First Home Style

Yesterday I met up with my friend Dominique for lunch. We laughed and gossip and ruined our diets. We went to the new Michael’s on Atlantic Avenue  and wondered about downtown Brooklyn shopping at Loft and Housing Works on Montague Street. Eventually the conversation turned to our dreams.  For as long as I could remember, Dominique has always wanted to start her own business.  She makes really great natural products such as lip balms, lotions and deodorants.   I was encouraging  her to continue as a sort of side hustle as I felt she was giving up on her dreams. But there I realized that I had also given up on my dreams. It has been over a year since I last blogged and that wasn’t my intention.  My dream was to buy a home and blog about that experience but somewhere along the way I got discouraged and stopped looking. I stopped attending open houses or even searching properties on Streeteasy and Zillow.   And so as I g...

I know I haven’t posted here in a while but I’ve been so busy.   Life has been good to me so I don’t have too many complaints. Which makes it even more difficult to type the following words, I hate my job. I don’t want to come off as an entitled brat as I know that there are many out there struggling to find work and to put food on the table. I have been lucky that I have been paid reasonable well for what I do. However I feel that I have outgrown my current position and I’m just feeling anxious to advance in a career. Unfortunately there isn’t much growth with my current company. Within the last few months, I have mailed, faxed so many resumes that I’m physically exhausted.   Why I am telling you all this? I guess this is my way of saying that my priorities have shifted. While I still want to purchase a home, I’m more focused on finding a better job. I attended two open houses about two weeks ago and sadly there wasn’t much about either property that I liked. Both propertie...

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...

When I started this blog a year ago, I was in contract on a two bedroom cooperative in Brooklyn, NY. I was very enthusiastic about getting the property and I started planning my design strategies. A year later after being denied by the coop board for the property, I have taken a bit of a break from my home search. I will still update the blog from time to time. However, I am less enthusiastic about the property search and haven't really seen a coop that grabs my attention like that first apartment did. There are certain things that I do not want to compromise on such as location, price and bedroom space. I haven't become a homeowner just yet but I haven't lost all hope of that happening. It just may take a longer time and I'm ok with that.

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...