New investor in Albany, New York

New investor in Albany, New York

Albany, NY · Member since 2016 · 8 posts · 3 votes
Hello all, Firstly I would like to say thank you for all of the insight that I have consumed over the last few months while I considered taking the plunge into this incredible field. Now a bit of history on myself. I am 28 years old and grew up downstate New York. My parents own two mixed use buildings in a rough part of Brooklyn and I have watched them really enjoy the fruits of the boom in property prices in the area. These buildings each which has two residential units and one commercial units went from 150k in 1993 to some asking us to sell for 1.5 million for each building. While growing up I helped my dad with the usual landlord jobs when it came to painting, plumbing, hanging shelving, or the worst one cleaning after an eviction. He is an electrician by trade and I have picked up a lot from him in that field and also other skills that is just on the job landlord training. Recently the family business in one of the mixed use commercial areas suffered a fire and we had to move the entire business to the vacant commercial property in the other building. Thankfully the fire was on a Sunday and no one was hurt and the tenant properties were mostly unscathed thanks to the commercial property having a metal ceiling above the drop ceiling. Talk about fire rated ceiling. After the transition I took the job of renovating the old site to make a new medical office. I went through the process of demolition, getting plans drawn up, getting contractor bids, getting permits, dealing with subcontractors and finally having the work inspected and now I am just waiting on the final inspections to come through to I can put the place up for rent. This was a monumental project for me but very eye opening. I am now recently engaged and have partially moved up to the capital region and am looking for a new project. The city has a group of city owned properties for between 5k and 15k that are in need of ground up rehab. It's called the Albany Land Bank and has a catalog of homes that they took possession of mostly because they had become so distressed they were destroying the neighborhoods. As far as funding goes I have around 50k liquid right now and a pretty good credit score and my parents are always willing to cosign with me if necessary. I have been looking into buying one of the multi family buildings and putting it back into rental shape and be able to continue and do it over and over to help these neighborhoods not only have great affordable rental opportunities but also to have a brighter future that I can be a part of. As far as financing goes I have been looking into the 203k FHA loans and then refinance with something more concrete when the property is rehabbed. If anyone has any experience with these I would greatly appreciate the input. As far as end goal is concerned I would like to have 10 rental properties by the time I am 35 and a decent enough understanding of the industry to possibly start my own property management business. I am very open to advice and offering my own experiences here. I look forward to the future. Ajay
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  • Dave VisayaPro Member
    Moderator
    Audio Engineer and Investor · Cebu City, Cebu · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 881 votes
    10y

    Hey @Ajay Keluskar, welcome to the site! It's great to have you here. Feel free to ask any questions in the forums. Seeya around!

    BiggerPockets
  • Abel CurielBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Queens, NY · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y

    Hello @Ajay Keluskar,

    Awesome success story & congrats on deciding to take the plunge...kidding... but seriously, congrats!

    It sounds like you have a sound knowledge base and a some great experience to compliment your knowledge. It seems to me that getting the right team in place and making sure your numbers (total acquisition costs, rehab budget, ARV, COC, ROI,etc) work out are the main things to solidify here.

    If the numbers make sense and your team (GC, lender, agents, etc) is good, I don't see how this won't work out well for you... oh yea, forgot about location... that helps!

    As far as your long term goals, I would surround myself with as many experienced, knowledgable, and like-minded individuals as possible and learn from them as you go. REI meetings are great for this and the networking platform here on BP is awesome as well. Then theres the old school way, talking to people IN PERSON about what you're doing. I try mentioning RE to everyone I come in contact with.

    Best of luck to you!

    -Abel

    REbuild Team - eXp Realty5234 Reviews
  • Albany, NY · Member since 2016 · 8 posts · 3 votes
    10y

    Thanks for the advice @Abel Curiel  

    I have already contacted a few general contractors in the area and am going to have them walk through the properties that I am considering and give me bids. All of the gc in the area that want to do work with me are also in the real estate game and have dealt with rehabbing and renting out units in exactly the same way that I was going to do.  I can understand them possibly trying to just earn my business but at the same time I do feel like there is some want in them to see me be successful and do more work with them in the future. 

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