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Just curious, do you have electric heat? If so, how have your bills been this winter? I've heard horror stories from some condo owners regarding their electric bill...
A home is much better. You can sell it faster. Condo are horrible in Long Island.
Maybe that used to be true, but when we looked at townhomes in Nassau County last year, the listings were selling quite fast. There's a segment of the LI population that is older, but wants or needs to stay on LI for employment or family reasons. We saw scads of those people at open houses and we've met a number of folks trading down from 2+-acre homes on the North Shore to upscale condos/townhomes.
The challenge for townhomes is to be valued appropriately. These places were certainly part of the housing bubble, hitting very high prices around 2005 or so and then dropping rapidly into 2009. When we bought our townhome last year, we paid about 40% less than the previous owner and the property had about the same value that it did in 2000. We also looked at complexes where there was so little turnover that it was hard to determine what a unit was worth.
So, now the question is whether the demand I mentioned above will drive prices up. I think they will, although the appreciation will take longer than it did in the past. BTW, I'm talking about more upscale places and not the small units in, say, Suffolk that might go in the low six figures.
Just curious, do you have electric heat? If so, how have your bills been this winter? I've heard horror stories from some condo owners regarding their electric bill...
Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would have bought an electric-heated condo in the first place. Long Island's electric rates have been among the nation's highest for years. We avoided those places like the plague when we were looking. They're expensive to own and hard to sell. The only benefit is that an electric heating system does not require the same maintenance as gas or electric.
A home is much better. You can sell it faster. Condo are horrible in Long Island.
From today's Newsday:
"The demand for condominiums has risen. In the last three months of 2013, 959 condominiums were sold on Long Island, a year-over-year jump of 35 percent, according to a report by the appraisal firm Miller Samuel and the brokerage Douglas Elliman.
"Long Island has a large population of people who are retiring and hoping to downsize, and there has been little new construction of high-end condominiums in the last decade, Rechler said."
There is also a demand for cheaper places to live for younger people. I am one of those. I got my condo with its maintenance and taxes for cheaper per month then a studio apartment for rent. The only problem is that I am in Medford which is too far for people who work in the city.
I've never owned homes I'm curious about the aspects of owning:
You have homeowners insurance.
You have a mortgage.
You have taxes.
What else comes into play?
And is it a smarter choice if let's say me and my girlfriend since we are in our 20s to get a condo as opposed to a home?
Your mortgage payment would include- Principle, Interest, Taxes and insurance. With a condo...add the fee. I would sway away from the condo.
Ownership is easy, It's getting there that is the issue sometimes.
First- Get approved for a mortgage. You will not find any realtors to drive around and look at homes without a pre-approval. This will show you how much you can afford. At minimum, You will need 2 years W2'S to prove income and 2 year work history with no gaps in employment. At this point- you will get a rough estimate of what the closing cost are and how much you will need out of pocket.
Next step- find a home and make an offer.
If it gets accepted. You will then get the ball rolling with your bank and realtor.
Formal mortgage application. W2'S, two most recent paystubs, copy of drivers license. Check for appraisal.
At this point, your realtor and the title company have ordered a new survey,pest insp, title work, home inspections and are working with the appraiser. You will now need to get a binder for homeowners insurance.
Once your banker gets the appraisal, survey, title work, inspections and all necessary paperwork, they will review it all before it gets submitted to an underwriter. At this point, they will either- approve- deny-or ask for more info.
Common problems:
Appraisal issues.
Termites. Even if eradicated on the pest report. A good underwriter should request the appraiser reinspect the area to validate repairs from damage where done correctly.
Finally, when it all gets approved. The title company will get in touch with your banker with a set closing date and the amount of money you will need to close.
Then the time comes....you close....your a homeowner...you get the keyes....
Now, start saving for a new roof, air conditioner, appliances, H/A. Chances are...something will break!
Monthly maintenance and upkeep. 120 a month for landscape (mow, trim, edge), Chemicals for both lawn and home. Fert and pest. Snow removal.
Any advise I could make to a young couple- This is a major investment...and make sure you have at least 6 months of reserves in savings at all times. If you cant. The whole home ownership thing might not be a good idea.
I don't believe condos are as terrible as some say. In fact they can be great and smart choices depending on the individual's circumstances. Not everyone wants a huge yard and all the maintenance and upkeep a single family home requires. Common charges are an additional expensive sure, but typically taxes and homeowners insurance are cheaper. We lived in condos for many years and there were certain aspects very appealing about them. The highrise Luxury condo we lived in had doormen who kept deliveries for us and helped us with bags. We didn't have to worry about maintaining the yard, shoveling snow, repairing leaks to the roof, etc. With a townhouse we had more of a single family feel with our own driveway, entrance and small back yard yet still with the benefits just mentioned.
That being said for us, we decided we had outgrown condo living. To each their own, but I grew up in a rural setting in Washington State and although there was a lot to like about the modern conveniences of condo living, I always saw myself bringing up the kids in a single family home with a nice yard, basement to play in - doing our own gardening, home improvements and the like. With two young children we decided we wanted to extra space that could only be obtained for our budget in Nassau so have gone to contract on a home in Plainview-OB area.
We looked hard at condos in Woodbury because we so liked the area and Syosset schools but right before we were going to make an offer on one we really liked we asked ourselves why we were moving farther away from our family and work in queens to live in a Condo? We looked at places closer to us in Bayside/Douglaston/Little Neck and although taxes are significantly less the schools while being good for NYC are extremely overcrowded and once you get to High School outside of the specialized ones, it is a crapshoot. Also you can barely get a tiny attached 3BR that needs a complete renovation for 650k! Both my wife and I attended specialized high schools and we just didn't want our kids waking up 5am to take a long commute to the City, Bronx or Brooklyn to get a good education along with 35 other kids in each class.
That's when we decided our only options would be single family houses and in Nassau. We are already looking forward to all the space, backyard bbqs and the different rooms for the girls to play in.
Last edited by libtech75; 03-29-2014 at 08:28 PM..
Your mortgage payment would include- Principle, Interest, Taxes and insurance. With a condo...add the fee. I would sway away from the condo.
Ownership is easy, It's getting there that is the issue sometimes.
First- Get approved for a mortgage. You will not find any realtors to drive around and look at homes without a pre-approval. This will show you how much you can afford. At minimum, You will need 2 years W2'S to prove income and 2 year work history with no gaps in employment. At this point- you will get a rough estimate of what the closing cost are and how much you will need out of pocket.
Next step- find a home and make an offer.
If it gets accepted. You will then get the ball rolling with your bank and realtor.
Formal mortgage application. W2'S, two most recent paystubs, copy of drivers license. Check for appraisal.
At this point, your realtor and the title company have ordered a new survey,pest insp, title work, home inspections and are working with the appraiser. You will now need to get a binder for homeowners insurance.
Once your banker gets the appraisal, survey, title work, inspections and all necessary paperwork, they will review it all before it gets submitted to an underwriter. At this point, they will either- approve- deny-or ask for more info.
Common problems:
Appraisal issues.
Termites. Even if eradicated on the pest report. A good underwriter should request the appraiser reinspect the area to validate repairs from damage where done correctly.
Finally, when it all gets approved. The title company will get in touch with your banker with a set closing date and the amount of money you will need to close.
Then the time comes....you close....your a homeowner...you get the keyes....
Now, start saving for a new roof, air conditioner, appliances, H/A. Chances are...something will break!
Monthly maintenance and upkeep. 120 a month for landscape (mow, trim, edge), Chemicals for both lawn and home. Fert and pest. Snow removal.
Any advise I could make to a young couple- This is a major investment...and make sure you have at least 6 months of reserves in savings at all times. If you cant. The whole home ownership thing might not be a good idea.
All the major steps are correct but the order and form are not, at least for a New York property. Typically once the contract is fully executed by both parties and sent to the lender with your simultaneously completed loan application, the next major step would be the appraisal process.
The appraiser is selected by the lender and determines whether the market value of the home supports the purchase price and mortgage amount you are seeking. Assuming the appraisal comes in and most of the major documentation has been received and reviewed by underwriting, the lender will issue a conditional commitment fully approving your loan. At this juncture, your loan is approved subject to a final laundry list of conditions the lender lists. At this time your attorney will typically order the title search to check for title issues ensuring ownership is as it should be, there are no liens or judgments vs the property (other than the current mortgage that owners will pay off at closing) and that the c/o exist and are correct for the structures as they currently exist.
Often if the seller has an existing survey that is legible, the title company can use that to "read in" said survey into the title report and just do a follow external inspection to ensure none of the structures have been changed and/or removed or modified in the interim. This can save you several hundred dollars. If there is no existing survey, it is illegible or the seller is just plain uncooperative, you will need a new survey.
Once title is clear, survey is in with no issues, and bank underwriting goes through final review and gives final approval to close - the parties will select a date. In NY the lender lets the bank attorney know the file is clear. The bank attorney will in turn let the buyer's attorney know file is clear and ready to schedule closing. The buyer's attorney will schedule with the seller's attorney and will finally notify the title company. NY is a table closing state which means all parties physically appear at the closing and exchange all money and documents.
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