All Forum Posts by: Stephanie Jacobson

 Syracuse is a fantastic market, but it's being heavily impacted by the coming of Micron and suddenly increasing property values. I'd love to chat more about this!

Syracuse is experiencing some sudden (false?) appreciation from Micron coming in, so it's not exactly untouched by outside influence. In a market that should be trading at an 8-10% cap range, I'm seeing properties go for 4-5% caps. Maybe that growth throughout will be sustainable, but I suspect not.

Hey Elijah! Do you have a buyer’s agent? It seems like it would be easier to go straight to the listing agent, but some residential agents won’t do dual agency and it complicates things. Also, a buyer’s agent can assure a busy listing agent that you’re qualified and explain some of your situation. Not to mention all the advising and navigating your own agent would do. 

As for Syracuse itself, depending on where you’re looking it’s wild out there. In a market where I would expect to see 8-10% cap rates, I’m seeing things go at 3-4%. I would *strongly* discourage a buyer, especially a new investor, engage in that kind of nonsense. There’s so much hype about Micron that folks are willing to pay for potential- don’t do that!! Once you have a few under your belt and are confident on renovation costs, have your team in place, etc., you might roll those dice. But not on your first house hack. 

As frustrating as it is, you’re going to have to be patient and keep trying. Do NOT waive inspections, no matter what an agent tells you. (You have other options, like bringing an inspector to your walkthrough and getting it done ahead of time.) But with the Syracuse market, I think you’ll just have to be persistent and patient. 

Please let me know if there’s any way I can help!

Oof… yeah that’s a tough one. How much time is remaining on his lease? How long has he been in the building?

Though both things are violations of his lease, if he refuses to leave a judge may not find the offenses serious enough to force him out. It’s very likely that you’ll end up in a cash-for-keys situation. If his lease ends soon, make sure you give him proper notice (it might be ninety days) that you’re not renewing. 

@Trevor Stone yes- I have my tinfoil hat on about this zoning thing. But hey. 

The problem with downtown is that it's expensive, both for buyers and for the kids. Rents for a beautiful student property on Court can be $800-$1050/bed, where middle-condition properties on the West Side (meaning, clean pretty kitchens without granite countertops) will rent for $550-625/bed. On-campus housing ends up being far more expensive than either of those. There will always be a market for students on the West Side, where houses are cheaper, neighborhoods are charming, and rent is reasonable. The numbers work for both kids and landlords.

But alas! Now R3 owners know their properties are going to increase in value, rents are going to climb over the next few leasing seasons, and it might pay off to hold out on listing their student property. Here's a screenshot of the current options on the MLS in this area:

And here's a snapshot of what traded, or was withdrawn, 1/1/21-6/1/21:

Supply in R3 zones on the West Side has been ridiculously low since the announcement of the new zoning.

Your question about the grandfathered properties I'm not sure I understand. If you want to buy a property in R3, you should request a "Zoning Letter" from the owner (not code!) which will tell you how many units and bedrooms are approved. Outside of R3, there is no grandfathering, no approval of 3+ unrelated occupants... for now.

Downtown development has been incredibly slow to take off, though with the recent legal demise of Isaac Anzaroot, that could change. He owned a lot of properties in the eastmost R3 zone, and we'll see what happens. The new owner of the Dixie hotel plans on converting a large portion of Henry Street there to roughly 60 students beds. So far, students are still choosing to risk it in R1 and R2 zones around Rec Park, but this may change if the city can figure out how to enforce fines.

North of Main is a good area to look at- this will have to become students. These kids will be either priced out of downtown, or see how inconvenient the East Side is. My personal prediction is that north of Main and the South Side will see the most appreciation as the students settle in.

TVs are a thing now, yeah. Thank Bearcats for that one! It wasn't that way before Covid. Same for including internet in the rent. It's not that big a deal- a relatively small one-time expense that sets you a bit above the competition. 

Thanks so much for the tag, @Andrew C.! I really appreciate that. 

Welcome to the BP community, @Aileen Qu! There are some fantastic resources here, and I've made connections that helped me build a career. 

As for STRs in Binghamton, it's not the way I would go in that market. Technically STRs aren't allowed within the city limits... though, I know many people who do them. For an average apartment on the west side, though, you're really only looking at $40-60/night. If you want to get into a higher price range, you're going to need to fork over $800k+ for a building downtown. Even then, you'd be much better off doing mid- or long-term rentals in that location.

The most profitable landlords in Bing are in student housing. That's what's driving the market. In the West Side, rents have jumped from around $450/bed two years ago to $600+ now. Buying student rentals at the moment is incredibly complicated, though- areas that have been students for decades were just rezoned so that no more than 2 unrelated occupants can be in a single unit. I've attached a little map here; the light green areas are the only places you can have three or more students, so if you buy outside of that you need to have 2 beds or less in each unit.

So, since student housing options are slim and prices are high, many people are turning to mid-term rentals and leasing to travel nurses. This is a whole other thing- you have to have nice, pretty apartments (where students are much more lenient) and furnish them with everything from bedding to forks to toilet paper. You'll also be doing new leases every couple months. The areas around the hospitals can be a bit sketchy, but are slowly improving as more landlords renovate to accommodate nurses. Riverside Drive, South Side and the far West Side are the best areas for that.

If you lean away from students or nurses and decide to rent to families, your options open WAY up. You can ignore the new zoning maps and buy anything that make financial sense.

Here's the link to Bing's updated zoning regulations- skip to Article VI, Residential Districts.

https://www.binghamton-ny.gov/government/elected-officials/c...

Hi @Pamela Maduro, and welcome! Where upstate are you? The markets here vary widely. Binghamton has been historically economically depressed but has a growing university, so it tends to have low property values with high actual cashflow (and no appreciation). Ithaca is opposite, where the cashflow is low and prices are high, but it appreciates pretty reliably. Syracuse is somewhere in between those two, but is experiencing a sudden boom in values and interest thanks to Micron. Rochester and Buffalo I don't cover, but I know they've both remained fairly stable over the past couple decades.

Depending on your goals and longterm strategy, you have many markets to choose from here with different strengths and weaknesses.

Oh boy. Congrats! Where? What are they looking for? What do you need help with?

Hey @Anthony Siconolfi, glad to hear you're looking into Binghamton, it's normally a great market! I say normally because at this exact moment, when you're looking at student housing, you have to be very careful about where you buy. The west side recently went through a zoning shake-up, and the agent you work with ought to be familiar with what's now approved for unrelated occupants, what's not, and what could be.

Second, it's a tricky time of year to buy student housing. BU students lease roughly a year ahead of time, so whatever you buy should be leased out for the 24-25 school year. If it's not, you'll be in a serious time crunch trying to get it rented after January when you close. If a property doesn't have next year's leases done, I would want the price to reflect that.

Third, there's a sudden lack of management companies in Bing. KOmanage isn't in the business any more, Empire and 607 are completely full, Sall you should stay away from. There are smaller managers like Lisa Antalek and some local handyman who are doing a decent job, but finding those folks is really hard. Your best bet at the moment is to find a property that has a manager who's willing to stay on, if you're happy with the condition and lease amounts he's getting.

Let me know if I can help, but there's the crash course. Best of luck, keep us posted!

It actually has more to do with how Ithaca agents are marketing the listings. There are only a couple of commercial/investment agents here, most multifamilies are listed by residential agents. This means the listing never makes it to Costar/Crexi/BP, and isn't marketed to buyers outside of the local MLS. The agents don't see a need for that stuff, because they know a local buyer will pick up a place at a 5-cap, where a NYC buyer would want more like 7-10% outside of the city.

And that's another thing- residential agents don't have training on preparing financial reports, so it's very difficult to obtain even a simple rent roll with deposits and lease dates, let alone an I&E. They'll do something like pop in 3% management, when the going rate here is 10%. 

That's the temperature from my vantage point, anyway. Most of my downstate buyers prefer other markets because it can be hard to break into Ithaca, but that said, your point remains- the local (very insular) market remains quite strong.