justinm's Profile
Author's Posts
February 16, 2009
Pocket Shutters
Does anyone know where I can buy pocket shutters or have extras available? I need one one for a large sized window and two for a smaller sized window, one without slats.
February 3, 2009
Handyman recommendations
Hey all,
We are in need of a handyman that does decent work for around $20 an hour or less. Needs to have a bit of an eye for detail and be able to help us clean up and repair our walls and doors so that they look nicer, basically painting prep and door repair.
Any recommendations?
December 6, 2008
Iron window and doors (cont)
I posted earlier about iron window and door frames that we removed. We had a bit of a holiday hiatus and are trying to sell them again.
Specs are:
Doors: 109"x54" and 77.5"x32.5" for the front and back doors
Windows: 90"x38" and 103"x40"
They're pretty standard styles (no belly for window boxes, so they're just flat) ... if they fit your window/doors let me know and you can come see them. They are in good shape, although they could probably benefit from a fresh coat of black paint.
Price is best offer/soonest offer because we're sick of having them chained up in our front yard.
November 18, 2008
Hot water for sinks/shower
We just moved into a 3 story 2.5 bath brownstone. The hot water takes about 30 seconds to reach the shower and even longer for the smaller faucets (b/c the pipe has to empty of cold water before the heater water gets there). I feel like we're wasting water every morning and would like to have the convenience of quick hot water for the shower. I've looked at "comfort pumps" which use the cold water line as a return line and keep recirculating hot water from the heater, but noticed most are designed for long houses and not high ones. I talked specifically with a person at a plumbing supply store and he said the max "head" for the pump is about 30 feet, close to which the pump can't handle the water. My question is: has anyone had these installed without getting a specific hot water return line. If so, which model (we heard grundfos is the best). Any recommendations from a plumber would be helpful as to what the options are for a tall house (3 stories) and not wanting to tear apart the walls to put a return line in.
Does everyone else just wait for the hot water? I'm assuming this is common on all the older building with dated plumbing.
November 13, 2008
steel front and back door gates and window bars
Do people actually buy these? My contractor says he has a metalworker friend that would take them off our hands for a few hundred dollars, but I imagine they are worth more if there actually is demand. Is anyone interested in them? The four window grates I think are standard sized for high windows on most brownstones (flat, no window box or AC room) and the front door grate fits in the arched doorway which is also pretty standardly sized, same with back door (that one fits the door jam).
I can post more specifics like pictures and dimensions if there's enough interest. Just didn't know if people bought these nowadays. They're in good condition, a little exterior rust (nothing structural) on some that needs to be wire brushed and all could probably uses a good coat of black weatherproof paint. I'll take best offer for all, preferably offers on sets.
November 3, 2008
Need tin installer
Hey,
Can anyone recommend a tin installer? Most contractors flat out refuse to try and the only real quote we've gotten was close to $5k for one room ($1500 materials)! We need one room completely installed and one repaired.
October 17, 2008
Wrapping up a sale -- recommendations
We just closed on a place in Park Slope and I'd like to list a few recommendations from my experiences:
RE Agents/Brokers: Robert Kreiger (Corcoran) and Lori Snerson (Warren Lewis)
Although in the end our house was a Warren Lewis place and they don't co-broke with Corcoran (meaning we didn't have Robert represent us), we had good experiences with both of these brokers. Lori was the seller's broker -- she went out of her way and spent way more time than was necessary letting us into the house with contractors between offering and closing and was overall a great person to work with. This was especially important because we decided to go it alone once we figured out Robert wouldn't work as a buyer's agent, which left me on the defensive that we'd get out-maneuvered by some sneaky broker tricks. Lori was good about keeping both sides happy and the deal fair.
Mortgage Brokers: Alan Trachtman/Trachtman and Bach Mortgage
Alan was great -- he twice saved us a huge amount of time by transcending the communication nightmare with the banks and getting things done. The first time was a title violation that the bank was considering holding the mortgage up until the seller redid the facade. He convinced them to let us do the work instead (we wanted control over the look, etc.). The other time was a phone call in to the higher up at the bank after they had spent more than two weeks dotting their i's and were requesting unnecessary (and difficult to get) documentation when we were clearly qualified. Alan is one of the reasons why I think a mortgage broker is completely necessary -- they can put pressure on the bank at key points to make the entire process much smoother and avoid weeks in delays (and you don't pay them anyway).
RE Attorney: Bob Dubno
Bob seems to know everyone in the Park Slope area and was a very tempting choice given a few recommendations. However, his fee of around $3.5k for a large house closing is definitely not worth the price. Initially I chose him because I wanted someone that is on the ball and was willing to pay an extra thousand or so to have a responsive, efficient attorney. This was a huge mistake and waste of money. From what I've read since then on the forums, real estate attorneys are notoriously slow and poor on the customer service end of things, so I won't fault him for necessarily being below average -- my point is that he does not justify his higher fees. Couple of examples so people don't think I'm randomly picking on him: he waited close to a week to get in touch with the bank re: a title violation, which caused us to delay closing for over a week because it moved the final stages smack into the middle of the Jewish holidays; the day of closing (one hour before closing to be exact), he finally gave us the certified check amounts, which exceeded our $50k buffer because of an escrow the bank threw on at the end for the facade renovation -- the only reason we had enough money to cover these costs is because both my wife and my paychecks had direct deposited the day before... we had less than a thousand left in the bank afterwards and an additional bank transfer from our brokerage account would've taken at least a day. Scary!
Finally, contractors!
We will give a score card on these guys after they're done, but so far we've chosen these people to do our contracting work based on recommendations and estimates.
Painting: Daniel Genova (rec from Lori(above), he's an artist as well, so he has given us invaluable advice on colors in addition to a great rate for painting)
Facade work: Z. Abedin (rec from Brownstoner, he's an honest guy that has good prior work and doesn't charge too much)
Flooring: Verrazano (rec from all over, they give per sqft estimates, so it feels less like you could be getting a good deal if you had just negotiated more)
Drywall: Angelo Cingari (angie's list, seems hard working, honest about what he can't do, doesn't charge too much)
Will add more as they come. Thought this would be handy for other people getting starting/being their own general contractor as the whole process was a mess for us. Let me know if you disagree!
October 1, 2008
Real estate lawyer (cont)
Okay. Taking a step back a second from my more frantic post on Monday. I was really just upset at the atty for losing us the closing on Friday and all the extra work it will now take for our (still unknown) closing date next week (hopefully).
Today my wife called the bank attorney to follow up on the doc that my atty had forwarded and realized that he had not even seen it. We almost lost yet another 1-2 days because my attorney was "at a closing" and too busy to follow through on the one simple task we have needed for a week.
We are anxious to get our contractors in, but didn't do the "silly" thing that cmu mentioned and actually schedule anyone. Our only real losses will be weekend time that we could be preparing the house for contractors and possibly $2000 if we lose a month getting the attached rental unit filled.
That being said -- why do we put up with these people and what is the recourse against these terrible attorneys? I have email evidence of two events where he did not act in our interests to get this done and forced the closing date back further than necessary. We have caught him lying twice when we have had the chance to verify his claims (mostly just stalling -- blaming delays on other people when they're completely free/waiting) and question many of his "out at a closing" or "they had two closings today" as reasons to delay close to a week further still. I realize RE attys have to be at closings, but come on -- he has a blackberry, something that we actually paid up for because of the illusion he can multi-task and stay in touch.
Somewhere in this, I realize that these people are in a service driven industry. I have asked multiple times what exactly I am paying him for, but am bound to the fixed fee that we agreed on. Is my only recourse to post a bad review on the internet and maybe complain to a few agencies?
September 30, 2008
Help -- real estate lawyer problems
I have a little bit of a problem with my real estate attorney. It started with a verbal disagreement we had -- I won't go into too many details, but it was the result of him not making the appropriate phone calls in time, causing us to delay our closing because he realized we needed a document from us at 2:30 the day before the Jewish holiday when both my wife and I were working (we had until 4 to get him said document). Now I am beginning to question his ability when there are exactly 4 business days (that aren't Jewish holidays -- and all three lawyers involved are Jewish) until our last possible closing date and this title restriction is still not cleared up with the bank. If this somehow doesn't go through, we risk losing an over $150,000 deposit we paid. What is my recourse? Can I get another lawyer to step in and take over? Would this just take longer and be less likely to help?
The biggest problem is that I work in the finance industry and don't exactly have a lot of free time to deal with this right now because of work. I'd like to just trust my lawyer to get this done, but he has given me absolutely no reason to do this at this point.
September 10, 2008
Brownstone facade (yet another post)
I've been scrolling through the posts on redoing a brownstone facade and realized a few things:
-There's a lot of mudslinging, possibly fake posts, and advertisements strewn about, leaving me with no idea who is serious or not
-This is very important to get right, since it is prone to cracking/other damage if the workman is not good at their job
-It's very expensive
We need to get our facade redone (3 story, 20' wide) with brownstone stucco. However, given the three things above, I find it really hard to make a decision on whether to go with the guy who charges twice as much and looks great or the guy who charges half and seems competent enough. Even if they do provide references, those could just be the people that they "got right" and are not providing the names of their screwups. Has anyone gotten through this process alive? How much did they pay? Are they satisfied? If all of those things, who did you use?
Author's Comments
Z. Abedin does pretty good with this.
Posted by: justinm at May 14, 2009 3:56 PM in response to Repaving Cement Sidewalk
Grinding the stump was going to cost another $600 (that's another service, the a-1 guy said his stump grinder was too big to get to our backyard). Much cheaper to just hire two laborers and do it the hard way...
Posted by: justinm at April 27, 2009 3:55 PM in response to Weed Tree Removal
a-1 tree service in brooklyn is going to take out a fairly tall nuisance tree that grew up to 30-40' but not many wide branches for about $350. That's half the cost of the two estimates for an "arborist" to come take it out for us. Not sure how good they are at pruning (I think actually pretty good at that too), but definitely for removal purposes all you need is to make sure they're insured.
Posted by: justinm at April 27, 2009 2:08 PM in response to Weed Tree Removal
Z abedin. Search this site for him.
Posted by: justinm at April 27, 2009 1:19 PM in response to stoop restoration
I second Abedin. It'll cost you anywhere from a few thousand to 20-25k depending on the extent of the damage.
Posted by: justinm at April 8, 2009 2:27 PM in response to Facade recommendation
You can't get salvaged vault lights, afaik. That's the tough part.
Posted by: justinm at April 2, 2009 9:50 AM in response to Fire escape or Metal Needed
Gennaro, we're trying to do the same thing, except using "vault lights," the things you see on the sidewalks in soho (http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/technotes/ptn47/cover.jpg), embedded in a steel sheet. I think it's a great (no pun intended) idea to put this up as a deck as it allows light to get through. Also, it's pretty cheap if you're using salvage.
Posted by: justinm at April 1, 2009 4:33 PM in response to Fire escape or Metal Needed
2.25?
Posted by: justinm at March 27, 2009 5:01 PM in response to price my house?
I'm having z. abedin do mine and would recommend him. Stop by 20 sterling if you want to take a look (we're in scratch coat mode right now). Costs from 30-40k but mine is a three story 20' wide. Depends on how much detail work you want (around the windows, designs, etc.)
Posted by: justinm at February 27, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Facade Work
I took a house that wasn't in the best shape and made it fairly nice (new floors, fixed up walls, replaced a few ceilings (with tin in some places), new facade, painted everywhere for about $40 sq/ft. If you want a new kitchen, add 25-50k, same for the bathroom. About 40% of that went toward redoing the facade and another 20% for new floors as just fixed costs, maybe 10% for a new boiler, so you can discount appropriately.
Best thing to do I think is to leave everything where it is and fix it up. Replacing stuff willy-nilly gets expensive fast and is really not necessary. Hire a handyman or two to basically live there (i.e. come for a month or two or three) and patch up the walls, skim coat if you need, do a bit of carpentry, replace things here and there, and you can get away with a "pseudo-gut" reno for substantially less. Adding new floors, nice lighting, and having a good painter fix up the walls as he paints is another plus.
You can save a lot of money by a) don't replace perfectly fine stuff (like tearing down walls and putting up drywall if you don't need to); b) don't hire a contractor! they eat up an additional 10-20% just to manage your project (and they can induce the dreaded "scope-crawl", which starts to cost you) and you can't vet the hourly price of every sub they have c) stretch it out, have just one or two guys come in at a time. this makes it easier to be your own GC and saves you money since you can direct people more efficiently
Posted by: justinm at February 23, 2009 5:20 PM in response to Pricing for Townhouse Renovation?
We have two more that we need (28.25" each) One on the right side with slats and one on the left without. The slatted one just has one panel with slats.
Posted by: justinm at February 17, 2009 9:23 PM in response to Pocket Shutters
We're just missing a few, so we'll take them in whatever condition we can get. The large one is 54" and fits on the left side. The top right panel (toward the center middle of the window) is slatted, the rest aren't. We'd like it to match.
Posted by: justinm at February 16, 2009 9:57 PM in response to Pocket Shutters
Think it depends on how high you want it. Probably gets cheaper per floor. I think you're right on though with the 600-700k low end though since that's what my house is insured for total coverage, if I remember correctly.
Things to consider: facade costs about 10-15k or so per floor; I'd say it's a bit less for the foundation and framing but maybe pretty close when you include the facade; the rest is essentially a complete gut reno with kitchens/bathrooms. I bet some people will have a very good estimate of what that costs.
I think your high end is way too high, unless you're counting things like plaster moldings/ceilings throughout and old style doors/hinges/hardware, mahogany door framing/banisters, etc.
Posted by: justinm at February 9, 2009 3:10 PM in response to Cost to Build a New Brownstone
Best way abatement
Posted by: justinm at February 5, 2009 9:57 AM in response to Emergency Asbestos Removal
This is why one of the most important parts of a negotiation is to make the other person feel like they worked for their price. I get the sense you feel that their acceptance of your offer means they are willing to go further down, especially because of the quick counter to your first offer and direct acceptance of the second. Think of how much better you'd think of things if they made you work for that 6%...
I have definitely felt this way, but it's mostly just a facet of bad negotiating on the other side. Best to leave it, since you will probably drive them away if you back off an offer you already put on the table.
That being said, if you're not dying to get this place, why not just throw down a lower offer? On the other side, why would you buy a place that you're not in love with?
Posted by: justinm at January 23, 2009 4:53 PM in response to Offer accepted after withdrawl.
Denton,
They did all that and I do believe it. It was maybe 10' of insulation around a pipe, they tented the place, hooked up the vacuum, bagged it up and left (they wore disposable suits). Took about a half hour at most and they would've still make a profit to dispose of it properly (there were two guys). Whether they disposed of it properly or not is something that you will never know, regardless of the company.
Posted by: justinm at January 15, 2009 10:45 AM in response to asbestos removal recommendation?
Best way abatement. Will cost not much more than $100 and they dispose properly, protect their workers and the site. Best company we've come across for doing this sort of thing. Disposal rates for this stuff have dropped a lot and so did the license costs, so I think the other companies are just holding on to previous rates thinking ppl will pay them.
Posted by: justinm at January 14, 2009 6:01 PM in response to asbestos removal recommendation?
Or they could list it for a reasonable price in the first place. Would this house (the PS one) have sold for this much during the peak even? It's more than 1k per square foot, if my calculations are right.
Just because people list houses for insane amounts and then have to reduce the price doesn't mean the housing market is bad.. Look at the 6 month ago thread, everyone's already ranting about how all of these places are overpriced.
Posted by: justinm at January 2, 2009 3:38 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Federal conservation uses non-treated fiberglass, which doesn't give off the same chemicals (I think it's usually treated with formaldehyde). I had them fill up my crawl space and it cost about $2000. My top floor is doing great this winter now. Now on to the bottom floor...
Posted by: justinm at January 2, 2009 3:04 PM in response to cellulose or loose fiberglass insulation for the atic?
If you want to come check out our facade, my neighbor and I are using Z. Abedin construction. I'm still in the scratch coat stage, but we added many details just like you were saying (the house face used to be mostly flat and we added window shelves and detail around the windows) that you can see. I really like this guy... he did our sidewalk and some interior cement work too as well as recommended some cheap contrators for other jobs.
His prices were pretty reasonable (near the middle of the range for brownstone repair) but the quality of his prior work was very good.
Send me an email if you're interested moore dot justin at gmail dot com.
Posted by: justinm at January 1, 2009 10:01 PM in response to Time To Brownstone
I heard if you catch the trash men, just ask them to take the debris for you with the rest of your trash. Leave a 20 on the driver's seat... Never tried it because I haven't seen the trash men and have a pretty cheap guy that takes my construction trash.
How many bags do you have?
Posted by: justinm at December 29, 2008 4:22 PM in response to Construction Debris Removal Question
At the very least, we took out the downpayment (more than half the price) less than a week before the market crashed. It was all invested in the market...so there's 20-30% right there. Not really losing sleep over the market price of the house anyway...we're going to be living here for at least a decade and are sure that in the long term it's as good of an investment as any (it has been for the last 100 years at least).
Good to have the discussion though -- some very heated debates on the future of the brownstone market. Probably what's the most telling of the future market will be how the new constructions do. Don't think the recession has hit the slope housing market yet, but will be interested what happens when the wall street bonuses come out this year 50% lighter.
Posted by: justinm at December 20, 2008 5:10 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Thanks for all the good wishes. We did avoid doing renovation on the kitchen/bathroom, which is still planned, but I guess it did seem like we gutted it based on the facade work and all of the drywall trash because we moved a wall, raised a ceiling, and exposed one of the walls to brick.
Totally agreed though that it's better in the end to buy a fixer upper (not a trash heap) because you can use the price difference to fix it up the way _you_ want it, not the way that will sell it the best or the way the prior owners liked it.
I think this price is decent, and I think that contrary to the post's comments "Increasingly Ugly" it actually shows that the PS brownstone market is holding up quite well given the circumstances. The foreclosures are mostly localized to the new construction, I think. Places that have been around for a hundred years are commodities and have lots of intrinsic value that is just recently being realized, I believe.
Posted by: justinm at December 19, 2008 4:24 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later
I'm the one that bought 20 sterling. We're not gut renoing it per se, although we did put quite a bit of work into it. Main things really were painting (look at the colors it used to have!); the floors, which we put new ones over; and the facade, which needed a new scratch coat/brownstone coat.
It was totally livable as it was before, we moved right in. We just wanted to make a few capital improvements to bring it back to its prior glory.
I think they priced it assuming it was in top notch shape (maybe a little high) and we've gotten away with putting just a fraction of the difference into it in terms of renovations. I think the point is that if you don't want everything _perfect_ and forgo a complete gutting, you save tremendous amounts of money and the house still retains its character.
Posted by: justinm at December 19, 2008 3:22 PM in response to Open House Picks: Six Months Later
email me at moore.justin at gmail dt com
Posted by: justinm at December 10, 2008 8:18 PM in response to I need old bricks
How many do you need? I have a bunch in my back yard that I'm going to build a planter with from a demoed old shed, but probably don't need them all...
Posted by: justinm at December 10, 2008 5:24 PM in response to I need old bricks
I thought I emailed all the first respondents... Anyway, please email me at
moore justin gmail com
for more info/pictures. Best is to just stop by though, we have them chained to our front gate so you can look. The 77" back door and smaller window ones aren't that intricate, but the other ones have spirally patterns where there is pattern work. All in good shape (hope that answers the question without posting pictures, which is kind of a pain).
Posted by: justinm at December 8, 2008 10:38 AM in response to Iron window and doors (cont)
We have a guy that paints for $300 a day including standard materials and did a great job. It's nice because we can focus him on certain areas and just tell him to do the hard stuff without having to figure out square footages. Then we do the easy stuff like big walls, which would cost a fortune if we were being charged by the sqft.
Posted by: justinm at December 3, 2008 6:35 PM in response to Trying to Create Apt. Painting Budget
I've seen lights where they have a chain and it loops over to a hook. Thus, you could leave it plugged in as is, put a hook where you want it to dangle from and then hook up the chain to the hook so it drops from there. Of course this involves replacing the post/whatever it hangs from with a chain, but I think that would look fine.
Posted by: justinm at December 3, 2008 12:54 PM in response to moving a pendant light
Standard "refi incentive" is when the rate is about .5% below your current rate. Good rule of thumb to use so the breakeven is about five years in the future (depends a lot on your principle amount), given your refi costs. After five years, you start saving money.
I feel that one of the arguments in the article continues the misleading assumption that fed funds is correlated with the mortgage rate: "While mortgage rates haven't kept pace with the plummeting Fed Funds Rate". Of course they haven't (usually they move inversely)... you should be looking at the 10 year treasury note instead! This was posted on Bloomberg?
Posted by: justinm at December 3, 2008 12:50 PM in response to Refi Wave on the Way?
I am a firm believer of recommendations for everyone that works for you (bad or good!). You may not find a GC by process of elimination, but you can at least eliminate potential GCs when you google them and see this particular specific bad thing. It is within the GC's right to respond too!
Posted by: justinm at December 2, 2008 1:27 PM in response to HUGE Problem!! help!
Tractman and Bach are really good. I would recommend them. That being said, they'll probably use Astoria Federal Savings, which posts its rates here:
http://www.astoriafederal.com/cgi-bin/nymort.pl
Posted by: justinm at November 26, 2008 1:46 PM in response to where to get the best mortgage rate?
Cutting rates would cause short term borrowing to increase which usually leads to inflation. Thus, they're trying to ward off deflation by cutting rates. Doesn't seem to be helping though...
Posted by: justinm at November 20, 2008 1:32 PM in response to Mortgage Rates
Get a loan that has a "float down", which means that you can re-lock if rates go lower in the short term. My loan had two float downs allowed from initial to closing (I used one), both cost a tick and the second one cost an additional $350 I believe. Thus if rates go through the floor in the middle of your mortgage process you can relock to the new low rate (plus a tick).
Right now is a good time to do your initial lock, IMO. Flight to treasuries (fear) is driving the 10 year yield down, which is in turn driving the mortgage rate down. The float down can be used if things get even worse, which may or may not happen. Something to watch out for is that the fed may lower the benchmark rate, which may actually increase the mortgage rate although standard trends haven't always been holding in the current conditions.
Main point is that a quarter point or so on your mortgage rate will not make a huge difference in the long run. I wouldn't put your life on hold to wait for the perfect rate.
Posted by: justinm at November 20, 2008 11:15 AM in response to Mortgage Rates
Do you need door or window grates? I happen to have just taken some off...
Posted by: justinm at November 19, 2008 2:45 PM in response to Iron Works
Master Plumber... am I right to assume that the smallest grunfos will probably work with my house? Is there a significant possibility that it won't?
CMU -- Master plumber is right the grundfos can either run on an aquastat or a timer or both, effectively only doing it during waking hours and only enough to heat the line.
I've heard there are other activation options, such as a motion sensor, but I don't want to get that high-tech...
Posted by: justinm at November 18, 2008 9:40 PM in response to Hot water for sinks/shower
Ok. I get it. So the only think causing "head" is the difference in pressure in the cold/hot systems plus any resistance on the lines in the way of bends and t's.
I think this answers my question... Since it's only a 2.5 bathroom I'll do the smallest model and return it if it doesn't work.
Has nobody else done this before? It gives instant hot water and it just a retrofit of existing systems...
Posted by: justinm at November 18, 2008 6:31 PM in response to Hot water for sinks/shower
Back to the topic at hand (not alternatives, as ridiculous as they may or may not be)... Master plvmber, what does this mean for a system that has a valve at the topmost bathroom that allows water from the hot water line to go one-way into the cold water line, effectively using that as the return line? (this is for systems with a pump on the hot water line on top of the water heater). (the question was about head pressure, which in this case I believe is equal to the height of the house -- I'm probably wrong though).
Posted by: justinm at November 18, 2008 4:40 PM in response to Hot water for sinks/shower
Yeah... I really see it as a tradeoff between wasting water and wasting heat in the pipes/pump. The pipes can be insulated and the pump uses hardly any electricity.
But it also is a question of convenience. On the top floor the faucet takes much longer because lower throughput. It's just the shower that takes 30 seconds. What's so wrong with wanting hot water shortly after I turn the hot water faucet on?
Posted by: justinm at November 18, 2008 3:36 PM in response to Hot water for sinks/shower
So assuming the on-demand thing doesn't work (no space for the unit) and I don't want to take cold showers in the middle of the winter...
Point is that newer houses have the option of putting in a hot water return line so that convection can just keep the hot water flowing in the pipes. I'd have to tear up some walls to install new piping...
Posted by: justinm at November 18, 2008 2:49 PM in response to Hot water for sinks/shower
I'm getting the facade redone on mine and no permit necessary. Maybe it's the height thing... my place is three stories, so the scaffold isn't that big.
Posted by: justinm at October 31, 2008 3:54 PM in response to Do I need a DOB permit for this?
By the way -- as far as those low 3.9% loans. They're not teaser rates, they're just HELOCs. They have no fixed period, so they're much more risky in terms of interest rate exposure (watch for the prime rate to go up substantially after the recession is over) than say a 5/1 hybrid ARM. Plus, you need home equity to back them. If you have a short horizon, it's a good way to get some money for cheap.
Might not be a bad time to take a small HELOC out to pay down other debt or your mortgage though since you can sort of average down your interest rate with it if you have a bit of risk appetite.
Posted by: justinm at October 29, 2008 4:24 PM in response to What Mortgage rates are you seeing?
The what -- look at my post above with Astoria's rates. Those are the rates you can get today with them (a major bank).
Posted by: justinm at October 29, 2008 4:05 PM in response to What Mortgage rates are you seeing?
Right.. steepening. Too deep in futures land right now I guess (no pun intended) ...
Point is that rate cuts to the discount are usually backwards from mortgage rates.
Posted by: justinm at October 29, 2008 4:03 PM in response to What Mortgage rates are you seeing?
Generally Fed rate cuts have the opposite effect to mortgage rates because of backwardization of the yield curve (less flight to treasuries) driving the ten year yield up a bit. Thus, best time to lock short term was yesterday or two days ago...
Astoria Federal posts all different product types and their going rates online and they have pretty decent rates...
http://www.astoriafederal.com/cgi-bin/nymort.pl
Posted by: justinm at October 29, 2008 3:19 PM in response to What Mortgage rates are you seeing?
We are putting about 100k into it. A lot of people were talking about the $200/sqft or so for gut reno, but it really didn't _need_ any work except to redo the facade, although that was by far the most expensive part (40k). We're painting (white instead of those huge bold blue/red colors), putting in new flooring above the pine subfloor, new HVAC to save money over the long haul on heating/water, and various other small things (hopefully most things I can do myself). Will probably redo the kitchen/bathroom in the future when the dust has settled.
Posted by: justinm at October 21, 2008 12:54 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales
Yes. Started at 1.8, cut to 1.65 and we finally closed on it for 1.54.
Posted by: justinm at October 21, 2008 12:06 PM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales
Another: 20 sterling place in the slope (same price as #4). We closed on last Thursday. Noticed that this house was part of one of those back-to-back open house of the week back in june.
Posted by: justinm at October 21, 2008 11:52 AM in response to Last Week's Biggest Sales
We're putting in pre-finished...
Posted by: justinm at October 20, 2008 10:17 AM in response to Wrapping up a sale -- recommendations
Responses to Author's Forum Comments
Grinding the stump was going to cost another $600 (that's another service, the a-1 guy said his stump grinder was too big to get to our backyard). Much cheaper to just hire two laborers and do it the hard way...
Posted by: justinm at April 27, 2009 3:55 PM in response to Weed Tree Removal
My neighbor is having their stoop restored by Innovation Contractors, just like you planning to do. I am currently having a contract with them also.. they are restoring two stoops at the same block. and there unique and reliable to work with. when i come home from work . i have always seen them clean after the work. and their work is more then perfect. i suggest you give them a call. 718-666-7679.
Posted by: angelina at April 27, 2009 8:04 PM in response to stoop restoration
I HIGHLY recommend z. abedin. you can reach him at 917-903-0196. Tell him Chris from Decatur Street referred you.
Good luck!
Posted by: cmontgom at April 28, 2009 1:02 PM in response to stoop restoration
I'm an Architect in NYC and have used Triboro Waterproofing over the years both professionally and on my brownstone renovation.Their primary market is in Manhattan renovating brownstones facades/stoops/cornices etc) in the upper West side .
THey did an excellent job on re-pointing my brick (I'm attached on one side only), rebuilding my chimneys (collapsing) and building garden walls in backyard as well as a patio.THey are slated to do my brownstone stoop as well this summer.
THey performed work as per all written specifications and I specd all historic mortar and products- Cathedral Stone is what I used.
Mahmood is excellent business man, courteous, punctual and professional.Good guys.
Posted by: argentina at April 28, 2009 1:49 PM in response to stoop restoration
call Kamal..917-531-7755 and Thanks me after the work.
Posted by: geroge1961 at April 28, 2009 1:58 PM in response to stoop restoration
try to do by you self, im especialist in ornamental, crew moulding, plaster finishing, i did a proyect in portland cement, was a good,
Posted by: yurigmushainti71 at May 18, 2009 9:09 PM in response to Facade recommendation
contact mr luis 347867 4695
Posted by: yurigmushainti71 at May 21, 2009 10:19 PM in response to Repaving Cement Sidewalk
contact mr luis 3478674695
Posted by: yurigmushainti71 at May 21, 2009 10:20 PM in response to Repaving Cement Sidewalk
contact mr luis 3478674695
Posted by: yurigmushainti71 at May 21, 2009 10:20 PM in response to Repaving Cement Sidewalk
Anyone have access to the different average life computations for 15 versus 30 year mortages? I bet they're not that different.
I.e. people pay of 30 year mortgages in around 20 years on average anyway, so I don't think the 15 years are that much different. Having the interest tax deductible is pretty nice too. If I can lock in a 5% or lower rate, I'm not pre-paying a single dime of my mortgage, just saving the money instead.
Posted by: justinm at May 26, 2009 1:05 PM in response to 15-Year Mortgages Grow in Popularity