All Forum Posts by: Ingrid Nagy

We never stop learning, encountering something new, and adapting in real estate. After 20+ years just when I think I've mastered something....something comes along to change the game and how we handle it......my most recent learning experiences in mgmt.....bed bugs...new Sec 8 regs.....and the things I see on the security cameras just amaze me......

Questions that come to my mind are:
1. Besides making sure you have an option if the business is successful, are you leasing the space from the property owner himself with all equipment in place also being leased from the property owner?
2. Or are you sub-leasing it from the shop owner?
3. Who takes care of disposal of hazardous waste?
4. Do you have an "out" if the business is not successful?

At my job we had several mechanic garages and car dealerships lease from us. Make sure you have all the equipment you are leasing clearly spelled out item by item in the lease. The lease should also list who is responsible for maintaining the equipment in the event of malfunction, i.e. automobile lifts breaking down. Make sure that you are not responsible for a prior tenant's hazardous waste cleanup and that you are clearly covered on this. A tenant that uses hazardous waste materials such as auto body paint or motor oils etc. has a responsiblity for proper disposal. Usually the State has clear guidelines on this and you don't want to be held responsible in the event of soil contamination or environmental hazards to the property or the property owner could come back afterwards on this issue.

Where I am in NJ Section 8 determines the rent by the "rental rates" going in the area. They also tell the tenant when they are looking for apartments that based upon their "income" $_____ is the maximum rental range they can look in. Tenants like to pull fast ones sometimes. When they see a unit for $1000 a month and they know their cap is $900 they lie and apply anyway. I know ask to see a copy of their voucher and I call their caseworker to confirm that they are approved first for a rental rate at or in excess of what I'm charging before I sign any transfer papers.

I've had a couple of empties since September. Don't know what happened but two weeks ago the phone just started exploding. All filled as of April 1 and they keep coming!! If only the bed bug lady would go.........life would be so fine!

I've been doing on each property since 95. I have not had any lawsuits so nothing has been challenged. I believe however that it would hold up - each building runs separately under its own LLC and all income & expenses flow thru each separate checkbook.

Whether dollar or euro, there will still remain value. I say bury it and keep it safe-the bank is paying next to nothing anyway. Real estate will retain value-the question is will we still own it or will a way be found to tax the crap out of us for owning it.

We all know our country is in a very bad place and we live in a very controlled environment. Have you ever noticed when a snowstorm is coming the shelves are bare-no milk, bread or eggs? What would happen if the food trucks didn't deliver? If the welfare checks, unemployment checks, SSI checks got cut-rioting, looting...to name a few. Our real estate taxes are climbing, foreclosures rising, services and education being drastically cut.

No matter who we put in charge at the top of the food chain that person has a very difficult task ahead...

I'm not one for getting into the politics arena, but my 75 yr old dad agrees with Mike 100% on the future of our country. He is the immigrant of then, not the immigrant of now.

My dad ran away from Czechoslovakia at 17 leaving his family behind, and it took him several years to get to the US, the land of opportunity and freedom, jailed several times along the way. He got a job on day 2 not knowing English, learned the language, bought a home and later some farmland, his own little paradise. He worked hard, had a 3 yr mortgage, and that's the only debt he has ever had. He was not allowed back to his homeland for many years or he would have been jailed. I met my grandparents for the first time when I was seven.

Dad chose to get out of the rat race 25 yrs ago. Although he has saved his money, Dad lives like he was living in the old country - very simple - 6 months worth of food, many guns, lots of fishing...a peaceful life. I used to think he was just a "crazy" old man.

He has watched his land of opportunity and freedom change. He brings me his medical bills on occasion and neither of us can decipher them. We find charges on his Medicare statements from doctors he's never even seen. He asks me how does a 4-day hospital stay for gallbladder surgery cost $85,000? Medicare then pays a reduced "contracted" rate and he's responsible for 20%? I don't have answers for him.

Dad's opinion of his land of freedom and opportunity has drastically changed - now its full of "crooks". He loves to tell me that he's glad he taught his daughter how to hunt and how to survive. He warns me that one day with the way this Country is going I will seek refuge for my family in his little paradise......I used to laugh and laugh at him.......he's not sounding so crazy anymore.

Chapter 11 buys time. I think the Seller is hoping for a miracle-maybe the market turning. Sadly in these cases, the appointed Receiver takes over management of the property. They run it and they take a nice management fee but they don't really do much in my opinion to increase the NOI, let alone invest more dollars in the property. They are interim managers so they wait until the bankruptcy court makes a decision. The Seller is now trying to come up with a believable, presentable plan to present to the Court showing how he plans on savings his property and repaying his debt. Perhaps he is using your offer as a basis of "present value" hoping that the lender will reduce the principal making running the property profitable for himself and the lender, i.e. why short sell it...just reduce the loan based upon the current value and save us all legal fees and tons of costs. You also have to keep in mind that if foreclosure has been commenced he may have been pocketing the NOI and not paying the lender anything towards the loan up to this point.

You might be right in the case of a really crap tenant out for blood...but then again we have to think of what action got him to that point of seeking revenge to go to such an extreme requiring such effort.

I have low income tenants and I have never once owned a building where the tenant supplied/paid for heat. Perhaps a bad move but for me, but in my location our buildings are all old and landlords supply heat. My best building turned 100 years old last month!

I would set the thermostat in each apartment, make sure its calibrated, and install a clear plastic locking cover on each for which only you have the key. Many offices and stores have them to keep their staff from playing with the thermostats. Not an expensive fix at all. Set the thermostat at one degree above the minimum required by law. You may have to provide heat but only during the allotted heating schedule for your City/State. On the day the heat goes off, April 15? or May 15? shut down the boiler switches in the basement.