Experiences with Elevator in Brownstone

Randolph, i like your last line. Where i come from, my family, were workers. Some were fishermen and farmers. Some have houses. Some do not. Some have not moved with the times and have little more than their houses. My own father worked two jobs my entire childhood to be sure we would do better but from where he came from, it took him those two jobs.

Brokelin, i did not mean 750k profit. This is often the mistake people make about some people who work on LI who have houses. The ‘net on that would be something else and guess what, once you sell that asset and have to move someplace else or if you rent in a city like ny, you really have – or will soon have – nothing. Especially if all you have is social security. If you are moving into a child’s house ok, but not all families want that. Some of these families work for and simply want to have one house to pass along and that can be taken away so easily (people do not lose houses in progressive europe where they have nationalized healthcare)

I read what jeremy said. I know a man who when hell’s kitche n was not the place to be bought two units in a less desireable building on a less desirable st. A long time ago. He himself was not wealthy and did not earn a whole lot of money. His only enjoyment is theater which is why he lived where he did. Time moves on and a developer begins buying buildings and makes an offer on this man’s building and the absent owners were determined to sell.. At this point he had been retired for some years and all he wanted was his home (he told the others “i leave feet first”). The problem was, he had very little income and even with the massive profit, it was very hard for him to find a place to go. The coop boards in other buildings did not want to talk to him. Also, what look like a lot of money became a lot less after uncle sam got his cut.

I am glad you started this randolph.

for people watching this from the a couple of strata above the working class (and who might not understand it because their own parents were not working class) or those from below it who do not have the means to buy a home, what i am saying above is why it is so easy to for someone to stir the workers and mislead them and even turn them on one another. It is because they are nervous. They know if something goes wrong (an injury), they can very easily lose that one asset that means so much to them and the next generation and guess what – they could end up with nothing. I listen to these people when i go to long island (they are my second cousins) and i can tell you this is exactly why they resent their tax dollars going to social programs that they would not qualify for (until it is too late). People do not lose homes in Europe (those people on long island don’t want to hear about this either because they have been brainwashed into believing europe is bad). In Ireland, you work your ass off all your life and your home is your and your children’s home ; they can l ien it for 5% of the value if a parent ends up in a nursing home and so long as the family remains in it, they cannot touch it. Here you work to get out of poverty (before my grandmother’s brother died in 2005 he told me “‘they’ called us ‘poor'” when we were growing up”) and you can end up back there in 5 minutes.

Homeinsp – yeah, I meant net too, not profit – I was thinking about what one would have left after the sale and after related expenses are paid, not the capital gains tax bill, which could be a hefty related expense.

While one would like to have more than $750K when facing retirement, especially in the NYC area where costs of housing and other things are high, my point stands – those with that much, even considering they need to buy a another home with it or pay rent somewhere, are still better off than most Americans are at that point. That doesn’t mean that the money may not last one’s lifetime, as it may not – there’s no way to know how long one will live, or how much medical and care costs might eat up. We don’t have a real safety net for many poor elderly in this country (as we don’t for any other groups that need one), and while social security was never meant to be enough to live on, though many, many people will have only that as income when older, lots with little or no savings, and many without owning their home.

Those concerned with leaving a house to t he next generations are probably already figuring they will have enough to live out their lives on – as one (who is thinking practically about money, though I realize that not everybody does) should be first thinking about having enough to live on for the remainder of their life, before they get to figuring what they will leave to the next generations when they go.

Ask your architect to look at installing a LULA instead of a traditional elevator. It wouldn’t Allow access to the full height of the building but the machinery takes up far less space and the maintenance and inspection requirements are more limited.