Woodcliff Lake, NJ · Member since 2014 · 37 posts · 28 votes
I'm a former realtor turned poker player turned headhunter and a Canadian turned American. I moved from Vancouver to northern New Jersey three years ago after marrying my beautiful Jersey girl (whom I met in a swimming pool in Las Vegas).
I got my real estate license in Canada ten years ago because I wanted to get into flipping. I was only 22/23 at the time, and securing investors was a real challenge. Nobody wanted to be my guinea pig. Everyone said they'd love to invest in my second deal, once they had seen me pull it off once. Of course, my first never happened. I was doing okay as a realtor, but it was never what I wanted.
Fast forward a decade, and I'm living in NJ, working long hours on top of a long commute to and from Manhattan. I'm making a good income, but it still feels like the rat race, and I've still got that itch.
I went and looked at a wreck of a house in a town I don't know at all just two days ago, and I plan on making an offer on it this morning. Am I getting in over my head? Absolutely. That's what happens when you dive in! It's the best way I know to learn to swim, and I don't have the patience to stand around the edge of the pool. I hope BP can help keep me from drowning...
Jeff
Real Estate Agent · Hackensack, NJ · Member since 2014 · 321 posts · 412 votes
12y
That's great you are jumping right in! Many wannabe real estate investors never pull the trigger! Maplewood is a desirable town for buyers. Keep us updated on your progress!
<<Ps., trying to tag Jeff using @ and for some reason, it is not working for me, I did read the instructions and tag people all the time elsewhere... not sure... sorry about that.
Hi Jeff , How did it go with the deal in Maplewood? I hope it was great!
I live in Maplewood (moved in close to 2 years ago) and *love* it. Since I moved here, a bunch of my friends from LIC (first stop in Queens, highly gentrified) moved it or are trying and not finding the inventory. I feel like tons of the people I meet have moved in the last 10 (tones in the last 5) years mostly from Brooklyn (Park Slope being the top one in my informal survey) and places like Williamsburg, LIC, Hobboken and Manhattan. Very popular with professionals working in the city with young children who moved one step away from Manhattan when they were pregnant and one step further when the kids are closer to school age. Most of the people are know are households where the main provider works in finance, law or showbiz in the city, but who wanted to be able to own a house with a yard (though there are very different circles within the city, that's just the one I happen to know). More about this here:
I would not call it a bad neighborhood at all (yes, I am biased :-)). Locals sometimes jokingly refer to the different parts of Maplewood as "Maplegood" and "Maplehood" (sorry if this offends anyone, I am not trying to offend, just report. I did not come up with those names!)... Subjectively, I feel that the boundaries of "Maplehood" got pushed further, even since just 3 years ago (i.e., higher income people seem to have addresses closer to that) so I think a lot of the houses on the border were great investments for those who got them at the right times. The expansion might be limited though, as we border Irvington :-P (though other borders are not too bad at all). These are just a subjective impressions from living here, so don't take it too seriously, but I just wanted to give you a local perspective (Ie, a wonderful place to live, I highly recommend it)
... but I never looked here too seriously to invest (because mostly I can see the numbers don't work right of the bet, for rentals: houses+taxes are too pricey for good if any cashflow). I am trying to find a local-ish place to invest (for rentals) and unfortunately, I don't think it will be here (at least coming from my initial situation). There is scheduled development of luxury apartments right next to the train station and more half way through in South Orange, just next door, has several apartment plans on the way (:-/). :-O
I am new though and don't know much more beyond basic foundation calculations. Would love to hear how it went for you... and if you are still at work in the area, let me know if you ever have a coffee break and want to talk shop :-)