All Forum Posts by: Ronald Starusnak

Mark Farchione

Certificate of Good standing is to make sure you're properly registered with the state. I use Mark Farchione for all of my Real Estate transactions. He is an excellent REI attorney and has a few hundred units of his own.

@Ibrahim Bawa -- The landbank houses have requirements on repairs. They want to make sure you're having the work completed to bring the house up to their standards. They will request a 3rd party repair estimate from a licensed contractor, they will also request proof that you have a loan or the liquidity to pay that contractor.

The landbank will provide you with a document of the required repairs and an estimate cost of the projects. Some items I have found are high but most of the pricing is too low as the inspectors putting together the document aren't adding the full step to the line item. They may include painting the rooms for example but not to repair the plastic or to tape off the trim or scrape / clean walls. The Syracuse landbank is doing a good thing and can be lucrative but still, it is very difficult to hope for appreciation on these properties. Even with a full remodel it may be difficult to get the value back out. If your goal is to BRRRR -- doing so inside the city will prove difficult due to very little ability to increase value.

Additionally, the amount of security deposit can not exceed one months worth of rent. 

Hey guys, we are buying a 38 unit in Syracuse which used to be full of crime. It was shut down by the city and now we will have a fresh start. I want to make sure we do not have the same problem as the previous owners. We are not able to turn this into higher end or even market rent. We will be remodeling the entire building but we're still going to be stuck with section 8 & public assistance tenants. How have you guys been able to reduce crime in your buildings? This is one building, 38 units all contained. 

Here is what we have in mind, please let me know if you guys have had any experience with these. 

Key Card Entry - Potentially 2 cards issued per tenant so they aren't able to just buzz in people or give out their card. Or maybe just 1 car per person on the lease and access to a 24/7 emergency number for a key code?

On-Site Manager - On site manager / security. Give them a free apartment right at the entry level in the front of the building. They would stop people from hanging out in the front of the building & hallways. Can we even stop people from loitering in the hallways? 

Cameras - Security cameras at all entrances, in the hallways, etc. 

Lighting - No dark areas, bright hallway lighting, bright entry lights, big clean & open front of the building. 

Tenant Screening - This really is harder. We are taking section 8 tenants which tend to have a higher volume of individuals likely to bring or commit crimes. On 1-4 unit properties it's not too big of a deal but on a 38 unit we may get a few more bad eggs than we anticipate. 

I've also had the problem where we do remodels for other investors and try to stick to their budget and the guidelines of what should be done for the rental and they're never happy. I won't remodel anything in Syracuse for anyone. It makes me look bad. It doesn't make since to spend $60k on a remodel for a $20k house but if you don't you end up with some cut corners and it looks terrible. 

Worst jobs I've ever done were inside Syracuse trying to stick to budgets. We ended up spending just as much if not more than what we were charging. My guys cost me too much to do little jobs like that. Might work better for a solo guy or small crew. 

I have this problem majorly. I am a contractor so when I ignore things in a rental or don't spend as much time or money on it; it doesn't look as good and makes me angry or something. Gives me a guilty feeling. We've been remodeling our properties like we're flipping them but they're just rentals. I just put up a house I did a major reno on for $1,300 a month and there's a run down house the same size 15 minutes away for $1,500 a month. 

I'm not going to raise my rent though, the area doesn't support it but we probably over did it on the remodel on that one but at the same time we are BRRRRing so the better the remodel, the better the refi. 

Can you deny housing to someone for not having a drivers license? No. See where she works perhaps and see how far it is. I know people who've been driving without a license for 15+ years. Getting pulled over and ticketed isn't going to stop them. Even an aggravated unlicensed operation of a MV is a catch and release charge. 

Troy, I am very familiar with the Syracuse market. If you want to PM me I can tell you if it's even worth buying at that price. Syracuse has no appreciation and will not go up for a long time as we have no upcoming prospects apart from an Amazon facility in Clay. You shouldn't really buy in Syracuse based on cap rate unless it is student housing. 

In Syracuse the PM companies are all over worked and overburdened. There is a serious need for PM companies in the area but the landlords don't want to spend the money to get their properties up to snuff for the quick filling, good tenants. Had one guy from NYC who bought 50+ doors and some of the MF properties had no heat, water, gas, or power and whole families were just living there and he had no budget to fix any of it. 

Tenants weren't on leases, no one was paying rent, they were swapping units and trading units within the building. It was an absolute disaster, could be fixed but there are too many slum lords within Syracuse. It's better as a PM to just avoid Syracuse all together and focus on the other areas, cities, and suburbs. Pat, you do it right, you want 100% turn key no problem properties; the other out of state investors do not. They only care about how much they're spending per door and how fast can they get their section 8 deposits trickling in. 

 What are they? Storage facility?