All Forum Posts by: Sheila Gonzalez

Hello everybody 

Thank you everyone for your replies and advice.   I really appreciate it since I don't know anyone personally to ask these things.  Sorry I haven't responded in a while, work is really busy.  

I wanted to clarify that I did think of moving to either Florida Arizona or Texas, but I need to stay in the Northeast 

(near NYC) for work for now.   So NJ became my choice.  

Since NJ is either as bad or almost as bad as NYC, how about flipping in NJ?  Or renting in Pennsylvania?  I want someplace to buy rentals or flips that's within driving distance.    

Hi everyone

I own a 2 family house in Queens, NYC.  I've had 2 evictions so far and need to go to civil court to try to recoup 5 months of rent and lawyers fees from the last one. 

I am planning to sell and  move -just not sure where yet.  I am thinking of NJ because I think courts/laws are more favorable to landlords than NYC.   Am I correct?   

I also want to flip properties, so also looking at the down payment of buying and repairing to flip a house.   

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I am about to list my apartment in Queens NYC.  I found out that you can no longer see evictions or eviction proceedings in the NYC court website anymore.  This is due to a change in the law to protect tenants (deadbeats) and the housing crisis.  I think I may still be able to check their records if I go to the court itself and personally do a check, but not sure if I'll be allowed to.  Also, its time consuming.  Does anyone know how to get this info?  Is there a service that will physically check the court records?  If not, is this something I can do?  Is it protected info?  Thank you for any input on this.  

Thank you Larry and Andres for your responses.

Sorry for the late reply, but I've been busy with work. I wanted to clarify that the loan I am applying for is a Home equity loan, not a HELOC. Also, the reason I ran up so much debt is the renovation of the 2nd floor apt, with no rental income for 1.5 years. It took that long due to it being a much larger job than we thought (lots of surprises) not having the money up front and paying for it from my income. Next time I get a loan prior to starting.

I will be contacting you Andres via PM very soon.   

I chose a Home equity loan instead of a HELOC so that:

1)  If the economy suddenly tanks they cant just cut the line of credit so my plans don't become affected.  

2) The interest rate is fixed. 

Are there any reasons I should consider a HELOC over a home equity loan?

Thanks,  Sheila G

Hi everyone

I have a question I hope someone can help me with.

We own and live in a two-family house in Queens NY with about 500k in equity. I would like to buy 1-2 small houses to live/flip and rent out both the apts. in Queens.  We have about 78K in CC/personal loan debt. I applied to borrow 230k Equity loan from a credit union, but they want a statement explaining what the money is for -other than paying back the debt.

Some of it will be for updating this house (there’s not much left to do) however, when I mentioned to the loan processor that we also want to buy another 1-2 houses to live in/flip, he said that that would be considered riskier and there would be more scrutiny -so we might not be approved for that much. Some of the paperwork said that if the money is for home repairs/updating they need written estimates. I don’t know how to go about this.

Should I exaggerate how much the repairs/updating are? Is it OK to say the funds are for just spending/trips/cosmetic surgery etc?

I thought that saying it’s for investment it would not be a problem at least it’s not to waste on junk. It would mean a significant increase in income since that would be his FT job. (He only works PT in a low paying job right now). If he could flip 3-4 properties a year (at 30K each) we would double our income.

How do other investors that are just starting off access equity from their property?