Rent Collections During Covid

[Chris Howell]

I’m looking at starting to invest in the Cortland Area where my family is from and still lives. My question is for current investors in the area is how has the rent collections been since Covid?

My biggest fear with expanding into new markets this year is going into an area with low to no rent collections.

Thanks for the help.

[Amos Mainville]

I'm Heavily invested in Elmira NY (an hour southwest of Cortland). A very similar demographic and spread of housing. Cortland has everything from Sect 8 to student housing to high end rental. What strategy are you looking to target?

Student rental seems to have maintained through covid outside of when many schools went digital and students looked to break leases.

The lower end rent for us has been consistently paid. 4 tenants, all on disability, all paid through pandemic. 

Low end rents that aren't on disability have seen higher numbers of people trying to play the system. From other landlords much larger than I in the area, I hear they are around 10-20% late or unpaid rents.

As a licensed NY home inspector serving the Cortland area I offer this information. When I was looking to buy 3 duplexes last year, I set fairly strict criteria. New to Mid life mechanicals in place (Water heater, electric panels, furnaces), no foundation issues (with a condition of accepting damp basements, nature of the typical stack stone foundation popular in the area), no major exterior defects (didn't want to deal with roofing going into winter), rent ready (legally had to accept tenants in place of course). Inherited tenants would need to be long term.
We evaluated 40 properties, offered on 10, closed 3.

Similar to the national trend this year inventory was moving at record pace through 2020 and is now at record lows. Anything that is on the market more than a week typically has some major issue although there are unicorns. Cortland duplexes tend to trend between 80-120k. 

Amos Mainville

Chemung Valley Home Inspection LLC