All Forum Posts by: Jorge Borges

FWIW.. I drove both blocks around 10PM last night and it seems like a quiet street, lot's of trees. I would say the closer to Central you are the better it gets. There were a lot of boarded up homes b/w 11th and 12th Ave. Hope that helps.

Trulia crime map is your friend. Once you find a yellow-green area, walk the neighborhood, if you feel safe/comfortable at 3pm, 8pm and 1am (esp. On a nice summer day "more traffic"), you then look at the numbers. Biggerpockets rental calculator can help you with that.

Some of the safer neighborhoods (lower returns): Ironbound, Forest Hills

Some of the riskier neighborhoods (higher returns, on paper atleast): Westside (numbered streets), Weequahic, the Vailsburgs, etc.

I have been in Upper Roseville for 6 yrs and Westside for a yr and a half, its pretty much block by block.

WSJ Article Today:

Landlords Face Pressure on Criminal Background Checks

For NJ Property Taxes:

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?&ms...

I second Johnathan on the Newark Side. You can get into a three-family for that price.

I have not worked with him personally, but did a lot of research on the architect that put together many new constructions in Newark, including the one I live in now. 

Daniel Roma, you can google his contact info and use "site:ci.newark.nj.us" to see all the projects he has represented in from of the Newark Planning board.

Was your house built recently, is the lot at least 33ft wide?

@Sagar NaikWelcome to biggerpockets!

http://www.biggerpockets.com/calc would be a good place to start. Remember every property you look at to get the taxes right, because in NJ that could put a huge dent in your cashflow. You can find NJ property tax info here:

NJ Assessment Records Search

There are some great properties in the areas that @Mark Callazzomentioned above.

If you know what cities you are interested in a post here would bring people focused there for more insight.

Best of Luck!

Welcome to BP. Have you tried just going the FHA/househacking route? You can get yourself a nice three-family in any of your target neighborhoods and tenants rent would cover mortgage and expenses. Especially if you find something that needs a light rehab.

I guess I want to throw a wrench in this post due to the striking similarities to me. I went to a CUNY, I share your frustration there. I am also in my twenties. I had probably a little more cc debt than you when I made a decision to buy a 3family in Newark. I would say go with your gut, and do what makes you happy. Don't discount the advice you have received in here about "house hacking",Newark is definitely an area where you can live free in one apartment and have the other two pay PITI.

If you DO decide to buy first, something that helped me was raising my credit limits, which lowered my utilization. Which I think was mentioned already. Having a steady job helped me too. 

Lastly, I am sure others can confirm as well but your numbers look good as far as ball park estimates on rents and taxes in this area.

Welcome to BP from a fellow Newark multifamily investor. 

@Marina Shlomov You hit the nail right on the head. You guessed it, this was a Section 8 tenant. With this property I inherited the tenant with Section 8 and did the whole song and dance with them to get approved only for the yearly inspection (random) to fail because of this condition. You mentioned the reporting to Section 8, I think I might use that as leverage against the tenant, because they seem to think they deserve money back.

The clock was ticking here in NJ for me to return a letter, so I used the estimates I had plus the invoices for work already completed and sent it CMRRR.

Again I'd like to say Thank You!! to all who replied.