All Forum Posts by: Allan Szlafrok

I think you are on the right track looking for 2 families and up and those are all areas ive been investing in for years now. Just understand that there are some really neighborhoods in a lot of those cities and rent control varies by town so look into that. also some towns are a pain in the butt when it comes to permits and approvals and such. Also make sure you hit some of the REI meetings there are a bunch in Jersey City.

@Stephanie Danos What i said was you ARENT subject to rent control. Thats a good thing. And if you are checking out Jersey City take a look a the West Side. Not terribly expensive and safer than Greenville.

@Stephanie Danos I think house hacking in one of those cities is the way to go. Taxes are more reasonable and there has been really great price appreciation there over the last few years. Also as an owner occupant you won't be subject to any rent control laws which is nice. I also think when you move to sell you'll have a bigger pool of potential buyers because a lot of people like having that income from the second unit to help with the mortgage. Personally I don't bother with SFH in NJ. I get more $ per square foot on a 2 family than if I rented the same number of beds/bath in a one family. I just think it makes more economic sense to be investing in 2 family houses.

If im reading this correctly after holding costs and broker fees you are probably going to lose money on this deal. My advice for this would be to find a deal with a bigger spread  especially since reno costs almost always run over. Am i missing something here? 185+30= 215 leaving you a 15k profit if nothing goes wrong. Id say pass o nthis and keep looking for something better. 

@Adam F. It’s definitely harder in the colder months. I also see an uptick in delinquencies from December to February. Maybe it’s because people are strapped for cash from spending so much during the holidays. Seems to get better in February maybe because of people getting their tax refunds. Whatever the reasons are I have found that those months are weakest for rental activity.

@Aleksandra Schultz In my experience people leave for many reasons but finishes on an apartment they liked in the first place isn’t usually one of them. That being says having a nicer unit usually means less days on the market when there is a turnover. I make sure that if anyone decides not to rent from me it isn’t because the unit wasn’t nice enough.

@Olukemi Owoseni I’m pretty sure you have discretion over that the only way the tenant can fight you is in court which may or may not be worth their while. I know Newark offers tenants free lawyers during evictions which means they will fight you on that most of the time but I’m not sure jersey city does, at least not yet. Just deduct whatever your costs to clean up are and even if you have to go to court you’ll show up with the bill and you should be fine.

@Terry Madden Cool I’ve been buying multi-families in the area but I’m looking st condos as well. PM me we should talk

@Terry Madden do you buy individual condos or build the complexes yourself?

Sounds like something for a plumber not a handyman. It could be something a handyman can fix but if not you will be paying him and then paying a plumber too. Id just call the plumber first.