Mouse Infestation – Help!


We rent the top two floors of an old wood frame house. We moved in in August and, in the last month or so, have discovered that we have a mouse problem. Initially we thought it was just one mouse, but, after capturing 3 so far (and finding another dead one behind the fridge), we’re realizing that we have a much bigger problem.

We’re taking all the appropriate steps — plugging up all holes with steel wool, putting down traps, having an exterminator come by — so I guess my question is: is it possible to win this battle? Or are mice just too resourceful (and too quick to reproduce) to be successful? Any advice? Thanks!

Categories: Exterminator
By jxc187 | 11/05/2009 9:49 AM | Comment

Low Appraisal: Any Recourse?


We’re selling our 2BR co-op, had a deal fall through in January, and now have a new buyer whose bank just appraised our property. The appraisal came in $25K less than the sale price — we were pretty shocked! This appraisal puts the value of our apartment at $40K less than the agreed-upon sale price for our first, now-defunct deal. At that time, the appraisal wasn’t a problem, but the buyer getting PMI was. Do we have any recourse in this situation? Can we protest the appraisal? We got a copy, reviewed it today, and the comps seems legit, but the square footage is less then we measured in the past (not sure how it compares to the square footage recorded in the first appraisal). Has anyone had any experience with this? Thanks!

Categories: Appraisals
By jxc187 | 05/13/2009 9:48 AM | Comment

Excessive Noise in a Co-op?


We live in a medium-sized co-op that has virtually no soundproofing between walls and floors. Sound travels readily between apartments and the board has instituted several policies that try to mitigate this problem. For instance, we’re required to have 80% of our floors covered in carpet and we have quiet hours (between 10 pm and 6 am, you can’t make a lot of noise). Plus, the board sends out reminders about how to be generally respectful of your neighbors vis-a-vis noise.

For several hours almost every night and every weekend, our downstairs neighbor plays music with the bassline turned way up. She almost always turns off the music by 10 pm (the appointed quiet hours), but from approx. 6 pm to 10 pm 3-4 nights out of the week and most of the weekend, it’s extremely unpleasant to be in our apartment. Our floor shakes to the beat of her music and all we can hear is bass. We’ve tried talking to her about this, but to absolutely no avail. I should also say that, for some unknown reason, she doesn’t like us at all. Literally from the day we moved in, she’s been unpleasant and unfriendly, despite our regular attempts to establish a neighborly relationship.

I think it would help things quite a bit if she just turned down her bass. I don’t think the volume is excessively high, but the bass is driving us nuts. Even though her music is not being played after quiet hours, do you think this constitutes an unreasonable amount of noise? Should we go to a higher authority (eg the board)? Just wondering if others out there have had a similar experience and what they’ve done to maintain their sanity, while recognizing that we live in cramped quarters in the city.

Categories: Quality of Life
By jxc187 | 04/23/2009 9:52 AM | Comment

Using multiple mortgage brokers?


We are selling our co-op FSBO and have a prospective buyer who wants to use the credit union at her place of employment to finance the apartment. We recently had a sale fall through and feel pretty strongly about her working with both the broker at the credit union as well as a traditional mortgage broker so that she’ll have options in the event that one lender starts making things difficult. Since we’re doing this FSBO, I don’t know the answer to this: Are there any rules concerning how many mortgage “brokers” a buyer can use? (Even though the credit union broker only represents one lender …) If the buyer goes with the credit union, will she owe any payment to the more traditional mortgage broker?

Thanks for any advice!

Categories: Mortgage
By jxc187 | 03/24/2009 9:09 AM | Comment

Possible to only put 10% down?


Is it still possible to get a mortgage with only 10% down? We recently had a deal for the sale of our co-op apartment fall apart because our buyer could not get PMI (she was only putting down 10%). We were advised that in this economic climate, banks are very reluctant to finance 90%. We’ve put our co-op back on the market with a 20% down payment requirement, but I’m seeing other apartments listed that only require 10%. Are we losing a lot of prospective buyers by requiring 20%? (By the way, our apartment is priced at $409K, so even with 10% down, a buyer would still be getting a conforming loan.)

Thanks for any advice/experiences/thoughts!

Categories: Mortgage
By jxc187 | 03/10/2009 7:47 PM | Comment

Mortgages for a co-op apt?


I’m investigating some new policies on the part of banks giving loans to people purchasing co-op apartments, and I’ve been told that many banks don’t give loans to people buying in to co-ops. Does anyone know of which major banks WILL give mortgages for a purchased of a co-op apt? So far, I know of Citibank, Wells Fargo, Countrywide/Bank of America, and Chase/WaMu. Is there anyone else?

Categories: Mortgage
By jxc187 | 01/05/2009 2:04 PM | Comment