Looking to build a team in Rochester, NY or Washington, DC

[Brian Fung]

Hello! It's great to be joining such a talented and knowledgeable community. Looking forward to engaging with you all here. 

I thought I'd use this uncertain time to lay the groundwork, meet likeminded professionals who have expert knowledge to share, and figure out if this is truly right for us. 

If all goes well, I'd hope to pursue our first purchase sometime this year or next. As new investors, we'd potentially be looking to buy and hold single-family rentals or smaller multi-family homes.

Right now, my wife and I are considering two markets, mainly due to personal familiarity. We're open to other places, but figured we should just start with what we know and go from there.

I was encouraged to see Rochester, NY rank so highly on BP's analysis of top cashflowing markets, because my wife is from the Finger Lakes area (Canandaigua, specifically). Many of her friends and family still live there. We've seen some attractive properties crop up in Canandaigua, and the area seems to be growing in popularity with a new Hilton being constructed on the lake. But in terms of real estate networking in the area, we're starting at square one. 

Other areas we've been considering include Washington, DC, a market we understand fairly well after purchasing a condo here in 2017 as a primary residence. But despite our better understanding of the area, property values are way higher here. In our situation, to get anywhere close to a decent cash-on-cash return, I'm guessing we'd have to limit ourselves to studios and 1BD condos within the city, or properties just across the border in Maryland or Virginia. And even that would be tight. 

Anyway, I welcome thoughts from more seasoned members here on our general approach, as well as from anyone with experience doing deals in either of these markets and sub-markets. I'd love to connect with buyers' agents, property management professionals or investors who've been down this road and can help build a team!

[Russell Brazil]

Yield is a function of risk...so with DC being one of the lowest risk markets in the country, its going to have very low yields, ie low cash on cash.

There is a method becoming more popular to achieve higher yields in DC and that is renting by the room. You can essentially double your rent in many cases by using that strategy. But, it does come with more risk to achieve that higher yield. Dealing with far more tenants, potentially ignoring maximum occupancy laws if you wanted more than 6 people in the property in DC (5 in suburbs). But if you stick to just 6 in DC you are good.