Credit | The Habitation of Justice

From the basement to the second floor! The apartment hunt continues…

Lincoln Adams | July 14, 2009 @ 3:00 pm

After checking out the studio once inhabited by gremlins from hell, I happened to stumble across another apartment listing while surfing online, this one in a co-op that was literally next to work. The grounds were gorgeous and I had been interested in living there for a while, but since the apartments had long been converted into co-ops there was no point in looking further… until I saw that listing. The owner was offering a unit to rent with an option to buy, so I emailed the realtor and surprisingly got a call only minutes later. They were having an open house that day, so I got to see the apartment only a few hours after I sent the email. Awesome.

It was weird that I would end up looking at two most ideal apartment buildings I had been considering for years, all on the same day. I met up with the realtor after a quick trip to the grounds and we took a look inside. The current occupants hadn’t moved out so I got to see how it would look completely furnished. Weirdly enough, for a one bedroom it actually felt cramped, as opposed to the airy studio I had just seen before. It was clean and carpeted though, but still, there were some areas that were rusting and painted over. No washer/dryer hookup either, and for this they were valuing the unit at over $262,000. :blink: Dude, please, it was next to a train station for crying out loud. It’s nice, but it ain’t THAT nice.

I knew what was going on though. The owner didn’t really want to rent it, he wanted to sell it, but was having trouble finding buyers. So I’d be the guy who’d fill the apartment for the time being until the owner finally found someone stupid enough to buy, then my righteous bon-bons would be tossed outta there faster than you can say pizza delivery. The only way to head that off was to take the option to buy, but for that price I’d never consider it. I wouldn’t even have my own parking space, much less a garage, which I’d have to put on a waiting list for. I also had to fill out an application and be interviewed and approved by the co-op board before I could officially move in.

I thanked the realtor for her time and said if I was interested I’d contact her.

The next day I got an email from her to let me know the apartment had been taken, for which she apologized but said that these apartments do tend to go very fast.

:blink:

You get the feeling I’m being snowed by a lot of folks these days? Was not any potential renter subject to board approval before he could dive into his new digs? So… what… they found another renter, checked his credit and got him board approved five minutes after I left? Really?

Well you know, that’s it for me. Totally done with apartment hunting now. I actually didn’t have the money to move yet, but since these two happened to be apartments I’ve been looking at since forevers, it was nice to finally get some major questions about them all answered on the same day and move on. Now I can focus on saving my money instead, and when I have enough to pay down a deposit and a broker’s fee, then I can start looking hardcore until I find a castle worthy of my sound mind and well sculptured presence. :ggrin:

Tags: apartment, apartments, credit, hunting, listing, open house, owner, studio
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log

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Who owes who on Wall Street?

Lincoln Adams | September 25, 2008 @ 5:56 pm

I’m basically a schnook when it comes to money, not really understanding what went down on Wall Street other than the sensible fact that if you loan massive amounts of money to people with poor credit, bad things tend to happen.

My boy Casey though does a great job of writing a primer on how the banks screwed us over:

I recently used this example explaining things to a friend of mine. Just to warn you, this is a very simplistic view of how the banking and monetary systems work, but it’s basically the way it goes. Let’s say you have $100,000, your life savings. You go put it in the bank to earn some interest. The bank says they’ll pay you 3%. The next day, Jim Bob walks into the bank, and requests a loan for $100,000, to buy a house. Jim Bob has only mediocre credit. But the housing market has been so great, the bank gets greedy and says, “Hey! He may not be able to pay, but then we’ll just sell the house for a 25% profit! Everybody wins!” The bank tells Jim Bob he’ll have to pay 6% interest on the loan. He agrees, and the bank gives him your $100,000, and he goes and buys the house. Here’s the current situation. Jim Bob pays 6% annually on the loan. The bank pays you 3% on your deposit. The bank gets the difference, 3%, as profit. That’s how they make their money.

Now, Jim Bob was stupid, and got a variable rate mortgage…so as interest rates go back up, his payments begin to go up too. Jim Bob can’t seem to get enough money to pay his bills, so he defaults on his loan. The bank repossesses his home. Poor Jim Bob. But wait… the bank now has lost the income it was getting from Jim Bob, but they still have to pay you 3% on your money. They try to sell the house, in order to get your money back, but the real estate prices have dropped, instead of rising, so they can’t get your full $100,000 back. They can only get $80,000. In the meantime, you’ve been watching the news, and decide that you don’t want to keep your money in the bank, because you’re scared it will go under . . . and you’ve got a little over the $100,000 FDIC limit in there now, so you better move quick. The bank only has $80,000 of your money left, so they have to take $20,000 of their own money (or borrow it from another bank) in order to pay you all they owe you. Imagine this happening nationwide, and you have what happened last Wednesday night. The economic system freezes up . . . people won’t lend money to the banks, because they’re concerned about them collapsing, and the banks don’t have enough cash to pay out to their depositors.

Go read the rest.

Tags: bank, banking, banks, cash, credit, FDIC, home, housing, housing market, interest, monetary systems, money, mortgage, people, primer, Wall Street
Categories: News Fit To Blog

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