All Forum Posts by: Ronald Starusnak

Investors usually don't like paying market rate for the work so a lot of contractors just don't bother. There is already a large lack of contractors, can't make money doing a $60 plumbing call unless you are doing 10-15 a day every day. Even at a higher rate, it's hard to make a full schedule of little side jobs. I pay my cheapest guy $750 a week, I'd have to have them do a lot of side work to just break even. We have people who think they're doing us a favor by giving us work. Only thing I can recommend is if you get big enough just bring a guy on and pay him a salary to handle maintenance calls, remodels, and maybe some other things to make sure you're getting your values worth. 

Vaughn Lang is the Greater Syracuse Association Of Realtors Attorney (GSAR). He is very knowledgeable with everything real estate but he is also very strict and that can sometimes slow a closing down. Mark Farchione is also great and he's who I use most of the time. Mark is an investor as well. 

Hey Joe, if you're looking up in the Syracuse market please feel free to reach out. My Fiancee (@Molly Walsh) is a Licensed Real Estate Agent. It's a lot easier to work with an Agent that knows about investing in & out. We have bought 20 units this year and have a few more closing. Let me know if you have any questions on anything real estate. 

Bryan, are you looking for seamless? 

 That's common, it's called a RUBS system. Simple utility bill back. 

Mike, obviously I am a contractor and do roofs in Syracuse. Not trying to solicit myself here as we're too busy but just want to give credence to my response. Most roofs in Syracuse were built using what's called skip sheathing. It's essentially barn board that is gapped a few inches and over this typically cedar shingles were installed. 

Over the last 100+ years of these properties being in Syracuse no one wanted to strip the roofs because they ALL need new plywood so what you end up seeing is $20-$40k roofs. The excessive layers of roofing take DAYS to strip. There are hundreds of nails per sq/ft because of all of the layers of roofing and your shovel can barely move when stripping. On top of that the houses are close and you can't get dump trailers or dumpsters on all sides of the houses so there is a ton of clean up on the ground.

The cedar shingles tend to explode since they're 100+ year old wood and it is very messy. To meet OSHA safety standards you have to have roof jacks and harnesses. It's very difficult to move around on these roofs. After the roof is finally stripped you have to re-deck the entire thing so you're carrying heavy OSB or zip sheathing on an unwalkable roof. It's so slow and labor intensive. Syracuse code requires the roofers go above and beyond, copper flashing everywhere there is masonry, chimneys must be repaired when the roof is done, etc. 

With all of that being said, I think we're at the low end of what we charge at $800-$1000 a square for roofing. Vanderhoof is a good company but they're probably double, The Roofing Guys are not a good company. They hire anyone, drug addicts, they run tons of ads and tons of crews, their crew leads are inexperienced. Their reviews are terrible and they have tons of OSHA violations. 

@Bill Keast commercial appraisers are really booked out! Are you with any of the big companies? We just ordered an appraisal for a 12 unit in Camden we're buying from Appraisal Nation and they quoted 21 days before appraisal can be completed. Being an investor I'm sure you're able to give a much more accurate appraisal on some of these buildings than someone who is not. 

Yeah, we work all year round. It sucks, at one of my properties we are just finishing up and didn't have time to get everything out of the yard before it got covered in snow. Now we have to dig in the snow to find the extra materials that were left out lol. These are in Cicero so the snow wasn't that bad, hopefully it melts before we get more. 

Dan & Ed are great. Dan has a lot of properties, mostly in the Syracuse area. 

You can invest anywhere if you know what your criteria are. Inner city areas all over Upstate NY; Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, etc have little to no appreciation but the properties aren't DEPRECIATING either. Understand your own investment strategy, if you're looking to value add and refi out then it's going to be very difficult to do so in any of these areas, if you're okay leaving 20% in on a CV Loan and reaping the excellent cash flow then it makes sense to buy in the inner city.