All Forum Posts by: Steven Kopstein

@Steve Honeycutt Hi Steve - How's the market down there?  I have no idea.  NYC is kind of crazy/challenging.  What's a single family in a decent area go for and what would it rent for - say a 3 Br 2 bath?

@Danielle Davis In my extensive experience in NYC property sales, Co-ops HATE investors.  They are only interested in owner occupants.  Is this true here?

@Ana M. Taking tax and legal advice from a web forum = recipe for disaster.  Hire some professionals to get your questions answered correctly.  I bet you can find some right here on BP.

@Phylicia Stephenson Howdy Phylicia - and welcome.  I don't think the houses are overpriced in Long Island - I think they are expensive compared to other places in the US, but Real Estate is like any commodity - supply and demand.  So, if you can get in the game, you will sell for more than other places when the time comes.  Rents are higher here as well.  Just a turn of phrase, but it's better to look at it from a neutral emotional state as an investor.  Just analyze the numbers - if they work, then the deal makes sense.  Unless you think the market truly is overheated - then you can wait for some kind of a crash.  I don't see that happening in the NYC metro area because we have high demand and there's no sign of that going away.  (I also think that the next generation is more interested in public transit than private cars so real estate that is close to good public transit or a walkable community is well positioned for appreciation.)

Welcome @Charles Salumn - this website is super useful.  It really depends on what you want to do though.  There are many directions you could go in and not sure what you meant by "life changing money" - as that would be different depending on where you are.  I live and work a lot in West Harlem and there are some deals around here - but not like pricing on Staten Island.  Do you currently own or rent?  If you rent, you might start out by getting a 2-4 unit property and living in one of the units.  Contact me if you want to discuss options in NYC at least.  You've come to the right place.

@Lucas LeBlanc Check out the podcasts and webinars... I read the Book on Flipping Houses and now have my partners reading it.  Excellent all around.

Welcome Russ - I'm pretty new here but already in love with BP.  Tons of USEFUL info - put it into practice and you will be successful.

I listened to Brendan's webcast tonight - he is excellent - so get on the next webcast and you'll learn a lot.  His take-away was really to create a system and stick to it.  Analyze 3 deals/day.  As a Pro you can use their analysis tools for free and it will save you lots of time.

Welcome Mark - BP is great.  I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it.

@J Randall - Very untrue about "easy" here.  As I said above I've worked as an agent/broker and bought and sold in several states in the US and the process here is actually a lot more work.  It's not easy anywhere.  The main difference is that in NY agents have to work much harder to make a deal happen - board packages are nightmares in paper and just getting to that point takes huge amount of effort (inconsistent databases, lack of uniform "rules" when it comes to buildings so analysis is needed before a property is added to the show list, lack of lockboxes so showings sometimes require Olympic levels of coordination and time management etc.  What is easier here is that we do not deal with contracts and closings - but that's pretty much it.  That's why we brokers sometimes don't attend closings.  We are superfluous at that point of the process and playing Candy Crush while watching people sign papers for 3 hours just so we can pick up out well-deserved checks is not a good use of time.  We've got to be at the computer, making sure the listings we found allow pets, pied-a-terres, require 40% down, parents buying for children, knowing the rental policy, have a flip tax, or are indeed still-available, never mind in the right location and price point for our clients.  When all this comes together - we still have the BOARD PACKAGE, board approval, lender approval of the building, inspections, final walk-through and if it ALL works we get paid (usually 4-6 months after showing the property).

Showing the same property in Washington DC, used to mean, check the MLS - maybe leave a voicemail for the tenant or current owner and go and show. If they liked it, I wrote the contract, got an earnest money deposit and closed in about 4-6 weeks.

See the difference?