All Forum Posts by: Jacob P.

So just as a follow up to this:

We circled back to our qualified applicants and let them know that we had raised the rent. Some of them moved along from there, but several still wanted the place at the higher price. We signed a lease and they moved in yesterday.

In retrospect, I think I may have just made a bigger deal out of this than it really was. We did everything we could to be open and transparent with everyone. Whether our applicants decided to withdraw, or that they were cool with the higher price, everyone seemed very understanding.

Thanks for all the input, guys!

Extremely helpful guys. Thank you for all the advice.

Definitely a learning experience here and I think we'll be doing a lot more due diligence next time around to make sure this doesn't happen. I think we were a bit overeager to get that rental income coming in ASAP.

We received several applications, but have signed no contracts, or taken any deposits or even application fees.

Many of the candidates look to be well qualified on paper. Our game plan was to process tenants that met our qualifications in the order received, and if references check out do the background check with SmartMove and have them pay directly for that via credit card.

I really like the feedback of being honest and straightforward about the situation and looping back to current applicants as Jane and Bud suggested. I'll be discussing with my wife and will let you know how we proceed and how things work out.

Hi guys,

My wife and I recently closed on our 2nd rental property (thanks to a lot of advice from the BP forums!). Things are going great, and we just listed it for rental and held an open house.

We seem to have priced the property too low! The open house was packed, and I even received some inquiries that were skeptical of it's reality "Very interested in this space, but the price is so low. Would like to talk more"

Based on speaking to our selling broker, (who also does rentals) and a few other people, we might be 15-25 percent below market.

We've definitely learned our lesson, and I think there are things we can do prevent this in the future. But my question now is whether we should circle back and raise the asking price.

We've already posted online ads, had lots of people spend time to come out and look at the space, and there's something that feels deceptive about looping back and telling them we want more money (or posting a new add).

At the same time, I feel like we should be looking at this from a perspective as a business owner, and we are really leaving money on the table from a financial perspective.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Hey @Bernard Klein, we are in Bed-Stuy.

In the end we estimated what taxes could possibly go to based on the conversation with the dept. of finance, and based our decision to move forward on that. I can definitely see how all-else-being-equal you could ask for a concession for something like this, and it's a great piece of advice. But there have been a lot of other changing variables and we weren't in a position to ask for concessions.

Even if we did want to ask for a concession, I think it would be a hard argument. The sellers architect was one of many parties who weighed in on our question... he said that taxes basically wouldn't rise at all with the C/O... It's hard to try to negotiate based of a figure that no one can agree on! 

Thanks for the thought Rob.

I have to admit, when I first read your response, I thought "that was said like someone who never had to deal with NYC bureaucracy." However, I figured it was worth a shot and gave a ring. The NYC finance number robo-routed me to 311 (NYCs general info number), and I was truly assuming that it was a lost cause. But I lucked out and ended up with someone who was a former employee in the NYC dept. of finance! She answered questions more clearly than anyone else has been able to.

My situation is to specific (and probably boring) to detail here. But in case anyone ever ends up with a similar question on NYC property taxes, feel free to hit me up. And thanks, Rob, for the inspiration to make the call.

Hi all,

I'm under contract for a home in Brooklyn, NY. There have been some changes since we went into contract, and we have now worked out that we would be getting a change to the C/O soon after closing.

Here in NY, a change to the C/O generally results in a change in taxes. The problem I'm facing is that I am finding it extremely hard to estimate where these taxes will fall. Our broker, an architect and an accountant have given us numbers that are extremely different... To the point that it could mean the difference between a good deal and a bad deal.

The tax code in NY seems to be extremely arcane, so I don't particularly expect a BP member to be able to calculate the number. But rather, I thought you could help point me to WHO on my team (or otherwise) I might turn to for a concrete answer.

My broker is an agent with a big name national company, so I was thinking his office might have the resources. Is that something I might push for? Or other than that any ideas on who else I might try to contact to get this worked out?

Thanks for your thoughts Mindy.

It felt like something a little non-traditional might be going on here, so I wanted to dig around for a bit more information before calling back our originator...  But yes, I'll definitely be giving him a ring after the holiday weekend to find out more.

Thanks!

Hi guys!

Quick, niche question on getting a conventional loan.

We are getting close to closing, and have had several conversations with our loan originator to the effect that we are not locked at a rate, and we are waiting for a dip to lock it in.

Today however, I received paperwork from our processor, including a signed commitment note dated two weeks ago that clearly states a interest amount and monthly payment.

As rates have been rising, the range of rates that our originator has discussed as being potential lock rates are all higher than the rate in the commitment.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding things, but I would assume that a commitment is.... well, a commitment (this is NOT a GFE or anything like that). And the rate listed in it is a binding agreement that is essentially a lock on the rate. Is it possible that our originator was missing something on this? Or is the rate in a commitment somehow subject to change?

Thanks guys!

Aha, now I understand.

Glad you brought up the origination points question... Our GFE seems to have been set up based on par pricing, but based on the hypothetical numbers you threw out, it sounds like paying origination points might work out well for us in the long term. Definitely something I'll bring up when I get him on the phone in the morning to chat strategy.

Again, thanks so much for your insight. It's truly helpful to me, and I'm sure others who come across it on the forums will benefit as well.

Newbie question: When you say "gain in cost" does that means a drop in the rate?