116 Signed Contracts - Only 16 UNSIGNED remain!!!
Good Morning All,
We're presently at 116 signed contracts! There are only 16 individuals who remain. Please continue to speak with your neighbors via phone, text, door knocking, etc... It really helps. Thank you!
We're presently at 116 signed contracts! There are only 16 individuals who remain. Please continue to speak with your neighbors via phone, text, door knocking, etc... It really helps. Thank you!
I'm going to post this each time we have a blog post update, as we are fast approaching the deadline to sign. At just past a month since the initial developer meeting, 88% of your neighbors have agreed to sell. That alone should let you know how generous this deal is.
ReplyDeleteTo the hold outs:
A little background on me. I am a Mensa member, have an Ivy League (Wharton classes competed) degree in economics and am a cash based real estate investor. I have purchased around $600,000 in ITP condos in the last 3.5 years that I have sold for around $1,000,000.
1. $287.65/ft is a GIFT for this building. You can buy in the Eclipse, 325 Paces, 2828 Peachtree, Buckhead Village Lofts, The Concorde, Park Lane on Peachtree, Mathieson Exchange Lofts, Ovation, Phoenix on Peachtree, etc at that price per square foot. That is just in our zip code. Those building are light years nicer than ours. All those buildings have had sales in the last 6 months at that $/sq. ft or less!
2. I had my unit on the market for almost 11 months - a loft (only 6 exist in here) - the nicest one bedroom in the building on the market in Sobu. It was appraised 6/27/17 at $135k for 910 square feet. That is $148.35/ft. I had to show my unit about 50 times, which means I had to waste an hour cleaning it and an hour giving building/home tours to each lookie loo. You don't have to do that in this deal - they are buying your place sight unseen! This deal would appraise my old place at $261,762, which is almost DOUBLE what it appraised for less than 6 months ago! The only reason my unit sold was because the person was hoping to be a part of the assemblage. If my 910 square foot loft with 10 foot ceilings, real HVAC, huge windows, quartz countertops, larger tub/sink, stainless professional level appliances, a back door next to your parking spot and no neighbors above you on the first floor was appraised at $135k, what is your unit worth? Not NEARLY as much as you think it is! My loft unit also appraises for $10,000 more than the standard units (8 foot ceilings) due to a $5,000 upgrade for ceiling height and $5,000 upgrade for having a real HVAC system (not a wall unit).
3. We are now flagged as a non warrantable condo that banks won't loan on unless you have at least 10% down due to low reserves. I lost a deal due to this fact.
4. Our HOA fees are already 56 cents a foot and they are going up 10% in the new year. Newer, nicer buildings have much lower HOA fees/ft - around 33 cents a foot. You not only will have a much nicer place compared to what you had before (using the proceeds from the sale and spending a similar amount), you will pay a few hundred less per month in HOA fees. The main reason our building is not appreciating is due to the fact that most of our condo fees are over $400/month. That is the invisible barrier that pushes people to look elsewhere. Ask any realtor.
5. Your leaseback includes no HOA's/property tax and you can sublease to whomever or enjoy your unit with no costs for 1 year since you already paid for it out of your sales proceeds. The new owners will also be on the hook to fix anything wrong in your unit and will probably include a concierge service for us.
6. More than 25% of the people here are renters. The board is starting to enforce that rent cap with $750/month fines for illegal renters. Only 5 people left who haven't signed are approved to rent. If we DO assemble, you can sublease to anyone you want for a year. The reason many people bought in here was due to the condo board looking the other way and allowing illegal renters - that gravy train is now over! This is a double whammy as it makes it impossible for people to rent illegally AND drains our reserves by not having the money coming from those illegal renters.
7. Normal commercial sales agents charge 10%. When you sell yourself, you usually have to budget 6% to a realtor and 3.5% for closing costs. So 6% is a great commission rate and we should be happy to pay that amount.
8. I have owned 3 units in here since 2012. I love this place. But real estate is cyclical. If we don't take this deal, we will have wait about 10 years (5 years down, 5 years up) to see a similar one. We are at the all time high in prices in the Atlanta market. One hiccup (North Korea, etc) and we could see another recession. No unit ever in the history of Sobu has ever sold for the almost $300/ft they are generously offering us. Don't forget, units in here were selling in the $20,000 range just 5 years ago, and yes, you read that number correctly! (I bought one of them).
Delete9. This building only zoned for certain height, etc. The fact that they want to use it for what it used to be and can close quickly, for a million more than last time is a GIFT! I was expecting $259/ft which was the last offer around 10 years ago. This is almost $30/ft higher! This added about $25k to my expected return.
10. They put up a building blocking ALL of the southern facing units and destroying our skyline view from the rooftop deck. They are going to do the same to the west. If we don't take advantage of this current deal, our property values are just going to continue to plummet. Our pool may be rendered useless for getting sun depending on what they build to the west.
11. If they have to fix the plumbing, it will cost over $1,000,000. Please reread that number as many times as you need to. The roof is caving in. The building is closing in on 75 years old. The writing is on the wall here.
12: No one has lived here more than about 15 years. This is not a childhood home, or some such with memories attached. This is a lifeboat pulling up to the Titanic - get IN and paddle AWAY fast!
13: You have a YEAR to figure out where to move after the last signed contract. We live in the exact center on Atlanta, many of the buildings I mentioned you could walk to!
14. Moving isn't fun, but neither is dying in a sinking ship. There are many reputable bonded/insured companies you can use, and I'm sure many would be happy to give you discount if you referred your neighbors to them.
15. I know about 5 friends/contact/neighbors here at Sobu. I have emailed/called/texted/Facebooked each one asking them to sign. I encourage you to do the same. This is a group effort!
16. For example, just between myself and two friends who live in the building, our total gross profits between the 3 of us on our 3 units would be $422,381 if the assemblage goes through. Without it, we are looking at $107,670 in gross profit if we sell at current market value. That is almost a 4x difference. If the holdouts are costing just 3 people a chance to make an average of $140,000 a piece, what are they doing to the other 113 people who have already signed? At this point 12% of the people are holding up the financial futures of the other 88%. This is life changing money for most people.
DeleteI will be placing letters under the doors or illegal renters today who are in units which have not signed. I have printed the HOA letter informing of the date and fines of illegal renters as well as a list of unit numbers which are allowed to be rented. Hopefully this will get them talking with their landlords about the situation.
ReplyDeleteCurious to learn how you personally know whom the illegal renters are?
DeleteA previous post stated who was currently living in the building on the non-signed list. I paired that with the approved renters on the list to come up with 8 units. I put the HOA letter about fines as of feb 1 as well as a list of approved rental units in the building. Nothing threatening that we haven’t received ourselves as unit owners. Hopefully this will start a conversation between tenant and landlord.
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