Becoming a homeowner in Brooklyn Part 7
May 26, 2014
Homestretch to Closing.
Here’s where we are now. We’ve had the co-op board interview and are waiting to hear back about approval. Another thing I’ve learned is that co-op boards have all the power in this process. I thought we’d be waiting on the bank but it’s the interview that has taken so long. We originally had an interview set in April and it move to early May then late May and now that we’ve been interviewed they have to go through the process of getting us approved by all of the other members and we are supposed to hear back by the middle of this week. Then our attorney has to arrange a closing date with the Seller’s attorney as well as the co-op’s attorney. We’re ready the seller is ready but we have no idea how long it will take to schedule time with the co-op’s attorney. Sigh. Homestretch. Now it’s just time to wait.
Another difficult situation we’re dealing with is finding a contractor. I mentioned in an earlier blog that we made an offer on this place knowing it needed work. We need to take down a wall to open up the kitchen and basically update the entire kitchen and bathroom. All on a pretty tight budget. I’m sure I’ll have learned lots of frustrating lessons during this process that I will be sharing with you all in future posts but for now we have met with two contractors. I have tried contacting a third that was referred by a friend but he never called back. Bad sign already so I’ve counted him out. Waiting for an estimate from one and we’ll make our decision soon. Then we have to get this all approved by the board and if our dealings so far are any indication we’ll be waiting again for approval before we could begin construction. I just know the renovations are going to be the most difficult part of all this but i’m trying to look ahead. Soon we are going to be in a home that we actually own. There was a time that I thought we’d never be able to say that. It’s very exciting!