Apartment does not come with parking. How to find stalls for sale?
April 27, 2015 3:22 PM Subscribe
My dream apartment is for sale, but does not come with parking in the building. Apparently this is the reason the apartment has not sold in over 200 days. Resale without the parking would be extremely difficult.
Would love to FIND a stall for sale in the building but don't know where to start. The building management does not seem to want to help. The building is completely locked down so distributing mail to residents is near impossible.
What else could I potentially try to find a stall for sale?
Someone with access to the MLS would be able to find listed parking spaces in the building (or within a certain radius, if that interests you at all).
posted by papayaninja at 3:26 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by papayaninja at 3:26 PM on April 27, 2015
Since you sale the apartment is for sale, can we assume you mean it's actually a condominium building? If yes, then try asking someone on the condo board of directors.
(Alternatively, in my own condo building, people with spaces for sale and people who want to buy a space both post their info on a community bulletin board in our mail area.)
posted by easily confused at 3:43 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
(Alternatively, in my own condo building, people with spaces for sale and people who want to buy a space both post their info on a community bulletin board in our mail area.)
posted by easily confused at 3:43 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Why not mail letters to all the residents? You may not be able to distribute yourself but I'm sure you can mail them to residents without issue.
posted by arnicae at 3:44 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by arnicae at 3:44 PM on April 27, 2015
If the place hasn't sold in 200 days, perhaps the seller is interested in helping so as to get closer to a sale? What does the seller's agent say?
posted by zachlipton at 3:55 PM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 3:55 PM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: @Handfulofrain - Vancouver
@Papayaninja - I need to acquire one in the building for re-sale purposes / none are currently listed in MLS
@EasilyConfused - Good idea thanks!
@Arnicae - Great idea!
@Zachlipton - Unforchantly the selling isn't going to drop the price (have already attempted).
posted by audio at 4:02 PM on April 27, 2015
@Papayaninja - I need to acquire one in the building for re-sale purposes / none are currently listed in MLS
@EasilyConfused - Good idea thanks!
@Arnicae - Great idea!
@Zachlipton - Unforchantly the selling isn't going to drop the price (have already attempted).
posted by audio at 4:02 PM on April 27, 2015
I think zachlipton is asking if you can lean on the seller/seller's agent to try to help you find a parking spot (maybe they could distro your letters, for example, or might be able to connect you with some leads on possible openings in the building or the immediate area).
posted by handful of rain at 4:07 PM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by handful of rain at 4:07 PM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Is the seller an individual who owns that one particular condo? Maybe they can use their status as an owner/resident to try to find you a parking spot that is for sale.
posted by J. Wilson at 4:12 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by J. Wilson at 4:12 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
The building is completely locked down so distributing mail to residents is near impossible
Are you sure? Presumably you could have the seller's agent give you a few minutes in the mailroom.
If that's not an option for whatever reason, you probably know the building well enough to figure out the unit numbers and you could send a letter to every unit in the building using Canada Post. Just address it to "Resident of apartment #123" followed by the building address.
posted by ripley_ at 4:30 PM on April 27, 2015
Are you sure? Presumably you could have the seller's agent give you a few minutes in the mailroom.
If that's not an option for whatever reason, you probably know the building well enough to figure out the unit numbers and you could send a letter to every unit in the building using Canada Post. Just address it to "Resident of apartment #123" followed by the building address.
posted by ripley_ at 4:30 PM on April 27, 2015
Yeah sorry. I meant what handful of rain suggests. If the seller actually wants to sell the place and this is your "dream apartment," it's not unreasonable to ask the seller to help you try to find parking. What would the seller do if she wanted a parking space for herself? Post signs in a hallway or mailroom? Ask the management for help? Talk to the condo board? These are all things the seller/seller's agent can do more easily than you.
It is, of course, entirely possible that no parking is available in the building at any reasonable cost. Either the available spaces could all be in use and/or the owners may not want to sell their spaces because they know it will make their apartments impossible to sell without parking. Short of offering someone increasingly more money or finding parking elsewhere, there's not a lot much you can do about this.
posted by zachlipton at 4:41 PM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
It is, of course, entirely possible that no parking is available in the building at any reasonable cost. Either the available spaces could all be in use and/or the owners may not want to sell their spaces because they know it will make their apartments impossible to sell without parking. Short of offering someone increasingly more money or finding parking elsewhere, there's not a lot much you can do about this.
posted by zachlipton at 4:41 PM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
If this is your dream apartment, why are you focusing on resale value? Do you mean that if you can't get parking in the building you don't want to live there? Is it possible to park on the streets nearby?
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:09 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by the agents of KAOS at 7:09 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
the sell[er] isn't going to drop the price (have already attempted).
This is the real reason the condo has been on the market for the better part of a year. The price is too high.
A lack of parking space would just result in a drop in price. The seller doesn't want to do that, so it's stayed on the market.
Is this condo price on par with other that have a parking spot, or has that been fully discounted?
Can you ask for the the current owner to buy a spot for inclusion in the sale, i.e. get them to do the legwork for you?
Alternately, do you need a spot right away? Would you be prepared to look for one separately, after a sale?
posted by bonehead at 7:54 PM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
This is the real reason the condo has been on the market for the better part of a year. The price is too high.
A lack of parking space would just result in a drop in price. The seller doesn't want to do that, so it's stayed on the market.
Is this condo price on par with other that have a parking spot, or has that been fully discounted?
Can you ask for the the current owner to buy a spot for inclusion in the sale, i.e. get them to do the legwork for you?
Alternately, do you need a spot right away? Would you be prepared to look for one separately, after a sale?
posted by bonehead at 7:54 PM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
This is the real reason the condo has been on the market for the better part of a year. The price is too high.
Yep, anything else is does-not-compute. They're unwilling to lower the price to what a unit without a parking space goes for, so it hasn't sold. I'm sure someone would still buy the apartment without parking for $20.
The trick here is figuring out how much less it's worth without one. It's definitely not just the cost of buying a space, since getting a space is hard and a huge hassle as you've learned.
Even just to rent, apartments in my area cost significantly less without parking. Part of the reason i can even afford my pretty-nice apartment is because the building has no parking in an area with impossible parking. The discount is MUCH more than just the median cost of a rented parking space($175-200~). It's like $500+ a month, or a bit less if you have to rent the space at the building separately. Places that have cheap rent AND parking are literally never listed and are huge outliers, vacancies essentially last hours.
As far as i've seen, the spread is even wider at places you actually buy and own. I was shocked at how nice of a place you can buy for the price in a cool building... with no parking.
Any time anything has been on the market for that long, whether it's a house or a laptop on ebay, either the price is too high or something is wrong with it... and the price is too high when you take that in to account. You know what's wrong with the place here, which means the price is too high.
posted by emptythought at 12:18 PM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yep, anything else is does-not-compute. They're unwilling to lower the price to what a unit without a parking space goes for, so it hasn't sold. I'm sure someone would still buy the apartment without parking for $20.
The trick here is figuring out how much less it's worth without one. It's definitely not just the cost of buying a space, since getting a space is hard and a huge hassle as you've learned.
Even just to rent, apartments in my area cost significantly less without parking. Part of the reason i can even afford my pretty-nice apartment is because the building has no parking in an area with impossible parking. The discount is MUCH more than just the median cost of a rented parking space($175-200~). It's like $500+ a month, or a bit less if you have to rent the space at the building separately. Places that have cheap rent AND parking are literally never listed and are huge outliers, vacancies essentially last hours.
As far as i've seen, the spread is even wider at places you actually buy and own. I was shocked at how nice of a place you can buy for the price in a cool building... with no parking.
Any time anything has been on the market for that long, whether it's a house or a laptop on ebay, either the price is too high or something is wrong with it... and the price is too high when you take that in to account. You know what's wrong with the place here, which means the price is too high.
posted by emptythought at 12:18 PM on April 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
If the apartment has been on the market for so long because of the lack of parking space, presumably the owner has already tried whatever you would try? They are much more motivated to find a parking spot and sell their apartment than you are in buying it and maybe reselling down the road, right? I would try to bargain down the price to whatever you think is reasonable without the spot (and thus you can reasonably resell it in the future if need be without losing money). If they won't negotiate...well, that's probably why they haven't sold their apartment in 200 days, unfortunately.
posted by rainbowbrite at 12:48 PM on April 28, 2015
posted by rainbowbrite at 12:48 PM on April 28, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by handful of rain at 3:24 PM on April 27, 2015