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mikeandjess
LIF Adult
Member since 10/07 2278 total posts
Name:
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need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
It's a long story so I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible. DH and I own our 1 bedroom co-op in bayside. We had it on the market but our listing just expired. We had 2 offers but they were very, very low so we didn't entertain them. DH has been throwing around the idea of buying the apt upstairs from us and making a large townhome type apt. MIL is a real estate agent and we trust her opinion and she thinks it's a bad idea and thinks we should buy a house in a good neighborhood that may not have the best SD at a lower price. We don't have kids and we won't for a couple of years so the SD isn't the biggest deal right now, the only thing that it might affect is our resale value. My questions are: 1) What would you do if you were in our situation and; 2) what neighborhoods in nassau county are good neighborhoods to live in but don't necessarily have the best SDs? You can FM me if you don't want to offend others that might live in these neighborhoods. TIA
I should add the negatives of our current apt. Our maintenance is very high and if we buy the apt upstairs we'll be paying double the maintenance. We also don't have a fenced in yard for our dog to run around. Last, our co-op has a small amount of units (which is why our maintenance is so high) so it takes them longer than other co-ops to fix things. For example, our driveway is cracked and we've been here 5 years and they won't fix it because it's on a list of things to be fixed.
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Posted 5/24/09 1:11 PM  |
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Melmel821
Love being a mom!
Member since 5/08 2776 total posts
Name:
Melanie
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
With a co-op wouldn't you also have to have it approved to do the renovations necessary to make it a townhouse?
I think you're best bet is to go for a single family. It doesn't seem like your co-op is meeting your lifestyle needs.
Sorry, I'm no help for areas in nassau but DH grew up in floral park and we have friends in new hyde park which I love visiting the areas. He also commuted to bayside and it wasn't a bad drive.
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| Posted 5/24/09 1:36 PM |
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LSP2005
Bunny kisses are so cute!
Member since 5/05 19458 total posts
Name:
L
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
I would most definitely go for the single family over purchasing the upstairs unit for the following reasons:
1. you will be living in construction
2. double maintenance fees
3. resale value - I highly doubt that you would easily be able to sell this new property with 2 maintenance fees. For a new owner it could be the equivalent of 2 mortgages or a mortgage and a car payment?? No one would really want that - they would just get a bigger house.
4. you said that the property is not maintained up to your standards - this likely will not change and will still annoy you.
5. Mortgages for qualified buyers are at big time lows. I would sell even if it is for a loss. Ask your MIL for sales within the last 4 months that can give you an estimate for what to sell for.
6. Even if you take a loss on your current property, you will still make out with a less expensive new property that what it might have gone for in an up market.
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| Posted 5/24/09 3:15 PM |
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fabrichick
LIF Adult
Member since 5/05 2479 total posts
Name:
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
if the offers are too low, i would wait it out, esp. if you don't have kids
i agree with the last poster
we had a studio in great neck which took a while to sell
we also did some targeted listings including a Korean paper, which our real estate broker took care of for us
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| Posted 5/24/09 3:47 PM |
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shoegal68
LIF Toddler
Member since 6/08 422 total posts
Name:
Sandy
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
actually we just closed on a house & are in contract for our 1 BR co-op.. i know we were taking a chance but we bought the house before selling our apartment. luckily it was only on the market for 1 month thanks to our RE agent's suggestion to have it "staged". we only went down about $6k from the asking price. we probably will be stuck paying an extra mortgage for about a month but we budgeted for that. hopefully the rest of the process of selling our co-op will go smoothly.
one piece of advice, this was one of the most stressful times of our life. i don't want ever want to move again. it was a very painful process with bank approvals, contracts, paperwork etc. AND we have excellent credit & a decent down payment. so i would think twice about buying a house in a not so great SD & then moving again in a few years when you do have kids. SD is key when your are selling a house. we saw alot of houses we liked but the SD wasn't good & that was the deal breaker with us.
if you have any questions feel free to shoot me an FM. I am not sure if you are dealing with a RE but i don't think we could have had a fast sale without one. the staging helped alot too.
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| Posted 5/25/09 10:56 AM |
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jennandrob
mom of two!
Member since 5/05 4368 total posts
Name:
Jenn
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
We had a 1BR in Bellerose/Glen Oaks and entertained building a townhouse style co-op out of it, then figured the resale value wouldn't be worth it.
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| Posted 5/25/09 2:19 PM |
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lovemy2boys
LIF Adult
Member since 10/07 3915 total posts
Name:
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
Posted by jennandrob
We had a 1BR in Bellerose/Glen Oaks and entertained building a townhouse style co-op out of it, then figured the resale value wouldn't be worth it.
same here, we are on the first floor, but then who would buy it w/ such a high maint. fee?
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| Posted 5/25/09 3:19 PM |
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mikeandjess
LIF Adult
Member since 10/07 2278 total posts
Name:
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
not to sound dumb but what is staging?
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| Posted 5/25/09 3:29 PM |
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Agape08
LIF Adolescent
Member since 10/08 807 total posts
Name:
Kathy
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
I agree with the other girls...especially the above poster who indicated that moving is the worst experience!!! When we were looking for homes, we looked for something we could live in comfortably by ourselves and with 2 kids (god willing). We looked at everything including SD. We used citydata.com to help make our decisions re: the neighborhoods. GL
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| Posted 5/25/09 4:44 PM |
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Agape08
LIF Adolescent
Member since 10/08 807 total posts
Name:
Kathy
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
Posted by mikeandjess
not to sound dumb but what is staging?
basically you get/rent furniture with a designer that makes the apt look perfect  it's the "in" thing to do now lol
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| Posted 5/25/09 4:45 PM |
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shoegal68
LIF Toddler
Member since 6/08 422 total posts
Name:
Sandy
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Re: need opinions - home buying/selling opinions (warning: this is long)
Posted by mikeandjess
not to sound dumb but what is staging?
not dumb at all. i had no idea at all what it was. it basically is trying to make your house look bigger, brighter, cleaner, warmer, best of all it makes home buyers want to buy it. it was a bit stressful. we had to paint the colors they told us. they replaced our furniture with their furniture that they have in their warehouse. it was very interesting. you had to see the before & after pics. My RE agent paid them. i just paid maybe about $1,000 out of pocket. that was for the painting & we put down some carpet in our stairway.
its very common these days since its a buyers market. Check out hgtv.com not sure if you get that channel on time warner. they even have their own show.
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| Posted 5/25/09 8:33 PM |
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