All Forum Posts by: Robert Mack

Has anyone heard about buying islands and developing the land to make it suitable for developing homes etc...?

Anyone every try to buy one or have any opinions?

I am not currently looking to buy any islands, but it would be something that would interest me in the future.

I am looking to put an offer on a REO property in my town. However, the offer will be much less than the current list price, so I am skeptical about it being accepted.

List: $349900 (way to high in my opinion)
ARV: $375K
Sq ft.: 1688
Listed on MLS: Feb 20th 08 so around 60 DOM
The neighborhood is a good one & its a dead end street.

4 bedrooms 1.5 bath, attached garage.
Estimated repairs are 30k. Needs new paint throughout, refinish the hard wood floors, and new kitchen and bath.

I want to offer $250K which with estimated holding costs, closing costs repairs, and 5% commision comes to I believe 72% of ARV.

I believe I am being cautious with the ARV and it MAY be end up being higher but I rather be cautious than think I can get 400k and use those numbers...

My realtor doesn't wnat to give me to much advice on ARV...

I am in the Northern NJ area....

Any opinions?

I don't know which schools have MBA programs with a concentration in RE, but if you are sure you want to focus on real estate and work for yourself, I'd look into a masters degree. An MBA is more general degree which teaches managment skills and CONCENTRATES in an area hence the concentration part. If I wanted to work for an organization, this is probably a good route to go because you have more options...

A masters degree will focus on whatever subject you are learning about- real estate development and real estate management are two masters programs out there.

Bently and Cloumbia I believe have Masters in Real Estate Management degress. I know someone who is about to finish up the program at Bentley. There is a emphasis on analysis, forecasting and evaluation in this program I believe.

Masters in Real Estate Development is another degree program.

USC is a top school for that program I believe, Columbia, ASU and MIT also offer them....

I'm tired of typing.... I would try googling and it should provide you with some good information.

Also try princetonreview.com

Is this a joke? How many wallets do you own and how many copies of your licence, CC etc. do you have that you can have it stolen three times in one day.

Here's a good quote for you

"If it wasn't for pick picketers I'd have no sex life at all" (Rodney Dangerfield)

and a pile of wallets laying around...

On howardforums.com which is a message board about cell phone carriers, phones etc.. you can do a search within each thread, which makes the search more detailed....

check it out if what I said doesn't make sense... I find it very useful when doing a search..

For example, If i go into the Marketing section and then there is a thread with 500 posting, I'd be able to click on the thread and then search only within that thread.....

Tim can you expand on your recommendation of specializing in an area of wholesaling..? Do you mean specializing in SFH or multi-family only or specializing in probates or pre-foreclosures etc...?

Can you clarify please, thanks!

This is a great post, it should be a sticky....

hopefully more people post their rehab's just like this one, alota information in this post...

I would like to see a place in the forums where all the different spreadshets/ documents that people post are placed.

So whenever someone posts an excel sheet for lets say calculating a rehab or property checklist etc. it gets put in a main place so that if someone is looking for a certain excel sheet, type of doc. they know where to go....

What does everyone think?

Here is a Brooklyn blog brownstoner.com -> the Renovation section

http://www.brownstoner.com/renoblogs/

I didn't mean to discourage you, but I believe that wholesaling, and/or flipping is harder in NYC, but it also depends on what borough you want to do this in.
There are many laws you need to be aware of when wholesaling/flipping in NYC. Even if you are wholesaling you need to know the potential roadblocks for completing a flip, so that you know if it will be worthwhile for a flipper to take on the job...

You need to make sure the property is not in a historic district or is not landmarked, if it is, good luck trying to get permits and permission to change anything on the building.

You also need to be aware of the zoning, the current FAR and the max FAR and if they are in a special district which limits height, or anything else.
To learn about zoning and FAR etc. go to the City Planning website. You can get a zoning book, I call it the Idiots guide to zoning, its $24 at their office downtown.

With all the recent construction accidents, the DOB is under pressure to make construction sites more safe, so it might be harder to get permits or they might be giving out more work order stoppages...

Also read those blogs I posted in the other post, and find blogs for the other boroughs too, they have interesting information sometimes about new houses for sale etc...

As for foreclosures here is an article from the Observer..

http://www.observer.com/2008/new-york-foreclosures-way-were-still-no-l

"In New York City, with its over three million households, the 918 new foreclosures affected 0.030 percent of households. (Take away Queens, which accounted for well over half of the new foreclosures, and the percentage would be much lower.) In L.A. and Miami-Dade, the foreclosures affected over 0.28 percent of households."

Try using Google, for your search on foreclosures in NYC, or for any search you do, it brings up a ton of information.