La Terraza
I’d like to clarify a couple of things on the condo conversion I mentioned yesterday.
I have several clients who are interested in possibly purchasing something to rent as an investment. Most of these clients are very gung ho in about the theory of investing in real estate, and then get a little gun shy when they are presented with something to purchase (this applies to my mother, especially, who regularly bugs me with, ‘Find something for us!’ and then when something comes up, says, ‘OK, can you show me proof on paper of what this investment will yield in the next five years? Cause I’m not sure it’s for us…’). It’s a very reasonable feeling, and let me tell you, I am all for doing your research and taking smart risks. However, it’s important to remember there will always be an element of risk involved. Investing in real estate is really just refined gambling.
Anyway, the condo conversion I mentioned yesterday, is possibly a smart investment. I don’t actually know much about them yet, because I haven’t done any real research, but the area they are in is upscale and the company doing the conversion is well-known for nice condos in great locations. The point of all of this is, they have an appointment list for their sales day. They started taking appointments February 24th. Sale day is April 1st. The way it works is that they start at 7 AM and schedule 100 or so people every half hour all day. There are only 224 units available. Now, of course not everyone will purchase, but you can see where a hot complex would go quickly. I honestly didn’t believe this hype at the last sale day I went to. We had an 11 AM appointment and I thought we would be fine. The units were long gone by the time our group shuffled through. If you want to have a chance at buying a condo at all, and if you want to have any kind of choice in the unit you get, it’s vital to get an early appointment.
This is why I want to urge any investor or possible investor to contact me quickly. In order to get an appointment you have to sign a form (which I currently have in my hands) simply giving you the rules for sale day (minimum earnest money deposit, preferred lender incentives, etc) and you need to be preapproved by one of their preferred lenders. This does not lock you into ANYTHING. In fact, you don’t even have to attend your appointment if you decide it’s not for you. However, it does give you the opportunity to purchase and a month to research the investment.
I have talked my parents into getting an appointment and will be visiting the sales office to find out answers to questions like what the units have been renting for and the percentage that are rented at any given time. I will, of course, report on this research here and let you know my yay or nay on La Terraza (which, of course will be nothing but the opinion of one newish Realtor), but by then it may well be too late to get a decent appointment. All is not lost, of course, with Montage, several of the units fell out of escrow and because we managed to annoy the sales office regularly and did purchase one. It was just a much more difficult process.
So if you think you’re interested, let’s get an early appointment and avoid the mess!