Angelina Fanous

In 2010, in the heat of public panic over New York's bed bug epidemic, State Assemblyman Dov Hikind sponsored a bill that would require insurance providers to cover costs associated with bed bug infestation (for an additional premium). 

If you chose the additional coverage, costs like cleanup, extermination fees, and replacing damaged property would be covered.

So whatever happened to that bill?

Buying pre-construction has its perks. You can be part of a unique and special project, like a brand new condo in the West Village, or have first dibs on the penthouse in the latest hot building.  More practically speaking, you can also, in many cases, take advantage of some discounted early phase pricing (more on that below).

But how do you buy an apartment without touching, seeing, or walking through it? How will you know what the views from the 31st floor will really be like? How do you buy pre-construction smart?

Here's some advice from the experts:

If you could change one or two things about your apartment, what would you do? Here's what seven New Yorkers told us:

One issue many New Yorkers lament is just how anonymous the city can be. How many of us actually know our neighbors?

Just ask Ryan O’Hara Theisen, founder of the On My Block neighborhood filmmaking project, who’s moved four times in six years—from Hell’s Kitchen to the Lower East Side to Park Slope and now Carroll Gardens— but has never really met his neighbors.