All Forum Posts by: Corey Demuth

The other good reason for using a pm, in my opinion, is if you are trying to invest in a distant area. I am currently looking into investing in Syracuse, which is about a 4-5 hour drive from me. TOTALLY WORTH 10% to not have to make that drive a million times when things come up, screening tenants initially, etc. Granted I will end up making the trip now and then and at certain key stages of the process as I am a hands-on kind of person, but for the day to day crap the PM is totally worth the cost.

For everyone that lets tenants pull their own credit and send it to you, I must say I think that's a bad idea, sooner or later you're going to get a half-way computer literate tenant who will realize who simple it is to simply edit the pdf or other document and remove or change negative items...

What services do you use to pull credit and background checks on applicants (potential tenants)? Can you use the same tools in multiple states, and are there any legal issues associated with pulling credit and/or background checks for potential tenants?

Thanks!

No one?

Looking to network with Long Island Investors. Please contact me if you invest in the long island area. Thanks.

I am really trying to get into real estate investing in long island. It's where I work, and I want to move there, so it's in my best interest to try to figure out if I can possibly make money investing in the same area. I have been spinning my wheels for a long time now and I want to try to see if I can find someone on here who invests in the area and can help steer me in the right direction.

I have looked into several REO deals, but they all came up dry. Most of the time I just never hear back from the banks about my offers and the agents don't seem to have a clue what the problem is.

Is there anyone on here that has actually bought REOs in long island, who would be willing to talk to me about the process?

Thanks!

I have been trying to hunt out a good first deal in long island for a while now, and I have almost totally given up on this area. But I work here and want to live her so it is really in my best interest to try like hell to figure out if there is some way that I can make profitable deals around here.

I have run into a ton of headaches pursuing short sales in this area. Here are some of the problems I've encountered:

1.) Brokers posting ads for houses that are not really valid prices. Example: Broker posts a house as a short sale, at a price of 224,900. After months of anguish, it turns out the bank really wants like 260k for the house but the broker/agent made a lowball ad just to generate interest/bids.

2.) Many real estate agents/brokers don't really seem to "get" how to even ATTEMPT to get a short sale approved. They claim they can do it but all they end up doing is wasting your time and for several MONTHS you are on the hook, because if that deal comes through you're committed to buy at the price you bid, which means you can't bid on or buy other property in the meantime.

3.) In the end the offer just gets rejected so you have wasted several months and lost other opportunities.

4.) Some of the promising deals vanish seemingly overnight, or never even get listed. I'm convinced some people have special connections and get the cream of the crop deals before us normal guys ever even have a prayer at bidding on them. I understand that's the way the world works but is there any way for me to crack into this secret circle?

Is there anyone on here who has bough short sales successfully? If so, I'd love to talk to you about it.

I think many people are misinterpreting this. I believe what he was implying was that the contractors are going to charge more if they know they will have to report the income.

I don't know how easy it is to sell to another investor; I will say there are plenty of houses that need work out in LI, but from my personal perspective the sellers are still out on cloud 9 as far as their price expectations. The prices don't seem to have sank far enough considering 10% of New Yorkers are still unemployed, and businesses are starting to close down left and right, and nobody can get qualified for a loan for the prices these nuts are asking. It seems like the only people buying are older investors who are content to eek out a tiny profit since they can't put their money in CDs or savings accounts (because they aren't even beating inflation at current rates.)

And, the taxes on the properties don't seem to be reflecting the new low values of the houses; Homes that sold for 400-500k in 2004 and are now listed for 200k are still showing roughly the same taxes that they were charged back at the peak of the market... go figure. Oh and by the way, the taxes on a MF home in Long Island are usually 10-12k! So if you get a MF property, the rent one of the tenants pays basically just covers the taxes... Then the other tenant covers a little over your mortgage payment... but by the time you figure maintenance costs, insurance (which can be higher in LI for a number of reasons, flooding being the primary one) and occasional vacancy, well, there go your profits...

well, for one thing there are plenty of investors buying deals at AND ABOVE list/retail prices. In Long Island you will bid on a ton of REOs and short sales, and you will never hear back and when you really investigate you find out your offer was dead right out of the gate because somebody else had already bid on top of you.

My friend just bought a house in suffolk and it was crazy when he was shopping around, he'd find all these properties he was interested in, check them out, 9/10 times he'd offer list price, and not even get a call back.

buy and hold is tough on LI because taxes are sky-freaking-high. You will be hard pressed to find even a small SFR with lower than 500$/month property taxes, and if you DO find one, it will be in the hood. It's really tough to create cash flow with the damn taxes being so high.

I have been trying to invest in Long Island for almost 2 years now, before I thought the only thing holding me back was lack of sufficient capital, but now that I have plenty of cash on hand to invest I still can't find a single damn deal. I'm still looking, but man is it discouraging... Every time I think I have a good one I realize either the taxes are going to eat up all the profits (this is typically the problem) or there is some kind of legal complication associated with renting or having a 2-family in the particular area/incorporated village that the house is located in.