a bilingual agent cost more?
No. Language is part of how I represent a client, not a service billed on top of the representation. Broker compensation in New York is agreed in writing before the work begins, in the buyer representation agreement on the buy side or the listing agreement on the sell side, and the terms are the same whether we run the transaction in English or in Spanish. Nobody is charged for an interpreter, because there is no interpreter to charge for. Ask for the compensation terms in writing at the first meeting, in whichever language you want them explained.
Can the contract and the board package be in Spanish?
The documents themselves stay in English. A New York contract of sale, a proprietary lease, a condominium offering plan, and a co-op board package are legal instruments, and the version that binds you is the English one that your attorney reviews and you sign. What changes with a bilingual broker is that every clause, deadline, and dollar figure gets explained to you in Spanish before you sign, and the questions you send back get answered in Spanish. I also work with New York real estate attorneys who take client calls in Spanish, which matters most at contract review and at closing.
Do you work with first-time buyers?
Yes, and first-time buyers are the clients who benefit most from having every step explained in their own language. A first purchase in New York involves a mortgage pre-approval, a buyer representation agreement, an accepted offer, an attorney review, a contract deposit, and in a co-op a full board package and usually an interview. None of that is intuitive the first time through in any language. I walk through the whole sequence before we see a single apartment, so you know what is coming, what it costs, and where the decision points are.
Which areas of New York do you cover?
All five boroughs of New York City plus the Hudson Valley. I have been licensed in New York since November 2001, and more than 1,100 transactions I have marketed, leased, or sold are tracked at miltoncoste.com/listings, sorted by price point. Where you buy is your decision and your criteria drive it: budget, commute, size, building type, and what you want your monthly carrying cost to be. My job is to show you everything that fits and give you the data behind each option, not to decide where you should live.
How do we communicate day to day?
WhatsApp in Spanish is how most of my Spanish-speaking clients prefer to work, and it is the fastest way to reach me at 917.416.7433. Listings, board documents, and voice notes all move through it, which means a question at nine at night gets an answer rather than waiting for business hours. Phone, text, and email work the same way in either language. For anything that needs a signature or a formal review, I put it in writing and we go over it together before it goes to your attorney.
Start the Conversation in Spanish
Tell me what you are looking for and where you are in the process. I answer in Spanish or English, with real numbers and real timelines, no obligation.