All Forum Posts by: Sanderson Mittnacht

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Chatham.

Purchase price: $890,000
Cash invested: $180,000
Sale price: $1,490,000

Single-family residence buy & hold investment

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Both as a primary home and an area I saw great appreciation potential.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

This was on the MLS for a while and I negotiated it down $110k based on current market rates and sellers needs.

How did you finance this deal?

Personal

How did you add value to the deal?

New boiler, deck in back, fireplace, and various security upgrades.

What was the outcome?

Successful $600k exit in 4 years!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

I wish I had exit differently. The low interest rate I had from back in the Covid era should have been saved as a rental unit but I needed the capital to fund other projects.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Agents - Shelly Carey with Compass - she's wonderful!

@Marc Bacayon I ended up purchasing in Jewett so I'm not sure about the Windham area.

@Sanjay Aiyar I do know Windham mountain put some regulations on their ski passes this year with 2-day minimum lift tickets and are looking to make the mountain super exclusive with a $200k membership https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/17/nyregion/windham-mountain... I would assume the township would follow with tightening up regulations on STRs. Both Windham and Hunter are quickly becoming 'VC-backed' establishments so I'd be on the lookout for changes in the near future if they haven't happened already.

I recently heard on a random youtube video that Pace Morby (SubTo) and Steve Trang (RE Disruptors) do a weekly run together and spend the whole time talking strictly real estate. I love the idea and am looking to see if anyone is interested in starting one of these in Northern NJ. I'm in Morris County but could meet anywhere within an hours drive on Saturdays or Sundays. 

My personal preference would be anywhere from 5-20 miles around the 9-12 min pace but able/willing to go at whatever distance/pace the group desires.

If anyone is interested, please let me know and I can coordinate.

There are many different strategies you could take and different strategies would set the order of operations of 'who you need to know'. Regardless though, you need to friend-up with the following four: lender, title company, attorney, and agent(s)/wholesaler(s). Start networking and meeting as many in your market as you can. DM me if you wanna connect on how I approached my first deal.

Do you have a deal in mind? Go to a local REIA, pitch the deal and look for a mentor or partner you could trust. Heck, you may even find a cash buyer to get around lenders lol

Agreed, definitely shop around for other credit unions/ local banks/ private money. 

Maybe a dumb question, but if the property is producing $4,650 mthly and the refi would be $3,950 mthly, why not take the refi and receive less cash flow? Are you worried it won't appraise for $600k or are you asking, 'is this a good idea'? 

Quote from @Sean Bramble:

There are a few other forum posts on this topic you should search. I was looking in these areas over the last few months and can confirm that they are very STR friendly and locals in the markets expect them to remain so (lots of second home owners renting their places when they're not around … there have been a few city council meetings where STR owners took a stand to ensure it would remain legal). Hunter, Windham, Jewett are safe, Lexington has some limitations that may or may not be flexible (capped currently, but there is word they will increase the # of allowable permits soon), and Prattsville hasn't weighed in yet. But Hunter, Windham, Jewett are the sweet spots for demand anyway.

That said, revenues seem to be declining since the highs of the pandemic, so be sure to consider that in your underwriting. Specifically, shoulder season this year (Mar-May) seems be lower than 2021 … so it will be interesting to see how summer performs vs the pandemic years. For now, I would recommend being very conservative in your underwriting - assume 2019 was a “normal” year, and keep an eye on this summer to see if you can adjust expectations upward. Airdna shows historical going back multiple years, but Pricelabs has better granularity for looking at the market today (and is cheap as hell - just draw your own radius and pay $10-20 p/month).

Beyond that, property taxes are generally high in NYS vs other states. This really infcreases your PITI and decreases cashflow, but as they say - if a deal works it works regardless of any one variable

PS- there is a forum called “Short Term Rentals” on BP - if you post on there you will probably get a lot more responses than this one

feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any other questions - happy to help! There are a few agents I can recommend, but beyond that this is the info I have. Good luck! 

 I'd love to see some data on this year's rental in that market if you have it. My experience, March was dead with zero rentals but I'm quite filled all of April & May. Not sure if the weather/bad snow season this year impacted rentals or not but that was my experience.

 I did. Happy to connect. Shoot me a dm and we can schedule some time.

Curious (and I'm asking to learn, not to be a pain), why can't you 1031x this property to eliminate Cap Gains?

This is probably a silly question but how do you know the difference (Tax Consultant vs Tax Preparer)? Do you have any tips/tricks to identify this easily? I'm looking for a CPA as well and wondering what are some good questions to ask when evaluating CPAs.