cashing out of apt in uncertain market?

Give up housesearcher. Nobody can ease your anxiety. Get some zanex.

Posted by: guest at April 8, 2008 11:06 PM

WHy cash out?? Right now you are paying yourself. When you rent your are paying someone else.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 7:30 AM

If you wanted to move anyway, and got a good price for your apartment, why not follow through with selling it and than take your time to look for the house you really want? Renting isn't throwing away money--it's buying a short-term place to live. Think about all the maintenance and utility bills you WON'T have to pay while you're renting.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 8:26 AM

I agree with 8:26 -- rent for a year and take your time to find a place you like. The only thing to be focus on is whether you are crossing the 250K/500K threshold in capital gains from the sale of the apartment. If so, then you consult somebody who knows about taxes and figure out how long you have to re-invest the gains in a new house.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 10:01 AM

IMO, walking out on a house for legal reasons is one thing. But then to break the contract with the buyers too? Oy. Too much bad house-buying karma.

You have a contract. Honor it. And honestly, you got what the market said you'd get. What you priced as "asking" was just a number.

(and you no longer have to re-invest gains. that is an old rule.)

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 11:01 AM

Yeah, I'm with 11:01 - backing out on your contract to sell your place is just nasty.

You always know that the place you are trying to buy might not work out. But yet you went into contract on your apartment before you bothered to make sure that the house was a go. I know, you did it for all the reasons - didn't know what your place would sell for, couldn't own both at once, etc. - but I really do believe that this is not how most honorable people handle the buy-and-sell situation.

In my opinion, you should not have entered into the contract to sell your apartment until you knew the house was a go. But there's no way to make someone like you honorable, and contracts are written so that you have an out. You'll use it, it is clear. And you are only worried about losing cash, not about how you treat others. Shameful, really, but you probably can't even see that.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 11:49 AM

Housesearcher definitely can't see that. Her history of posting here and then calling responders mean makes it abundantly clear she is a selfish self-righteous cow.

You are just worried about the truth. You picked a lemon because it's next door to your besties. You will pick another and another. You should just stay in your apartment because you are a loser who will always pick wrong, second guess, and blame the seller or the broker or the contractor. Since you will never accept personal responsibility for your failures you should just stay in your apartment.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 12:02 PM

That's absolutely idiotic that you would waste other people's time and money. You should have made the decision about cashing out before you put your place on the market. Selfish jerk, get some help.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 1:36 PM

OP here - we had entered into contract for house BEFORE putting our place on the market, so certainly did NOT intend to waste anyone's time. If anything, the owner of the house we were buying was not straight with us as she did not reveal potential title problems which came up very late in the process. We, in the meantime, were honest with our buyers that this had come up - they had option to back out when it came up but instead they chose to sign a rider adding an "opt-out" date to the contract. They decided to sign rider since they love our very beautiful & rare apt, and we in turn agreed to pay their expenses should the sale fall through. So on the sale of our apartment, communication has always been clear, honest and all parties agreed. Also, the house owner assured us that the title problems could easily be solved, but now, as we get closer to the deadline, that seems less likely. We are probably going to sell anyway but thought it would be useful to hear from others on this list who have considered and/or exercised this option and have useful comments (not the unfortunate trolls one must ignore).

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:04 PM

Seller,

(You must have pissed someone off to get some of the responses you've gotten on here) Just sell it. It is always much easier to buy a place than it is to sell one. Now you'll have the cash to make a smarter decision down the road. Stay on course, proceed.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:34 PM

Seller,

(You must have pissed someone off to get some of the responses you've gotten on here) Just sell it. It is always much easier to buy a place than it is to sell one. Now you'll have the cash to make a smarter decision down the road. Stay on course, proceed.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:35 PM

well, I'm certainly not a troll. and I still think it's bad karma no matter how very rare and beautiful your apartment is

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:37 PM

You should sell and leave Brooklyn immediately.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:42 PM

Thanks daveinbedstuy - that's the kind of advice that is really helpful! As I said, I am quite certain we are going to sell anyway, esp since bank lending is getting so much stricter (which can hurt sellers in future as some buyers are knocked out of ring). The point of my OP was that, when we embarked on selling our apt, we were in CONTRACT with a house, so were NOT planning on "cashing out" - we were selling our place to move to the house we were in contract for. But then our house contract was jeopardized by a legal problem the house owner never revealed. A few years ago, we would never have sold without having a place to go (since market was rising so fast) but now, I was curious if people think it makes sense. Anyway, the consensus seems to be selling now is a good thing, even with low inventory and the fact that prime properties seem to be holding up - for now...

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 3:55 PM

Consensus seems to be that you are the troll. Once again you are here calling others names when they post responses that you do not want to hear. Telling us how it's someone else's fault and you are a good person who was honest and how you have a rare and beautiful apartment. Can you tell us about how this would never happen in Europe where your husband is from? Maybe that will convince the readers that you are righteous and not an idiot and a cheat.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 4:12 PM

"abundantly clear she is a selfish self-righteous cow."

Of course she is. I entered into a contract with her to purchase a used Bug-a-boo. She backed out of the deal and then ran me over.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 4:50 PM

Hey trolls, life not turning out like you hoped?

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 6:36 PM

A piece of useful advice to Seller. Despite the fact that you are selling, you are not "cashing out." You're intent is to buy something else. There should be no debate in your mind. You were planning on selling to move. So sell, (rent while looking) and move. How could you walk out on a sale above asking? That's what you hope for. I think you are confused about "cashing out" You are not pocketing anything you're moving to a new home (when you find it). If you don't go through with your sale, by this time next year when you finally find the new house and sell, your place will be worth 15% less and you'll be kicking yourself for leaving money on the table...

Lastly,if your place is so rare and beautiful, why are you moving?

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 10:16 PM

10:16 - Thanks for your sound advice. Again, this is the kind of advice I was seeking, since we never intended to sell without a place to buy right away - so I know we're not technically "cashing out" but it feels strange to rent again (in most likely a less than ideal rental so as not to blow too much capital) with no specific end in sight (and inventory on homes remains low). Reason we're moving from a rare and beautiful apt is that it's too small, in the long-term, for our growing family - plus, we prefer to be in a different school (not because we don't like our zoned school, but because of a complicated child-care arrangement we share with another family zoned for different school). We sold another non-NYC property a couple of years ago and always intended to buy a house where we could live for our entire lives. We love our apt, but we feel we will outgrow it - or at least, since we're lucky enough to have this extra "trade-up" capital, we'd prefer to invest that in more space (if we didn't have that money, we'd make this place work with a little more renovation, though square footage is square footage and we want a little more.) We love it so much, in fact, that we thought at one point of keeping it as an investment property to rent out and keep in our family --- but the problem is that houses have gotten so expensive that it would be hard for us to afford one without extracting the capital from this apt. Plus, renting this place seems like it would make our lives too complicated, not to mention the problematic tax consequences should we change our minds and sell later. So, that is why we're leaving, but it's been a hard decision.

Posted by: guest at April 9, 2008 10:38 PM

I think one person here is posting all the nasty remarks to you, OP. I'm always amazed at how bitter people are -- clearly there is someone on here who had nothing better to do with their time than to berate other posters. I really feel sorry for him/her.

OP, you have been very straightforward with your buyer -- there's absolutely no bad karma to be had and you have every right to back out of the contract to sell your apt. if you feel like it.

However, that being said, if you got a great price and need a bigger place, I'd probably also roll the dice and rent until you find a great house. No one knows what house prices will do, but in my opinion the bubble has risen to such great heights that it is doubtful the high prices will continue. In addition, there are a glut of condos coming into the market, so you could always buy one of those eventually if you really did get priced out of a house.

But shame on the troll here who is so nasty. I think the karma will come back to that person, if anything. Yes, the OP has posted lots of questions that demonstrate her nervousness at buying a house -- we've all been there. They've been posted on a forum specifically for asking these kinds of questions and you are free to ignore them. But to act like the OP has done something wrong simply because she's asking for advice or looking for reassurance is so off-base. So what, her questions are annoying you, but to attack her when you could just ignore her shows how small of a person you are. Looking for a reason to be unkind is simply wrong, and it's very easy to ignore forum posts you don't like (unless they are spam). So get a life, troll, or try to find some kindness in yourself -- believe me, being kind to others will make them kinder to you.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:34 AM

"that's the kind of advice that is really helpful!"

"this is the kind of advice I was seeking"

Once again, Housesearcher only wants to hear what she wants to hear and will call everone else who offers the advice she asked for mean or trolls. Then she'll write a treatise of useless uninteresting personal information.

Housesearcher, you cannot hide by not signing in. It's so clearly still you wasting everyone's time and then calling them names.

GO AWAY HOUSESEARCHER.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:40 AM

11:34

you are wrong in thinking it is only one person. I have written some of the comments against housesearcher, but definitely not all. I consider her a troll for her responses to those answering her endless posts. her posts are the spam.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:49 AM

Troll at 11:40 - I'm not the OP (who I agree is probably housesearcher), but 11:34 am poster. Shame on you. What is wrong with you that you take this so personally? You didn't offer advice, you attacked OP for absolutely no reason except you felt a little annoyed at the fact she was posting once again.

I bet you can find a bit of kindness inside yourself if you really look for it. Try to live your life by not looking for a way to be unkind when you can actually just ignore something that is annoying. You have every right to find OP's posts annoying. But it is so easy just to ignore forum posts you don't want to answer -- I do it all the time instead of deciding to post and berate whomever is asking an annoying question.

Some of us don't mind all of OP's questions, so just let us answer them. Move on, 11:40am, move on. I know I shouldn't have bothered to answer this post at all, but I can't stand to let such unkindness as yours be posted without at least calling you on it. Now I will end this, and I'm sure you will continue to make unkind posts, but at least you have been called out on them. Next time, please just ignore the posts that annoy you. It really isn't hard to do.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 11:55 AM

11:55 = hypocrite

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:22 PM

I think it's bizarre that this blog devolves into attacks/defenses of posters. It is sad that there are those who have nothing better to do that attack others. OP is simply thanking those who give useful advice, not advice she wants to hear (some people have told her to hold on to the apt, and she is not attacking them!). People ignoring the question and instead flinging mud are the spam-generators.

That said, OP, I say sell!

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:42 PM

I kind of like that OP has answered people's responses to her post. I'm thinking about selling my place and it's useful to hear her story and her additional posts give more info, and create a conversation. Why is having a conversation about real estate, on a blog about real estate, wasting people's time? I agree with 1:42 that the spiteful attacks (devoid of any useful comments/info) are what waste people's time, since we readers trying to glean info have to wade through this weird filler.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 1:48 PM

Why are people being so nasty? I don't believe in selling property.. After reading the comments and responses I now see why you have to sell. Good luck and don't get discouraged by these twits who are calling you nasty names.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 2:11 PM

I've only posted a couple of times, but this person busg me too. Asks a question, then if anyone disagrees with her premise, she calls them a troll. Whatever.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:16 PM

yes, this person, with the "very beautiful and rare" (puh-leeeze) apartment bugs a lot of people. Ok, she was upfront with the buyers about the problems (though didn't indicate that in the OP or say anything about the buyers.) What's annoying is the person can't make a decision - any decision. There's a difference between asking for useful information and dithering because you can't make a decision. Sell, or stay in your "very beautiful and rare" apartment - no one cares.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 3:39 PM

Housesearcher you have asked endless questions about various properties and received numerous responses and now you want to .... rent?! You obviously cannot make a decision; you are wasting everyone's time here. And calling someone a "troll" because they disagree with you or god forbid disapprove of you, what is that all about? Go away. And give me a break: rare and beautiful apartment. Excuse me while I throw up.

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 9:03 PM

is $800 sq ft for this rare and beautiful apartment in a prime location a deal? I thought a grand psf was standard

Posted by: guest at April 10, 2008 9:57 PM

the vitriol in these posts is almost unbelievable - even by brownstoner standards what on earth is wrong with you people?

Posted by: guest at April 11, 2008 3:31 PM

It's unbelievable because housesearcher wastes everyone's time

Posted by: guest at April 12, 2008 4:03 PM

Yes, the grand council of Brownstoner Trolls has spoken! Heed their warnings, or you too will face their puny wrath! LOL

Posted by: guest at April 20, 2008 3:55 PM