The Owning New York Team
Our dynamic team allows Owning New York to cover many New York City neighborhoods, along with Westchester County river towns. Jane Shanky is our "suburbs to the city" and "city to the suburbs expert" and offers her expertise in interior design and decorating thanks to her specialized training and her 20+ years of real estate experience. Yuon Tai Bak is our commercial real estate expert and will guide you on creating an investment strategy and in identifying viable options in both established and emerging real estate markets, whether you are seeking a home or investment property. Read on!
Hank Orenstein
As a native New Yorker and former full-time tour guide, I have cultivated a tremendous amount of knowledge about NYC history and culture and our unique neighborhoods and communities. By sharing what I have learned, my goal is to ensure that you find the right fit for your lifestyle.
After establishing myself as a top-selling agent, I founded Owning New York LLC (ONY) in 2015 as New York City’s first company to offer real estate and lifestyle tours. ONY is based at the prestigious Corcoran Group Real Estate in the heart of Manhattan.
I love real estate in large part due to the great diversity of people I get to work with, ranging from CEO’s and banking and finance executives, to United Nations staff, educators, attorneys, retirees and people in the arts, entertainment and non-profit industries.
My eclectic background includes work as a Homeless Shelter Director; advocate for abused and neglected children; professional tour guide and fine art photographer.
I have a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a B.A in English, and have served on the faculty of Columbia University, Fordham, the New School and the City University of New York. I have been a cooperative apartment owner since 1988; served on the Board of Directors for 12 years and was President for three years.
I find that all my past occupations and roles contribute positively to my real estate transactions over the past 11 years and have made me uniquely prepared to adapt to a variety of buyer and seller requirements and styles and to changing transaction scenarios.
Jane Shanky
I am pleased to be part of the Owning New York as our team’s expert in helping people move from the city to the suburbs or from the suburbs to the City! I’ve successfully made these moves myself and I am confident that I can assist you in making the right decision after carefully considering the best options that I will diligently help you identify.
As a top producing agent for over 25 years, I am well aware that buying and selling real estate can be both exciting and stressful. The process can be quite intense and the relationship between client and real estate professional needs to be one of trust, confidentiality and understanding. I hold these values every time I work with my clients. I am a savvy navigator of high-pressure situations where one move can make the difference between a deal made and a deal lost.
I bring to my real estate career additional training from the New York School of Interior Design and a Masters in Social Work. I secure maximum value for the homes our team sells by injecting my design expertise into the process of getting properties market-ready. These same skills have been invaluable in ensuring buyers are aided in recognizing the full potential of a property. My home design work can be seen featured in a guest segment on the hit ABC show, The Chew. An empathetic listener, I also see my role as a supportive resource to my clients as they manage the potentially tense and even life-changing decisions involved in buying and selling a home.
Born in NYC, I grew up inspired by the creative influences around me: a professional musician father, interior designer mother, and the unparalleled beauty and architecture of my Forest Hills Gardens, Queens neighborhood. I caught the real estate bug early, buying my first brownstone in my early 20s. I later moved to Hastings on Hudson in the Rivertowns to raise my three children and grow my Westchester real estate practice. With my children now living in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, respectively, I returned to the city, and live near Lincoln Center. Having been a NYC resident again for the last 5 years, I am proud to bring my real estate skills back to my home turf once again.
As an expert real estate professional, it is my responsibility to guide you through it all; to separate myth from reality, fad from fact, good deal from bad – and throughout it all to be the patient listening ear you need, and the hard-driving negotiator you desire.
Yuon Tai Bak
I am a proud native New Yorker and in my previous life I was a Chiropractor for more than 25 years. I have been connected to the construction and property industry since my early life helping family friends with their home extension projects: I am passionate about property, design, construction, and development. Having bought, sold, owned, renovated and developed multiple properties internationally, I intimately know what it is like to be on both sides of both residential and commercial real estate transactions. In addition, I operated a building material company and I am a partner in a modular construction company in Australia.
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I am pleased to bring my construction and design experience to you and will support your selling your property with my ability (and knack) for finding a quality lifestyle home with practical and aesthetic design. In addition, I work on sourcing exciting and feasible development or commercial projects as well, on and off-market. I work with my extensive network of real estate and other allied professionals very closely which can add greatly to any project.
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As the Owning New York’s team “numbers cruncher” I help our clients compare the investment potential of real estate options both in the here-and-now with an eye toward the future. Consistent with our ONY approach to real estate, I strongly value the proposition that investment in a home is not just financial, but an investment in the lifestyle as well as the emotional security that ownership provides.
