All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

My mom is chewing my ear off as she's preparing to market her condo on the east end of Long Island, no matter how much I tell her I know absolutely nothing about doing it. I'm B&H, never sold anything! She claims most of the ~$400k sales in her gated complex go to folks already in the area who are downsizing, so she wants to advertise it in the local paper, and specify cash only, since she believes her customers will all be selling their current homes. Is this stupid or smart?

Any other advice that might be relevant in this kind of sale? I looked on Craigslist, and saw relatively little in this kind of market. Are the 55+ not really looking on Craigslist or other online spaces? I think she should have a CL ad even just to direct respondents to, for them to see a more complete description and loads of photos, but that's my "info overload" rental strategy to not waste time with BS showings. Maybe this kind of sale is different? I notice the realtor ads have very few photos.

If this is a PITA, helping her move is going to be a nightmare.....

@Giovanni Isaksen

Interesting analysis. I've usually used a simpler metric about long term returns, but I might be wrong. I figure that if I buy a property for 25% down on a 15 year note, and it pays it's mortgage and all it's expenses with no extra cashflow, no appreciation, and no increase of rents till the note is paid off, at that time I've gotten 9.4% rate on my down payment. That seems a pretty good investment all by itself. But rents always go up, and at least around here, values usually do too.

Not the practice here when there's one meter, same for heat when there's one boiler, as there is in that place. When I decided against separating the heat I realized that my financial loss wasn't the heat or water bill, it was the error in what I built into the rent for those costs. I only lose if I underestimate, and if I overestimate I'll have trouble renting. But balanced against tens of thousands to separate the heat, it seems reasonable.

I'm on the other end this dilemma, an insanely noisy family in place when I bought, and I don't know how I'm going to keep the other tenants in the building. Do whatever it takes to keep them out so you don't end up in my shoes.

There should be a primer on "legal ways to deny undesirable tenants", although I can't recall the last time I rejected someone with good income and credit.

When oak is not in the budget, I'm in favor of laminate, and not the allure stuff, the 8mm click variety. It holds up very well, and from Costco is crazy cheap, as low as $1.40 ft on sale. I've even installed it in a kitchen using special laminate sealing glue on the top edge, 2 years and so far so good. Tile is nice but if you're not DIY the cost increases dramatically. The Allure Ultra click vinyl is also a good choice for a kitchen.

I don't know when the practice changed, but one unit of mine that I know was gutted about 1950 had diagonal 5" TnG sub under 2.25" oak. The units upstairs had original wide (I think 4") 5/4" pine floors under various ply and linoleum, but they had odd wear patterns, like they'd been scraped in the middle but not the edges. The wear was almost down to the tongue, making them unsandable, and they got covered in laminate. The next job may get Costco's click bamboo, I've been reading good things about it.

This post was incredibly valuable today! The current reno has 4" wide 100+ year old pine subfloor that I'm going to have sanded out, I think it will look great, old pine is much denser than modern young trees. But I've left the old carpet down while major wall work is being done, and there's an unknown amount of floor damage from radiator leaks etc that needs to be repaired. Reading this post inspired me to scavenge about 24 sq ft of flooring from the soon to be tiled kitchen and put it aside for the floor repair patches that will match the old pine perfectly. Thanks.

Jersey City is in NJ. The NYC clause that allows you to evict for personal use does not exist here anyway. But overall the court is not nearly as tenant friendly as NY. The only eviction I've had to do, for non-payment, was easy. The court mediator asked if he had the rent, when he said no it was over. No BS about poor maintenance etc was entertained.

No one can field this one? I'm very interested in this too, I do a lot of the rehab work myself too.

Ah yes, I guess I forgot not everybody knows the technicalities of the NJ "anti-eviction statute"! The rent is not regulated but one can not raise the rent by what a judge might consider "unconscionable". What's that? Whatever the judge says it is. Hearsay is 5-10% is pretty safe, 20+% might get you loss in court, depending on judge and circumstances. They also have a right to automatic lease renewal in rental properties unoccupied by owner and owner occupied over 3 units. But I don't want a war, an expensive legal one or one of property damage, I just want them out. So 10% plus a buyout offer seemed gentle enough.