The Loft thing

So, here's the thing...and I've had a few drinks, so I'm sorry if this gets a little rambly and confusing. We found this loft to go look at. It's right down the street, has a separate bedroom, 2 baths, and a gorgeous view of downtown. The building is cool and so is the space...with a few "taste" upgrades. So, we scheduled to meet with the listing realtor...she sent her husband and "partner."

After spending a good amount of time looking, he mentioned that the prior deal fell through because the building was no longer FHA approved. ????!!!!!?????...Ok, so we want an FHA loan. Apparently one tenant bought a 4th unit to expand his loft (must be nice) which rendered the property FHA DISapproved. The HOA had no idea that they would lose this status with his buying another loft, so ever since they've been in a battle to regain FHA status. That was disappointment #1.

THEN he mentions that the $255/mo HOA dues had an additional assessment fee attached to it because of the new elevator they put in...after reading the paperwork I discovered that this elevator that goes 2 floors cost them $150,000...WTF?!?!? That would be a total of $390/mo in HOA dues until "assessment was paid."

THEN we asked to see the rooftop deck (one of the selling points) to which he says, "oh, my wife hasn't allowed me up there yet." So, I thought I'd ask about another selling point - the extra storage downstairs...his response? "There's extra storage?" Hmmm...ok...so we made a laundry list of what needed to be done:

1. rip out the brick "wine storage" that looks like a firepit gone wrong and is not structural
2. fix up the secondary bath
3. buy shelving for the master closet
4. remove the hd projector and painted screen
5. add a "loftwall" for the second bedroom
6. paint all the walls
7. sand all of the beams
8. remove carpeting from section of bedroom
9. remove part of the built in shelving because it doesn't accommodate our living room
10. remove "maple" panels from refrigerator and replace with black or stainless

And yes, some of these things can be done after we get the place and down the road, but still, quite a bit more work than we want to do. $169k for 1588sf... Our budget isn't that high.

The realtor's wife (the principal) wrote me back and apologized for the confusion with everything. She said that they are in the process of working out the FHA thing and that the assessment was either already paid for or would be rolled into the seller's closing costs. I told her that if he would even think of $159k for it we would take another look with her to show us around the rest of the building.

I got an email this morning from her saying that she would contact the seller and haven't heard back, so I'm writing that one off. On the other hand our realtor emailed a couple of listings this morning - one great house in Lake Highlands (near White Rock Lake) that we absolutely love...so who knows where this journey will take us.

We aren't seriously planning on moving until the Fall, but if something were to come along in the meantime...it would just have to be a perfect fit and deal for us to take it right now.