Rental Property Investor · Elmira, NY · Member since 2019 · 5 posts · 2 votes
Investment Info:
Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Elmira.
Purchase price: $98,700 Cash invested: $7,000
First deal. Appraised at 107k bought for 98k using FHA loan. Looking to acquire 2nd investment property before the year is up.. just need to find a way to do so...
How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?
Amos I’m chuckling reading this because, yes. 100% to all of it. Elmira is great IF you have a fantastic crew. It’s where I started my real estate journey :)
West Clinton st near the new LEECOM building being erected. I would love to connect sometime over coffee Brian. I am looking to meet as many fellow investors from the area as possible! How many properties do you have in your portfolio and when did you first get into RE.
West Clinton st near the new LEECOM building being erected. I would love to connect sometime over coffee Brian. I am looking to meet as many fellow investors from the area as possible! How many properties do you have in your portfolio and when did you first get into RE.
Sounds good. There is a big event, GlassFest, this weekend in corning. Kicks off with 2300° Thursday night at the museum
How is rental business in Elmira? I see so many houses are low price with very cap rate. I just wonder why don't renter just buy it.
For example this house 39k fully rented for 1050/month if renter buy with FHA down payment is only 1400 and mortgage is only $158/month. Why don't they buy?
What do I have to be careful when I buy rental property there?
Be careful buying in Elmira. As with all cities, there are good locations and bad, good tenants and bad ones, and good houses and bad houses. Keep an eye out for foundation, structure and roof damage in this area. Get your tenants screened through something like apartments.com, and do the repairs before they become an issue. Use the equity maybe to find some repairs.
I have 5 in the area that are going great. Also, join the entrepreneur and small business owners of NY Facebook group. We are having a meetup in the Elmira area soon and I'd love to tag up. Good luck!
Be careful buying in Elmira. As with all cities, there are good locations and bad, good tenants and bad ones, and good houses and bad houses. Keep an eye out for foundation, structure and roof damage in this area. Get your tenants screened through something like apartments.com, and do the repairs before they become an issue. Use the equity maybe to find some repairs.
I have 5 in the area that are going great. Also, join the entrepreneur and small business owners of NY Facebook group. We are having a meetup in the Elmira area soon and I'd love to tag up. Good luck!
Thanks so much for your reply. I can check the condition of the house by using inspector, right? Would area around LECOM good? Where is the good area?
What do you mean "Use the equity maybe to find some repairs."
Be careful buying in Elmira. As with all cities, there are good locations and bad, good tenants and bad ones, and good houses and bad houses. Keep an eye out for foundation, structure and roof damage in this area. Get your tenants screened through something like apartments.com, and do the repairs before they become an issue. Use the equity maybe to find some repairs.
I have 5 in the area that are going great. Also, join the entrepreneur and small business owners of NY Facebook group. We are having a meetup in the Elmira area soon and I'd love to tag up. Good luck!
Thanks so much for your reply. I can check the condition of the house by using inspector, right? Would area around LECOM good? Where is the good area?
What do you mean "Use the equity maybe to find some repairs."
I will join your group now.
Thanks
Elmira is a tricky city. I own and operate Chemung Valley Home Inspection LLC in addition to owning Chemung Valley Properties with several Elmira properties. This can be a tough city to try and long distance invest in. You need a solid team and solid inspection process. Many contractors take your money and disappear. Similarly there's plentiful quantity of bad tenants that know how to play games. The city code enforcement will beat up new landlord's while letting existing slums run on.
The housing stock itself is majority very dated. If it's a "deal" in the current market be prepared for deep repairs. We have been very picky in our acquisitions yet still invest 5k in every property to stabilize. We evaluated 45 properties to buy 4.
Good vs Bad areas: This is a mixed bag of issues. It can be a block by block basis. West Elmira is all pretty solid but the prices reflect that. FYI.. a realtor cannot legally tell you what areas are good or bad.
Why don't tenants just buy? Most do not have credit. Many live on disability or section 8. A great deal do not have the skills or ambition to purchase. In my case the majority of my tenants have some form of disability preventing transition to ownership.
I am not saying success in Elmira can't be done. Just to be careful. A fantastic realtor and property manager in the area is Lauren Groth. I have seen her turn nightmare tenants into positive leases. She has a wide range of contacts for maintenance and will go above and beyond for her clients.
Thanks so much for your reply. I can check the condition of the house by using inspector, right? Would area around LECOM good? Where is the good area?
What do you mean "Use the equity maybe to find some repairs."
I will join your group now.
Thanks
In regards to the College... students are required to live on campus. Don't plan on targeting student population. Unlike many college towns, students don't leave campus and the college really doesn't bring much to our city.
As a home inspector, we are regulated by NY as to the minimum requirements of what we look at. We call out primarily safety defects but also identify issues around maintenance.
Like any... it could be. Not the best and not the worst area. Pulling the taxes ($2600 currently) it looks like the assessment is low so plan on taxes going up in the future at reassessment.
Utilities are separate except water bills. Water remains with the landlord in this city. Doesn't mean it can't be billed to the tenant just make sure to ask for leases.
Make sure to get a copy of the Rental Property Registration from code enforcement for any property you are making an offer on. This will be a biannual filing with Code for $50 and accompanied by an inspection. Dont fret its an easy inspection. Any decent property should pass.
Things I see about the property. You only have brief photos of 1 unit. What does the other look like? Often missing photos of the interior are a red flag for me. The railings on the front steps will likely need replacement (they don't look secure) or atleast a coat of paint. Plan on budgeting to gut that carpet after 2-5 years depending on tenant. LVP flooring is my go to for durable flooring that adapts well to our housing inventory. Many homes in the area have unlevel floors. Just the nature of building a city on shale.
I would say it's worth a tour atleast. Video or in person.
Be careful buying in Elmira. As with all cities, there are good locations and bad, good tenants and bad ones, and good houses and bad houses. Keep an eye out for foundation, structure and roof damage in this area. Get your tenants screened through something like apartments.com, and do the repairs before they become an issue. Use the equity maybe to find some repairs.
I have 5 in the area that are going great. Also, join the entrepreneur and small business owners of NY Facebook group. We are having a meetup in the Elmira area soon and I'd love to tag up. Good luck!
Thanks so much for your reply. I can check the condition of the house by using inspector, right? Would area around LECOM good? Where is the good area?
What do you mean "Use the equity maybe to find some repairs."
I will join your group now.
Thanks
Amos has it right. I generally get with a local credit union and either do a cash refi on the property to get repair money or get a rehab loan to get the money up front, depending on the property. I've put as much as 70k into a 30k property to fix it up, but the ARV came out right to do so. Basically different forms of BRRRR
Amos I’m chuckling reading this because, yes. 100% to all of it. Elmira is great IF you have a fantastic crew. It’s where I started my real estate journey :)
How is rental business in Elmira? I see so many houses are low price with very cap rate. I just wonder why don't renter just buy it.
For example this house 39k fully rented for 1050/month if renter buy with FHA down payment is only 1400 and mortgage is only $158/month. Why don't they buy?
What do I have to be careful when I buy rental property there?
Pravit - good to see you here on Bigger Pockets! What Amos said lol. Most renters lack credit and/or steady income history and/or down payment monies.
Everyone - TLDR let me know if you want info for a 3/29/2022 4pm EDT webinar on no-score mortgages that I'm helping to publicize, it could help your renters buy you out! This is not sponsored, I am not a mortgage professional (I am a real estate investor and property manager). I've been talking to the folks at Alternatives CU, they got permission to serve Chemung County in the last couple of years. They are a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) which basically means they get special Federal funding in return for meeting community support/development goals. They are launching a new mortgage product HOPE (Home Ownership to Promote Equality). The big hook is that there is NO credit score requirement. I assume that means pricing is not risk-based, meaning anyone would pay the same rate for the loan as long as they qualify. I will post any interesting details here after the webinar, and if you'd like to attend the webinar let me know and I'll message you the log in info.
Hello everyone - I came across this thread re: Elmira NY area. I'm from the Buffalo NY area and a family member will be relocating to Elmira. We were thinking about partnering on a 2 unit with the idea to convert into rental as she may only be there for a few years. I've done some research on the general area and some pricing really is low. Does anyone have any knowledge on how prices have changed over the past several years? Has it been steady? Just afraid of a potential drop in the next couple of years given the current market. Any recommended areas for a younger couple with dogs (need to walk them daily)? Any other tips not already discussed in this thread? How are your properties noted here going? Thank you.
Hello everyone - I came across this thread re: Elmira NY area. I'm from the Buffalo NY area and a family member will be relocating to Elmira. We were thinking about partnering on a 2 unit with the idea to convert into rental as she may only be there for a few years. I've done some research on the general area and some pricing really is low. Does anyone have any knowledge on how prices have changed over the past several years? Has it been steady? Just afraid of a potential drop in the next couple of years given the current market. Any recommended areas for a younger couple with dogs (need to walk them daily)? Any other tips not already discussed in this thread? How are your properties noted here going? Thank you.
Diane, I think the house hack approach could be great in the Elmira area as long as you choose a location that your family member is happy with. Run the numbers at least 3 ways and compare - do them for a 2 unit BRRRR, a single family buy/use/sell in a couple years, or a single family buy/use/BRRRR. Asset values in Elmira are low relative to rents. Imo single families are easier for an absentee landlord to manage than multi-units are.
Asset values in Elmira have gone up over the last few years but not nearly as much as most areas in the US. In the last real estate crash values here were flat. I can't predict the future but if I were guessing I'd say there's less downside risk to asset values in Elmira than in most of the US. Investing here for capital appreciation is not something most investors count on - history has been little downside risk, but this is combined with modest value increases at times when other markest are booming. I worked on Wall Street for 15 years, if you want links to the raw data lmk.
Full disclosure: I am a local real estate investor with 150+ units, we've been in Elmira over a decade and this year launched Courage Property Management LLC that manages properties for other owners.
Hi Harriett, thank you for the detailed information. We are looking to narrow down a few options initially just to run the numbers in the options noted above, great suggestion. Then we'll have a better idea of what might make sense. It seems if you want to be an investor without house hacking, having cash flow is imperative.
Congratulations on your 150+ units and launching of your property management company. I will follow up with you directly.
New to the scene, looking to buy both a property for myself and rentals to be able to help others. Just know I won't be using this individual as a reference. He steals from his tenants on this exact same property listed. Wish there was a better screening for landlords to prevent things like this.
American capital LLC Harriet and Stu Baldwin are known crooks. Reputation is horrible in elmira! Ask any house inspector or anyone involved in real estate and ask about the reputation in the area. Just went through a bankruptcy which means they couldn't pay creditors which means bad business advice!