All Forum Posts by: Dacia Ray

I'm a newbie too so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I feel like you've done great already by finding a good deal in Westchester, and maybe instead of selling or doing a lease-to-own a refi and then rent could be a good idea? Though I don't know your strategy or your financial situation so that's obviously your call. I know that leaning on the idea of appreciation veers toward speculation, but in Westchester its a pretty good bet that the property will appreciate pretty significantly. 

I think you probably have to narrow it down to particular neighborhoods within Kingston and Poughkeepsie instead of making a sweeping assessment of the whole city. I've been focusing my research on Kingston and don't know Poughkeepsie that well, but a potential market to look into in Poughkeepsie could be student housing, since both Marist and Vassar are there. 

Brandt Smith I appreciate that perspective. I previously founded and ran a nonprofit (with grants and other people's money) and now I'm exploring my options for a future where I would like to build long term security for myself while also still helping other people. I know there are a variety of ways to achieve this and I'm researching all the options to figure out what will work best for me.

@Frank Gucciardo Already on it - I have someone helping me get a meeting at RUPCO.

@Mark B. The shorter leases idea is an interesting one. More turnover means more work to process new tenants - though with higher risk tenants thats true anyway. I'd have to learn more about the laws around this. I'm in New York State so there are definitely a lot of complex housing laws here.

I would still run credit and background checks, I don't want to fly completely blind. And perhaps instead of a free-for-all I could narrow my focus - like accepting folks with certain kinds of criminal records but not others (like no sex offenders). The marketing strategy would be to network with and market directly to social workers at local agencies. 

@Frank Gucciardo All of this makes sense, and I would be very proactive about having policies in place and enforcing them. I'm not dreaming about being a landlord who never does evictions. I know that's part of the business.

@Gail K. I know that being a social worker and being a landlord are not the same thing, and I have a lot to lose if I confuse them. I have a copy of "Evicted" on hold at my library.

I know that the vast majority of landlords and property managers will have a simple answer to that question: DON'T.

However, I'm interested in building my MF rental investing and property management business in New York's Hudson Valley around the idea of making housing available to people who are high risk tenants - folks with bad credit, prior convictions, spotty employment, maybe folks who have a prior eviction. I know there are very concrete business reasons to reduce your risk as a landlord and never rent to these folks, and I don't really need to hear the "no, don't do it" argument. I believe that there is a market opportunity here, and I'm trying to figure out a way to reduce my risk while running a business that offers housing to high risk folks. I'm open to accepting section 8 and collaborating with housing agencies and other social services groups as well as other options I haven't discovered yet.

A bit of background: I was at one time, one of those high risk tenants - no bank account, no credit, all cash job, no rental history bc I'd been living with a boyfriend and not on the lease - and I got lucky in moving in with a roommate in a place where the landlord didn't do any screening on me. I also worked in social services in NYC for a number of years and saw how barriers to getting secure housing made people's lives way worse. I'm trying to figure out how to live my values of housing security and economic justice while also growing my business as a real estate investor. I realize that might be a bleeding heart fantasy and recipe for financial ruin, but I'm a big ideas and problem-solving kind of person.

So: suggestions for setting up a property management process with this rental population in mind?

To build a little more on what @Brie Schmidt says above - its important to note that the issue of why there aren't more female investors is systemic and not just about the individuals experiences of women. The women here who are investors are outliers (go us!), which is an indicator of possibility but not necessarily of an economic shift. In the US, it wasn't until 1974 that women could even open bank accounts without a male cosigner, so for single women to become investors is a pretty big leap from there over forty years. Also, to address @Brian Lacey's comment about potential trends in the increase of African American investors - Black folks in the US own less than 1% of rural land and there is heavy history behind that. To be a Black landowner or investor is to clear major hurdles that have nothing to do with personal ambition. White men have had a historically longer time to build up and pass on wealth. Even if you're a white man who doesn't have a cash inheritance to lean on, there is a socioeconomic inheritance that the rest of us don't have. 

Which is all to say - we are at a point where outliers are possible and that is a great, great thing. Individuals who are underrepresented in the investor world can do a lot to pursue success, but there are very deeply embedded reasons for this underrepresentation.  

Definitely a problem worth discussing! I'm a single woman investor, just getting started. I have a vacation rental property and looking to acquire MFs. My motivation to get started was leaving an abusive marriage and really reckoning with the reality that I need to plan for my own future in as much of an independent and self-directed way as I can.

I think its important not to just look at the attitudes of women (like the question of whether women are more risk adverse) but also the attitudes of men in REI. Men may not intentionally want REI to be only for men, but there are many subtle ways this message gets communicated - like the default avatar for BP is a man wearing a tie. I think men need to look at and talk about the ways that they might be discouraging women from getting in the game. Yes, more women could take the initiative to get into REI on their own, but men should also think about the ways they can support and mentor more women, and need to realize that both intentional harassment and unintentional jokes can make women feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in a male-dominated industry.

I live in the Catskills and own a SFH in Phoenicia that I Airbnb. Happy to talk more about the area with you. There's definitely a lot of struggle around employment in many towns, but the area is also a getaway for city folks, so for me the vacation rental has been the best money maker. There are additional costs - utilities, furnishings, cleaning - but it still cash flows better than a year round rental would (for a SFH anyway)

Amy Zlatarich how about asking the owners if they'd be interested in doing owner financing?