本文讲述了作者 Meredith Bodgas 和她的丈夫在2008年做出的一项购房决定，他们为了购买位于森林山区的一套公寓，放弃了在阿斯托利亚的理想居所。尽管以低于要价的价格购入，但他们很快发现这并非一笔明智的投资。公寓的地理位置不佳，紧邻垃圾压缩机和电梯，噪音和气味问题严重。此外，电梯频繁故障、通勤时间延长、维护费上涨以及邻里纠纷（包括楼上漏水导致厨房天花板塌陷）等问题接踵而至。最终，由于家庭成员增加的需求以及市场未能回暖，他们在2014年以亏损告终出售了这套公寓，并反思了当初的购房决策。

🏠 选址失误导致生活不便：作者夫妇原计划在阿斯托利亚安家，但因房价过高转而选择森林山区。尽管被花园、超市和地铁站的便利性吸引，却忽视了公寓紧邻垃圾压缩机和电梯的糟糕位置，导致噪音、气味和虫害等问题，严重影响了居住体验。

📉 房产价值与预期不符：购房时，作者夫妇未能充分调查，以低于市价的价格购入的公寓，实际上远高于同楼同户型房产的历史售价。入住后，维护费上涨、电梯故障频发以及邻里造成的财产损失（厨房天花板塌陷），都让他们感到被“坑骗”，与最初的投资预期严重不符。

🏡 邻里关系紧张与意外损失：作者夫妇的公寓因空间较大成为聚会场所，但这也招致了邻居的不满。楼下邻居的男友曾多次打扰，而楼上邻居的疏忽导致漏水，损坏了厨房天花板和橱柜。更令人沮丧的是，维修费用并未包含在维护费内，他们不得不自掏腰包数千美元进行修复。

💰 投资失败与理性反思：2013年，由于家庭成员增加（怀孕），公寓两居室的限制迫使他们出售。尽管已居住五年，但市场并未如预期般回升。最终，公寓以亏损17,000美元的价格出售。作者反思，如果当初选择继续租房，整体花费可能相当，但能避免许多烦恼和压力，并庆幸现在购买了郊区住房，获得了更宁静的生活。

After losing a bidding war to buy a place in Queens, we were running out of hope.So, we were thrilled when our below-asking offer was quickly accepted for a spot in Forest Hills.Pretty quickly, we realized we were ripped off, and this wasn't the smart investment we thought.

When my husband and I married in 2008, we made a big mistake. Though at the time, it felt like a good investment.

We bid adieu to our beloved two-bedroom Astoria, Queens rental and bought an apartment seven miles southeast in Forest Hills.

Initially, we wanted to stay in Astoria, where our commute into Manhattan was just 30 minutes, and we could walk to a restaurant with a different global cuisine every weekend for months without repeating.

However, a one-bedroom apartment, a third smaller than our rental, cost an average of $425,000 in Astoria, and we didn't think the price was right, so we looked elsewhere.

After losing a bidding war for a place on Austin Street, we were running out of hope.

So, when a seller quickly accepted our bid of $250,000—$25,000 under asking price—for a spacious apartment within a meticulously maintained elevator building complex in Forest Hills, we were thrilled.

We should've realized something was amiss.

We missed a big red flag

Had we done more research, we would've seen that even the below-asking price we offered was more than any one-bedroom apartment in the whole seven-building complex had ever sold for.

However, we were distracted by the sprawling courtyard dotted with fountains and flowers that resembled an English garden.

We also loved the convenience of a supermarket across the street and a subway stop on the corner. Plus, with about 1,000 square feet, we had plenty of space to host friends.

At the time of purchase, we didn't mind the dearth of nearby restaurants or that our commutes would be about 15 minutes longer. These were small sacrifices for the benefit of owning property, we thought.

We missed a major red flag, though. The apartment was between the trash compactor and the elevator.

Being next to just one and either dealing with the smell and propensity for roaches from the trash compactor or the noise from the elevator is bad enough. Being wedged between both made the particular string of apartments we were in—the K line—the least desirable in the whole building.

The apartment wasn't what we'd hoped for

We quickly discovered that the elevator was out of service so often that we might as well have moved into a walk-up. Thankfully, we were on the third floor, so it wasn't a huge hike, but it was still an annoyance.

Before we bought, we knew the building was close to Queens Blvd., one of the busiest streets in New York City, but we thought it wouldn't be so loud because we didn't face it directly. That was a mistake. We had to use a fan and a white noise machine to mute the sounds of sirens blaring throughout the night.

A few short months after moving in, our maintenance fee, which we paid in addition to our mortgage, instantly rose by $100 a month.

Plus, the same model apartment in our building—not even on our crappy K line—sold for under $200,000. We felt ripped off.

Our neighbors didn't help the situation

In fairness, our large apartment made us the natural party spot, and we had a blast playing Rock Band and Wii Sports with all our friends (remember, this was the late aughts and early 2010s).

However, the cranky older woman below us would send her boyfriend to yell at us, though twice he invited himself in and even played on the drumset.

Our upstairs neighbor was even worse.

One day, water began raining down into our apartment and collapsed our kitchen ceiling, destroying some of our cabinets. We're not clear exactly what happened, but we suspect that our upstairs neighbor had forgotten to turn off the kitchen sink. We never got an explanation or apology.

We assumed our higher maintenance fees would go toward fixing the damage. However, the maintenance folks told us those repairs went beyond the building's responsibility, so we spent thousands of dollars out of pocket to renovate our kitchen.

We eventually sold and took a loss

By 2013, we had to sell our apartment because I was pregnant and the co-op prevented more than two people from living in a one-bedroom. We knew this when we were signing, and I was grateful for the push to sell and leave.

I thought that after living there for five years, our home value would have bounced back after the market bubble burst of 2008, but no.

We initially tried to sell our apartment for about what we paid, but got no bites. Even once we lowered the asking price further, it still took months to get a serious buyer.

We ended up selling for $233,000 in 2014, a loss of $17,000 and bits of our sanity.

Had we rented all that time, we probably would've spent about the same overall, possibly with fewer headaches and definitely minus the stress of finding a buyer before a baby arrived.

We've since bought a house in the suburbs, where we don't have to worry about neighbors above or below us or getting booted for growing our family. We're much happier, despite hosting fewer parties, and plan to stay put for the long run.