Owning and Managing Rent Stabilized Housing in NYC

[Jason Lam]

Hi, new member here on BiggerPockets and first time posting on this Forum.

I’m a young RE investor owning mainly 1-3 family housing all at market rate rent via Own and Hold strategy in Queens, NY. I currently manage all my properties since I have the time and want to save on the management fee. (Although I plan to outsourcing it once I scale up)

Lately I decided to make the move into low-rise multifamily housing (5-15 family) in Queens and Brooklyn. When I started looking for deals, I quickly notice that most older multifamily housing here are rent stabilized. To be honest, I know nothing about rent stabilized housing and on how to manage them.

Could someone please give me some tips on what to look out for when dealing with rent stabilize building /units. What regulations and departments (if any) that I have to follow and report to within the NYC? And finally, what sort of cash flow and COC return am I expecting with rent stabilized housing? Most deals I looked at recently will only give me around 2-3% COC return... I probably didn't' look hard enough but I just want know if I can still get about 10-15% return like I do with 1-3 family housing.

Thank you all for your time.

Jason