All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Thomas Palompelli Welcome to BP!  You've joined a Great community and I hope you will find the site as valuable as I have.

I live in mid-town and also invest in Westchester County.  Feel free to shoot me a message if I can be of any help.

Best of Luck!

This is an amazing opportunity.  I just submitted my application as well.  Fingers crossed!

Christian Reyes looking forward to meeting you today. I'll be there a little early in case you want to have a one on one chat before everyone arrives.

@Michael Lane  Yonkers is part of Westchester County and the taxes are not part of NYC. 

Generally speaking the taxes in Yonkers are some of the lowest in Westchester County.   

@Christian Reyes Welcome to BP!  This is a great community to learn and network.  Take full advantage.

I've been an active investor in Westchester County for the past 7 years.  Out of all of the rivers towns in Westchester I am the most bullish on Yonkers.  The relative proximity of the City makes it a natural destination for those commuters who need easy access to NYC without having to pay up NYC rents.  There's a few developments underway that will help to accelerate the growth the city has been experiencing over the last few years:

http://www.rxrrealty.com/2015/09/rxr-rising-jv-to-...

https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/hipsturbia...

There are still deals to be had in Yonkers and other places but don't expect to find them behind a computer screen. You have to get out and network, network, network. Those who have access to the good deals are not listing them on the MLS or on Loopnet, they are presenting those deals directly to their contacts. That includes bank owned properties.

There are several meetup groups that meet once a month in White Plains, Yonkers and the Bronx.  Some are run by fellow BP members.  You can find more information about the coming meetups either through the "Networking Events" section of BP or directly on Meetup.com. 

I'd also be happy to share some local investor friendly attorneys, agents, property managers, etc...

Best of Luck!

Ruben

Jonathan Johnson you've received some great advice so far and I will add a couple of extra points. When I first look at a deal I automatically assume the expenses to be at around 40%-45% of gross income. I then divide the Net Operating Income (NOI) by the going Cap Rate for similar properties in the same area. That will give you an idea if the asking price is in the range of similar properties in the area. It's also a quick way for me to tell whether it's worth my time doing a full analysis on the property. On the financing side don't count on more than 80% LTV, final number will be based on the Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) required by the lender, among many things. Also keep in mind that if this is your first deal the bank may require personal guarantees. With experience banks are willing to provide a non-recourse loan, but either way you will need to show an equal amount of assets to cover the loan. Depending on your current situation this may require you to find a partner with a nice balance sheet and good credit. Last point, don't go at this alone. Find an experienced investor and partner on your first few deals. The lessons you will learn will be invaluable and save you a ton of time and money. Best of luck!

Hi @Justin Burgos,  I specialize in multi-family investing in Westchester County, in particular in Yonkers and Mt. Vernon; both great cash-flow markets which benefit greatly from their proximity to NYC.  We have over 100 doors in Yonkers alone, many which were acquired via distressed situations.  We have done very well over the years and we are still actively investing in the area.  I still recommend it to any new investors looking for deep value and the opportunity to benefit from location and population shifts.

There's a lot of interest in Yonkers in particular and that has created a situation where inventory is tight and the market is experiencing some nice appreciation.   We do our own marketing to source properties directly from sellers.  It takes some work but there's good opportunities out there.   Just last week we closed on a cash flowing duplex in Mt. Vernon, we paid $150k, the property needs less than $2k worth of work.  That's something we'll most likely flip in the coming weeks.

I agree with @Darren Sager in regards to the work required to stabilize and manage the tenants that come with lower priced properties.  It takes a lot of time and work to do it right.  You really have to clearly define why it is that you want to get into this business to begin with, the quality of life you want to lead, and that will tell you what kind of properties to focus on.

Best,
Ruben

@Simon C., That will really just depend on the syndicator.   I am also not suggesting that this is standard practice across the board.  Just something you may want to consider if you're going to invest with someone you've never invested with before and are deploying large amounts of capital with this person or company.

I recently partnered with some investors out of Asia and for them the background check was a must have.   Since they are overseas they ended up hiring a third-party firm to run a background check on my company and I.   Since I have nothing to hide I did not mind providing the required information. 

Hi @Marc C.,

Our "pitchbook" tends to be anywhere from 5-10 pages and we each one is deal specific.  We find that our investors prefer to see deal specific details as opposed to a long presentation talking about the company, strategy, etc.    Of course we cover some of that, but that's usually one page towards the end of the book. 

It sounds like you may be looking for something more like this:  www.synergypgh.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Investment-Presentation.pptx

We've started using an analyst that we found at www.upwork.com to put together our deal pitchbooks.  We pay a few hundred dollars for a professional quality pitchbook with the financials and that has been money well spent.

Hi @Jay Bhatt, The next Yonkers Real Estate Meetup is on Thursday, November 3rd:  

http://meetu.ps/e/C2ZzW/n8jkY/f.  We will have a panel discussion on leveraging 203k loans for multi-family investing starting at 7pm.   Hope you can join us!

Ruben