All Forum Posts by: Edwin Park

Why can't you house hack in Brooklyn right now via an FHA loan with 3.5% down? It can be as simple as buying a 2 bedroom apt and renting out the extra room as an AirBnB or LTR/roommate. You may not cashflow and things maybe tight, but nothing will beat the appreciation in 5-10 years. One MF property we held in LIC Queens went from $1MM to $3MM appraised value after renovations within 5 years. Another commercial property went from $1MM to $30MM in the same area after 15 years. It was a warehouse sold to a developer to make townhouses.

But there will be ups and downs.  Always keep enough cash on hand for emergencies. 

And you don't need a property manager.  If there's something urgent, I tell tenants to find a highly rated plumber or whatever on Yelp and save the receipt if they can't get a hold of me or my handymen.  Never had a problem yet.  You just need to be proactive on your maintenance!  Spend the extra money and make things reliable and easier to maintain.  Google, Youtube and BP are your friends.  

Compromise.  If they're excellent tenants, raise it to $950 and then increase it 5% at every lease renewal without fail until it reaches market rates.  

Your issue is the tenant with dogs.  Not the tenant threatening withholding of rent who is reasonably upset.  Missing the forest for the trees.  

1.  Take whatever precautions necessary to protect other tenants and public. 

2. Check to make sure you have proper insurance coverage for liability in case of harm or death by the dogs.  

2.  Require your tenants with the dogs to get similar coverage. 

3.  Terminate the lease or evict as soon as the moratorium is over.  You can't trust them as they brought in dogs without your consent.   They could do it again even though the dogs are gone now.  

Your leg bite, though unfortunate, is not the worst case scenario.  The mauling and death of the front tenant's daughter would have been and could still be.  You got lucky.  Wishing you a speedy recovery!  🙏

Last appraised value by the last bank I refi'ed with was for $2MM in 2018, so not too concerned with the LTV as my new refi will be just under 50%. But finding a decent sized LOC will be challenging as you suggest.

Thankfully, I have one local bank willing to offer refi and LOC, but I'm waiting for their terms and will probably need to use another building as collateral. Waiting to hear back from some other brokers/lenders in the meantime before I get a better picture of what's out there. Thanks again for your reply!

Hi.  Did you make any progress on this?  Thanks.  

Thanks Erik. Prefer to refi and get a LOC first. But will keep it in mind!

Caroline, your insight is much appreciated.  3 story building.  (1st floor restaurant, 2nd/3rd floors are apartments)  How is residential vs commercial percentage calculated?  By income or square footage?  Although it's a 3 story building, the restaurant also has a cellar.  So it would be about 50% based on straight square footage.  Thank you!

Can anyone recommend any small banks/lenders in the NYC area that will do a refinance loan and line of credit for a mixed use building?   Something along the likes of:

$950K loan (50% LTV), 10 year term, 25 year amortization, first 2+ years interest only, etc.

Also happy to consider any lenders that will take 2nd position for the LOC. Current LTV is around 50%, so the LOC would ideally be 65%-70% max LTV at least. Thank you!

Looking for recommendations for any local banks to refi and provide a line of credit for a mixed use building located in NYC.  (Less than $1MM loan, restaurant 1st floor, apartments above.)  Thanks!  

@Andrew Jennings Freerks 

Hi Andrew. How much more can you make over market rates?  Do the apartments you lease have any common spaces like a living room or were they all converted to bedrooms?  And where do you normally list them? Craigslist?  Are they furnished?  Any code enforcement/zoning issues specific to NYC I need to be aware of?  And would love to see a sample lease.  Thanks!  🙏