All Forum Posts by: David MacClintock

What is your funny/crazy Real Estate story?

Is there such a thing as a non fixerup in arbor hill? Seriously though. Albany has some massive money available if you're into rehabbing in arbor hill. Iirc, they will give you up to 10k just to fix the facade. There's other money available if you rent to low income as well, which you will be in arbor hill. Lots of $$ to be made there right now. I've done a few quick analysis on some properties the land trust is holding and I think you could see 20-25% returns if you're willing to jump through the grant hoops.

Fellow multi/rental rehabbers, I'm curious what your strategy to flip vs hold is. I will rehab a multi, place a tenant and then decide on a price that needs to net profit of 4x yearly cashflow. What criteria or strategy do you or have you done? I'm not looking for advice necessarily but different ideas and discussion about regrets in selling or holding. Specific examples are fun too.

I only purchase intensive rehabs but I break them down by labor hours. So 1 person completely gutting, wiring, hanging and finishing drywall, painting and then laying or refinishing floors is roughly 70 man hours for a bedroom. 2 people should shave a bit but not much off the total man hours.

I'll offer a differing opinion. I flip low volume in a low cost market. I know what products I'm using before I start (often I already have them in 'inventory' from a sale at a Box store or contractor discount days at the building supply store. There is very little that is custom about the houses, avoiding any customizing is big. No tiled showers/tubs, no tiled back splashes, no special color schemes. I use the same 3 sidings, always white trims in and out, the same carpet that I have determined is easiest to sell at the cost of it. I use the same faucets, lights, hardware, baseboards, vent covers. The process is dialed down to outlet covers. There is no cost overrun and no place to skimp on costs. I would love to use more creativity but creativity doesn't move product and in lower middle class, price sells a house. I list under top dollar and sell the house. I know this is the very unsexy side of flipping but it is the side of flipping that is a business. I think often these big flashy 600k flips serve to stroke the ego of the flipper as much as they are a business. Why put 500 or 600k on the line for 50k when I can chase 50k for less than 100k?

While this isn't an endorsement of Buffalo investment, it should be noted that Buffalo and other areas of upstate NY have been positioning themselves to be hubs of tech manufacturing. Buffalo will have the biggest domestic solar manufacturing shortly and the interstate 90 corridor, filled with long dwindling manufacturing towns, is on a boom as manufacturing continues to push west from NY Tech Valley (Upper HV/ Capital District). Many of these smaller cities like Illion/Mohawk, Utica and such have low priced real estate with significant industrial infrastructure and an underemployed but well educated work force. Those smaller cities won't be attractive for a foreign investor, mainly due to lack of easy international travel, but for other reading this thread, interested in upstate NY for long term, first and second ring burbs of those locales should expect to see some decent appreciation in the next 4-8 years.

My market is stable but hot. Low days on market but limited appreciation over last year. Its only March though. May 1st will give me a stronger indicator. I recently attended a few open houses and they were wall to wall people. None of them have had a status change since however so who knows what that means. My market is primarily supported by state government jobs so it didn't experience a huge crash before but also it wont experience 10%year over year appreciation. Those jobs tend to have pay tied to inflation targets and while there is a ton of promising tech growth, development builds have been focused on eating up the new comers.

here in the NE older houses will sometimes have joists that are not attached to the rim Joist or the sill plate. The plate and rim will be attached to each other and then the joists are set and the subfloor is used to hold the joists on edge. The joists sit on the sill and gravity does the rest but in order to jack the house you need to brace with temp beams and jack as far out on the joists as possible. I have seen a handful like this and didn't mind the one where I had to replace sill plates. There is nothing dangerous about it and if you were getting creaking/popping from expansion and contraction being different between the sill and the floor joist a 2x4 or strip of plywood secured to both would fix it. I have been told that it was done during the suburban boom in pop up developments when totally dry lumber was at a shortage. The would use green timbers and not tie them in so that everything could shrink at its own rate. I guess that makes a bit of sense but take it with a grain of salt.

Originally posted by :

FHA 3-month anti-flip rules will really come into play if people are trying to turn over inventory quickly to that 150-250K buyer.

Does that really have much consequence to anyone doing real rehab though? By the time you close, permit, repair and list you will have close to a month in. You can list before the 90 day mark but you cannot close until. Seems like an advantage to list, not accept offers for a week and then have multi bid roll in. That would put your closing date about 45 out which is a reasonable amount of time.

I keep open accounts at 7 different banks just so that I can show I have a relationship with them when I request something. I have never used it for a bank loan and don't intend to in the near future but it costs me nothing for this. I opened all of these accounts when I was doing Preservation work as a few of them required it for contracts and for the others I used who ever opened my account to get me further up the chain to inquire about preservation opportunities. Just open the account and move funds in, it takes 20 minutes.