Category: Condos

The rules say I can change the rules, including this rule

5 October, 2009 (12:52) | Condos, Humor, Law, Markets, US News | No comments

By: David A. Smith

 

 
[Waves to Harvey and smiles]
“No, no, not yet. Not until me and Harvey get the rules straightened out.”“Rules!?!? In a knife fight!?!? No rules.”
Butch Cassidy and Harvey Logan
 
Abject desperation yields a creativity verging on the laughable, as illustrated by this recent Wall Street Journal about residents whose developer has what can only [...]

You can check out any time you like

2 September, 2009 (13:24) | Condos, Disclosure, Hotels, Securities, Trump | No comments

When you buy a slice of a property, is it real estate or is it a financial security? 
 

Bring your alibis
 
Resolving such legal-metaphysical questions controls what recourse a buyer may have against a seller, and when the disputes involve thousands of buyers, the outcome can run to centimillions if not billions of dollars, as illustrated [...]

I was dumb so give me my money back

10 April, 2009 (09:44) | Condos, Legal, New York City, US News | 1 comment

“I was dumb, so give me my money back.”
 
Okay, there’s more to these condo-buyers’ claims than simply that … but not much more. 
 

 
Insolvency being the mother of creative litigating, as shown in this New York Times article, numerous buyers’ attorneys (who, one presumes, are not being paid contingently) have been concocting interesting theories to [...]

A toe in the ownership water: Part 2, the would-be sellers

18 December, 2008 (09:24) | Condos, Finance, Innovations, Markets, New York City, Rent-to-own, Subprime, Tenure | No comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]
 
In our exploration of the infancy of twenty-first century rent-to-own, using this New York Times story as our text, we have up to now heard from the would-be buyers who intend to be homeowners – condo owners – one day, but are delaying for any of several good reasons:
 

My superego and [...]

A toe in the ownership water: Part 1, the would-be buyers

17 December, 2008 (09:35) | Condos, Finance, Innovations, Markets, New York City, Rent-to-own, Subprime, Tenure | No comments

There goes my wallet! And my ego with it!
 
The thing about falling prices is that even as commodities get cheap (have you looked at the price of gasoline lately?), our human desire not to look foolish to ourselves keeps us from buying – because maybe the price will fall even further tomorrow.  Yet housing, distinct [...]