flipping a contract

You can assign a contract, but "flipping" with the assumption you intend to profit, is difficult if a prospective buyer has financing involved. Keep in mind, you are now liable for the broker fee and while many of the same sponsor rules might apply to the buyer i.e. closing costs, transfer taxes, etc, I have a feeling that if you DO NOT have a relationship with the sponsor, they're not going to help you much in the transfer of the contract, given you intend to profit on something that they have yet to receive full payment on themselves. I say this since contract assignment requires showing a property, which partially requires the efforts of the hired sales team and could expose you as the existing contract holder, to be liable for any punch list items. It's not just as easy as "hey, I'll pocket $200k and give the contract to another buyer."

There are maybe two ways this is done.
1). You assign the contract through the development team/sales office for its exact prices, terms, etc. You are refunded or replaced the deposit.
2). You are best friends with the developer.

Otherwise I give you about less than a 2% chance of pulling this off without screwing it up or worse, losing money. On paper, it sounds like a great idea, but in practice, you're better off closing and bringing the unit to market for sale.

It depends on the wording of your contract. Some contracts in new conversions specify that the contract can not be assigned and that the apartment will be your primary residence. I have assigned a contract in a new conversion, however, the unit was bought as a corporation and we "sold" the corporation to new entity prior to closing, but not usually possible.

near impossible unless you were a very savvy buyer and considered this as an option beforehand(as standard contracts don't allow this without sellers consent)

$280K profit will be taxed as ordinary income on a contract flip while it will fall under the $500 RE exclusion if you live there for a few years. What's your hurry?

I agree with raddoc to an extent. I don't think there is really a need to wait for a few years. Just wait until you close and then put it on the market. It may be even higher at that point. Wait a year, and it will definitely be higher. You have nothing to lose and patience is certainly a virtue in your situation.

Check both the contract and the contract.

At the Laureate, for instance, if a buyer resold within a year of closing, then half the profit would go to the sponsor. It may even have been "one year or until all sponsor's units have sold."

Oops, make that "both offering plan and contract."

I don't know how much money is involved in the sale price, but closing, paying closing costs (which are typically high in sponsor sales), mortgage fees and taxes (assuming there is one), living in the place for some period of time, then selling with a 6% broker fee, transfer taxes and other breakage costs is not likely to be a good trade.

Agreed. There are a lot of factors in play. Don't use a broker (which is not really a great idea)? Try to get out of paying sponsor's transfer tax? Renting it out during holding period?

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/37106-the-adeline