3. Make an Offer — Diary of a Mad Renovator

3. Make an Offer

It was back to the proverbial, apartment hunting, drawing board. I literally looked at hundreds of apartments; uptown, downtown, east, west – only one on east 83nd street captured my imagination. It had everything I coveted, including an outdoor patio. The challenge – it would require vast renovations, which on top of the asking price made it prohibitive -- regardless it continued to live in the back of my mind.

It was well into Spring and the hunt continued – I looked at everything new to the market that matched my criteria, but nothing was right. I even made a few offers on apartments, all half hardly, and was secretly relieved when they fell through. I went back to look at east 82nd street several times – it was like being in a dysfunctional relationship, I wasn't sure if we should break up or get married. In anticipation of every visit I thought this would be the moment I would either walk away or fall in love. Neither happened.

I reached out to my designer and friend Charles Riley, who is effortlessly in-tune to my particular decorative style. Charles and I poured over the floorplan and came up with a plan and budget that brought me a little bit closer to love. I visited once more with plans in hand and decided it was love. Like any committed relationship it just needed lots of nurturing. I had my broker put in an offer and after a little back and forth, it was accepted. Finally, no longer homeless! Well, sort of.

The moral of the story here is that you must make an offer. It should be informed and calculated and it must fall within your budget – however if there is anything you’re going to stretch a bit on, your dwelling should be the thing. Take a chance and make the offer that you can afford, even it’s not the offer the seller is expecting – you just may get your dream home.

Make an Offer

Written by Jaqui Lividini

It was back to the proverbial apartment hunting drawing board. I literally looked at hundreds of apartments uptown, downtown, east, west – but only one apartment on East 82nd Street, captured my imagination. It had everything I coveted, including a beautiful outdoor patio. The challenge – it would require vast renovations, which on top of the asking price made it prohibitive, but it continued to live in the back of my mind.

It was well into Spring and the hunt continued—I looked at everything new to the market and matched my criteria, but nothing was right. I went back to look at East 82nd street a few times, it was like being in a complex relationship, I wasn't sure if we should break up or get married. In anticipation of every visit I thought this would be the moment I would either walk away or fall in love. Neither happened.

I reached out to my designer, Charles Riley and showed him the floorplan, we came up with a plan and budget (more about that later) that brought me a little closer to love. I visited one more time with the plan in hand and decided it was love. Like any committed relationship, it just needed lots of nurturing. I had my broker put in an offer on the apartment, and after a little back and forth it was accepted. Finally, no longer homeless! Well, sort of.

The moral of the story here is that you must make an offer. It should be informed and calculated and it must fit within your budget. But if there is anything you’re going to stretch a bit on, your dwelling should be the thing. Take a chance and make the offer you can afford, even if it’s not the offer the seller is expecting—you just may get your dream home.