70 Washington again
Over in neighboring DUMBO, the condominium development-du-jour, 70 Washington, seems to have run into some snags, as reported by curbed. Seems like the contract terms require a 20% down payment within 45 days. While the quoted person on curbed seems to think this is non-standard and outright outrageous, it has been similar to our experience on the Washington Condos.
At first, we had to put down 10% earnest money within 7 days. Despite having taken them a good 3 months to put it into an escrow account, they amended the offering plan to state that the maximum financing allowed would be 80%, ie a 20% down payment. From what little I know, I believe the impetus behind this was to try and get a buyer of a higher ilk than the regular 10% down payment payers. And I can't blame the developer. I'd rather have someone who could afford putting down 20% than 10%. Remember the old adage 'one in the hand is worth more than two in the bush'?
Fortunately for us, since we had executed our contract before the new amendment, we were grandfathered and were allowed to have a 10% down payment.
The reader also rues the fact that they could potentially lose out on interest on their money for a good 6 to 7 months while the certificate of occupancy floundered in expediter-land. Since the 70 Washington project is more of a conversion than new construction, I would think that delays would not be as bad as it would have been in a new construction.
1 Comments:
Hi there - I'm the person who posted on Curbed. In my own experience, other developers said they expected only 50% of the ultimate downpayment preconstruction, which translated into 5% for many buildings I saw. And the apartment i was looking at had a December target for occupancy, meaning 6-7 months was in line with what they said. I had a friend who waited much longer for an apartment in the Gretsch, which is also a conversion. Hope this clarification helps and thanks for running a good blog!
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