Back to the topic that’s on our mind a lot lately: real-estate. I wanted to leave a couple of words about the current pricing range in the area that we were looking in, while it is still fresh on my mind.
When looking for an apartment there are several key factors that come into consideration (listed in no particular order): location, monthly maintenance, selling price and apartment condition. The trick is to find the right combination of the above and then hope that you can afford it / consider that it is worth it. First of all I want to say that we were looking for a two bedroom or a junior 4 apartment. Majority of the places were junior 4s, and they all have a very similar layout. The prices of the apartments that we have seen ranged anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000. We were aiming for something in the very middle of those 2 numbers.
Generally the apartments towards the lower edge were in a horrible condition, meaning that you will end up spending at least another $50,000 if not more to get it to a suitable for living condition. The problem with this approach is that you will have to have that much cash to use for a renovation, since the process of taking yet another loan for that is complicated and expensive, to say the least.
Apartments on the higher end of the price range were located dead in the center of the neighborhood and were freshly renovated. However the owners who did work were charging a sizable premium for the fact that the buyer will not have to do anything upon closing, but move in. Not the best option either.
And apartments in the middle of the price range were usually the places in an OK condition, in a normal neighborhood, but not in the very center, which as you will see costs, and generally ends up being not worth it.
To sum it up we excluded everything that was overpriced for one reason, or another, all the places in a horrible condition, and all the places with maintenance of $680 or higher. We also wanted to live in a location which would be close to the highway, close to some shopping center (supermarkets, Russian food stores, groceries), and close to subway.
On the map above A would be the very central neighborhood. It’s half a block from a multitude of small stores, 2 blocks away from subway, and 2 blocks away from the entrance to the highway. However it is practically impossible to find parking and the asking price for an apartment on the 4th floor in a very average condition was $275,000, even though the maintenance was one of the lowest.
As you start getting away from that particular spot, you have much more options and much more reasonable pricing. An apartment on Ocean Pkwy (B) can be gotten for around $220,000, but the condition will be average as well. All other parameters are pretty good, the price is very good, but we didn’t like this particular one for the fact at at stank of cigarette smoke and was very dark.
Another one we saw (C, scroll the map to see it) was an apartment quite a bit further away from highway (one of its biggest flaws) for around $239,000. The price is not bad at all, the condition was actually quite nice (not great, but good enough to move in right away). The place had no stores near by, pretty far from subway (about 25 minutes by foot), even farther from highway (and going anywhere in NYC traffic is not a fun thing). In addition, the small room windows were blocked off by stone walls at a distance of 2 meters on all 3 sides (looks pretty damn grim).
The one that we’re trying to go for (things are nowhere near certain, but we’re hoping for the best) is an apartment (D) in the best condition that we have seen (fully renovated, and very well done), on the 6th (top) floor, with great views, very close to highway, but quite far from subway (25 minutes by foot). What won us over here is the fact that the price for the combination of all other factors was the best one we saw ($226,000). One of the main reasons for that was that the owner has already bought something and has to get this one of his hands as fast as possible.
Anyhow, there are still miles to go, and there are still many things that can go wrong, and we’ll be left where we started, which would be really sad. But if that happens, then it is the way it was meant to be. We’ve done everything we could, and things that we can’t control are not worth worrying about (or so I keep telling myself). Wish us luck!
Zato v subbotu prazdnovat kuda-nibud poedem. Mojet, v parke kakom soberemsia s devchonkami, a mojet, doma u kogo. Ia tut v chetverg ezdila v russkii magazin za tvorogom dlia Pashi, tak kupila esche seledki, ogurtsov solenyh i plombira. Plombir do Pashi dolejal, a vot pered seledkoi ia ne ustoiala… S kartoshkoi, luchkom i ogurchikami, da esche pod nashu Belovejskuu - klass! Ia, predstavliaesh, 49kg veshu! V poslednii raz ia stolko vesila do shtatov, a kogda j eto bylo! Nichego, vot post zakonchitsia, vernus v normu. Ladno, Alena, esche raz so Svetlym voskreseniem hristovym!
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April 1, 2007 @ 17:47
What can I tell ya, it’s hilarious… And Alena was right: looking at me laughing makes me laugh
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