Since our system has been under tremendous stress and hasn't posted much here during the last three months, here is a recap of our apartment hunt. All of this is taken from messages that we posted on PsychFourms. Read this whole entry from top to bottom, as opposed to other entries, which show the newest material first.
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Re: How are you today thread (trigger warning)
by MakersDozn » Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:37 pm
Gonna look at a co-op apartment this Friday morning. The last two units our agent found ended up being taken before we could go there.
We do not heart adulting. :-/
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:39 pm
A co-op, unlike a condo, has a board of directors that has to approve buyers. Instead of owning a unit in the complex, you own a percentage of the complex based on the total number of units. And at least where we live, co-ops include property taxes in their monthly fees, because the board pays the taxes. As opposed to condo units, which would have lower monthly fees because the individual owners pay the property taxes directly to the government on their respective units.
The unit we were supposed to see this Friday morning is now taken. That makes three taken before we could see them. :-/
-- Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:48 pm --
Just checked our email. Our agent said that another unit in the same complex just became available. They're having an open house Saturday afternoon. This is a second-story unit, and it's 20K less than the other unit, which was a first-story unit. We prefer not being on the ground level, but it's not a deal-breaker.
Cross fingers, toes, eyeballs, etc.
Time for us to go to our room and get some rest.
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Apartment Hunt, 2/1/18
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:36 pm
Well, we're buying, not renting, so no landlord. In any event, we're not comfortable with an attic that has to be accessed by a ladder and not a regular staircase. And there's still the matter of the attic being common space with no secure dividing wall.
Plus the fact that the bedroom was too small. The apartment had its good points, but these two drawbacks made it unsuitable.
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:03 am
We're not doing well at all. For other reasons. When the satellite TV went out at about 8pm Saturday, it didn't come back on until 1am. We felt helpless, and probably angry. It's very important to us to be able to watch our animal and vet shows on Saturday. It grounds us and is one of the few things that we enjoy now.
After the TV came back on we managed to watch rebroadcasts of two of the three main shows that we like. But we didn't get good sleep. We rarely do, even under the best of circumstances.
Yesterday morning we watched watching cartoons for preschoolers from about 8am to 11am. Then there was a really idiotic detective/sci-fi show for older kids, and we got disgusted and turned the TV off. We went back to bed and stayed there for the rest of the day, and for the night that followed.
We have off from work for the holiday and somehow got ourselves up out of bed at 8:30 this morning. And we managed to call our T at about 10:15 this morning and asked to Skype later today. She said that she would have to rearrange her schedule, and she would call us back to let us know what time she could Skype.
Inside, it's a big, continuous tug-of-war between those of us who want to heal, and those of us who want to give up. It affects every aspect of our life.
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Re: How are you today thread (trigger warning)
by MakersDozn » Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:27 pm
Finally got some rest after being exhausted all week. Seeing another apartment tomorrow. And on Monday we have to take our brother to the hospital for surgery.
It's always something. :-/
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Re: How are you today thread (trigger warning)
by MakersDozn » Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:34 pm
[Friend] wrote:
so yeah I'm trying to buy a house.
Hearing you. We're not having very much luck yet finding a co-op apartment to buy.
On top of that, our agent is going to be unavailable for two weeks. He's an Exclusive Buyer Agent, so we can't go to anyone else, and he has to do all the negotiating. Theoretically we could look at the major online listings, but (1) our agent receives all current info via a listings app that he uses, and (2) we couldn't follow up without him anyway. :-/
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Re: How are you today thread (trigger warning)
by MakersDozn » Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:08 pm
We did laundry. Two freaking humongous loads that had built up for longer than we'll admit and ended up filling six small laundry bags. We've been known to buy more clothes rather than do laundry.
The vast majority, thanks to Allegra and some others, is folded and put away, except a few hang-dryables and a dozen or so double-A slingshots.
Too much information? [Allegra: Yes.]
Anyhoo, beats staying in bed all day in the pit of depression.
Laura and others (not liking work but definitely not liking depression)
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:18 pm
Thanks, everyone. We appreciate the validation. Sometimes we think that we're whining about having to deal with so much at once. Like it's normal for an adult. And since our system has issues about adulting, we think that we're just being difficult.
We passed a small milestone on a project at work, although there's still far to go. But each milestone helps.
We're going to see another apartment Thursday evening. Good price, reasonable maintenance. Hope nobody offers on it before then.
Appreciate the continued good thoughts.
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Snowmageddon du Jour, 3/22/18
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:04 am
B2 is fine. Recovered speedily from surgery and returned to work two weeks later as planned.
Apartment hunting is still going. Where we live, the vast majority of homes are houses, and there are only pockets of apartments to buy.
Last week we didn't hear from our agent at all. Yesterday he sent us five listings. One was way up in the hills of the opposite corner of the county, which was a no-go. It also had ridiculously high monthly maintenance charges.
The other four apartments are worth looking at, and our agent will let us know when we can see them. Fingers crossed.
We don't ask for much, but we don't want to settle. We don't want to be unhappy with where we're living for the rest of our life. It's too much of an investment, and too important to us.
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:25 pm
One of the two units in our preferred location has already been taken. :-/
Going to see the other one in that location tomorrow evening. No word yet on the status of the two units in our second-choice location.
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Thu Apr 05, 2018 9:51 pm
We saw the apartment in our preferred location and are making an offer. To anyone here who's willing, please cross all digits and eyeballs, send good thoughts, etc.
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:49 am
We made an offer at 5K below list price. Seller countered at 1K above our offer, and we accepted.
Now the fun begins.
We're exhausted.
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Re: Need Support
Postby MakersDozn » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:47 am
We will be moving after 21 years in our current place.
Can you imagine all of the crappé that we have to weed through first?
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Re: Fun: You know you're DID when..
by MakersDozn » Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:59 am
When you go hunting for a co-op apartment with the idea that you'll just "know" when you find the right one, and you see several that won't do, and you get discouraged, but then you see one and the littles start jumping up and down with excitement on the inside.
:P
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Re: Need Support
by MakersDozn » Sat Apr 07, 2018 6:29 pm
Went to the courtesy appointment that we had made to see the other apartment as a backup. Pretended that we were interested, and didn't let on to the other agent that we had already started the process to buy another place.
We had been to Location 2 once before. It's in an upper-middle-class community adjacent to the county seat. In addition to having lots of lawyers and other highly-paid professionals in the area, Location 2 is far more crowded and congested than we'd like. It's not as crowded as the outer boroughs of NYC, but it's still too crowded for us. The entire western half of the county, which is adjacent to the aforementioned outer boroughs, is too crowded for us.
[Note: As NYC has more than 8 million people, and suburban Long Island has another 3 million people, we're not giving out too much personal info.]
Anyway, because the county seat area is so crowded and so coveted, people get less square footage for their money. The apartment we saw there today, which is typical of the complex it's in, is smaller than our current apartment, which is about 425 square feet. Their co-op board is more strict than we would like. So you can see why we only went back there as a courtesy.
The apartment that we're buying, OTOH, is about 1,000 square feet, and only one town further out from where we currently live. It's a much more peaceful area, and it's closer to doctors, businesses, our T, etc.
So after we finished with the courtesy appointment, we sat down with our agent to go over next steps. He gave us the names of a home inspector and a real-estate attorney and advised that we leave messages for both of them today. We need to have the inspection done next week, and we need to meet with the lawyer ASAP.
We go back and forth between confidence and fear/panic, depending on who's out. :-/
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