So, I'm well on my way to buying an apartment, provided no one throws boiling coffee at the other party at the closing
That said, I feel like there are some things that I wish someone had told me before I got into the process. The things I learned, (in no particular order) are these:
1. Never listen to your real estate agent. Just understand that it's always in his or her best interest for you to buy quickly. That applies to sellers too. They want you to sell as soon as possible. The good thing is that they don't really care about price too much -- only as it relates to extending the buying process (in that if you low-ball and negotiation ensues, it could take a longer time than if you just offered at the asking price). I wouldn't say that they were particularly helpful or reliable in the beginning.
2. Listen to your real estate agent when you've had a bid accepted and you're ready to buy. They become your advocate for getting the process over and done with as quickly as possible at that point. Generally, that can be in your interest if you want to close quickly. Plus, they know and understand everything that needs to happen and they'll tell you what you need to do.
3. Get a lawyer that your friends recommend. This is someone that you need to trust. If you don't have any friends who've used a lawyer, look around on chat boards for advice. This is someone who is worth what you pay them.
4. Do a long period of researching prices before you go out and look for real. The best thing you can do is understand what it costs to live in the areas you're interested in. If you don't know what the baseline is, you could easily end up paying 450K for 600 sq. ft. in a bad neighborhood. Your agent doesn't care. In fact, they're there saying things like, "You can't really beat this location," and, "This neighborhood is going nowhere but up." Once you find out what things actually cost, you'll be able to go to look at apartments and not feel lost.
5. The google maps - craigslist mashup is your friend. Bear in mind, this isn't the be all end all of prices or location, but it's a good place to start to understanding where prices are in a neighborhood. It's better than anything you'd ever get from an agent.
6. Look at the neighborhood/real estate blogs if there are any. Curbed really helped me find places to get information about the neighborhoods I was looking in -- about future development plans, about crime, about culture, about prices, and everything really. It's all opinionyfactish, but it's something more than your opinion.
7. Look for value that is greater than your own. I was torn between two places but ultimately was able to establish that one of them had a much higher intrinsic value than the other (given the prices).
8. Be a real estate dork and make decision matricies and cost analyses. Not quantifying everything as objectively as possible will only make your decision harder (if you have to make one). First, you must know exactly what you can afford. This isn't just the price of the place, but the taxes, communal charges, closing fees, lawyers fees, home owners insurance, title fees, and anything else that crops up. If you don't know that stuff as clearly as possible, you may end up under water. Second, you must document what it is that's important in a piece of real estate: size, location, fees, cost, fixtures, layout, closet space, floors, walls, appliances, neighbors, neighborhood, utility costs, etc. Then, if you're comparing apartments, you must compare and weight these features in terms of importance. Trust me, for 5 minutes of work, it will make any tough decision SO EASY.
I had to choose between two places, one small in a really nice neighborhood, and one large in sleepier neighborhood. My gut was to go with the smaller, less nice place in a subjectively better neighborhood. But, after I made a real analysis of the attributes of the apartments, it ended up appearing incredibly stupid to take the one in the "better" neighborhood: the value wasn't there. About 60% of my freinds were saying "location, location, location." The other 40% said, "value, value, value." I think if I had told the 60% about the cost differential of the apartments, that they would have said, "value, value, value." Which leads me to . . .
9. Always get the advice of people you trust . . . bring them with you to look at apartments if they'll come. I found it extremely helpful to have people come and look at the apartments with me. They helped me understand what was valuable about the places that I saw that I hadn't noticed, or what was terrible about the apartments that I missed entirely. A second set of eyes that isn't invested in your project (except because they don't want you to make a bad decision) is someone you need to have around.
All in all, the process of finding an apartment wasn't so terrible. It was ultimately pretty okay (or at least right now it is). The important thing to remember is that there is a procedure to doing this sort of thing (lawyers and brokers do it every day) and you'll be helping yourself a great deal if you understand what that procedure is. You'll be able to sleep easier.
PHEW!
That said, I feel like there are some things that I wish someone had told me before I got into the process. The things I learned, (in no particular order) are these:
1. Never listen to your real estate agent. Just understand that it's always in his or her best interest for you to buy quickly. That applies to sellers too. They want you to sell as soon as possible. The good thing is that they don't really care about price too much -- only as it relates to extending the buying process (in that if you low-ball and negotiation ensues, it could take a longer time than if you just offered at the asking price). I wouldn't say that they were particularly helpful or reliable in the beginning.
2. Listen to your real estate agent when you've had a bid accepted and you're ready to buy. They become your advocate for getting the process over and done with as quickly as possible at that point. Generally, that can be in your interest if you want to close quickly. Plus, they know and understand everything that needs to happen and they'll tell you what you need to do.
3. Get a lawyer that your friends recommend. This is someone that you need to trust. If you don't have any friends who've used a lawyer, look around on chat boards for advice. This is someone who is worth what you pay them.
4. Do a long period of researching prices before you go out and look for real. The best thing you can do is understand what it costs to live in the areas you're interested in. If you don't know what the baseline is, you could easily end up paying 450K for 600 sq. ft. in a bad neighborhood. Your agent doesn't care. In fact, they're there saying things like, "You can't really beat this location," and, "This neighborhood is going nowhere but up." Once you find out what things actually cost, you'll be able to go to look at apartments and not feel lost.
5. The google maps - craigslist mashup is your friend. Bear in mind, this isn't the be all end all of prices or location, but it's a good place to start to understanding where prices are in a neighborhood. It's better than anything you'd ever get from an agent.
6. Look at the neighborhood/real estate blogs if there are any. Curbed really helped me find places to get information about the neighborhoods I was looking in -- about future development plans, about crime, about culture, about prices, and everything really. It's all opinionyfactish, but it's something more than your opinion.
7. Look for value that is greater than your own. I was torn between two places but ultimately was able to establish that one of them had a much higher intrinsic value than the other (given the prices).
8. Be a real estate dork and make decision matricies and cost analyses. Not quantifying everything as objectively as possible will only make your decision harder (if you have to make one). First, you must know exactly what you can afford. This isn't just the price of the place, but the taxes, communal charges, closing fees, lawyers fees, home owners insurance, title fees, and anything else that crops up. If you don't know that stuff as clearly as possible, you may end up under water. Second, you must document what it is that's important in a piece of real estate: size, location, fees, cost, fixtures, layout, closet space, floors, walls, appliances, neighbors, neighborhood, utility costs, etc. Then, if you're comparing apartments, you must compare and weight these features in terms of importance. Trust me, for 5 minutes of work, it will make any tough decision SO EASY.
I had to choose between two places, one small in a really nice neighborhood, and one large in sleepier neighborhood. My gut was to go with the smaller, less nice place in a subjectively better neighborhood. But, after I made a real analysis of the attributes of the apartments, it ended up appearing incredibly stupid to take the one in the "better" neighborhood: the value wasn't there. About 60% of my freinds were saying "location, location, location." The other 40% said, "value, value, value." I think if I had told the 60% about the cost differential of the apartments, that they would have said, "value, value, value." Which leads me to . . .
9. Always get the advice of people you trust . . . bring them with you to look at apartments if they'll come. I found it extremely helpful to have people come and look at the apartments with me. They helped me understand what was valuable about the places that I saw that I hadn't noticed, or what was terrible about the apartments that I missed entirely. A second set of eyes that isn't invested in your project (except because they don't want you to make a bad decision) is someone you need to have around.
All in all, the process of finding an apartment wasn't so terrible. It was ultimately pretty okay (or at least right now it is). The important thing to remember is that there is a procedure to doing this sort of thing (lawyers and brokers do it every day) and you'll be helping yourself a great deal if you understand what that procedure is. You'll be able to sleep easier.
PHEW!
posted by Laurence at 11:02 AM
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