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 ...

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...

The other day I met up with my good friend, Tracey. These days we always seem to talk more about our careers and financial matters.  Tracey and I are in the same career field but have different kinds of responsibility. My job, for a large government agency, requires spending long hours on my feet and travel to many locations. Glamorous it’s not but it allows me a lot of autonomy. Tracey works on a yearly contract for a university in Manhattan. I live in Brooklyn with a roommate. Tracey lives in Manhattan with a roommate. Tracey complained about her lack of autonomy and job security.  Tracey, like many people, feels that she is underpaid for the lifestyle that she wants to live. I mentioned several times in this blog how totally uncool I am. I don’t hang out in trendy coffee shops and don’t spend long hours queuing to get into the hottest new restaurants. I don’t have a gym membership. Instead I take great pleasure in finding free and inexpensive things to do around the ci...

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...

Today I got an email from my attorney enquiring if I had secured a mortgage commitment as yet. Sadly, I had to respond, no.   It is a reasonably question to ask when you consider that I made an offer on the home on May 3 rd 2013 and we went into contract at the end of May.   Everything else from here on in should have gone smoothly.   I thought wrong. Having never purchased a home before I didn't understand the process. I assumed that because I had a 10% down payment and good credit that would be enough. I even completed a first time home buyers class, at HSBC’s request, at a community organization and received a certificate of completion.   This class cost me a nonrefundable fee of $75.  The community organization wasn't all bad and I don’t want to give the impression that they did not assist. They helped me to apply for a down payment assistant grant. I am truly grateful for that.   Still, here I am six weeks later without a mortgage commitm...