New member Union City, Nj

[Ana Haynes]

Hello, 

My name is Ana I'm new to this site. I'm an investor in Union City.  I currently own a 1 family and 2 family in Union City. I'm converting my 2 family into a 3 family. I got to say that it has not been an easy road, but here I'm looking for my next purchase.  

I would really like to meet other investors like me. Maybe we can partner up or at least share some experiences.  

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Ana 

[John Errico]

Hey @Sooyeon Kim--for sure. Would be happy to grab coffee or lunch and/or invite you to the meetup group (if you want to PM me your e-mail address I can add you to the chain).

My girlfriend and I bought our first property in Union City in late 2013/early 2014. It was a 2 family, bank owned foreclosure with boarded up windows, etc. so it looked like a disaster from the outside, but was actually not that bad inside (the property was winterized and had no electricity so it was *freezing* whenever we went to see it, and it snowed almost constantly in the ~week that it was on the market, which I think scared off a fair number of other buyers). We didn't have a lot of competition to buy it at the time. We lived in one unit and rented out the other, then ultimately moved to the basement and rented out the second unit. About a year later we did the same thing with another property, and have now bought a few more.

The city has definitely gotten significantly more expensive in the past ~12 months, maybe most notably in the past 6 months, particularly for properties in the 1-3 family range (inventory has also been super low compared to the summer). 4+ family properties are rent controlled, unless you owner occupy a unit (then they're not rent controlled up to 6 families). Unfortunately the housing stock in the city is pretty poor, except for newer construction buildings usually along Park Ave or Palisade, which is also, I think, an opportunity to buy at an affordable price, put in some sweat equity/renovations, and rent out long-term. The sort of work we've done has been on the order of renovating kitchens, bathrooms, replacing flooring, replacing roofs, etc. Nothing structural, but more than just aesthetic changes. You'll find that many buildings here are at least 40-50 years old, with the majority probably being ~100 years old, and many have not been renovated for at least 20 years.

Unfortunately, with prices where they are at the moment, it's becoming hard to find worthwhile deals. I saw a 2 family recently (unrenovated, but big in a good location) that had something like 20 offers on it in the first day, and went I think > $50k above ask to an all-cash buyer. There's also been a fair amount of foreign money: like all cash foreign buyers buying properties sight unseen. Hopefully (from a buying perspective) things will cool down in the summer when there's more inventory.