Any trouble closing on SLU condos?

[rollinst.]

I am (hopefully) moving into Rollin Street Flats in March when it is finished. I was wondering if anyone else here has purchased a presale unit there and if they are worried about closing on their unit? Or if anyone has advice for those of us who are. We are feeling a bit anxious at this point.

[rollinst.]

I guess I didn't post this earlier. Sorry if it goes up twice...

SO, I thought I would let others know where we are at at this point in the game. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are anxious about our presale purchase at Rollin St. We have anticipated living there so long that I have fully envisioned how I will decorate, where I will eat, etc. So, it's really hard to think that we may not be able to live there. I want to make it clear that we are posting no blame on anyone. It was our decision to purchase presale. We did this based on a projected budget which now with the economy is not quite coming to fruition. Here are our main hardships/reasons why we may not be able to move in.

* possibly cannot afford it now. We budgeted in expected bonuses (that we have been getting for the last 5 years) and now this year they will either be a lot smaller or non-existent
* lack of secondary loans. At the time of pre-approval we assumed we would be able to get a "piggy back" loan for 5 -15% of the mortgage and now they are not available. This means we will have to finance the whole sum under a JUMBO loan and the interest on those are very HIGH, making the monthly payment unaffordable.
* We may be asked to put another 10 -15% down at closing which we cannot do in these tight economic times.

We did call and talk to the Countrywide rep. and were told that in a while they will know how high FHA will go as far as maximum loan amounts. It will go up, but most likely not as high as we need it to.

We do know of the $7500 credit that is available. This is nice, but does not help a lot and does need to be paid back.

So, that's where we are. We are still trying to make it happen, but it does look kinda bleak right now. Anyone in the same boat?

[Hasbro Zepok]

There will be price reductions for presale units. There's only around 50 units sold and 20 of those are to investors. At current price points, those investors will walk and they'll be left with about 15 percent of their units possible to close. They're never going to tip their hand about lowering prices since there's always some remote possibility that the market could miraculously turn around and take off. But you can be sure Vulcan is scrambling right now trying to figure out how to deal with this. They don't want their presale customers to walk because they've got people that are ready to move in provided the price and financing is acceptable. Huge loss on their part to start over and have everybody walk away. I guarantee you they are crunching numbers in preparation for negotiating with their presale buyers as well as lowering prices overall. When Rollin Street hit the market, all new condos were being priced at projected market value at completion. You weren't getting a break on price for buying early, you were getting the privelege of selecting your unit and amenities. If you factor in that they probably figured in a minimum of a 5% YOY appreciation, along with the soft market and approximate 10% reduction in prices over the last 1 1/2 years since most people were buying, these units should drop by at least 20%. It's going to be up to Vulcan, but I can't see Paul Allen playing chicken with the market. He's a smart business man. He'll know that he's better off getting sales moving, fill up Rollin and Enso and keep moving. And don't worry about being locked in at the presale price, once they decide to lower prices overall, unless you just say nothing and sign on the dotted line, you'll get the same reductions as they'll offer the non pre-sale units.

[rollinst.]

More bad news for us. This year is really testing us. My husband has just been informed that there will be NO bonuses given this year. We were counting on this to help pay our monthly mortgage. We WILL NOT be able to afford our place now. Seriously sucks.

[Lori Mason Curran]

Vulcan respects the relationship it has with all of its buyers. We will work with every one of them
to help identify the best way for each of them to successfully close and move into their new home. The sales team is available to respond to any questions our buyers may have. Please contact them at the Discovery Center 11am to 6pm daily [phone] or call our preferred lender, Countrywide, at [phone].

[Garron]

I have contacted Vulcan and requested that the company take a transparent approach to this situation as many buyers would likely be in the same situation. I asked that Vulcan reach out to the people who supported their project and let them know what Vulcan's strategy was for ensuring that the deals on the condos could be closed in a manner that was mutually agreeable for both their company and the buyers. I was basically told to contact them closer to closing. This response was less than I expected.
Have the circumstances changed? Is this close enough to the closing date that Vulcan has decided to take the shift in the market seriously?

[rollinst.]

I would like some transparency and pro-active measures in this matter, too. "Waiting it out" sure doesn't make us feel too secure considering that we are all thinking we may bail because of economic and market conditions.

In response to Christina above: I may be mistaken about March. It may well be an April completion date. And there usually is a longer wait than the expected completion date, however, our project sure seems to be moving along quickly.

[Christina]

From this blog site, it doesn't look like Vulcan is making sure all their buyers are satisfied with what they're getting. Here are comments posted about veer lofts.

http://seattlecondosandlofts.com/2006/05/veer-lofts

Veer lofts owners - can you share your experience?

[rollinst.]

Wow. I went to the link, thanks. I had no idea that people were unhappy closing at Veer. It is really a bummer that one of Vulcan's first condo projects seems to have some problems. I am worried about Rollin St. now.

[rollinst.]

When we were pre-approved for our Rollin St. loan, we were set on doing a piggy-back type of loan so that the rest of the mortgage could be FHA. At this point, there are no more of those loans available (piggy back) so since the mortgage amount is so high it is in the jumbo category of loans. The rates are HIGH on the jumbo loans and I don't think that FHA's will be adjusted enough to cover this much. So, as it stands we will probably be forced to put down another 10-15% on the unit for closing. How do they expect us to come up with this, especially in these times when bonuses are either a lot smaller or non-existent. I guess we should feel lucky we still have our jobs tho. It is looking dim for us to close on our unit. It is sad and frustrating because I have been envisioning us living there for almost a year now, ever since we put down our EM. Anyone concerned about the types of loans available to them?

[rollinst.]

So it did post. I apologize everyone!!!

[rollinst.]

I guess I didn't post this earlier. Sorry if it goes up twice...

SO, I thought I would let others know where we are at at this point in the game. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are anxious about our presale purchase at Rollin St. We have anticipated living there so long that I have fully envisioned how I will decorate, where I will eat, etc. So, it's really hard to think that we may not be able to live there. I want to make it clear that we are posting no blame on anyone. It was our decision to purchase presale. We did this based on a projected budget which now with the economy is not quite coming to fruition. Here are our main hardships/reasons why we may not be able to move in.

* possibly cannot afford it now. We budgeted in expected bonuses (that we have been getting for the last 5 years) and now this year they will either be a lot smaller or non-existent
* lack of secondary loans. At the time of pre-approval we assumed we would be able to get a "piggy back" loan for 5 -15% of the mortgage and now they are not available. This means we will have to finance the whole sum under a JUMBO loan and the interest on those are very HIGH, making the monthly payment unaffordable.
* We may be asked to put another 10 -15% down at closing which we cannot do in these tight economic times.

We did call and talk to the Countrywide rep. and were told that in a while they will know how high FHA will go as far as maximum loan amounts. It will go up, but most likely not as high as we need it to.

We do know of the $7500 credit that is available. This is nice, but does not help a lot and does need to be paid back.

So, that's where we are. We are still trying to make it happen, but it does look kinda bleak right now. Anyone in the same boat?

[Rick]

I know its getting tight with move-in approaching in ~4 months, but you may want to wait and see what happens with the gov's new 4.5% mortgage plan. I haven't done much research, so I don't know how what the maximum loan size will be.

In any case, I would caution against stretching yourself too far or digging too deep into your savings in the current economic climate. There will be another Rollin St. Heck, I just learned about one last night.