Investing in Syracuse | DON'T BE A SLUMLORD.
Syracuse has been popping up as one of the best markets to invest in right now and for good reason. The property prices are very low, the job market is picking up, property appreciation in the areas outside of the City Limits are 4%+ in some areas. We have a new amazon facility, large microchip manufacturing facility being built in Oneida county, and many other smaller businesses that are bringing hope to this area that was on the downslope for a long time
I am an investor in the area, I know many other investors in the Syracuse market, many of them are on this forum as well. We own a construction & remodeling company that handles all of our own remodels, we manage properties, and my Wife is an agent. We have built a great team that is focused on real estate investing in the Upstate NY market. Our day-to-day life is 100% real estate and we do nothing else. We use our little real estate machine every day, in 2020 we purchase 50+ units, mostly single family and some 2-family. With that being said:
BUT DON'T BE A SLUMLORD. lol
There are parts of Syracuse that do not make sense to buy in right now due to the condition of the properties that lie therin, we can change this. The Syracuse land bank is an organization that is actively taking properties from bad landlords and landlords who are not paying their taxes. The Land bank is doing a pretty good job at selling houses with the contingency that you MUST make the minimum amount of repairs. You're not going to BRRRR in many parts of Syracuse but you can build a portfolio and sell that later on down the line and you can still build a great cash flowing set of properties but please do not make the mistake of looking at the cost per door or the cap rate and thinking you're getting a great deal. You may be getting a deal but look at the condition of the properties first.
Many of these properties will need work and many of them are beautiful and historic in appearance with great bones. You can purchase properties from the Syracuse Landbank for $1,000 but also know that you're going to be putting in $70,000 to remodel the property. Focus not only on the interior of a property but on the exterior. There are far too many investors who are buying from other tired investors and they do NOTHING to the properties. These properties are a blight on the city. We met with a pair of investors who purchased 40 units at "$12k" a door and that's all they could talk about. These properties were in terrible shape and I would never rent any of them out, the investor wanted to rent them out for $300 at least just to keep the money coming in.
If you're going to buy in Syracuse, make sure you're planning on increasing the quality of the property. Let's continue to bring this city up and change the way tenants view their landlords in Syracuse. I always have at least a $15k budget on our properties, there may be old asbestos siding in good shape but if it's ugly then we're going to paint it, if the porches on the front of the house are ugly, we're changing them, wrap the window trim in metal, throw a new roof on even if the current one isn't yet leaking, parge the foundation, replace the old cabinets, don't use $2/sqft laminate flooring, replace the dang trim if it's been painted over 100 times, remove the ugly wires from the outside of the house and have the cable company install new ones, fix the grading of the yard, trim trees, and repair sidewalks. These are the biggest factors in transforming a property.
If you're not sure what the true cost of a repair would be feel free to ask me for advice, we are currently not for hire though. If you need an agent, reach out to @Molly Walsh 315-400-2654 | She is purely focused on investment properties and knows the ins and outs of the Syracuse market. We also have great contacts for insurance agents, lawyers, and short sale specialists.