All Forum Posts by: Joe Jor

Don't eat yellow snow :)

@Brittany Lischinsky, welcome to BP.  I have 2 properties, both in New Rochelle.  They were both house hacks.  The first did not originally cashflow, however, the numbers halved my rent.  So while it wasn't directly making me money, it was lowering my expenses. 

The second was a pocket deal from someone I knew.  This property cash-flowed about 6%.  Not great, but doable.  In order for me to get to a number that made sense, I had to move in for a year so that I could take advantage of a lower down payment and interest rate.

I routinely troll the MLS, but similar to you, there haven't been very many deals that make sense over the last 1+ years; I am only considering properties that don't require major surgery. I suspect that this was in large part due to the limit on SALT; as such, the multifamily market was overheated as non-investors were purchasing so at least 1/2 of their property taxes would be deductible.

In the last month, as the market has cooled a little; there have been some marginal deals.  I suspect the volume of deals that numerically make sense will continue to grow, if the market continues to cool.

Joe

@Matt Ten, one other point.  You should verify the rent that the agent/broker suggests on RentOMeter or a similar service.  I believe it is a 3 bedroom.  RentOmeter suggests that the Average Rent is around 2600 and Median Rent is 2800.  The Rent you propose is almost 61% higher.

Joe

@Matt Ten, You insurance estimate of $600 per year is likely very low.  My insurance on a similarly priced house in southern westchester is $1800 per year.  With that said, it is a multifamily, so there is likely a premium paid for that.

I would also expect repairs to be more the $42.50 per month.  Even if you do a rehab, it is likely an older house; things break.

Joe

From a mortgage perspective, does anyone have a definition of what "Primary Residence" is and how it is tested?  Putting on a pseudo-lawyer hat, I can think of multiple interpretations:

• Location where you sleep
• Location where you spend the greatest number of hours
• Address used on taxes

There are probably hundreds more ... and I can think of many exceptions to those above.  I look forward to the ensuing discussion.

Joe

@Daniel Lynch, My girlfriend is moving in; I am charging her rent.  With that said, I also made it clear that she is more than welcome to buy equity and enjoy the benefits of ownership.

1. Your emotional relationship is different than your financial relationship; this is just business.
2. In my case, her moving in is cheaper than if she rented/bought her own place independently.
3. If you both moved into a new place (rented or bought), you would likely split all the costs.

Joe

Trevor is right; that is the correct way to acquire the data.  If that doesn't work, you can also hire a programmer for the task from sites like Freelancer.com.  When I have hired folks to do scraping in the past it has run between $100 and $200.  Just be sure to screen them for knowledge and past projects.  Also, many of the real estate websites have bot detection, so your programmer might need to get creative.

Joe

Bees are beneficial to the environment, so I would recommend a relocation; yellow jackets on the other hand just sting.  I've used this method before.  Economical and efficient:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytMcIpIRL3w

Joe

JP, you mentioned double digit returns. You just aren't going to find that in Westchester on the MLS. The only possibility, and a very long shot at that, for 10+% returns are some of the dicey parts of Mt. Vernon; I don't know if managing that grade of tenant is what you are looking for. Another alternative is to find something not on the MLS (pocket deal/wholesaler).

I would also recommend that you have a larger cash reserve.  Houses here are around 100 years old; there is always something breaking.

Let me know if I can assist with any other questions!

Joe

@Basit Siddiqi

Thanks for the quick reply; my MAGI is above the threshold which permits the $25k loss/deduction.

As such, I believe you are saying that the rental losses could not offset the IRA conversion.

Joe