All Forum Posts by: Jason Lee

There are a few large rental buildings in development on Ocean and MLK. The building behind the school has been listed for rent for awhile. I think they were trying to attract creative tenants. 

The condo is not under valued. It's an inferior building in an inferior location. Also, I wouldn't assume you can put 5% down there. Could be 10% or even 20% depending on the condo's financials and the ownership makeup. 

Yeah, but the form of ownership is co-op shares. You will need board approval to purchase and the co-op will probably not approve investors as shareholders, or a purchase price so far below market value.

This is a co-op.

What's the address?

There is typically a minimum experience requirement as a salesperson before you can become a broker, or experience in the field which you might have with your own rentals. I would check on that first. REBNY actually offers a Florida licensing course here and I believe there is a testing site for the FL exam downtown. There are many NY agents that are dually licensed in FL.

I would go with free market vs HDFC since your ability to sell in the future could be difficult as the buyer pool is drastically reduced in HDFCs due to income limits and often the ability to obtain financing. While most co-op bylaws will not allow you to rent out a portion of your apartment, NY state law allows anyone on a lease (co-op shareholders are on a proprietary lease) to have a non-related roommate. This supersedes any co-op bylaws/house rules.

You don't have a solid plan yet but then are frustrated that your friends are slow to move forward. Develop a strong plan with timeline, present the deals, and then they'll move forward or not. Not sure how a rent to own scenario or property managing will be worth your while. If you have your own funds to invest then it sounds like a partnership would make the most sense. Profits can be split based on the percentage of equity contributed plus your time/effort in self managing and being the boots on the ground. For most of the folks on the forums, access to capital seems to be the biggest problem. You sound set there and so you just have to find the right deals. Present them with some deals and you'll quickly find out what they are and aren't comfortable with.

My foreign investor clients are looking primarily for preservation of capital. They pay all cash and don't care so much about cash flow. They expect some appreciation over the long term but mainly just want to park their money in the US. They typically go for A class condos in neighborhoods they've heard of, so very little maintenance and cap ex, and easy A class tenants.

@Gregory H. Your examples make no sense. Realtors do CMAs for free and financial advisors do an initial consult for free, but then both get paid if you want to hire them to do the real work.

@Gregory H.  If you've never had to use an unproven photographer, then you don't do enough volume to have needed to. I work with many great photographers. They are expensive. They're also very busy and often booked when I need them. I have to use photographers I've never worked with before. It also often doesn't make sense to use the same, expensive photographer on a multi-million dollar sale, as it does on an inexpensive rental, and so I often try out new photographers that way. Which of my ideas is garbage? Because I gave many, that all work. I know they work because I've seen them work. Your ideas were to put up a nice website and offer to do work for free. Brandon can update us on which ideas work best.