Hi Rita, is that you?

yes! we put in a bid for a place - all the negiotations have been super stressful! been going back and forth with the broker for weeks now. Congrats on your place!

Worrrrrrd!!! Btw, you folks are looking in Manhattan? Keep low balling and hold your line and don't be afraid to ask for cash back concessions too.

Wait! I thought all these knuckleheads are saying no one is buying and it's the developers playing games????

it's weird because there are apts that we've seen that are listed and remain unsold for months and there are ones that sell in only a few weeks - the place we're looking at was just put in the market a month or so ago, and completley renovated - we totally low balled them and got rejected big time! similar units in the same building are pretty much selling at ask so the only upside for me at least is the low interest rate (and i think at least the apt was priced pretty fairly at like $600per sq ft)

I assume low ball is 30% off of their asking price of $600 dollar per sq ft? I say try again in a few weeks.

it's insane - we didn't even lowball that much - roughly 15$ off - hard part is the apt is being sold by the board so they can't sell it too low without pissing off the whole building. Ready to just give up if this negotiation doesn't come through.

Why is the apartment being sold by the Board? Is this an HDFC?

Welcome to Manhattan Co-op hell. These idiots are killing themselves.
I think you'll have better luck with new developments that already closed 50% of their units. The beauty is you don't have to worry about the co-op board or bubble-era homeowners. It's just you and the developer.

problem is that it's harder to get a mortgage for a condo - my mortgage banker at JPM said the mortgage process is harder and that the building has to be at least 50% occupied though it depends on the building

maybe we'll check out LIC this weekend - we haven't really explored that option. We looked at dumbo and the prices are still insane over there!

alanhart - it's being sold by the board because the owner of the co-op moved out but didn't sell the apt and essentially stopped paying maintainence for a period of time so the board took it back and gut renovated the place for re-sell

50% is the norm now unless you go with the development's prefer lender or a unit. The tightness of the credit is another reason why developer's are chopping 20-25% right off of the asking prices. I believe when this credit crisis boils over, you won't have the same leverage anymore.

On another note, I don't know why Dumbo is priced like Manhattan. It doesn't makes any sense. I can't see how anyone would like to under a bridge. Figure only bums does that? :p