Teri Karush Rogers

A couple of weeks ago, NYC brokerage giant Prudential Douglas Elliman announced the creation of a design consultancy--Elliman Equity Design--that aims to maximize property values via "volumetric values, space, light and spatial dynamics."

Does a key-lock elevator that opens directly into an apartment increase the value of the apartment?

If you're renovating your apartment, you may want to let your contractor know about a handy new service called DOBalerts.com.    For $9.95 a month, DOBalerts.com sends a text or email if/when someone (e.g., unhappy neighbor next door) files a complaint about your project.  That gives your contractor a head start on fixing things before an inspector arrives and issues a fine or a temporary halt to your project. 

While we're on the topic of bed bugs today, don't get too excited just yet about the imminent debut of a handheld $200 bed bug sniffer that claims to "pinpoint bedbugs to within one square inch, from a distance three times as far away as a dog could," according to Popular Science blog Popsci.com, which handed it an award for innovation.  But the Bed Bug Detective device

Q.  I recently bought a co-op apartment half a block from a fire station. Between the sirens and the garbage trucks hauling trash in the middle of the night from the restaurant across the street, it's tough to get a good night's sleep.  The windows are cheap aluminum framed ones put in by the sponsor 10 or 15 years ago, and I'm thinking of replacing them.

"There is either an owl outside my window or my neighbors are having really boring sex." -- Matt Haze, radio tv personality & comedian.