Potential buyer questions

[Eric]

Hello everyone!

My wife and I live in the neighborhood (renters) and are looking to
buy (first-timers). We're once again re-interested in OBBP and have a
bunch of questions. I've emailed Christine Barranca - unofficial
preferred agent of the OBBP Google group :-) - but I thought I might
ask the group a few questions for some firsthand insight.

We're a little concerned about the cc / taxes. With cc, have those
gone up at all in the last 6-48 months? Could they? Is that at all
impacted by the park, or occupancy percentage? And with the tax
abatement, could the current ~$200-300/m shoot up when the abatement
is over (which, if I understand correctly, is only over in about 8
years or so)?

This is probably our biggest hurdle (like almost everyone else, I
suppose). We feel like we could make one of the loft or 1bd's work
for us, but as newlyweds looking to start a family, realistically,
we'd likely be looking to upgrade in 5-10 years (probably within the
same building, if the stars aligned). So all the cc / taxes concerns
stem more from the long-term resale possibilities - how appealing
would our converted 1bd look in ~5 years if the cc & taxes are
$1,500+?

/eric

[Jonathan Rubinstein]

This is not my area of expertise, but I THINK (and Chris Barranca who I used and is amazing and can really dig into the issue) that these aren't big concerns.  I don't think cc have gone up, nor should they and if they do, I was told by my lawyer, who was on MY side, not OBB, it would be a miniscule amount- like $50 a month to make the budget. Also I think the abatement is much longer than that.  Anyone else?

--
Jonathan Rubinstein
Joe
www.joenewyork.com
twitter: Joe_Coffee_NYC
141 Waverly Place
9 East 13th Street
405 West 23rd Street
44 Grand Central Terminal
514 Columbus Avenue

[EveL]

Hi, Eric!
We were in a similar situation - 2 people, thinking of growing our
family at some point, but can only afford 1bdr at this point, coming
back time and again to see OBBP (we moved in this June). Sorry I
can't give any substantive answers (my reading was also that the
abatement is for 15 yrs, and cc are not going up for a while either),
but after we looked at many coops in the area - most already have CC
+taxes in $1200 range but offer 1/10th of the amenities. It would
have been difficult to "sell" $1500 maint in the place where most pay
$500 cc; but it's definitely not the case in Brooklyn Heights. 75
Livingston, 150 Joralemon, 110 Hicks, etc - all coops, all with cc
over $1K today.
hope this helps a bit...
e

On Jul 23, 8:35 am, Jonathan Rubinstein <joecoffeest...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> 514 Columbus Avenue- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Eric]

Thanks for the replies! I've been in touch with Chris about the
building and the cc / tax stuff, and she generally confirmed the same.

I've since learned that we're basically priced out of OBBP unless FHA
approval goes through. According to Rachel 2 weeks ago, it was
"close, though it could still fall through entirely". According to
Chris, it's still a ways away. Rachel hasn't emailed me or my wife
back about status, so I'll take that as a 'nothing yet'.

It's very frustrating - and we haven't even started any of the truly
frustrating parts of ownership! We have a decent nest egg, but it's
not enough in today's market / economic conditions. We have great,
solid income and excellent credit, but it's not enough. We're not
giving up just yet, but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if we
ultimately went the way of millions of others: priced out of NYC. :(

[Jonathan Rubinstein]

Can someone explain the significance of the FHA aspect to all of this?

Please excuse typos... Sent from my lame i phone

[M Chen]

Another benefit of receiving FHA approval is that the downpayment requirement is typically low (around 5%).  Eric, I presume the high downpayment % was your concern?  My attorney referred a mortgage company (Thomas Funding Group, Amerifund Home Mortgage, LLC) to me when we were not sure if we could get financing from Wells.  It requires 20% downpayment (unlike First Republic which requires 25%).  I have the mortgage broker's contact details if you are interested, let me know.  I got my financing from Wells in the end, but no harm exploring the possibility with this mortgage broker.   

 

On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Jonathan Heines <jhe...@gmail.com> wrote:

In a nutshell... if the mortgages are FHA approved the bank can sell off the mortgages (risk) and receive cash (to make more loans) as opposed to the bank keeping the mortgage on its own books. 

[Eric]

From a potential buyer's perspective, M's got it: we're hoping to have
to put less down with an FHA-secured mortgage.

Rachel emailed me back with FHA status: nothing yet, check back in 2-3
weeks. Le sigh.

On Jul 25, 2:13 pm, M Chen <msii...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Another benefit of receiving FHA approval is that the downpayment
> requirement is typically low (around 5%).  Eric, I presume the high
> downpayment % was your concern?  My attorney referred a mortgage
> company (Thomas
> Funding Group, Amerifund Home Mortgage, LLC) to me when we were not sure if
> we could get financing from Wells.  It requires 20% downpayment (unlike
> First Republic which requires 25%).  I have the mortgage broker's contact
> details if you are interested, let me know.  I got my financing from Wells
> in the end, but no harm exploring the possibility with this mortgage
> broker.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 12:34 PM, Jonathan Heines <jhei...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > In a nutshell... if the mortgages are FHA approved the bank can sell off
> > the mortgages (risk) and receive cash (to make more loans) as opposed to the
> > bank keeping the mortgage on its own books.
>
> > On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 12:15 PM, Jonathan Rubinstein <
> > joecoffeest...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Can someone explain the significance of the FHA aspect to all of this?
>
> >> Please excuse typos... Sent from my lame i phone
>

> >> >>> Joewww.joenewyork.com<http://joewww.joenewyork.com/>

[Aaron Karp]

Wells Fargo told me they expected to hear back by the end of this month, but as of yesterday, nothing yet.