Need help - Looking to buy in 250 Mercer

Just look at the last three years of maintenance for the same apartments. Appx 10% increase every year. Old buildings with beautiful facade are expensive to maintain. I would only pay 30% less than comparable apartments due to high and evey increasing maintenance. If you think maintenance is $1 per sq ft higher than comparable apartments ($2.50 rather than $1.50), for a 1000 sq ft apartment, it is $12000 per year extra which should decrease the apartment price by appx $300K (4% perpetual discount rate whothout factoring in every increasing mainteanance). Area is great!

Also be careful not to include the loft area into the apart measurement unless it is as least 7.5ft ceiling.

Ask for the financials and tell your broker to ask for details about the reasons for the increases. They know or can find out. Apartments in this building seemingly are not moving because of the miantenance issue. (I was told they had a lot of facade work that had to be done recently and that they have a massive mortgage on the building at a higher interest rate with a restrictive pre-payment penalty).

That is correct. However, the increase is maintenance is not due to the mortgage as the mortgage payment is fixed. It is owls on the facade!!!

how do you find out the 'real' financial condition of the building. your lawyer. he or she does due diligence (reads building minutes and reviews last two years of building financials) AFTER you and seller have agreed on a price.

Thanks - but what if I dont like the financials? Can I back out of the deal at that point?

Believe you can ask for a copy of the financials before you make an offer. In addition, you do not need to look at the financials to know that maintenance has continued to increase and there needs to be a substantial discount for that fact.