Close? Or Walk Away?
Here’s what I’m mulling. I promise to think my decision through myself and not rely entirely on this forum. So don’t freak out. That said, I’m genuinely interested in Brownstoner opinions. We signed a contract to buy a brownstone back in June. The sellers have been jerking us around for the last four months, but…
Here’s what I’m mulling. I promise to think my decision through myself and not rely entirely on this forum. So don’t freak out. That said, I’m genuinely interested in Brownstoner opinions.
We signed a contract to buy a brownstone back in June. The sellers have been jerking us around for the last four months, but they’re getting ready to actually set a closing date. (There is a longer story, but the short one is that they discovered they can’t afford to close so we had to set up a short sale. Which takes time.)
Given the state of the economy right this second, we’re having serious second thoughts.
If we want our escrow back we can have it, so we don’t loose much by walking away. What we loose is the time it takes to start over.
Inspecting, negotiating, all that.
We’d be dependent on renters to make our mortgage work, which is a strike against going forward in this economy. Or a strike for it, since apparently everyone will have to rent now?
It is a nice place. We’re kind of happy with the price. Assuming we can find tenants we can make it work.
So seriously, would you close today or wait for the market to tank?
Wasder – $1500 is a low rental price for a garden apartment in Clinton Hill, unless it is very small, or run down, not too nice etc. You can easily get $1700 and up for a one bedroom.
wasder, for sure. I’ll check my email and reply hopefully tonight. Sounds like a bunch of the Brownstoner addicts are in. I think we should just confirm the time and place on Brownstoner as it gets closer so anyone who wants can show up. I don’t want to be exclusionary.
Thanks Biff. We will meet on the 16th though, right? I just emailed you too.
I haz and wasder, that would be fabulous if this worked out. I haz, I’ve never met wasder, but he seems like a very kind, good hearted soul based on his many posts I’ve seen. I bet he would make a great landlord.
I haz–I just emailed you.
Wasder — if you think your garden apartment can accommodate me, my husband, my kid and our cat, I might be interested in renting your garden apartment. If you’re serious, would you e-mail me at persephone2669 at yahoo dot com?
Thanks.
Fair enough, Mrs. Limestone. I agree that if one really loves the place and is looking to live their long term, one shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab it. In this case, I got the impression serpentor wasn’t so sure. That, combined with the sellers’ hijinks, makes me think he/she should walk away.
Biff – True. But Ive always felt the same about the real estate market and the current situation hasn’t changed that. It always seems like a fortune when you buy no matter what the price. I can only give advice on the limited information he provided. Anyone trying to buy at the bottom is just guessing anyway. If you pay what you think is fair today, chances are it will work out in the end if you stay around long enough.
Serpentor, I can’t believe you are still screwing around with these folks (Biff, click on serpentor’s link to get the history; your observation is right on, but old news). In fact, I think that may be the second time I wrote words to that effect in response to one of your posts. You must really love the house.
I see both sides here. Lots of reasons to assume prices will come down, so if you are not postponing a sale, you may do better in a few months. But I know lots of people who mistakenly thought the market would tank for a while right after 9-11 and got out. That didn’t go so well for them. I really think you decide this one based on your situation – what is it worth to you to close now and get this all over with rather than start all over? that’s a function of your time, tolerance, current living situation, finances etc. Those suggesting you bail probably have the right advise from an investmetn standpoint, but buying a home means many things, and investment is but one of them.
If you are truly free to walk and are not obligated to close, and you have found problems in the house, then maybe the right answer is to push for some concessions. They may not have the ability but you certainly have the leverage — they are not going to sell it for more to someone else. But my hunch is also that you may have found enough problems in both the house and with the sellers to suspect that there are more problems with the house you don’t yet know about.
Good luck.