Condo confusion....

I'll blame my lack of posts as of late on condo confusion. Here's the deal, as you may or may not know Crystal and I moved into a new condo in Worcester the week of Christmas. It is an old 2 decker that was gutted and rehabbed to be converted into three condo units. We moved in under the agreement that the condo docs would be ready within a few weeks to a month and that would live in the unit at no charge until closing.

Well a couple weeks lead to a couple months, which in turn lead to 4 months, which lead to 5 and then to 6. Every few weeks we were told a different story... Problem with the condo dcs, problems with the survey, problems with the deed, problems with the lawyers. We heard 10 more days 10 times... And then last Friday out of nowhere we got a letter from the seller's attorney stating that the deal could not be done and that we needed to be out of the unit within 48 hours or begin paying rent. If we wanted to stay past july we would have to sign a year lease. This was in one hand a suprise, but on the other hand sort of expected as this thing had been dragged out far too long. Obviously we are in the market to buy at this point not rent so we are moving on at the end of the month.

Unfortunately over the past 6 months we have painted every room in this 1,100 square foot place, installed an IKEA Stolmen walk in closet system at a cost of $500.00 into a room that otherwise would have been an office or a craft room. On the bright side we haven't had to outlay any rent money since moving out of our last place back in November.

So basically we were thrown right back into the housing market without much notice. Good thing that we both have continued to pay close attention to the housing market in the Worcester area since moving into this place since pretty much all the properties/lofts/condos that we looked at back in November/December are still on the market at a nice discount to what the asking prices were back 6+ months ago.

On Thursday we put in an offer at University Park Lofts which is a new condo conversion in an old Crompton and Knowles mill building up against the railroad tracks in what is considered the seediest part of Worcester. Crystal and I are willing to take our chances and hope that the rejuvination projects that are coming online in the area will bear fruit, and 3 to 5 years down the line when we go to sell we will have bought in at a nice discount. The building contains 37 units and they have less than 10 sold or under agreement since December, so the seller should be very cooperative in terms of making a deal and getting the unit sold.

So since last weekend we have been busy boxing things up and moving them out. We got a storage unit on Friday along with a PO Box, because even if this deal closes asap we will still be without a permanant residendence for a couple weeks as they do final touchups to the unit and financing gets squared away.

So things have been crazy and hectic as all hell. We just moved into this place 6 months ago and didn't expect to get uprooted like this. But live and learn, a deal uisn't complete until all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed. We won't make this mistake again.

On the bright side of things I am on vacation all week and the weather is supposed to be good. I'll do my best to update a bit more frequently this week as I can stay up late and whatnot since I don't have work.

Fremont Lofts Auction Cancelled!!

Breaking news!

Velocity Marketing was supposed to be holding an auction this Sunday May 20th to sell off the remaining units at The Fremont Lofts located at 160 Fremont St in Worcester, MA. I guess Velocity was expecting quite a turnout as the auctions were to be held downtown at the DCU Center.

I sent Velocity Marketing an email earlier in the week to see if the auction was going to be open to the public, or if it was only going to be open to pre qualified bidders. In the email I basically stated that I was interested in attending from a blogging perspective and would not be bidding. I received an email that stated, "The auction is closed to bidders only so that we know everyone in the room is there to bid. Easier for us to manage the process that way." That email was sent to me today by Velocity Marketing at 3:44pm. I then received a second email today at 6:14pm stating that The Fremont Lofts auction has been cancelled because "the response did not meet the critical number required to hold a live auction..."

The Fremont is holding an Alternative Sales Program beginning this Saturday at 11am. We might have to give the phone number a call at the very least or perhaps even pop in and see what kind of pricing and incentives they are offering.

The fact that The Fremont had to cancel the auction due to lack of response is a cause for concern for the Worcester/Central MA/Massachusetts/US housing market as a whole. I figured that now that spring has sprung that the auction would go on and most of the units would sell at the minimum or slightly above. The fact that they could not even get enough people to register to hold the auction is troubling indeed, and not just for The Fremont but for anyone looking to sell their home at the present time.

Once again it all comes down to supply and demand and the amount of homes on the market continues to rise at an alarming rate. In April there were 743,367 existing homes and condos listed for sale in the 18 major metro areas tracked by ZipRealty. That number is 33% higher than April of 2006 and 7.2% higher than March 2007. Inventories in some metro areas have TRIPLED from the height of the housing boom in 2005.

If The Fremont is going to sell units for less than what the opening bids were going to be, or they throw in some nice incentives such as no condo fees for a year or some intrest rate buydowns I think they would make a decent buying opportunity. Right now the buyer has plenty of choice available to them so the sellers need to do something special to make themselves and their properties stand out from the crowd.

Happy New Year

I figured if I intend to blog more often in the coming year that I should post by January 2nd. Not that it would be that big a deal if I waited until the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th...

Crazy busy over here but the condo is really coming along. Painted the living room and bathroom this past weekend. Went on a major shopping spree on Monday, all the way to Natick Mall and Pottery Barn was closed. Oh look at me blogging about Pottery Barn. But we did get some nice endtables and a chest at Pier One. All that HGTV does pay off. Wow, see for 2007 I cut off my penis. No not really, it is just exciting to have a somewhat blank slate of a home to furnish and color and so on any damn way you please. But I did also get a Tivo so I don't miss any 24 or Heroes in the coming weeks, so the whole day was not about color schemes, recliners, and console tables. Turning a room into a walk in closet over the coming weeks should be interesting. Might have found a great deal on a gym quality elliptical in The Want Ad.

Ran to Circuit City at lunch today to try to grab a copy of Artie Lange's Beer League. It was 1:30pm and they were sold out, there were plenty of copys of Snakes On A Plane to be had though. Beer League has moved up the Amazon sales ranks today, from spot #101 at 10am to #3 by 11pm. If it hits #1 Artie might be back on the shit. Speaking of the Stern world it was great to have Howard and crew back on the air live today, and the show went until about 11:30am. Nothing makes my workday better than a Stern Show that goes 5+ hours. Eric The Midget announced on air today that he will be introducing Shuli live on stage this weekend at The Killers of Comedy gig at The Avalon in Sacramento this Friday 1/5. Poor Eric does not know what he is in for. No way can he handle a drunken crowd of rabid Stern Fans. I think he is going to be chewed up and spit out. Should be interesting. Congrats to Carzy Alice, Bigfoot it is and The Elegant One for their 3 way tie in the football pool.

If you ask me they should have given Bigfoot the $25K.

Here is to 2007!!

Offer Accepted

I just want to prepare my you my dear readers. Get ready to get on the roller coaster that is 4rilla and Ms. C. buy their first place. After going back to the condo of our affections this weeked for another look-see we made an offer.

After a little bit of give and take we found out late this afternoon that our offer was accepted. Trying to close a week before Christmas. I'll do my best to keep up to date as we progress. I know through our house hunting I liked finding people who were blogging about their homebuying experiences so I hope to share the trials and tribulations and the signing of the documents right here in this space.

Tomorrow we have to call our mortgage guy and give him the go ahead to proceed now that the offer was accepted. Schedule the home inspection, line up the down payment and unearth a ton of paperwork. Now that these plans are solid Ms. C. and I are both happy that we took on the 2nd job as that extra cash flow will be coming in super handy. Luckily the house is coming with all the bells and whistles intact including 2 flat screen HD tv's, king size bed and matress, leather living room sleeper sectional and an 8 seat pub style dining room table. But there will be a bit of painting and decorating going on thats for sure.

The brand new furniture was a nice addition to the sale, especially moving in December in Massachusetts. Plus that will allow us to try to sell alot of our furniture from the current apartment on craigslist and use that money for paint and odds and ends that we need at the new place.

Cross you fingers, lets hope that everything works out,, and I will keep you posted.

A little bit of catch-up

So I have been working another job. Don't even know if I mentioned that yet. So that has been keeping me busy later into the evening on Monday thru Wednesday. On Saturday Crystal and I had appointments to go and look at 5 different condos. The one we were most excited to see ended up being our favorite, and we are headed back over again this Saturday to give it the once over, but thing seem to be moving in a positive direction. Cross your fingers.

We spent Sunday night at Mohegan Sun for my birthday and the one year anniversary of us meeting for the first time and going to Ikea! We mentioned that we are very influential bloggers who average a whole 20 hits a day! HA! Next thing you know they were like, huumm, let us upgrade you to a suite. Just kidding, but luckily not about the upgrade! Ended up with an awesome room, probably 1,000 square feet, soaking tub built into the window, huge glass shower, pimp living room. So after a great dinner we spent all night in the room rather on the casino floor losing money. We ordered some great room service delights pictured above. Lost about $100 combined by the time we rolled out of there the next afternoon. Had a superb dinner and some great R&R on Sunday night so it made for a great close to home escape.