Hi Closing a Deal on buying a Co-op in Margate in EDISON for almost 150K.should I buy Co-op or spend additional 70 k to (Jersey City: apartments, rentals)

[reddyl]

Dear Friends,
Just recently moved from india. Finance is in OK state. I work at Berkely Heights and need to comute in New york/NJ region forjob purpose. I looked at couple of Co-op at Margate comunity opp. menlo park mall and tryin to close one at 150K. Need your suggestions on the following
1. How good is the comunity.
2. The montly maintance fee is 800 USD. This is apart from mortgage and includes Pro[erty taxes I belive. Is it a good thing.
3 Am I better buying a Condo by spending another 70K as these people are saying they might convert their co-op in condo later in few years. But i need to pay additional 40K for that change. Thsi is subject to everyones approval i guess.
Please give me your recomendations.
thank you friends.

[Rutherford]

I believe the monthly condo fee is tax deductible. I personally don't like coops as much as condos, but you are right, that price allows you to buy now. It might be harder to sell later.

[reddyl]

Thank you for the reply. But need some further inputs as i need to act on it fast before i loose it. Also i am currently staying in hotel and as we know in NJ you can't get short term rentals.
I don't want to get struck with 13 months lease and then start thinking that is good idea or not.
All NJ experts please help.
Thank you.

[loginanil]

grt coincidence , last month i bought aprtment in margate only ,but still couldnt figure it was wise decision or not ,.,

but 1 thing i came to know after purchasing it and then talking with other ppls
chances of converting to normal condo is very very bleak in near future so remove that point from ur list

also to me 150 is little higher price bcs i have seen other advertisements on net for 2 br for arn 135-145k so unless you are not getting alot of rework or etc etc features you might be paying little etc THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION DONT BREAK UR DEAL JUST BCS OF it... SEARCH ONLINE ...PLS

and as mentioned in one of early reply, it is indeed little difficult to sell co-op apartments then a normal appt

answer to ur questions
How good is the comunity. I FOUND IT GUD AND QUIET

2. The montly maintance fee is 800 USD. This is apart from mortgage and includes Pro[erty taxes I belive. Is it a good thing. YES , PROPERTY TAXES IS INCLUDED

3 Am I better buying a Condo by spending another 70K as these people are saying they might convert their co-op in condo later in few years. But i need to pay additional 40K for that change. Thsi is subject to everyones approval i guess. ..CHANCES OF CONVERTING OT CONDO '0' AS BY NOW , WHEN YOU FIGURE OUT IT IS BETTER TO BUY CONDO OR COP WITH SOME ETC MONEY ..PLEASE LET ME KNOW , CAN I EXPECT THIS FAVOR HEHEH AFTER WRITING THIS FOR U
Please give me your recomendations

gud luck for home buy

[reddyl]

Thank you for the reply. I am trying to negotiate the price to 145K with the person, but he is saying that he paid 146k and it coseted him 2 k to close etc.
My point is as long is comunity is good i am ok. i laso heard the co-op money management is also important. If they don't have money and if they don't pay their payments to mortgage, I heard you have chances to loose the house.
Is that true?
Are you protected by putting this money?
After staying 2 years, if I can't live there can i rent this unit out without permission from co-op society or Do I need to take permission from them.
Thank you.

[Rutherford]

You don't have to rush into anything!


Could you afford a month to month lease somewhere while you figure out what you need to do, and put your belongings in a POD? You can store the POD at their warehouse, then they will redeliver it to you at your new place when you find what you want. This is what I did when I bought my new house and and had to move out of my old house a month earlier, and needed a short term place to stay.

Do a search under "temporary housing NJ"

Here is Marriott's web site for temp housing.

Marriott ExecuStay │Temporary Housing with a Familiar Name

I found these in Jersey City.

Jersey City Corporate Apartments - Temporary Furnished Apartments in Jersey City by Oakwood

Temp housing isn't cheap but at least you won't get tied into a lease which could be more expensive if you need to move out and can't break the lease.



Here is the link to PODS. I used them and was very happy with them.

PODS - Reinventing Moving and Storage > HOME

[Machinist]

I lived in Margate for 13 years, we just sold our 1 br in October. The community is good, low crime and its convenient. The staff at Margate are horrible, its almost impossible to get anything done, such as repairs and snow removal. I paid 600 for maintenence on a 1 br so 800 isnt too bad for a 2 br (im assuming) $150000 is a bit high for Margate unless the place was gutted and TOTALLY redone, prices went up a little in the last year over there but some are just way over priced.

The 800 fee does include gas ,heat ,hot water and taxes. And you can count on maint fee going up every year, not much per year but if they go over budget on snow removal or they upgrade something on the property, there will be an assessment.

Also find out when the seller purchased the unit and you could check on realtor.com and possibly see what the prices were in that time frame.

As for converting to condo, forget about it ever happening. It has been brought up a few times and it has never went any further then a board meeting which are a joke. First they will need 80% of the owners to approve the idea of a conversion. That 80% is only to go forward with it, not the actual conversion. There approx 640 units there and they only had about 5% at the last conversion meeting. If they did get 80% they would still have to put a plan together to go forward with the conversion which they are not budgeted for. Which means each unit will get an assessment. After that there will be another vote which will again need 80% approval to do the actual conversion, which if it happened would take approx 1 year to complete. With alot of new people who just moved in and alot of elderly people on fixed incomes it wont happen.

They couldnt even get 50% of the owners to sign the extension forms for the propietary lease on the property.

Resale at Margate is not bad at all, if you are priced right and the unit is in good condition. Ours was on the market for 6 days and it sold for $92000, one of the highest for a 1 br. We bought it for $22000

I know some of my post sounds like im bashing Margate, but its really not a bad place to live. Just thought I would give you as much info as I possibly could.

Anymore questions, feel free to ask.

[loginanil]

any idea of how much part of 630 (i pay for 1 br maintenance ) goes to propery taxes

p.s ..i hope i dont distract from main question of this topin

[Machinist]

Not sure how much goes to taxes but 75% goes to the proprietary lease on the property

[reddyl]

Thank you Machinist
Member