Hi from a newbie from Queens :)

[Jennifer Corredor]

Hello all,

I am a 31 year old newbie residing in NY who is in need of some guidance with regards to successfully managing apartment buildings and multi-family homes. 

My father owned a 16 unit apartment building as well as 2 multi family houses in Queens for several decades until he suddenly passed away. Being a 20 something with no interest in business or real estate at the time, I unfortunately never bothered to learn from him about real estate investing/managing. Now that he is gone, my mother is now the owner. She does not have much of an interest in the work needed to maintain the buildings and is considering selling. I have spoken with her, as I think this is a terrible idea considering we live in NYC, land of perpetual renters. She is willing to keep the buildings but we are both aware that in order for this to be successful, at least one of us has to know what they're doing.

I pick up things quickly, but as I currently work in a completely unrelated field and was serendipitously thrust into the field, I need a "real estate for dummies" crash course before anything. Once I have the basics down, I hope to learn more that is relevant to my particular situation and possibly invest in further properties in the future.

I am also considering taking courses, perhaps obtaining an MBA but would like to know others' opinions on whether or not it is worth it.

Thanks for welcoming me into the community and I look forward to gaining some valuable insight. :)

[Brian Wang]

Hi Jennifer, why dont you pay a visit to Queens library? pick up a book or two.  there is no better course or degrees out there than hands on experience. i have seen MBAs in my field that have no experience and have little regard to learning.  buying it right makes 75% of the investing businesss, you're now only responsibile for the management part, which really only comes to having the right handyman/ construction crew and screening future tenants.   if you want to upgrade a certain unit to bump up the rent, go ahead and talk to the tenant, otherwise, i don't see that you have to do anything besides collecting the rent! lol