Under contract in Williamsburg (90 N. 5th st)

So you are saying point (3) above is written into your contract. May I ask when this 50% target date is. If it is any time soon, I would expect you to be receivng that check back as most bldgs in wmburg that have been selling for 1-2 yrs are not near 50%

The deadline is June 2010. That will be 1 year on the market.

We put the deadline in our contract.

Congrats for pulling the trigger LookPied. I'm also pretty close to buying in Williamsburg and have followed your comments with appreciation.

LookPied-I have been looking at W'burg myself. Decided to rent for another year and lease will be up April '10. I have lived in Manhattan when I moved from the 'burbs after college in 1982. City has changed and not to my liking. W'burg reminds me of the West Village when back in the early 80's minus the tranny hookers. I like this building as well. Good Luck!

Congrats, it seems you have looked long and hard with careful consideration
when is closing projected for? It lloks like bldg is near completion so I would expect soon. Would you close before the bldg is 50% under contract?

Good luck, Lookied & politikat, with your purchases.

What a shockingly bold move to be locking in the price now (on its way down), given everything that's being said about the future of Billyburg... Good for you. Someone has to do it for the market to recover!

LookPied - do you ever plan to resell your unit? If so when?

Thanks all,

It's a little nerve wracking to get in now, no doubt. But luckily financially we're comfortable doing it (Long term outlook, etc.). We'd love to close now, but financing requires at least 50%. (Closings commence once CO is given.)

I hope that you have a financing contingency. As in this market, most banks wont finance a building 50
% sold. Most banks wont finance a buildng 75-80% sold. So if you dont have a financing contingency then you may hit a point where 50% are in contract and you are then obligated to buy whether or not you can get a mortgage.

Also can you answer my question about your intent to ever resell? if so when?

Congratulations, LookPied! I also just recently signed my contract and am eager to get things rolling.

i think that LookPied and Steely are brokers trying to sell units in the building. If they weren't they would answer my questions

LookPied, congrats. I think you'll have an easier time getting that 50% simply because the building is smaller. I agree with petrfitz (shocking, but hey) that you should definitely have a mortgage contingency, but hopefully everything will go smoothly. You can now expect the anti-Williamsburg trolls (fitz, mutombo) to be all over your case.

petrfitz, you've left dozens of my questions to you (not to mention others') unanswered. Does that make you a broker?

petrfitz,

We have no plans on reselling. It's for a pied-a-terre and, believe it or not, for retirement. We have a great house in Atlanta, but it ain't NYC. We're planning splitting retirement 50/50 between NYC and Atlanta. NYC is great if your old, can't drive, and need things delivered.

Maybe my kids will sell it. But they're pretty excited about it too and they just might hang on to it for their retirement!

We have a mortgage contingency. We're comfortable with our ability to close at 50%.

petrfitz, I do have a mortgage contingency clause in my contract. Regarding resale, I'm looking long term and have no intention of attempting to flip it in a year or two. This is my first purchase and I plan on keeping it for many years.

So when tco is obtained (which seems like it should be shortly since people are saying everything appears complete) and you receive notice to close, you can delay closing if bldg not 50% in contract? That seems like a difficult thing for the developer to work out, esp if he is offering htis to other buyers.

We stipulated that we will close only when >50% are under contract and that if they fail to hit 50% by June 2010 we get our deposit back and the whole thing is called off.

You need to be careful with the mortgage contingency provision in your contract. If it's like the one I had, it gives you a certain time after signing the contract (e.g., 45 days) to obtain a mortgage commitment. Let's say you successfully get the commitment. And closings don't start happening for another 9 months. And then at that point the bank decides that circumstances have changed and they will no longer lend to you (despite the commitment, since it contains lots of ways for the bank to get out).

Do you have a way out of your sales contract in this scenario? Or is your mortgage contingency better than the one I had...?

you will never be able to get a mortgage on 50% "contracts signed"

also glad you never plan to resell because you will not be able to get your money back for atleast a decade or more if you are buying in Williamsburg.

Funny all w'burg "owners" LookPied, Steely, and BJW say they never plan to sell. Then they are not making an investment, they all agree that they are throwing away their money. You all must be independently wealthy to make such decisions.....

pjc,

The way it's worded is that if we are unable to get financing with 20% down at 50% contract signed once closing is scheduled then it's off. The contingency is for us to get financing at the time of scheduled closing. We have been preapproved, but that's meaningless with this time frame.

"Funny all w'burg "owners" LookPied, Steely, and BJW say they never plan to sell. Then they are not making an investment, they all agree that they are throwing away their money."

petrfitz, that's because some of us like and want to live in the neighborhood long-term. How long have you been in your LES home? Are you planning on moving to another neighborhood or city anytime soon? If not, then maybe you might understand the reasoning here. One of the reasons for buying a home is stability - unless it's cheaper to buy, I'd much prefer renting if I know I'll only be sticking around a few years.

petrfitz, not all lenders originate Fannie-backed mortgages, so the "70% in contract" requirement is not across the board. There are banks that will lend at 50% in contract and there are even some exceptions to that.

As for resale, I didn't say that I "never" plan to sell. I said that I plan to hold it for many years to come.

LookPied - Sounds good - As long as you can get out of the deal right up to the scheduled closing date if for any reason the bank bails on you, then you are in good shape.

Sounds like you either have a very reasonable seller and/or a very good lawyer and/or you are more savvy than I was about making sure a "contingency" has real meaning...

also if prices continue to drop and developer has to lower prices to get to the 50% mark, you probably won't get a mortgage based on lower comps and can bail out that way, correct?

Nothing spelled out that way. Probably will need to put a higher down payment in that case. But we have already considered a higher down payment.

But I feel they can't lower prices more or else they'll go the way of Warehouse 11 and 229 N 8th. If they go bankrupt we get our money back.

Congrats, LookPied,

If nothing else, sounds like you at least thought things through well. If this is the apartment you definitely want and will be unhappy if you miss, then that alone is also a very good reason.

Enjoy!

Steely says "not all lenders originate Fannie-backed mortgages, so the "70% in contract" requirement is not across the board. There are banks that will lend at 50% in contract"

This is pre sub prime bubble popping/credit crisis. Have you tried to buy anything in the past year? Credit is tighter than its ever been. Banks are not lending on anything exotic or risky. I think that you are smoking the wacky tabacky if you think your statements are true in todays market.

Steely - you better plan to hold it for at least 20 years or you wont be able to get your money back in W'Burg. Why would anyone buy your 5, 10, 15 year old condo when they will be building new ones in w'burg non stop for the next decade. Oh yeah all the new buildings will have newer appliances, newer amenties, newer everything. Do you understand the amount of unbuilt capacity in W'Burg?

BJW - stability? yeah you will live there for a long time because you wont be able to ever resell it. Thats not stability that is called being stuck and SOL.

petrfitz do you think they will continue to build new condos here, I think the wmburg bldg boom is done. there is so much inventory that needs to be sold, it doesnt seem anyone would start any new projects for the foreseeable future. I think what is being completed now will be the most contemporary construction available for many years to come. What the price will be in 5-10-20 yrs is a different story, but it seems lookpied has factors in his life other than a straight mathematical equation to make this purchase valuable to him.

there are already 18 unfinished projects in williamsburg. They will get finished at some point in time. Also there is so much capacity in w'burg that as soon as the economy breaks they will start filing for permits.

what you are talking about kiz is trying to time the market - i.e. buy and sell during the lull in development. That is going to be impossible to judge and not a smart approach.

"Why would anyone buy your 5, 10, 15 year old condo when they will be building new ones in w'burg non stop for the next decade. Oh yeah all the new buildings will have newer appliances, newer amenties, newer everything. Do you understand the amount of unbuilt capacity in W'Burg?"

petrfitz, there's no way they build nearly as much as they have in the past few years going forward. You rail on and on about "unbuilt capacity" but it's a silly argument and something that's unquantifiable. They can always tear down and rebuild housing.

"yeah you will live there for a long time because you wont be able to ever resell it. Thats not stability that is called being stuck and SOL."

Well, that's part of the goal - to live there for a while. I don't see a reason to sell, especially since I can already cover my monthly costs by renting. I wouldn't want to do that anytime soon, but it's not a bad thing to have in your back pocket.

bjw says "They can always tear down and rebuild housing." what a statement. are you saying that the local RE market is impacted in the same manner by tearing down a 4 story building and rebuild a 4 story building, as it is tearing down a 4 story building and building a 15-20 story building?

Seems you dont under unbuilt capacity nor supply and demand.......

petrfitz, seems like you don't understand a damn thing about the zoning changes that have impacted the neighborhood (and restricted building heights) since 2005.

yeah i do. are you actually saying there is no or little unbuilt capacity in w'burg? would you go on the record to say that w'burg has the same or less unbuilt capacity as other areas of NY?

petrfitz, sure there is room to build more in Williamsburg, but as I said before, you can't quantify it, and you have - how do I put this gently - a strong tendency to exaggerate greatly.

okay here's the skinny, I got a call from an old colleague, wanting to know if I'm interested in looking at some behind the scenes Brooklyn about to be REO assets and bid on the mortgage.. I said no, we are in inning 1, I need to know absolute bottom rental rates for these b/f I go plunking down $.

There you have it, a major bank is starting to let vultures look at some of these mortgages, when these guys get their hands on 60%, the equity is toast, they'll lower rents to get 3% returns thereby driving down rentals for ALL of the hood.... that's what I mean by strong LLs. LMAO.... just like in 1991... it's happening all over again... I'm waiting for Depeche Mode to do a new tour... LMAO

w67th, um... http://www.depechemode.com/tour.html

BJW you are a moron you can definitely quantify unbuilt capacity - perimeter X FAR - existing structure sq ft.

it is a matter of law and zoning you tool

Lookpied, aren't you glad you started this thread

"you can definitely quantify unbuilt capacity - perimeter X FAR - existing structure sq ft."

Then please put up a number for Williamsburg and other areas.

oh perfitz - you have zero to back up your statements. our building has had re-sales - one just in the last month.

welcome to williamsburg! i've bought and sold several times in brooklyn, and love my condo here. couldn't be happier. great amenities, great park, love the river, the music venues, the people, especially my neighbors, and my short commute.