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?
serpentor, based on what you say, I don’t get a good feeling at all about the sellers. If you go through with the purchase, don’t be surprised if you find hidden problems you were unaware of and issues they’ve intentionally covered up.
I would walk. If this economic cycle is a deep and long as predicted, you may very well get caught just as the current owners. BedStuy is the kind of area that is hurt most in a turn-down. Just becasue prices have gone up so much there in the last 3-5 years, it does not mean that they will not fall up to 40%+ in the next few years and it may take 20 years for the prices to reach where they have been recently. Only way I woudl say yo go through with it is if it truly is a steal (which I doubt).
I would walk. If this economic cycle is a deep and long as predicted, you may very well get caught just as the current owners. BedStuy is the kind of area that is hurt most in a turn-down. Just becasue prices have gone up so much there in the last 3-5 years, it does not mean that they will not fall up to 40%+ in the next few years and it may take 20 years for the prices to reach where they have been recently. Only way I woudl say yo go through with it is if it truly is a steal (which I doubt).
Why have they been delaying the closing so long?
Wasder, it isn’t that they’re not negotiating in good faith (not about the roof anyway), but rather that things we were thinking would need fixing immediately upon closing have now had to survive a few very serious storms.
Sounds like these folks have not been negotiating in good faith with you (not fixing things uncovered in inspection etc). In which case I guess I revise my go forward advise. Again, the way I see it a lot depends on how long you plan to be there and how much you like the house.
PS, we just need 1250 for our one bedroom apts, but we’re in Bed Stuy.
There is no question about the escrow.
We had a 30 day contract and we’ve spent the last three and a half months sending them letters asking for a closing date. It is pretty cut and dry that we’re entitled to get out.
Meanwhile, I know for a fact that the roof hasn’t gotten any better since we last had it inspected, so if we have to pull some “whoah, this isn’t the roof we agreed to buy, you better fix all this new damage” we can.
I am surprised to hear that you can get the escrow back. Are you quite sure you see eye-to-eye with the sellers (and their lawyer) on that point?