How long did it take you to find/buy your first apartment?
Happy New Year, fellow Brownstonians! I’ve often lurked on this forum and found great advice about the nuts and bolts of apartment shopping and owning. My husband and I have been seriously looking to buy our first place for over 1 1/2 years. Off the top of my head I can think of 30 plus…
Happy New Year, fellow Brownstonians! I’ve often lurked on this forum and found great advice about the nuts and bolts of apartment shopping and owning.
My husband and I have been seriously looking to buy our first place for over 1 1/2 years. Off the top of my head I can think of 30 plus apartments that we’ve seen in the past 6 months and I know that there are likely more than that–after a while they all blend together a bit.
In the past 3 months we’ve really kicked our search into high gear and we’ve come very close to closing on several properties. 2 were accepted offers that we walked away from because of big red flags with our due diligence and one that we underbid b/c we thought the apartment was priced high for various reasons, but even in this supposedly slowing market someone else came in over asking. As the New Year begins, I’m trying to remain optimistic that we’ll find a place, but I can’t help feeling somewhat defeated by the whole process. I know that you have to see a lot and really get out there before you find your place, but it’s hard when you put so much effort into something and it always seems out of reach. How long did you search before you found your apartment?
You aren’t being too picky as some suggest. You put 3 offers on 3 different places and the reasons you backed out make sense. Something will come along.
If there are any coop or condo buildings that you like, I would let the people there (manager, Board, super, doormen) that you are intersted and qualified — and what you want (size). Thee are always people who want to sell and if they/you can skip the broker… so much the better. Several people in my building did that. They wanted to live here — and let people know.
“Are there any buyer’s brokers in NYC? My sense has always been you have to go to multiple brokers to see each firm’s stock.”
No, there are no buyer’s brokers in NYC, at all. I can’t imagine anyone but a broker actually recommending someone use a buyer’s broker in NYC. Waste of time. They’ll definitely try to show you everything you don’t want to see.
Each time I looked for an apartment it took a few months to find what we were looking for. The key is to see so many places in your price range that, after a while, you can tell upon sight whether you want to move forward or not (subject to due dilligence, of course).
BTW, you can’t look for an apartment “on and off” as you described earlier and expect good results. The weekend you were “off” could be the weekend something nice and fairly priced comes on the market and goes to “best and final” before you even know its available.
Took me 18 months to buy my house a couple of years ago. Bunch of deals fell through and, even though I looked at about a hundred places, only a small percentage of them were priced rationally in locations that I liked.
One, there’s no such thing as too much due diligence given the dollars involved.
Two, your comments seem completely normal.
Three, look at how much you know about the market now! When you see the right place, you’ll know what it’s proper value is – and if someone outbids you, move on.
Good luck!
11:32, Are there any buyer’s brokers in NYC? My sense has always been you have to go to multiple brokers to see each firm’s stock.
I would suggest walking into a real estate agency and working with a broker. He/she can cut out a lot of wasted time looking at places that aren’t going to meet your needs by talking to the sellers’ brokers….
Obviously the search process is different for everyone and I appreciate all the feedback.
When I said “seriously looking” for 1 1/2 years, I meant it’s been 1 1/2 years since the first place that we bid on. It was one of the early apartments we saw–we actually had the high bid, but the buyers needed to make a quick sale and we lost to someone who could put 80% down in cash. Since then we’ve looked on and off, with most of our house hunting in the last 6 months.
Thanks for sharing your strategies zeebee and cortnyc. We’re pretty much in the place where we’ve defined what is necessary and what would be great but not a deal breaker for us.
8:18: I don’t really want to get into all of the specifics of why we backed out on the other apartments, as I know that brokers troll these sites, but there were significant concerns and our lawyer basically advised against either. We realize that home buying is always a risk, but we didn’t walk on these deals over something trivial or because we were being “picky.”
I always look at around 50 places before I buy and I’m now in the 6th place I’ve bought. Except for the first place (where I only looked at about 12 apartments), I’ve made an excellent profit at sale. I been happy with each of my purchases but sold to move to larger places or to try another location. I always try to find something with somewhat unique features: very open views, excellent period detail, worst house on the best block. Except for the first place (where I only saw about 12 places). This current place is my favorite – corner building, great detail, private roof deck, potential for upgrades and customizing that will really make the place sing. I looked at about 150 places before I found it.