First Home Style

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...

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 know I haven't posted in a while but really there just haven't been much progress to report. We still haven't signed the contract as yet. My attorney continues to be concerned about the cooperative. He's actually reviewing the minutes from the cooperative board meetings tomorrow ( we want to ensure that the cooperative has a plan to increase the money in their reserves). As I've stated sometime ago, I'm disheartened that we haven't closed on a property as yet. I feel that now would be a great time to buy a home in Brooklyn, but I feel that I'm being priced out of the market. Gentrification is a term that's floated around quiet a lot, and it is nice too see a new restaurant, wine bar, yoga studio or gourmet supermarket moving into a neighborhood. However, it's maddening when the original neighborhood occupants can't afford to continue to reside in the area.

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...

Yesterday was Election Day here in New York, so I got the day off work. The day off give me the opportunity to reflect on the last several months and after serious consideration, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I need to take a break from my property search.  I’m disappointed to have to end the search but I feel like I’m not able to find what I want, in the neighbor that I want, at a price I can afford. It is the first time in this long drawn out process that I have ever considered taking an “hiatus”.  Yesterday, I spoke to my loan officer, about the most recent property that I made on offer on. The bank continues to have concerns regarding the financials of this cooperative and is in doubt that the mortgage will get approved. Despite us requesting documents from the coop, we have yet to receive them. I plan to meet with my attorney today to discuss all of this.