For Newlyweds Only - Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

staceylacey Posted: Jul 22, 2008 08:34 PM

Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Hi guys! We are in a predicament. Here goes. We want to start a fam in 2-3 years. We are not ready to leave the 'city' yet. So we have been thinking about buying an apartment. We would then sell this apartment in 2-3 years. I have never bought anything so I dont know if this is crazy. Would this make us any money? I could really use some feedback. Thanks!

Regal Beagle Posted: Jul 22, 2008 08:57 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Hi Stacey,
I think buying is always better than renting. It is always a good investment. It's tough to say how much the value will go up. You never know in this market, but is is always better than renting.

They say Co-ops/Condos are the new starter homes.

We bought a 2/3 bedroom Co-op almost 5 years ago in Queens. We decided to buy instead of getting married right away and I am glad we did.

There is no way we could afford it now. We can sell our place for almost double what we paid for it.

I think you have to buy what someone else would want to buy. The resale on a studio or a one bedroom is hard.

Good Luck!

What Posted: Jul 22, 2008 09:00 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

I thought you were buyng a townhouse?

me is confused.

bottom line-- buying is always better than renting..

milana Posted: Jul 22, 2008 09:07 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Everyone already said it, buying is definitly better than renting, and right now its certainly a buyers market...but what goes down must go back up. Its only a matter of time until we see real estate going up again. Especially since you plan on selling within 2-3 years, you cant go wrong.

staceylacey Posted: Jul 22, 2008 09:17 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by What

I thought you were buyng a townhouse?

me is confused.

bottom line-- buying is always better than renting..

I was exploring that option to see if I could get that space somewhere.................... I cant

Dee0522 Posted: Jul 22, 2008 10:25 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

I've been hearing from a lot of people that the market is supposed to start getting better in the next 2-3 years so if you are really planning to sell around then, it may be a really good investment. DH and I bought our condo in November with the plan of selling in 3-4 years. I think with the way the market is going, it may have been a really good decision. At least I hope so!!

staceylacey Posted: Jul 23, 2008 08:51 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

DH thinks that the process of buying is sooooo hellish that its not worth it toi do it 2 years later. Is that true? I would rather buy something rather then rent for another 2 years. what a confusing time.

BunnyBride Posted: Jul 23, 2008 08:59 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Buying a co-op is a pain in the a s s but condo's are a bit easier because you don't need board approval. Where are you looking to buy?

thelastresort Posted: Jul 23, 2008 09:03 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Here's my 2 cents:

I agree with everyone else that buying is better than renting. Right now the market is taking a hit so it's good to buy now. Here's the thing though. We bought our house 4 years ago and now we are trying to sell it. Priced to sell, along with dealing with broker's commissions, we will break out exactly even with what we paid, which totally sux. Granted, we bought at the height of the market but we were told you really need to be in your home for about 10 years before you can really profit from it. I don't know if that's just b/c we bought at a high and are trying to sell at a low or if that's just a general rule of thumb.

staceylacey Posted: Jul 23, 2008 09:13 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by BunnyBride

Buying a co-op is a pain in the a s s but condo's are a bit easier because you don't need board approval. Where are you looking to buy?

Definatly prefer a Condo but it depends on what we find in our price range.

staceylacey Posted: Jul 23, 2008 09:14 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by thelastresort

Here's my 2 cents:

I agree with everyone else that buying is better than renting. Right now the market is taking a hit so it's good to buy now. Here's the thing though. We bought our house 4 years ago and now we are trying to sell it. Priced to sell, along with dealing with broker's commissions, we will break out exactly even with what we paid, which totally sux. Granted, we bought at the height of the market but we were told you really need to be in your home for about 10 years before you can really profit from it. I don't know if that's just b/c we bought at a high and are trying to sell at a low or if that's just a general rule of thumb.

Oh what a bummer!!!! Sorry to hear that. I just dont know what the right decision to make is. Family says your crazy for not buying the HOUSE now. But Our lives are here in the city now and I cant imagine commuting like that. Am I the only one struggling with this???

DeeluvsVinny Posted: Jul 23, 2008 09:29 AM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by thelastresort

Here's my 2 cents:

I agree with everyone else that buying is better than renting. Right now the market is taking a hit so it's good to buy now. Here's the thing though. We bought our house 4 years ago and now we are trying to sell it. Priced to sell, along with dealing with broker's commissions, we will break out exactly even with what we paid, which totally sux. Granted, we bought at the height of the market but we were told you really need to be in your home for about 10 years before you can really profit from it. I don't know if that's just b/c we bought at a high and are trying to sell at a low or if that's just a general rule of thumb.

It's because for the first few years you are really only paying interest on your mortgage, you won't see a significant decrease in the principal balance for about 10 years. The market is cyclical, it's bad now, so prices are low..ppl say it SHOULD recover in 2-3 years, but who knows. Plus if it does, you'll be spending that much more for the new place.

bluekat16 Posted: Jul 23, 2008 12:25 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

08er lurking again......

Right now is a great time to buy if you and DH have great credit scores, incomes and debt-to-income ratio. Banks are being super picky with who they give mortgages to now. So while i's a great time...there is a lot more scrutiny going on.

Most Co-op boards are being super picky as well. I own my co-op in Forest Hills and was looking to sell it but the board denied my buyer...and he had great criteria....so definitely go the CONDO route. It's an easier process to buy and to sell in the long run.

Most analysts are predicting that the market will go up again in 2-3 years, but not at the levels that we saw it in the las few years. Remember home prices went up but salaries didn't increase at the same level as housing prices, causing a lot of the drama we are going through.

MJDoc12 Posted: Jul 23, 2008 12:34 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

you should head to the Home Board on LIF----i bet there are tons of girls on there who had the same question you have right now and can share more experiences since its such a Home orientated board.

GL!

FullersBride Posted: Jul 23, 2008 12:40 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

From all the research we have done int he past on buying vs. renting a 2-3 year turn around on a house or apartment in the current market is not the best decision. There is a good chance you will loose money. I would try to find a place that you could stay for a minumum of 5 years where you will at least break even, if not make a small return in investment.

While buying is almost always better then renting, todays unsteady market and a short turnaround time most likely will yield unfavorable results!

Good luck!

MikeandJess Posted: Jul 23, 2008 12:41 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

it depends. We bought our co-op in bayside 4 years ago and we're looking to sell it but the amount the realtor told us we can get is not much more than we paid for it, it'd probably just cover the closing costs. Granted it is a 1 bedroom 1 bath that hasn't been redone since 1950, the 2 or 3 bedrooms go for A LOT more. If we bought one of those we could have made a pretty big profit. HTH.

apriladam9206 Posted: Jul 23, 2008 01:02 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by MJDoc12

you should head to the Home Board on LIF----i bet there are tons of girls on there who had the same question you have right now and can share more experiences since its such a Home orientated board.

GL!

I was just going to say you should go to LIF Home board. They can help you way more than we can.

PreshusSmurf Posted: Jul 23, 2008 02:21 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Posted by FullersBride

From all the research we have done int he past on buying vs. renting a 2-3 year turn around on a house or apartment in the current market is not the best decision. There is a good chance you will loose money. I would try to find a place that you could stay for a minumum of 5 years where you will at least break even, if not make a small return in investment.

While buying is almost always better then renting, todays unsteady market and a short turnaround time most likely will yield unfavorable results!

Good luck!

This is what I was going to say....

From what I've seen, buying is really only a smart investment if you are going to stay there for 5+ years.

The value does not typically increase enough in 2-3 years to cover the costs of selling in a short period of time. Also, as someone else pointed out, the first couple of years you are paying mostly interest towards your mortgage ... so you aren't really accumulating much equity.

staceylacey Posted: Jul 23, 2008 02:32 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

Thank you so much everyone for all this information! It REALLY Helps me out! Thanks a million

Jenn04 Posted: Jul 23, 2008 05:10 PM

Re: Girls who have bought an apartment or house I could use your help!

I think buying is always a great investment. Esp now while the market sux. A few of my friend have bought and got their closing costs paid for etc and got extras thrown in.

Also - if your house doesnt go up in value (which I think it will)...you at least get your money you put into it....ie down payment, monthly payments, etc. Otherwise your rent just goes out the door...to no one. JMO. Buying is easier said than done ofcourse.