Long Island investors

[Zachary Puteri]

Long Island investors, how is the market?

[Juan B.]

Unless you have a ton of money I can't see how LI can be made to work, especially now with the tax insanity. You can defiantly buy if you have a lot of money but it will be difficult to break even.  You can buy affordable, rent it, break a little more than even, pray you get good tenants that stay a decade and then see how much the value of the property rose, then you can dress it up and sell it for a profit. LI property has been going up and up as Queens pushes into Nassau and Nassau pushes into Western Suffolk. Those who purchased 20-30  years ago in Western Nassau near the border with Queens are sitting on a gold mine. 

The best way to own is to house hack, get a 2 fam with permit and town or village oversight, yes they cost more but the rental can mitigate your expenses with the rental income. A 2 fam with permit almost always have to be owner occupied which prevents you from buying it and renting both apartments. If you want single fam houses, some towns require a permit so that you can rent it taking another little slice off your profit. 

I think that after super storm Sandy it was one of the best times for investors and flippers as there were a lot of homes that came to the market. There were some great deals with those who had very deeps pockets because it was not just a rehab, you also in some areas were required to knock down, then rebuild fresh or lift and then rehab. For investors who wanted to sit on the house and rent it there were the additional expenses of water insurance.