buying a condo, advice needed

hi everyone, i wanted to pick the community’s brain on my condo purchase. Situation: offer has been accepted on a condo. Condo is a converted factory.Owner has lived there for 7 years.We have no broker but we do have a lawyer and a mortgage broker. Questions: how are we supposed to know what condition the condo is in except for us looking at it? am i supposed to hire an indepndent inspector? How do i know all the appliances work? am i supposed to test them?or go on goodwill? Can anyone recommend an inspector for this kind of job? can anyone run me through their experience of buying a resale condo? any help much appreciated!

vixg123

in Inspection 13 years and 6 months ago

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brokelin | 13 years and 6 months ago

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you are wecome. for others who are interested, I would add to the above that I would make sure that your attorney has a contract from the seller.s attorney by the day before the inspection at least…you want to be sure that the seller is acting in good faith to proceed with you before you undertake the expense of an inspection. If they hear you asking things like …am I suposed to take it that the appliances work on goodwill… they may change their mind. I know I would. and if you asked your attorney, they would tell you that some of the appliances will be tested by a good home inspector, like stove burners, but common sense will tell you the inspector is not going to stick around to run a load of dishes through the dishwasher, or turn on the building.s heat in the summer, or cool the place down in the winter with a full test of any ac system or units. Your attorney will tell you that the untestable stuff will be represented to be in working order by a representation in the contract.

brokelin | 13 years and 6 months ago

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look, your attorney is a real person, and knows the most about your sale to advise you. Yet you say in your response above, you are asking the same question over again here. so you admit you do not take advice. I will walk you through it, though I do not believe you will listen, but other first time buyers may learn something from it. what you are doing is dithering. You have an accepted offer. you should know by now whether you want an inspection, and be scheduling it immediately if you want one. many buy coops and condos without an inspection. I think they are stupid to do so, but it is common. Only you can decide which sort of person you are. Instead of asking the questions you have posed above, you should have searched the archives for all the inspectors recommended, or asked others you know for recommendations, and called one or more already. you clearly want an inspection from your questions. the reason you need to act and stop dithering is because your accepted offer means nothing. you have two to three weeks to show you are acting in good faith to get this into a binding contract. it will take a few days to schedule the appointment, arrange for access to the building for your inspector and you…yes, you should go along with the inspector to ask questions…. and a few days thereafter to get a written report, and a day or so for you to digest what is in the written report, possibly call the inspector back with any questions, and discuss with your attorney any changes to the deal or contract, if any, you want to ask for as a result of an inspection. that all takes about two weeks. the clock is ticking. You will lose the apartment if you do not move quickly. If I were the seller or seller.s broker, and saw your post above, I would be moving on to another offer already. at this point, you should be telling the seller.s broker you are forgoing an inspection, or telling them you will hopefully get back to them tomorrow about what day you have arranged the inspector for. ditto on getting all the info on the condo and reviewing it and making sure your attorney reviews it. coops and condos are more similar than they are different. they are corporations with finances you and your attorney must review. do not be flippantly ignoring the advice you got above to do this. many do, but they probably are the stupid ones who do not get inspections either. it is your responsibility to make sure you and your attorney get all documents and review them and get any questions about them asked, and hopefully answered, quickly. that is how it works. you have to also make sure your attorney gets a contract from the seller.s attorney immediately, and gets any comments on the contract back to the sellers attorney in good time, soon after your inspection and your attorney.s due diligence of the building documents has been completed. your offer means nothing legally until you and the seller have both signed the contract, and the seller has deposited your deposit check and sent a signed copy of the contract back to your attorney. I have seen potential buyers with accepted offers passed over because they brought up that they wanted an inspection two weeks after the offer was accepted, and others because a buyer.s attorney did not move quickly, within the expected two to three week period, to get done what needed to be done to get into contract. stop whining and listen to what your attorney and others giving you good advice are telling you…we are all trying to help you to buy this place if you want it.

greenpointer726 | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Hi vixg, You should definitely hire a home inspector because as a condo owner you are responsible for everything within your apartment and the walls, so pipes, water heater, etc. The inspector will give you a report on the apartment as well as the building. Just make sure you request access to roof and basement so they can check everything. Even if there are no real issues that would force you to re-negotiate price, it helps to know what things you may want to keep an eye on and give you peace of mind that you know what you’re getting. There are a lot of good recs. for local inspectors on the forum but your lawyer should have some he works. Good luck! ps. not sure what the above comments are all about but I find the majority of posters here are helpful.

brokelin | 13 years and 6 months ago

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yes, but do not be stupid…advice to do due diligence on books still holds for condo. Your attorney should be doing this. Your attorney should also have answered your original question. Your original question sounds incredibly naive …. as does your stupid reply to slopemom.s wise advice. you are buying a place to live and never heard of a home inspector… something is very off here. and you do not want to listen to the advice you get.

slopemope | 13 years and 6 months ago

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sounds like you should read a book. yesterday. cancel all your personal plans in the near future and read asap. yes you will need to hare an inspector, and he will surely find something wrong, and you will have to decide if it is large enough to ask for a reduction in price baed on findings. you should absolutely do due diligence by reading financials of the co-op. http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Co-op-Bible-Everything/dp/0312340753

jockdeboeraia | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Buyer beware. Have someone look at it unless you are in construction.

daveinbedstuy | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Recommendations for many good inspectors here on the Forum and Forum Archives>>> Make sure your inspector can have a look at the boiler too. Find out when the roof was put on, when the brick work was repointed, wehen the windows were replaced, etc, etc. You should have tested the appleiances when you were there. That said, they all have to be in working order when you do your walk-through the morning of the closing. A lawyer will advise you on all of this. If you need a good one, mine is David fainkich 718-840-5860 Tell him I recommended you

vixg123 | 13 years and 6 months ago

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exactly dave, we have to do it without a broker…and i feel as long as we have a good lawyer we’ll be fine, am just wondering when others buy a resale condo what inspections do they do?

slopette | 13 years and 6 months ago

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Yes, you need an inspector. And why not broker? It sounds like you could use someone with experience on your side.

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