New York Investor Stuck in the Mud

[Ross Lombardo]

Hello everyone!  My name is Ross and I am greatful for all of the advice I have received on this site. I just upped my status to Pro because I am that dedicated to learning everything I can.  I am delighted to be part of the BP team!

I have been investing in Realestate for three years now and have accumulated 4 multi family properties with a total of thirteen units. All of my houses are in Stamford Conecticut because the yields were much higher than I was able to find in New York where I live.   My partner and I do 90% of the rehab work and are pretty much the full time landlords of the properties. We do everything from kitchen and bath renovations to screening new tenants to landscaping and maintenance. All of our properties have increased nicely in value due to our hard work.   Unfortunately, we have not been able to buy a new property for over a year.  We keep getting outbid, or the numbers just don't make sense for us to pull the trigger.  I have recently tried to broaden my hunting ground and am eager to get involved in the South Bronx and East NY Brooklyn areas.  Since I live in NYC, I would like properties a bit more local.   I feel as if I am spinning my wheels lately. All the properties I see are complete garbage and highly overvalued.  When I do my analysis the best cap rates I seem to get is 4%..., and that's with me going light with the expenses as well as being very optimistic with the potential rents.  I thought SoBro and East NY were still "untapped" markets, but it appears that there are no bargains to be had.  

 Is anybody else feeling my pain??