Is this a substitute for my attorney's due diligence?
No — and we say so on every report. Co-op financial statements aren't public. We screen everything that is public so you know whether the building is worth the full diligence spend.
Where does the data come from?
NYC Open Data, the Dept. of Buildings, HPD, and related public record sets — 100% public sources. Specifically: address-to-building-ID via NYC GeoSearch, building profile from PLUTO, open violations from DOB and HPD, fines from ECB/OATH, and energy data from LL84 benchmarking. We just do the 6 hours of digging for you. Full details on our methodology page.
How current is the data?
City datasets update on different cycles — some daily (violations), some quarterly (energy benchmarking). Every report is stamped with its pull date, and the freshness of each source is noted on the report. One-off reports include 30 days of free updates; the agent plan adds continuous change alerts.
What about condos vs co-ops?
Both. The risk factors differ slightly and the report adjusts: for co-ops we weight underlying-mortgage and assessment risk signals more heavily; for condos we weight common-charge trajectory and sponsor-unit concentration. Either way, the same 0–100 scale applies.
What does "not covered by public data" actually mean?
It means the most important financial documents in a co-op or condo purchase are not public: the building's financial statements, reserve balances, underlying mortgage terms, pending or planned assessments, and board minutes. No public-records product — ours included — can screen those. What we can do is flag the public-record patterns that predict them: ancient open violations, deferred-maintenance signals, fine balances. Use our report to decide whether to spend $3,000+ on the attorney review that reads the private documents.
What's the refund policy on the $79 report?
Simple: if we can't pull a usable public record on the building you asked about, you don't pay — no charge, no argument. If we deliver the report and you find a material error in the underlying public data we cited (wrong building, wrong violations), we'll re-run it or refund you, your choice. What we can't refund is a report that's accurate but disappointing — a HIGH RISK score on the building you loved is the product working as designed.
How do I pay, and how fast do I get the report?
While we're in beta, reports are generated on request: email hello@buildingxray.nyc with the address, we turn it around within 24 hours, and you pay by secure link after delivery. If we can't pull the building's record, you pay nothing.
Can you look up any NYC address?
Any address in the five boroughs that maps to a city building ID. Most co-ops and condos resolve cleanly. Edge cases exist — brand-new developments not yet in PLUTO, buildings with ambiguous lot mappings — and when we hit one, we'll tell you rather than guess, and you won't be charged.
I'm a buyer's agent. How does the $99/mo plan actually work?
Unlimited reports for your clients — one per showing, one per shortlist building, whatever you need. PDFs come co-branded with your brokerage logo. You can register your clients' shortlisted buildings for change alerts: when a new violation, fine, or permit hits, you hear about it first — before your client does, which is the point. Cancel anytime; reports you've already delivered stay yours.
How is this different from Augrented or the city's own portals?
The city's portals (BIS, HPD Online) have the raw data but no translation — you'd need to know what an LBLVIO or a Class C NOV means and cross-reference six systems yourself. Augrented serves renters with maintenance-risk framing. We're built for the buyer financial question: will this building cost me money after closing? Nobody else owns that angle.
Still have a question?
Email hello@buildingxray.nyc — a human on the X-Ray team reads every message. Or just send us an address and see the report for yourself.