All Forum Posts by: Jane W.

@Michael Hong I'm interested. I have investments in Brooklyn and can discuss the market if you are still interested. I'm interested in Philly and will be in town and on the ground in the coming weekend. Let me know if you can assist.

Not sure about books, but there are papers.

You can look at mortgage issuance data. Assume that a constant % of the U.S. home buyer population is prime and the rest subprime. If the bank is lending wrt good standards, one can assume mortgage issuance is somewhat stable year to year (or fluctuates slightly with interest though I wonder if interest rate actually deters primary home buyers at all). So if there's a significant uptick in mortgage issuance, it means banks is making more loans to subprime borrows. Give that about 2-3 years and you get the next dip.

Other academic papers mention the 18 year real estate cycles though we all know past returns do not predict future. And so much of the monetary policies have been changed since 08...so I wouldn't put too many chips on the 18 years cycle. I've been thinking about this too given the late volatility in the market, so interested to hear how others are planning their investments around the cycles, or what data points they are taking into consideration.

What others said above. Don't count on making a return by renting it to a congregation. Religious organizations usually have partial or full exemption from real estate taxes and their holding cost on real property is lower than yours. Could be interesting to turn it into retail if zoning permits.

Tal, care to share on the forum how you are pulling together Absentee Owner List? Are you programmatically (or manually) going through public records?

@Roy N. Yes my thoughts exactly. 

I doubt how if this is legal. If the purchaser and seller both agree to meet at $80,000, they are both misconstruing a higher (fictional) sales price. Transact at $100,000 then taking $20,000 out of the deal is going to violated the terms of the mortgage. The lender certainly loses out by lending with less collateral than they had intended. 

Yes, there are bargains in NYC but they are not in searchable in database or on the MLS. You can look through the Lis Pendens with properties that are potentially distressed and have not been through the foreclosure process (where it can draw a lot attention from investors).

Also you can also walk or bike the neighborhood, where you may see buildings that are boarded up and left in disrepair. Those could be great properties to buy if you are up for the due diligence (usually those properties could have long standing issues) and can pay for the renovation.

I've seen a building in BedStuy (that sat empty for 20 years) was bought for $600,000 and being flipped for $1,500,000 with no renovation. It does happen. Though if you need a conventional mortgage, banks may not be willing to lend on a building in terrible shape, so you may need to find short term financing options. There's a lot of risk and a lot of reward.

_
Jane Wang, [email protected]

You could hire a professional cleaner service and bill the additional cost into the rent. 

My relative was managing a property and was wasting her weekend cleaning after the tenants (all the restrooms + kitchen + vacuum the carpet). So I rented the extra bedroom that was being used as a library / storage and hired a maid service.

Net net: extra income after netting out maid service.

Prospective tenant comes into see a unit, says she likes it, then disappears for two weeks after the unit has been rented. 

Them: Wanted to let you know I'm still very interested. Can I come to take measurements?

Me: Sorry, the unit is taken. 

Them: Oh no, I'm very interested. Oh I thought we had an understanding. I asked about the refrigerator, which I thought was an indication I was ready to move in. I just wish you followed up with me before handing the keys over. 

Me: asking about refrigerator = ready to move in?

---

20 days prior to start lease: Can we move our large items into the storage?

me: Why?

them: we are coming from visiting our parents from canada?

me: and?

17 days prior to start lease

them: Could we keep the utility in your name? 

me: No.

them: We had a bad experience with our utility company and then charged us $180 in switch cost. 

me: There's not fee associated with starting your utility here.

them: Could you send us the form for the utility company? We had a really bad experience with our last utility company.

6 days prior to the start of lease: can we move in? you said you won't charge us the last few days of rent? The place is empty so is there any way?

me: do you want to pay pro rata daily?

them: no, you said we could move in early. was there a misunderstanding or did something change?

me: I meant a few days early.

(back and forth) 

them: if you don't let us move in x date (6 days early), we will cancel the lease.

me: do you mean you want to break the lease if you don't get to move in 6 days early for free?

NYC is a good city to invest for appreciation. And the thing about appreciation is that the investor has to take the long view. 

The thing about the 1% / 2% rule is it looks at a snapshot of valuation. I would project rent rates out a few years to see if you can achieve the 1% rule within 3-5 years. Take a look at the rental rate patterns in the past few years, and see if you can achieve the 1% rule in a few years time. With decent rental rate growth, that 1% rule could be just a few years away.