All Forum Posts by: Jason Lee

It depends on how much income you need and how much you have liquid to cover your living expenses AND how hard you work. If you do rentals you're going to have to hustle but you could bring in some income pretty quickly. Unless you already have a large circle of friends or contacts in NYC that are at a point where they're looking to buy or sell now (and that would choose you over an experienced agent) then supporting yourself doing sales isn't likely, and closing a single co-op sale could take several months, or longer. You could try to get on a team that does a lot of volume but not sure what kind of income you can expect as a rookie. As for how the market is looking the pace of sales was down about 25% in Q1 YOY, prices for resales up slightly, new condo down, and resale inventory up about 11%. Not a great time to dive in but as the market softens you'll have less competition as people leave the industry and if you can make it when the the market's not doing great, you will make it.

It depends entirely on your goals. If you really just want to learn about real estate investing then you'll learn faster and more by just participating on these forums, listening to all the podcasts, and perhaps joining local meet ups. The typical real estate agent learns very little about actual real estate investing in their day to day activity. Most don't know a thing about house hacking, BRRR, ROI, etc. As for some of the advantages others have mentioned above, here in prime NYC there is no MLS, and there are no lock boxes. Retail buyers get the same info at just about the same time as real estate licensees, and the listing agents are present at 99% of all showings so in most cases you're not going to getter better access to info or seeing properties. If you're planning to invest in the same market that you would be working as an agent then yes it would be helpful as you'll have more intimate knowledge of that market (prices, local trades, buyer and tenant profiles) and you could potentially save on in and out transaction costs, but there's a reason most beginner investors look outside of NYC.

How about giving them a tube of Hot Shot gel bait. Bait is supposed to work better than spray (though I'm sure the profit margin for spraying is much higher for exterminators). That should clear things up fast and they won't have to vacate. 

What's your budget and how old will your kids be? Your budget is going to determine a lot of what's possible. Next, you have to figure out schooling for your kids, which in NYC isn't going to be so simple. I'd try to figure out those things first.

Building staff, the super, or your neighbors will rat you out eventually and then the condo will impose fines and take legal action. Then there are the city fines to worry about. Not only can you get fined for actually "renting" out the apartment, you can get fined for simply advertising the apartment for less than 30 days, or violating building/fire codes. If you want to base your "investing" around something that violates a condominium's bylaws and city and state law , good luck to you.

Bad idea. Most co-op boards will sniff you out as an investor and so you won't be approved in the first place. Even if they do allow renting the minimum lease term is usually 1 year. It's illegal to have a lease of less than 30 days unless you occupy a portion of the property yourself and so this strategy isn't even going to work with a condo.

Andy P. I'm assuming you mean a co-op that allows investors as opposed to buying a co-op to try to rent out. If so, you can get financing on investment co-ops but as mentioned above with much lower ltv and the rates will be higher. In NYC properties don't cash flow great because of the really high prices but you can typically look forward to good appreciation. With an investment co-op the appreciation might not be there because the buyer pool is significantly reduced since the co-op is most likely non-warrantable.

I'm pretty sure he could take the course work now and perhaps even the course exam, and then wait to take the state exam when he turns 18. The license law is that you have to be at least 18 to be licensed and I presume you can take the course work at any age. You can confirm all this by contacting the NY DOS division of licensing and also one of the many real estate schools (try NYREI). I wish I got my license when I was 18!

@Kapil Patel I like it as primary residence but probably wouldn't look around there for an investment property. It really depends on the type of building you're looking at. There are a bunch of rental buildings clustered there with many more units in development nearby (thousands). If you're looking at one of the larger condo buildings there you'd have a lot of competition when you're ready to rent out and it will all be very comparable in terms of age, style, etc. If you're looking at a walk up then you wouldn't have as big an issue since you'd be targeting tenants at a lower price point. By the time you're ready to rent out you might actually do better selling since prices are appreciating pretty rapidly and there isn't much affordable condo inventory in the area, with little in the pipeline for development (at non-luxury pricing).

There are plenty of converted loft apartments that don't have windowed "bedrooms" or have "bedrooms" with lot line windows, but in most towns and cities I would think this type of apartment would be categorized as a studio with a den or home office. Most folks intend to use those spaces as bedrooms, but not sure they could be marketed as such. All things being equal, a bedroom with a window is going to go at a premium to one that doesn't. Having no window is a deal breaker for many (from my experience marketing them) and so with smaller demand would be lower rent. If there's at least one windowed bedroom and then a second non-windowed one that can serve as a nursery or guest room then that's not nearly as bad. If windowless bedrooms are fairly common in your area then it shouldn't be as big of an issue. If it's rare then I might look for a second opinion. What is the floor plan of these units? Are you sure these plans show the highest and best use of your max floor area? 

The Village, technically, is not a large area. There is relatively low condo inventory these days and so I would definitely widen your search area. Or, if you mean the downtown area, minus Newport, then that makes more sense. If this is going to be a primary residence for a few years then I would definitely take into consideration some of your personal preferences which should help narrow things down a bit. If it were purely a rental you could more easily look at what cash flows better but if you're going to live there for a few years, you should enjoy living there. Do you prefer smaller condos? Are you ok with walk-ups? Do you really not care for any condo amenities or do you think that would increase the monthly costs? There is more demand for 1 beds and they tend to cash flow better than larger apartments, too. In general, more renters are attracted to newer construction with more amenities, with good transportation, but it all really comes down to affordability. I'd first think about what your needs/wants are from a primary residence and also take into account what you can afford and/or how much you want to spend on housing. That will help you focus your search.