The condo has some strong pros:
- The unit has all of the amenities/perks that we're looking for
- The price is low enough that it could immediately be rented out for a little profit because current Brooklyn rents are quite high.
It's a populated area near a hospital so rentals shouldn't be difficult
- Inspection came up reasonably clean
- The area is likely to go up in value (although the building is not in the best block, it has reasonable foot traffic)
- My family has lived in the area for a very long time so I will likely be here for quite awhile as well and I'm very familiar with the area
- I am the first buyer in the condo building and I am aware I may have trouble getting a loan
- The seller/sponsor may have ideas about selling half of the building and renting out half which may reduce the value of my unit/the building.
- There is a commercial space on the 1st floor. I've been told it could be converted into a doctors office or medical office. This could be a risk if it ends up hurting the building overall.
- The seller/sponsor is able to control the Condo Board indefinitely so long as they retain ownership of 1 unit and the commercial space
- The seller has 6 buildings or so that they've worked on in the past. In 2 buildings, the owner sold all of the units (either to family members or the general public). However in another, currently half of the building is sold, while the other half is rented.
- In these other buildings it appears that most of the unit owners in are staying which implies that the building owner isn't terrible. However, the ones who are selling, seem to be selling after 4 years for very small or no increases over their own purchase price. In some cases, these sellers also loaned money from the original seller which seems very odd.
- Even though I may be able to purchase this condo outright, I may not necessarily be able to sell the unit easily if I ever needed to. I can rent it as a condo, but this could trap some assets for awhile. Maybe even indefinitely depending on how the sponsor structures the building? I'm not afraid of renting it out but I would likely want a property manager or something
Has anyone else been in this kind of situation?