270 Convent HDFC--what's up with them?

A friend considered bidding on a unit in this building. She is single and was bidding on a 2 bedroom- and was told that the board was looking to appropriate a larger number of rooms to coincide with the number of family members (i.e. a 2 bedroom unit to go to a couple or perhaps a couple with 1 child.) The realtor told her to lie about who else would be living with her- and that is when my friend reconsidered her bid.

Semerun, you are the oracle of all things uptown! Wow. You know something about everything. Thanks.

Your friend's story is interesting. A broker just told me that actually this building is no longer in the HDFC program but still keeps the income limits, etc and is very very picky about sales, apparently wishing to prevent as many of them as possible, which is kind of unusual if true. Has anybody else heard anything about 270 Convent?

You're right, 270 Convent is known to be a well run building and one of the oldest HDFCs around. I'd say the reason you see the listing come off then back on the market is because they have contracts that don't get closed...? The banks are in turmoil and don't know one end from another right now. I had a broker friend tell me that 90% of deals that fall through are due to financing. That's a bit of "duh", but there you go. Contracts get signed, but are nulled due to banker ineptitude. Apartments are taken off the market, then have to be put back on.

We had a hellish ride ourselves, if you care to check it out: http://expatevermore.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/this-is-it-bank-gimme-my-loan-no-really-i-mean-it-no-really-im-serious/

Oops, Uptown2012...didn't realize I was commenting on a post by you again. Don't mean to plug my stupid blog at all. Just really ready to share any info, as they forum helped me out quite a bit when I was buying.

@semerum - I hope your friend also reconsidered the broker she was working with (or was it the building's broker??? how awful). The broker is a snake and should have their license revoked. Or at least get a REBNY reprimand if there is such a thing.

You're right, this is a nice building, in a nice part of the neighborhood...I think they want to keep it that way by being very picky about who they let in. The way these buildings maintain their community within a volatile neighborhood is by being selective...and by "these buildings" I mean co-ops in general. Not so much preventing sales, but preventing sales to "unsuitable" people who are not the right fit for them.

Not that a single woman wanting to buy a 2 BR is unsuitable! Her broker, though: fishy. Maybe had an ulterior motive for putting her off the apartment??

I can rant all day long at all of the terrible brokers I have experienced, but there are plenty of other posts on that. My friend asked me to help her in her real estate search to combat the ridiculous brokers (since this interests me as a hobby) and that she wanted something that every broker has told us is impossible. We know finding a Classic 6 or 7 HDFC apartment at a reasonable price to the income restrictions is a difficult search requiring a tremendous amount of patience and time, but it is not impossible. She is willing to wait to find the home where she plans on spending the rest of her life...and in the meanwhile, it allows her time to continue to save. At this stage, she has fallen in love with a particular building, and is waiting for the right unit to come to market. While I am not going to reveal the building, I suspect that Uptown2012 will eventually stumble upon it.

I don't know if the brokers comments were valid or not with regard to 270 Convent, but my friend still felt the apartment was too small- so it only took a small obstacle to deter her from pursuing the deal. I can say this much, I think it was Apt 3C that she looked at and loved (size issues aside). We even found the original connection to the central vacuum line in the wall, which was a nice surprise. The broker claimed to be a long time friend of a board member within the building. Currently, the apartment is still on the market, and with a different broker, at a much lower listing price. We have low expectations of brokers, so this doesn't surprise us (although a few on this board have impressed me- but they don't specialize uptown).

good point about getting a broker who specializes uptown - if you are going to shop around for a broker (meaning you don't already have one recommended by trusted friends, etc.) then may as well just go it alone. Main Manhattan agents/ brokers are clueless about Uptown at best, and downright scared of it at worst.

Before getting this place, we bid on an HDFC close to Morningside. We were plunged into a mini bidding war with a gazillionaire's daughter, who, after a couple back and forths basically said, 'look whatever they offer, I'll go higher. And I can do a cash deal if I have to." The broker for that place was flabberghasted. Before taking on the listing as a favor to a friend, he had never been up higher than 110; not even to Morningside. I was kind of insulted at how amazed he was that there was actually life up here. He said, if he has known better, he would have priced the apartment differently... not sure what the means. Doesn't sound unethical, just a little incompetent.