Renters Become Their Own Landlords
The New York Times this weekend chronicled the housing woes of Mariah and Dominique Freda, two sisters who started out by playing the rental game in Park Slope. They were leasing a two-bedroom for $2,050, but the poor conditions and the inflexibility of the landlord motivated them to look into buying a place of their…
The New York Times this weekend chronicled the housing woes of Mariah and Dominique Freda, two sisters who started out by playing the rental game in Park Slope. They were leasing a two-bedroom for $2,050, but the poor conditions and the inflexibility of the landlord motivated them to look into buying a place of their own. The buying game turned out to have obstacles of its own, but the sisters eventually settled on a 1,400-square-foot, two-bedroom, three-bathroom condo in Park Slope with a spiral staircase leading to a basement recreation room. The apartment had started out with a price tag of $639,000 but had recently been reduced to $599,000 and had a deal fall through; with some help from Dad, they were able to make an all-cash offer that beat out a higher, competing bid. The common charge and taxes were slightly less than $400 a month. “I didn’t realize how annoying a landlord is until I didn’t have one anymore,” Dominique told the Times. From the article, it seems that the Freda sisters could not have purchased the condo without their father’s assistance, who provided the up-front cash and is acting as the girls’ mortgage lender—a luxury that not all renters have—but their story is also one of renters who persevere to take matters into their own hands.
Theirs to Fix and Fix Up [NY Times]
Photo by Angel Franco for The New York Times
DH;
To add to to what Bkheightscoop said:
If these sisters had to take out a real mortgage (which never would have happened, but let’s just assume it for the sake of argument) they would have faced the reality of making payments on time, or else dealing with late payment fees and degraded credit scores.
Somehow, I get the feeling that late payments won’t be a problem with Daddy.
anyone else get a possible whiff of incestuality in this whole story? adult sisters do not live together, especially buy a place together.
*rob*
The mean spiritedness and jealousy in these posts is sort of staggering.
To me, the real problem here is the fact that a 2 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn costs more than a 4 or 5 bedroom home in the rest of the country. How on earth is a twenty or thirty year old person supposed to afford a place to live without either an MBA (which won’t help you all that much these days anyway) or some help from their family? Renting is always an option (I’m a renter), but it can be painful to write all those checks to contribute to someone else’s equity.
In addition, mortgaging an apartment to your children can be a good deal for everyone. Many parents would be happy to get a 4 or 5% return on their investment (better than they could do in a CD, and likely better than their children could do with a commercial lender) while helping their children get a good deal by offering cash, and providing some flexibility in case of a financial setback.
No sh*t tybur
What is up with these Times articles? It seems it is always some young twenty-something getting cash from mommy/daddy to buy an overpriced condo. What does this have to do with the NYC real estate market?
d_h
my point is basically that the sisters, purportedly paying to their father can’t afford it. it is still a loan, whether it is a bank or a father lending the money.
“how is that any different than banks making mortgages to people that can’t afford the monthly payments?”
their father bought it cash. no mortgage.
haha benson – no thanks. did you see their picture/pics of their bedroom? not my type
Why would they (or their father) agree to be profiled for this story in the NYT?! Did they really think that this process was informative at all?
Umm… (1) When you rent you have to rely on the landlord fixing the things that break and they generally suck at it even though you pay them a crap load of money. (2) buying a co-op for 3/4 of a million dollars using daddy’s suitcase of cash is a much better option.
Seriously? Did the Times actually *pay* this Joyce Cohen to write this crap?!
I think JScheff is taking some well deserved heat on this one, but thank God he got the job and not that inane Gabby. He’s posted pretty intelligent posts all in all. She was the worst. Typos all the time, misread half the stuff she posted to, and once posted to a real estate advertisement which I remember trying to drum up business with a bogus story about the market. I guess with the downturn in the economy you can find much more intelligent people to work for you now, hey Stoner.
Sour grapes I say!