buycondo
New Member
That's tough. I have purchased an assignment before and needed to come up with a lot of money but this was 5+ years ago so the downpayment wasn't as large as what it would be now and the value skyrocketed since I bought right when it looked like the market was going to crash and a lot of people were trying to get out of deals. If I had more money I would be a millionaire right now because there were so many deals.
Yea, the agent doesn't tell you how much money you're actually going to lose. All they tell you is how good of a deal you're getting. There are a lot of costs that come with buying and selling property. Some of it is downright ridiculous but it's a reality. It's really difficult to buy assignments now because builders want a lot of upfront money nowadays and that's just too much $ to spend. There is the occasional deal, though.
As far as resale vs precon... Resale is not that far off from precon prices now. You actually see what you get and can investigate the building. That's something you can't do with precon. The boom has created a number of poorly built buildings. You buy precon you have no idea what you're getting. It's really a crap shoot. 25% down plus 20K closing costs at registration is enough to keep me away. Then when you consider that condo prices are on the way down, I think there are more deals in resale.
If you have the money now. I'd personally say resale. If you don't...then precon would be better option.
If its a good builder I don't think you have to worry too much about the unit. You see the finishes and the floor plans so just a little imagination is needed.
RBC only requires 20% down which is the same as resale. Also closing costs is typically 10k to maybe 13k for these downtown condos. Are closing costs less for resale? I've never done a resale so I don't know.
I'm not so sure condo prices are going down. I think they have declined lately but to time the bottom of the decline is very hard! I was lucky in 2009 and bought my primary residence at the bottom by fluke!
I'll agree to disagree with you on pre con vs resale! I just don't like the competition on MLS!