If you don't know your responsibilities as a landlord, you don't know squat about purchasing a 4-family (which, btw, your post already established). Hope your mother has some milk left for you. You'll be crying in it and crying for it.

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 12, 2009 7:54 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

Thanks for the penny poker, Serp. Even though a derivation of jury-rig (from the nautical term jury mast), I opted for "jerry" to contrast with "gerrymander."
As to OP, what sage advice can be offered to those seeking off-the-cuff estimates while contemplating responsibility for the lives of four families at 5% down?

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 12, 2009 5:41 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/bong.htm
And your contribution, Snark, er, Bong - Is it just you or does this guy seem to babble on and on without making any sense whatsoever? Does he lurch from one non sequitur to another? Are you baffled by his obscure metaphors? Are there so many typos you think that maybe he was typing while wearing a catcher's mit? Can he really MEAN what he just said? What in the hell is hey talking about, anyway? Is this guy smoking something? Well, yes...in fact he is, and lightly tethered in orbit high above the Earth Bong remains far beyond the grasp of the even the most powerful of Warriors.

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 11, 2009 10:05 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

Gerrymander -- To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.
Jerryrig -- To assemble a mechanical or electrical device in a fundamentally unsafe manner, usually in such a way that the device is doomed to failure.

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 11, 2009 9:06 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

I think I've seen the house. It's on Stuyvesant just north of Halsey and has been listed for maybe 6 months now? It's certainly a good location although sometimes the music from the Porch can be loud. It has no retail space, correct?

To your point, you can still negotiate if you haven't signed. Make sure that the contract allows for inspection (additional inspections) and a lawyers approval contingencies.

Yes, it can be difficult getting plumbers & electricians to give estimates from an inspection like this and without drawings. That said, $200 here, $500 there is money well spent before you go into contract to know whether you're talking about $100k or $200k.

If the house were at least livable on a few of the floors you could do the renovations somewhat more piecemeal but that's no fun oftentimes.

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at February 12, 2009 8:51 AM in response to Brownstone update cost

Twenty years ago we bought a house with tons of detail and not much else. We didn't have much money for renovations and we did things as we could afford them. It also gave us time to figure out what we were doing and we got smarter about our decisions and had better results as we went along. We were young, energetic and it worked out. We didn't have kids till much later. I think that was key. I would never have the previous owner "fix" problems if they haven't proved themselves capable up to this point. Good luck with your calculations.

Posted by: Schultz at February 12, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Brownstone update cost

I'm an architect and I've worked on a number of brownstone renovations. Some of the contractors that I've worked with would be happy, especially now, to walk through the house with you and me, and provide a rough estimate of the work for no charge if they felt it would give them a better chance of getting to do the renovation work.

Jim Hill
Urban Pioneering Architecture

Posted by: JimHill at February 12, 2009 10:19 AM in response to Brownstone update cost

If you're doing the electrical and plumbing and the plumbing is inside the walls, doesn't that imply a gut renovation? Which is more expensive but also something where you do it all at once? I don't know.

Anyway, OP, are you also aware of the additional red tape with 203K loans? The administrators need to send their own contractors out to do estimates of repair costs after you are in contract, the loan will take longer than normal to close (I think it was at least 45 days), and I believe you have to use 203K loan approved contractors. That last bit scared me. Would the list be sufficiently long, would they be good, would they be too expensive? If you google 203K it sounds like a lot of people have used them for scams -- but of course not homeowners such as yourself.

Posted by: mopar at February 12, 2009 12:01 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

You do need to get an estimate from someone who is actually capable of doing the work. We can all sit here and say "oh, that's a $25K job" which is kind of useful to you, but until you find the plumber who can say "yeah, I could fix this for $25K" you don't have much.

PS. strunkandwhite, I'll meet your distinction between gerrymandering and jury-rigging and raise you a "jerry-rig" v. "jury-rig"
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jury-rig

Posted by: serpentor at February 12, 2009 3:23 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

Thanks for the penny poker, Serp. Even though a derivation of jury-rig (from the nautical term jury mast), I opted for "jerry" to contrast with "gerrymander."
As to OP, what sage advice can be offered to those seeking off-the-cuff estimates while contemplating responsibility for the lives of four families at 5% down?

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 12, 2009 5:41 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

I wasn't aware that renting a place conferred parental resposibilities.

Posted by: byndcivilization at February 12, 2009 7:25 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

Do I have to breastfeed also, because I don't think I can do that.

Posted by: byndcivilization at February 12, 2009 7:29 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

If you don't know your responsibilities as a landlord, you don't know squat about purchasing a 4-family (which, btw, your post already established). Hope your mother has some milk left for you. You'll be crying in it and crying for it.

Posted by: strunkandwhite at February 12, 2009 7:54 PM in response to Brownstone update cost

Touchy, touchy. Let me get this straight. Someone who trolls a real estate blog message board to harp on grammer offers a snarky comment about being resposible for the lives of tenents (not being a resposible landlord mind you). One might be a bit skeptical as to the usefulness of that persons comments, might one not. Point taken...words have meanings. Part of asking questions on this board is to get advice so one does not become a clichéd NYC landlord. Or do I sense some class resentment.

Posted by: byndcivilization at February 12, 2009 8:17 PM in response to Brownstone update cost