First Home Style

Home-buying can be emotionally draining and stressful process. More than the process of searching for a home, making an offer, waiting for the seller to accept or counter your offer and then applying for a mortgage, I’m finding the financial to be the most stressful of all. For years, I have diligently saved and deprived myself certain luxuries in the hopes that I would someday become a homeowner. But now here I am writing the check for down payment, handing over what took me the greater part of two and a half years to accumulate. And then after that, there is the closing cost which is another huge chunk of change. As we get closer to the closing day, I find myself in a mini-panic. The money that I’m using to pay for my down payment and closing cost could actually afford me a three-bedroom, one bath with a finished basement and back yard in Pennsylvania. I could have bought a home in Pennsylvania for cash! It’s a little vexing that as a first-time home buyer in Brooklyn, NY, my home ...

Over the last several years, I have attended a ton of open houses and house tours here in Brooklyn. I have noticed that a lot of the potential homebuyers are single and female like myself.   Because this homebuying process has been so competitive I have never really surveyed the competition to find out why they chose to buy a home alone. For me, I have always wanted to own something whether I was married or single. I have always had a strong desire to decorate my own home, just how I want without the approval from a parent, a roommate or a landlord.   I have also been curious about female homebuying struggles such as dealing with mortgage approval, real estate agents, coop boards or just searching for a property in general. Female homebuying is not an anomaly. However, at these open houses I’m still met with these “poor dear” looks from real estate agents. Especially among male real-estate agents. I have found real estate agents as a whole to be rather aggressive. Granted...

I know it's been a while since I posted last, but the last few months have been so crazy. Lets just say that buying property hasn't been my top priority. I bought a used car (more out of necessity to help with work) I have also been searching for higher paying positions  and have sent out quiet a few resumes and cover letters. I just wanted to be in the best financial situation possible before buying my first home.I haven't been to a open house in over two months and instead I have been focused on saving more money for a down-payment. I mentioned several post ago that the real estate market here in Brooklyn has become so competitive especially with the low inventory, coop boards are now looking for cash buyers or someone who can put more than twenty percent down payment. I have always been frugal with money but in the last months I have decided to become more so. It doesn't appear that I will purchase that first apartment this year and that is quiet disappointing to wri...

Last weekend, my agent took me to see a two bedroom top floor apartment here in Brooklyn.  The apartment had been on the market for a few weeks and was in a quiet building on a tree lined block and close to transportation.  Almost immediately I was taken aback by the size of the unit. As we entered,  there was this huge window over looking the rest of Brooklyn and allowing an amorous about of natural light into the apartment.  It had a nice layout, adequate closet space, updated kitchen, hard wood floors and it was practically move in ready condition. I immediately made what I thought was a fair offer and the sellers countered at almost $10,000 more. I'm a girl on a budget and though I liked the apartment, I wasn't going to overextend myself. I made a counter offer. After several days and numerous telephone calls, we didn't hear back from the sellers agent. On Thursday my agency received a call from the sellers agent stating that they are having an ope...

As if I needed any more convincing that there is an entity or higher being that doesn't want me to purchase my first apartment. Last week while at work, I got two missed calls from my real estate agent, each a minute apart. On the second call she left a voice-mail message asking me to get in touch. I didn't immediately think that there were any concerns as the day prior we were talking about me signing the contract and completing my coop board application. I was super excited about the process now and my previous anxiety were beginning to fade away. I called the real estate agent back but I was not at all prepared for what she had to say.   “Are you at work?” she asked.  “Yes”, I responded.  “I wanted to talk to you when you're home,” “What's going on?” I asked finally coming to the realization that all was not well.  “I don't think you're going to be able to move forward on the property.” “What? Why?” “Well, the Sellers’s attorney informed me th...

A few days ago, I met with my attorney and we had a discussion about the two bedroom property that I made an offer on in October.  While he agreed that the space was good and the price was not bad, he was concern that the coop was being mismanaged. I have had some of the same concerns as well. I had been doing some reach online and the feedback has not been positive. I observed documents on Trulia, Zillow and Streeteasy that shows that in 2008 and 2009, at the height of the economic downturn, the property values on the cooperative started to nose dive. Then banks started to refuse mortgage applications for the building. The coops has yet to recover and the prices have continued their downward slide. Another pressing concern was that the coop has not properly budgeted for needed repairs and expenses. In 2012, The building had a operating cost of $6.4 million dollars but had only budgeted for $6 million. That means that the cooperative is operating at a loss. My attorney said that fo...

One of the reasons that I haven’t posted in a while is because I didn't want to have to write the words, I’m still waiting for mortgage commitment from HSBC. Seeing those words written, as you can probably imaging, is disheartening. I am so emotionally attached to the property and exhausted that we've been in contract for two months and yet haven’t been able to secure a mortgage.  I have decorated in my mind, chosen colors for the living room and entry hallway. Perhaps it’s a tiny bit crazy, but I strongly believed that this would have been a shorter process.   I am a first time home buyer so I didn't know what I didn't know.   I didn't think that I had unrealistic expectations either. I had already compromise on the ideal neighborhood. I compromise on the cost. I compromise on having a kitchen full of updated cabinets and stainless steel appliances. I compromise on having an updated bathroom. I have watched hours of televisions shows were two weeks after making...

I wanted to title this blog post, HSBC mortgage services sucks. But then though better of it. There have been so many highs and lows in this home buying process and right now we're at a particularly low ebb. It’s been almost two months since we went into contract on the property and yet I'm still in HSBC mortgage services limbo. I still have not been approved for a mortgage. I thought about shopping around to other mortgage lenders but I had chosen  HSBC because I was already enrolled in their first time home-buyer program (First Home Club). As part of my enrollment, for 10 months I saved $188 in an regular HSBC savings account. HSBC would then match my savings by 4. Over the 10 months, I have saved $1880 with the financial match, this becomes $7520. This program is designed to assist home-buyers with closing cost.  I also had to attend a home buying seminar at a community organization. Despite my student loans, I would consider myself t...

I’m feeling overwhelmed and overjoyed. Why you may ask? Well, because after five years of disciplined saving, fantasizing about my dream home, crying, doing overtime, not hanging out, generally feeling like a failure and in recent weeks going back and forth with HSBC mortgage services about my student loan debt, it finally appears that my mortgage loan application will be approved.  I know we still have some ways to go before closing but the last few weeks have been an impasse. I've lost hair, sleep, patience. But now I can, to use a cliché, see light at the end of the tunnel.  It seems that all my hard work is about to pay off. Dream.  Believe.  Achieve.

I never tire of writing how tedious, frustrating and emotionally draining the home buying process has been. In my home buying search, I have attended about a hundred open houses and viewings. Some I really liked (the new built in Bedstuy but was out of my price range), some were awful (the home that reeked of cat urine) and others fell somewhere in the middle.  I've been seriously looking for a home for about a year. I can honestly say that I have seen it all. I had a pretty good sense of what I liked, what I could afford and what were deal breakers. By attending these open houses I was able to focus my search and I learned that there isn't a perfect home.I learned that term that is so often mentioned on Property Virgins and My First Place, compromise. I thought It would be fun to share some of my open house pictures to show what you get for your money in New York. It's astounding to me that in Georgia you can buy a 3 to 4 bedroom home with a basement and large lot space...

Buying a home been has frustrating process and one I hope never to repeat again. Today, I heard from my mortgage company that the underwriter doesn't want to move forward on the mortgage unless they receive a letter stating the amount of monthly payments on my student loan. Frustrating.  I had to contact Sallie Mae again for yet another confirmation letter. Sometimes, I feel like a headless chicken with all the running around that I have had to do. Last week the mortgage underwriter wanted to know why there was a discrepancy between my annual income for 2011 and 2012 and my projected income for 2013. And by discrepancy, I mean a difference of about $12 on my monthly income. I had to write a letter explaining that I was due a “cost of living” increase at my job.   I’m trying hard to remain patient. I just want to get to closing. In other news, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be about. I’m not a particularly crafty person and I can’t teach you how to...