First Home Style

Last week we completed the home inspection. There were a few concerns such as a leaking faucet and fallen off cabinet doors but nothing that would impede us going forward with the deal. The house appeared to be in good working condition though it is in desperate need of deep cleaning.   My realtor has taken to calling this house a “hot property”, as there continues to be a lot of interest and offers. He was concerned that someone else could swoop in and make a higher offer than mine.   Apparently, there was a prior offer to mine and that deal fell apart after the inspection when the “greedy buyer” wanted to renegotiate the price.   I made my offer at the right time. Also, it was about $10,000 more than the prior offer. My realtor was eager for us to go to contract.   Present at the inspection were myself, my realtor, the inspection, the homeowner and the listing agent. I had asked my mom to come along as well for moral support. Mom did not see the home prior to...

Initially when I started my home search I was looking for a two-bedroom coop apartment in Brooklyn.  However, for the last few weeks I’ve been looking at houses.  I had no desire to own a house before. I always thought that house ownership would be too much work to maintain and that I was not mentally or physically prepared to deal with all of the responsibilities of house ownership.  Even now, typing this, I’m feeling rather overwhelmed by the idea of shoveling snow.  But I can’t deny that there are a ton of perks of having a house that are simply not available with a coop. For one, there isn’t a coop board to snoop around my finances, ask about my further plans for the property and hurl intrusive questions at me about why I had student loan debt. I guess my shift in thinking began late last year as I started attending more open houses.  I fell in like with the idea of having more space and possible having a tenant to assist me with paying my mortgage each...

Four years ago, when I started this blog, I was obsessed about homeownership. It was all I thought about. I was in contract to purchase my first home and I also recently graduated from a master’s degree program. Needless to say, I was cocky and confident. I was optimistic. I thought that everything was falling into place. But then the coop board denied my application and the job that I thought would materialize did not.  I was sad and angry for a long time. I stopped blogging and became even more depressed as I couldn’t find a home in my preferred neighborhood or my price range. I knew someone who had contacts on the coop board and I asked them to enquired about my application and why I was denied.  He was informed that I the coop board was concerned that I did not have enough cash and they wanted a cash buyer. They were also concerned about my student loan debt. As I had just recently graduated from school, I hadn’t yet started repayment. I left graduate school owing Sallie ...

I have a confession. I’m a stalker. http://shrink4men.com/2011/02/16/female-stalkers-part-2-checklist-of-stalking-and-harassment-behaviors/ For the past two months, I have been stalking this perfect two-bedroom cooperative apartment online. Almost daily I view pictures on Streeteasy.com and Zillow.com and breathe a sigh of relief when I see that someone has not yet snapped it up. It’s not a huge place. It’s a two-bedroom apartment with a small kitchen and living/dining area. I have imagined hosting Christmas and dinner parties here. And boy do I let my imagination run wild with design ideas. I have painted the living room a nice grey and hung flowy white curtains to the windows where currently there are blinds. In the kitchen, I have stained the cabinets, modernized the hardware and changed the backsplash to glass tiles that I found at home depot. Despite the imaginary home decor ideas, the apartment is otherwise perfect and in move in ready condition. Except of course tha...

In the last few months,   I started 2 new jobs and bought a car. But let me start at the beginning.  In 2016, I made a resolution, along with the usual lose weight promises of years past, this year I had a plan of focusing on my financial future. Managing my debt. I asked myself what goals I wanted to accomplish in 2016 and developed a plan of how to accomplished those goals. I made a vision board and then I drew my own mind map. I was watching motivation videos on YouTube and TED talks. I would watch Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey and be inspired. I was on a goal of financial self-improvement. I made it a goal to find a higher paying job with my company. I mastered the “tell me about yourself” question and practiced my response in the mirror. I was confident. And after multiply revisions to my resume, careful crafted cover letters and multiple interviews, my hard work paid off. I got a job. Yeah me! Three years after graduate school, I finally got a job in my field.  Wi...

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...

For the last few days, my agent and I have been looking at apartments in need of renovations. In other words, fixer-uppers. As mention before my budget is small and therefore I'm willing to make some concessions on my wish list items, such as updated kitchen and updated bathroom. I am not willing to compromise however on closet space, that is an absolute deal breaker to me.  Needless to say we were hoping to get a bargain. Neither apartment were in my ideal neighborhood and I decided that I would compromise on the location because they were not too far away from where I wanted to be. Apartment # 2 best fit my location wish list as it was close to a subway station and lots of buses. It also has a business district which includes shopping, restaurants, etc. Apartment #1 was in a more quiet area and is less than 10 minutes away by driving and maybe about 15 by bus. I like that Apartment # 1 had a balcony, as I really wanted an apartment with some outdoor space.   I actually...

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...

I made an on offer on the coop, which the seller quickly accepted. I was so grateful that there wasn't any back and forth negotiations.  I strongly feel that both the seller and I are getting a good deal. However, having been through this process once before, I remained optimistically cautious. For the past two weeks I have had the coop board application on my desk while every now and again I would thumb through it.  The coop board application is nearly $500 (which is non-refundable) and I wanted to make certain that I got mortgage application approval before submitting the documents and sent off the check. Last year when I was working with HSBC, my mortgage application was denied in underwriting. Today I spoke to my loan officer and he informed me that the underwriter has approved the application. I was beyond elated. On that great news I called my attorney and we hope to meet sometime next week to sign the contract which means I have to continue working on that coop board a...

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...

I think that in my last post, I prematurely wrote about taking a break from the property search. Yes, this has been a stressful time. While the feeling was genuine, it isn't a true reflection of where I am in the process.  I have been in this property search for sometime now and at this stage, I'm almost desperate to get to closing. I'm tired of attending open houses. I'm tired of  putting my search criteria in Streeteasy and Trulia and somehow hoping that the results will be different.  Though I was reluctant to search for yet another mortgage lender, I had to do just that.  It had all happened out of my curiosity and frustration that I walked into a  bank and asked to speak to a loan officer. It was free and didn't require a commitment. I told the loan officer about my concerns and the trials of the last several months. Then I asked about the cooperative that I made the offer on. And to my surprise he knew it well. He had just close on an apartment in that bui...

I wanted to quickly update about the status of my housing search. If you’re a frequent reader to this blog, you shouldn’t be too surprise that there are still more obstacles to overcome.   Barriers are a constant presence in this home buying process. My current mortgage company has concerns about the cooperative and may not approve the mortgage. Why me? I first thought. But after I spoke to my loan officer and received a copy of the building’s financials, I too became alarmed. My loan officer was concerned that the last two mortgage applications for the building were denied. The loan officer contacted the underwriter on both properties and found that there were concerns about how the cooperative was spending the monthly maintenance. Let’s just say 2011 was a dire year for this cooperative. 2012 was a lot better; however 2013 was not yet available for us to view. We all want to be reassured that this apartment purchase would be a wise investment. The loan officer has requeste...

Yesterday I had my coop board interview. I arrived approximately 30 minutes before the appointment time and waited in the lobby where I met my potential neighbor Petra who was anxiously waiting with her real estate agent.  Like me, Petra is a first time home buyer. Petra stated that she was in contract on a two bedroom  similar to my apartment with the only exception being the bathroom, hers is pink, mine is blue. Like me Petra was denied a mortgage commitment from HSBC because of concerns that she "works off the books." Petra is paying for her home in cash. She stated that she is ferocious saver. She was so lovely that I was routing for her to get accepted. There was a third person waiting to be interviewed, but she did not engage us in conversation. In fact, she stood at the far end of the lobby with her headphones in her ear and her iphone in her hand.  Petra was interviewed first while I waited in the lobby, I logged her absence at 13 minutes. When she returned she wa...

Yesterday, I received a telephone call from my attorney, who informed me that the sellers are requesting information regarding the mortgage commitment. Apparently he's getting a lot of push back from the sellers attorney. I explained that I haven't heard  from HSBC in the past week. In fact, my five telephone calls to the loan officer went unanswered. My attorney suggested that I send an email to the loan officer letting her know the urgency. I called the loan officer and to my surprise she actually answered the phone. I relied the information regarding the urgency of the matter and she agreed that my frustrations were warranted, However she says, my file was no longer with HSBC but with the underwriter. She suggested that I write an email detailing the urgency, which she would then forward to the underwriter. I wrote the email and sent it to the loan officer, copying it to my attorney. At about 8:49 pm, I received a letter from the loan officer stating that the information was...

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...

Hello, my name is Marissa. I’m new to blogging. I don’t have a degree in design and I’m not a professional decorator. I just love decorating. I love home improvement and design shows. I love HGTV and apartmenttherapy.com.  My favorite shows are House Hunters, The High Low Project, The Property Brothers, Love It or List It and Property Virgins. I’m also in the process of buying my first home, a cooperative apartment in Brooklyn, NY. Buying a home is a giant step but it’s also an expensive one too. I have big plans for my first home. However I'm now realizing that most of the work I planned for the home, I can't afford. I have been looking for a home for several years, but seriously looking for about a year. Most of my friends live in Brooklyn. I live and work in Brooklyn so it only made sense for me to stay here.   But Brooklyn real estate is not cheap. My Coop wish lists were: a two bedroom apartment, with lots of closet space, natural light and w...