Before Super Bowl kickoff, we're taking 12411 Rockaway Beach Blvd. to the 10 yard line. On Wednesday night we went out to Great Neck to meet with the seller's preferred lender and talk numbers. No photos of the meeting itself, but I snuck a few of the nondescript office building.
He explained that he himself is not the lender. He represents the seller and should we move forward with an offer he would hook us up with a bank that's part of the Federal Savings Bank loan association. Because an offer hasn't been made yet, he ran the numbers at the listed purchase price, $470,000, and with a 3.25% interest he confirmed that morning, he says we're looking at $2,774 a month, inclusive of mortgage, interest, taxes, PMI and common charges. Understanding that enhanced homeowner's and flood insurance isn't included, we rounded to an even $3,000.
The next logical step? To ride the commute, of course. Thursday night I left the office at 6:24pm and boarded the A train for the end-of-the-line.
Stopwatch rollin' along, I got all the way to Euclid Blvd. shocked I had made it so far out in such a short amount of time. By the time I passed JFK I was an hour in. The exit at 116th Beach St. Station happened at the 1hr22min mark and I finally touched the door of the potential new home at 1hr30min on the dot.
Our commute now is 50 min door-to-door. We spent the evening angsting over this compromise. We'd get everything we want - a duplex, a backyard, a parking space, in-unit laundry, a dishwasher, a great public school district and the beach for crying out loud - but would essentially double our commute.
We have an appointment today with a realtor to see more properties in the neighborhood, so who knows!? But if we did put an offer on this place, we may just roll the dice at $425,000 and say take it or leave it. Fate can handle the rest.