Nesting Part II: The BellTel

Having discovered the Rent to Own Option while hunting for a new apartment, we were eager to re-visit once we settled. We let the management know we were in the market to buy, so our lease in 100 Maiden Lane would likely broken. They seemed to be fine with the arrangement, even suggesting that summer time was a good time to move. So we began house hunting. We were modest in our expectations. Still recovering from the financial strain of the wedding less than a year ago, we figured we’d just see what the market had to offer, and hoped for one of the incredible deals we’d read about (i.e. 230 Ashland Place).

Scouring Streeteasy, Zillow and Property Shark I made an itinerary for our first Sunday opening house. First stop, 53 Boerum Place.
There were 3 open houses that day, 2 one bedrooms and one 2 bedroom all located on the same floor and right next to each other – foreboding. It was what we expected smallish one bedrooms and a decent two bedroom. Not much views, but plenty of light. The units were resales, and they looked lived in. In one unit there were gaping holes between the floor boards, probably about 2 inches wide. The agent noted that it was “normal wear and tear”. It didn’t look that normal to us. Even more unusual, the lounge, “fitness center” and laundry room were all in the lobby. Odd? Poor planning? Schlepping my laundry in my jammies through the lobby? At nearly $600 sqft, no thanks.

We went to Belltel next, and were impressed. Opening the door to unit 6F we thought we had entered the sales office. The entrance was expansive, easily 12ft ceiling, and a long gallery hallway that felt opulent. We were certain this was out of our price range, and were pleasantly surprised to find it was just a little beyond our range. We were so impressed we decided to check out other units in the building — sponsor units that weren’t resales.

We waited over an hour to see the sales agent, but it was worth the wait. She showed us similar units (same layouts) but on higher floors to 6F, and were priced even more competitively. It felt like right. After just one more viewing we were ready to make our offer. Sadly the units interested in were no longer available, but they had other units with the same layouts, same price points and on the floors we were looking at. We moved aggressively, got our Good Faith Estimates, and were ready to move. Yes, the units we looked at were not unlike a large shoe box, 3 “bedrooms” but with no windows they were actually “home offices”, and most worrying was the meager two windows in the unit. The windows, though large were still only two that looked directly out at the Verizon building across the street. The small sacrifice on light we felt was well worth the space.
Pros:

• 1273 square feet – we wouldn’t know what to do with all of that space!
• Well priced at nearly $500 a square foot, for a 9th floor unit with 12 foot ceilings.
• Nice amenities: conference room, gym, massage room, yoga room, kids playroom, roof decks and a 24hr doorman
• Very low common charges (less than $500/mo)
• Subway right outside the door, and accessible to every major line within a 2 – 4 block radius

Cons:

• Limited Sunlight. The unit layout and well placed indoor “windows” makes the most of the sunlight, but there were only 2 windows.
• The neighborhood was still in development. This is helped by the accessible subway. But it’s not the most family friendly
• Fixtures – they were new and in good condition, but we heard that these were actually only “decent” quality.
• Tiles – Josh didn’t like the small bathroom tiles. Too reminiscent of the Ghettoway.

But  how can you compete with a space that just felt like home the minute we opened the door? We entered into ~ 2.5 week negotiation on price, and mortgage shopping.

Boerum Place & Belltel

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