New Member - Upstate NY

[Brett Caron]

Hi guys, I'm a new member here at bigger pockets and I must say what a great resource!

A bit about me:

I'm an engineer from Vermont and I live in upstate NY, Amsterdam to be specific and I work in Schenectady. It's a depressed real estate market like many Rustbelt communities. Properties are cheap up here, (except in certain areas like Saratoga and a few others) but often time need a lot of work. I've always been a hands on guy and do 99% of the work myself except the big jobs. 

I've already gotten my feet wet with a few deals, as I bought and renovated my own house, purchased a duplex in 2015 which I rent, and bought a small single family home at auction dirt cheap that I plan to renovate. Another perk is that they are all on the street I live on so it definitely make the maintenance easy.

My goals this year are get the renovations on the SFH done as well as wrap some project up on my home. My own projects on my house take a back burner to my rental activities. They don't exactly make me money! As a result some stuff has dragged out. (I'm determined to get that basement rec room done this month!)

Anyway I'm still looking for other deals in my area, maybe not total rehab as I have one of those going right now, but it's definitely possible to buy viable rentals in my area. 

I'm interested to learn more about financing, credit, strategies, managing contractors, networking etc... I've kinda done everything on my own, short of my lawyer but the only way to grow is with networking. 

[Brett Caron]

@Justin Charpentier

It's interesting. The casino is about to open in February, If anything I think it will positively impact my area as Amsterdam is an easy 15-20mins commute to Schenectady. Rents have been going up in the downtown district in Schenectady, but not anything crazy. Taxes there are terrible. I think a decent 2 bedroom apartment is anywhere from 800-1000 plus/minus. I paid 800 on my large one bedroom 5 years ago there. You can get a large 3 bedroom or even a small house in Amsterdam for that. Not as much cool stuff going on there, but if the casino brings employment and people are looking for housing value around that area it's not a bad place to consider.