Found a House! Now What?
My husband and I very recently decided to start looking for a townhouse. As first-time buyers, we figured we’d ease into it slowly and casually, but I fell in love with the third house we looked at. I am now paranoid that someone will buy it before we figure out our next step! What should…
My husband and I very recently decided to start looking for a townhouse. As first-time buyers, we figured we’d ease into it slowly and casually, but I fell in love with the third house we looked at. I am now paranoid that someone will buy it before we figure out our next step!
What should our next step be? We’ve been casting out feelers for a buyer’s agent– is that the right direction? Would that person help us with what to do next? And how long does it usually take to find the right one? (I’ve read we should interview at least three…) Or do we bring in someone to look at the actual house first? The house needs a gut renovation, and we need to get a ballpark idea of how much that could be, to see if we can actually afford the place, but we don’t know whom to ask. A home inspector? A contractor? And how the heck do we find one? (I know I’d like to be getting recommendations and seeing past work and interviewing and stuff, but I’m panicking a little because I. love. that. house. and I don’t want anyone else getting it!) (They just lowered the price!) I’ve bought a few “first-time home buyer” (and renovation/old house) books, but I’m getting overwhelmed. The house needs a lot of work, of which we can do a lot, but obviously we can’t update the electricity or plumbing ourselves, or know the extent of the water damage & mold in one of the rooms.
We would welcome any recommendations & advice. So far, we only have one recommendation for a buyer’s agent, but it’s from a friend who bought a coop in Soho. (We’ve got two recs for home inspectors.) BTW, the house is on the very, very, VERY upper west side of Manhattan, if it makes a difference for recs. (But even though it’s in Manhattan, I hope you’ll still help us!)
Thank you in advance!
PS- Sorry if this question has been asked before; as I mentioned, I’m a little overwhelmed.
Though it looks like a number of people have beaten me to the punch here, we’d be happy to talk to you and maybe do a walk thru. We’ve renovated a number of townhouses in Harlem for ourselves and have done major upgrades/renovations to larger multifamily buildings in Washington Heights. I also run and manage a chat group focused on Harlem home owners which boasts over 1000 subscribers.
Give me a call and let’s chat.
Michael Vinocur
Building Equity LLC
631-680-9368
mvinocur@buildingequitynyc.com
i think you should see the house at first ,then decide to buy or not !
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There is some great advise above. Contrary to what donald said, a good RE attorney will more than represent your interests.
By very, very upper west side – do you mean Harlem or WH? There are some beautiful buildings there! Do some research on the building class, use and taxes. If you are going to make major changes, it could be a factor in the overall costs and future costs of carrying the building.
NYC.gov or propertyshark.com is a great place to start. Propshark is not always accurate with its info.
Hello NGD – if you are not content using any of the firms/service providers noted above give me a call.
I am a former architect that now focuses on rehabilitating multi-family brownstone properties. Over the past 3 years I have converted a 3-family to a single-family, a 6-unit rental bldg to a 4-unit condo and a 9-unit co-op to a 4-unit rental building – http://www.24remsen-bre.com.
I have also worked as an appraiser in Manhattan – appraising over $250MM of co-ops, condos and single-family townhouses.
Furthermore, I am a licensed real estate broker. And contrary to some of the comments above there is significant value in having someone represent your interests in a transaction of this magnitude. There is no additional cost to you to bring a buyer broker on board. Without one, no one is your advocate in the deal.
So give me a call at 917-568-6525 if you think I might be of assistance.
Donald Brennan
http://www.myhomebrooklyn.com
Try our Renovation Coaching Service. You can read more about it here.
http://www.allrenovationllc.com/services.html
We are current working on two gut renovation projects, one is a townhouse is in Manhattan and the other is a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. If you would like to visit the sites and ask me questions I would be more than happy to help.
If you have any other questions please feel free to call me at the number below.
Pietro Calabretta
All Renovation Construction LLC
718-351-4099
http://www.allrenovationllc.com
jerry Fenney is a great lawyer
212 842 0237
Alex G from state st
I am doing a 4 family full gut reno, I have a really good team working with me. I had hit a lot of problems but with the right team, they are making it all possible.
Home loans: first meridian:(Steve Heartstein)718 732 0312
General contractor : Chuck Mareno 631 789 1300
Inspector :Joe Pasaturo from AVT enterprise 718 720 5088
tell them Alex from state st sent you
Here’s how it seems to work in NYC (which seems to be different from anyplace else) …
1) You decide what you can afford for the place. Make a rough estimate of all the work it is going to need, double that number and make an offer.
2) If they accept your offer, you retain a lawyer and have the contract sent to them. You also bring a home inspector through (or, in your case, probably a contractor and a home inspector).
3) If the home inspector doesn’t uncover anything you weren’t inspecting and the contractor can give you a bid you can work with, then you sign the contract that your lawyer has been sitting on and you go about finalizing your mortgage and whatnot.
If the inspections reveal even more work, you can go back to the negotiating table if you need to, but don’t assume anything. And don’t put any money in escrow thinking you’ll negotiate afterwards. Not how it works.
Also, you can look at my backstory to understand my cynicism, but you should try to get zen about the idea that you might not buy this house. Or the next perfect place you fall head over heels for.
Are you planning a gut reno because it *needs* it, or because you *want* to? I mean, do you just hate the entire style, and want to gut everything out? Or is it falling apart so much so that it needs to be gutted.
Depending on the answer, you might want a structural engineer instead of a home inspector.