All Forum Posts by: Frank Gucciardo

Sounds like your tenant screening skills need improvement.  Time to brush up or hire a property manager.  You have no one to blame but yourself for approving such a tenant in the first place.

Yes, you should have negotiated an inspection period into the contract. Also, is the contract assignable?  Most of the government agencies to not allow assignment of the contract. 

I'm in Ulster, can you pm me the details?

Way too vague of a question to give you an answer. The response would be dependent on the area you are looking to invest in. Once you figure that out then you can start to investigate what types of properties are in demand in your area. Some ways to find out are to check craigslist, talk to local property managers, seek out investors from your area here on BP, go to a REIA, etc. Best of luck

@Jared Gettinger I'm trying like heck :-)

I've been outbid on a number of places in the area and finally have a tri-plex under contract in a town about 20min away in Orange County NY.

Like every other RE market, Poughkeepsie can vary from block to block.  The downtown area is mostly Sec. 8 and very crime ridden with bad schools.  Honestly I stay away from here, I'm sure there is value there for the right landlord.

The north end is where you start to get student rentals and the cash flow is really good.. only problem is trying to find a property.  Most everything is locked up here or is priced way to high to make any money off of.

The Town of Poughkeepsie (distinct from City with better schools) which wraps around the city to the North, East, and South - The northern portion of this is heavy student rentals and again, hard to come by properties.

There is a ton of new apartment construction on the river front and near the colleges.  The hospital expansion is going to bring in a ton of new doctors, nurses, and workers and a few developers are going to cash in on this.

West side of the river, good cash flow opps as you still get student renters and families who work in NYC, Albany, and Poughkeepsie.  Cities like Kingston (has its own problems and gems), Highland (downtown is booming and properties are hard to come by), Marlboro/Milton, etc.., New Paltz (it's own animal that has SUNY New Paltz - great cashflow if you can find a property)

South of Poughkeepsie - Beacon, Fishkill, etc..  Saturated.. you really have to dig hard for a deal here

North of Poughkeepsie - Hyde Park and north.. I haven't really looked that deeply.. not a lot of multis which is what I'm after.

Sources - After I hopefully close this triplex I'm going to stop using MLS as my primary.. deals are now hard to come by and I'm getting quickly outbid (people paying stupid prices for multis where you know they are not going to make any money). I'm talking to my agent about a mailing to absentee landlords that will likely start in Sept.

Summary - if you can get something in the north end of Poughkeepsie that is reasonably priced then you will be in really good cash-flow shape.  I would look outside of Poughkeepsie to the West.

Long winded response that barely scratches the surface.. hopefully its a good start for you though.

Not much industry.  Marist, Vassar, and SUNY New Paltz are all in the area and generate a lot of demand. One of the hospitals, Vassar Bros is about to start major construction and basically double in size. It will be the largest medical center between Albany and Westchester. 

Crime is not good in Poughkeepsie. A contractor was just killed at a rehab property in the city.  Still under investigation.

Out of town buyers need to know the area very well so you don't buy in a war zone. 

Are all three apartments currently renting out for $2,250 in total?

Colonials are very much in, especially in the Hudson Valley, however, people are looking for old colonials from the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Welcome Shawn and congrats on your first deal. I'm over in Highland and potentially close to closing on my first flip property in the area. Did your first flip sell already and if so, how long was it on the market?

Deadline for best and final is 4pm today so we upped the offer to 48k, which is still 10k under our max purchase price. We'll see what happens. In the meantime I'm close to getting an accepted offer on a B&H property with a 4/1.5 house and 2/1 cottage on the lot. All numbers point to it being a cash cow. When it rains it pours, in a good way :-)

Three weeks ago we put a 45K offer on a SFH REO (could be flip or B&H) that was listed at 64K and had been sitting on the market for around 90 days. Just heard back from the bank that there are multiple offers and they are looking for best and final. As we are going over our numbers and formulating our response I get a Zillow notification that the property has had a price drop to $49K... huh?

Is this common? Is this one hand of the REO process and the other not knowing what they are doing or is this some kind of strategy that the banks employ? I'm honestly scratching my head over here.