Audrey’s Condo Search Diary, Chapter 2: Pull My Offer
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My friend Audrey*, who’s shopping for a condo, has a budget of $350K and a growing sense that she’ll never own a condo in LA. When we last heard from her, she had made a final offer on a condo, and had been waiting for two weeks to hear back. She writes:
‘Looking for a condo in LA is just as surreal and puzzling as an episode of ‘Twin Peaks.’ In the last post I made an offer for a condo. I waited two weeks...then three weeks...Nothing. All sound and fury. I gave up and told Realtor to pull my offer. I know, it’s a long time but my hopefulness usurped my negotiation acumen.
‘I recently made another offer elsewhere and experienced David Lynch deja vu: ‘It is happening again.’ Cue the dancing little person and get some cherry pie and dang fine coffee for this because I know what’s next: another rejection, a quibble about my bid, or no answer at all.
Read the rest of Audrey’s Condo Search Diary below.
“I recently took a look at another reasonably priced joint in a semi questionable neighborhood. I’m not opposed to iron bars and sketchy hoods - I know my money will only get me so far. The red flags went up from the get go - seller’s agent didn’t have it together and I got the sinking feeling they were going to play games. And they did. So I’m out. I’m getting kind of used to this feeling - hurry up and wait. This is where friends insert some cosmic platitude - it wasn’t meant to be, something better will come along, mercury’s in retrograde.
“Maybe I’m expecting too much for my money - I want a 2BR condo for 350k. Maybe it’s the right price while the subprime chapter opens the trapdoors to more foreclosures - the Wizard will be revealed. I’ve been in this real estate game for a while and I’m not naive or clueless, just a first time buyer. I check out the blogs, crime stats via LAPD, talk to folks who live in these areas. I want to live within the city limits. I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and although it has unlimited offerings, I need a change of scenery - nothing drastic like CO, FL or the Ozarks but it’s nice to know those options are around. I started the search in the Valley, eyeballed places in Highland Park. The downtown renaissance is going to make someone happy but I’m just not that into it.
“Selfishly, I’m hoping prices will keep dropping, but the 323/310/818 will never be out of style and a 50% crash is more than optimistic. We all saw ‘Swingers.’ Traffic be damned, the beaches and palm trees will always be a draw. My credit and paperwork and financing ducks are all in a row - I’m not looking to get creative, I’m conservative with my cash. So I wait and research and read. And hope.
*”Audrey” is not her real name. Everything else is true.
Photo credit: Caleb Coppola
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