Albany, NY · Member since 2018 · 43 posts · 17 votes
Hey Everyone!
I am looking to buy my first rental property by the end of the year and currently live in Saratoga Springs, NY. As I am looking for multi family properties, I have been assessing, visiting and analyzing properties in Albany, Schenectady and Troy and I am finding (shocker) there are pros and cons to each market.
I am wondering if any upstate NY investors have done the same and found one market out of the three to be particularly advantageous in terms of tenant base, cash flow, appreciation etc?
Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2015 · 388 posts · 563 votes
8y
Hi @Joshua Lupo - glad to see you're considering investing in the Capital District. I currently own in Troy primarily, Waterford secondarily, and Albany in a tertiary way. I've brokered deals for clients in those areas as well as Cohoes and Watervliet. I personally have avoided Schenectady due to the property taxes, and I think the government there has just screwed things up over the years. Will a casino fix things? How'd that work for Atlantic City?
Troy is on the upswing, but their property taxes have been rising pretty sharply of late. They removed their recycling fee, but replaced it with a much steeper garbage fee(which was really a tax hike as taxes once included garbage but no longer do.) The garbage fee is $160/yr per unit. Taxes are rising there faster than owners' ability to raise rents- this does not bode well and hopefully this is only a short-term phenomenon, but who knows.
If it's more certainty, less risk, but perhaps less upside that you seek, Watervliet might be a good choice. It's a sleepy part of Albany where I don't expect major changes to occur in the near to medium term.
Waterford is a very interesting place- I've had good luck there, though the local government is a little more interesting than I'd like it to be. I picked up this sweet 4 unit(and another uber-chill 6 unit) in a single deal in 2014. That porch you're looking at was built by us! It replaced another porch that was built before I was born and was crumbling because it hadn't been anchored to the bedrock properly. Since it's a historic district, the porch had to be rebuilt to the same appearance. Beaucoup bucks, lemme tell you! But I'm rambling. Good luck with your investment and welcome to the neighborhood,
Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2015 · 388 posts · 563 votes
8y
@Sean Lauber - congratulations on your acquisition. Sounds like you did very well! It reminds me of my first acquisition in ‘03. I was on the 1st floor an I heard gushing water- so we(me, the broker, and the seller) went into the basement and there was ankle-deep water- the source was a hot water tank actively leaking from some place or other. The seller grabbed a wrench🔧from a shelf in the basement and beat on the tank for a minute or so, after which it obediently stopped gushing water. I said to the broker, “I wanted to get my feet wet, but this is ridiculous!”
Suffice it to say, the building I bought was not nearly so well maintained as the one you bought. I wish my older more experienced self had been there to advise the younger me! However, the building was in(and remains in) Hudson NY which has washed away many mistakes like the one I made, and I’m still a proud owner of it.
@Sean Lauber - congratulations on your acquisition. Sounds like you did very well! It reminds me of my first acquisition in ‘03. I was on the 1st floor an I heard gushing water- so we(me, the broker, and the seller) went into the basement and there was ankle-deep water- the source was a hot water tank actively leaking from some place or other. The seller grabbed a wrench🔧from a shelf in the basement and beat on the tank for a minute or so, after which it obediently stopped gushing water. I said to the broker, “I wanted to get my feet wet, but this is ridiculous!”
Suffice it to say, the building I bought was not nearly so well maintained as the one you bought. I wish my older more experienced self had been there to advise the younger me! However, the building was in(and remains in) Hudson NY which has washed away many mistakes like the one I made, and I’m still a proud owner of it.
MG
Having had the building since 2003, you must've seen some serious appreciation. Housing prices in Hudson have gone up significantly in the last few years.