All Forum Posts by: Oisin Lewis

@Jerry Padilla yes I have considered that as a strategy, and I think that's what I will try to do actually. Because I'm new to the real estate world I'm still trying to calculate what the actual closing costs would be and how much rental income a multi-family property actually makes in NYC. Many have said that traditional income forecasting methods (50% rule, 1% rule) aren't as applicable here because rents are higher, vacancy is lower, etc. 

I'll look more into the FHA mortgage. Thanks for the advice!

Thanks for the response @Jonathan Makovsky and apologies for the delay in replying. I was looking for investment properties in up and coming neighborhoods of Brooklyn to start, but am open to other possibilities. I hadn't considered CT but I will now. 

I've heard about a couple rules of thumb that say a good investment property should generate rent at 1% of the sales price, but that seems nearly impossible in any of the boroughs here. (An $800k two unit building in Bushwick could get roughly $5-6k/month). I've also read it's important to account for only being able to use 50% of the cumulative rent towards paying off a mortgage, because of repairs, vacancy, property management, etc. that drive the average cash flow downwards. Abiding by these seem to make investment properties for first time buyers very prohibitive in NYC. What's your take on those rules?

Thanks!

Oisin

The more I read about real estate investing on this blog, the more excited I become about actually starting my real estate investing career. I've read about many strategies for how to invest with little money down, how to invest in owner-occupied multi-unit properties, how to become cash flow positive, etc. These all make sense to me and I can see how it would work in many markets across the country. But will these kinds of strategies work in New York City for early real estate investors, or is NYC a market to approach later in my real estate career?

Thanks in advance for the help!