All Forum Posts by: Abram Ylitalo

An update: 

Yesterday's meetup was amazingly successful.  I left Panera with a full belly and through another 50 pages of my current read.  I didn't expect anyone to show up last minute but wanted to follow through as I said I would.  It was a little busy so that is something to consider for next weeks meetup.  We'll cross it when we come to it. 

I'm posting next week's meetup now.  I'm going to tag a few people in it (colleagues I've picked up through so Long Island posts I've been adjacent of. 

Hey BPers/Long Islanders, 

Meat and potatoes of the following post:

What:
Meetup to network and discuss lead discovery, financing, new legislation, tax benefits specific to Suffolk/Nassau, new deals, old deals, what's been working for you, what hasn't been working etc.

Who:
Wholesalers, builders, lenders, subject to'ers, brokers of any kind ( insurance, finance, real estate ), lien investors, appraisers, mobile home investors, new investors etc. (Everyone)

Where:
Initially, Smith Haven Mall Panera Bread. Alexander Ave & 347. West side of the mall.
First meetup 15 August @6PM
Second meetup 22 August @6PM
Third and forward TBD.

The rest:

I'm pretty sure I've got the right forum here. I wanted to reach out and see if there is anyone interested in meeting up for coffee and talking about their current deals in the area, deals they've done in the area, or their research in the area if they haven't done any deals. I've noticed a pretty surprising lack of recent forum posts in this area which, I'm not going to disguise it, is a little discouraging. As I've posted about LI I've mostly gotten people to reach out from Queens (which I know is LI technically), New Jersey, Brooklyn and Manhattan which is still fantastic, but of course, I'm looking for that core group of Long Islanders.

I'm looking to get a once a week meetup started. I plan on attending every week's meetings and depending on how many people start to show we can go from there to scale up or down to bi weekly, monthly or even a couple a week.
If anyone knows of meetups like this going on already please enlighten me!

The objectives for the meetings will be, initially, to network. For myself specifically I will be trying to pick people's brains about the area and find out what's been working for them or what didn't work for them with buy and holds. I'd also be interested in how well the 2 and 50 percents are helping investors guide themselves here. The meetings shouldn't be limited to buy and hold or flipping even. Wholesalers, lien freaks, builders, lenders, subject to'ers, brokers of any kind ( insurance, finance, RE obvi ) appraisers, new investors, greenie weenies are all invited. I plan on trying to integrate other sites like Meetup.com (as antiquated as it seems for this area) and maybe even a couple adds on community on craigslist. If anyone has any experience with other meetup sites, please let me know. Of course if anyone comes to the meetups I'll urge them to get integrated here at BP as I'd like this to be our main forum and means of communication.

Eventually the structure of the meetups will be specific to a meeting if we're having them often enough. Lead discovery, financing, new legislation, tax benefits specific to Suffolk/Nassau ( HA I made a funny!). Hopefully after the group is a bit more networked we'll have guest speakers at every meeting to tackle a specific topic so it's not like many of the meetups I've been to where everyone is leeching off of the same few people. In order for the meetup to last symbiosis is required (that spell checked but I don't know if it's actually a word).

The most logical place that comes to mind for a Suffolk meetup right now is the Starbucks by Smithhaven Mall, perhaps the Panera that's right there. Panera would be a good serial location to start with as they're all over. West Babylon and West Islip I think have one. Port Jefferson and Port Jeff Station are right next to one. As I'm not completely familiar with Nassau I'm going to have to lean against someone else for locations there. I'm sure this is not difficult though. I'm going to go ahead and schedule the first and second meetups now ( executive decision as I'm the only one here right now). Smith Haven mall Panera Bread at 6PM. It's on the west side of the mall. There's a little strip mall in the parking lot of Smith Haven mall. Next to Aldi, in front of Ihop off of Alexander Ave @347. Tomorrow the 15th of August and next friday the 22nd of august. After more feedback on what days are good We can obviously change these. If you read this and it's 430 on Friday, don't worry about RSVPing, if you show I'll be there.

Look forward to feedback and hope to see everyone there!

@Brandon Turner someone got me hooked up a little while ago.  They were very fast about it!  Kudos to them!  All of that did, in fact, help.  

One may suggest that you find a state where you can buy a few doors outright and get them to cashflow.  After they're cashflowing leveraging them may be considerably easier as a lot of portfolio lenders are starting/have been doing blanket loans across multiple properties with a cost approach (vs appraised value) and will considering your personal income less.  If you're purchasing distressed, rehabbing for rents, and holding without expecting appreciation, checking out places like Atlanta and TX could be a great way to increase your buying power.  

If you check out J Scott's podcast ( 10 ) and Will Barnard's podcast ( 32 ) They have been in Atlanta and TX, respectively, and started doing exactly what you're talking about.  J Scott flipped more than he help but if you're looking into that area for buy and hold getting educated on flipping there would entirely behoove you/be worth it.  Will has since left for a different market but made his money, originally, in TX.  I'm sure if you get to their profiles and look through their archive of posts, though, you'll find more than enough to support what you're looking to do. 

Since I'm still somewhat new here to BP take it all with a grain of salt and please, anyone who thinks I've said something incorrect, I have no shame or ego (when it comes to being wrong) so feel free to correct me. 

@Zaheer Jabbar How long have you been investing in Queens?  

@Darren Sager That's called your farming are right?  Hahaha.  You invest primarily in NJ then?  I saw on your profile you're licensed in NY too to work in Manhattan, right?  I'm in the process of getting my license.  9 day crash course starts next week.  3rd state I've enrolled, first one that I'll actually finish.  3rd times the charm I suppose.  Hoping that the 3 percent (which I've also heard is elusive in the area) will help secure a little bit better margin in any deals I wind up doing.  I've been looking to work with mainly investor clients so am doing my practical research now.  Looks like I may be directing my BHers toward the boros. 

so do you generally flip, then, darren? 

Darren, must been a multi then, right?   Dupe atleast?   I've also dug a little up about yellow lettering here and supposedly also pretty unfruitful.   Long island specifically.   Any experience with that Zaheer?   Sorry I'm not tagging.  On my phone and I don't have the app cause I habe an android.   

I wanted to clarify that when I said where most of my experience is at I mean in buy and hold not in Suffolk County.

@zaheer Have you done deals in the area that are buy and hold?

@darren what are people looking at per door for their B&Hs?  The 50% rule seems to be more of a 75-80% minimum here.  I had a discussion some time about about my properties and people gave me mixed reviews.   The property prices were inflated and I think threw off a few people (considering reserves blah blah).  I've never done anything that has been within the 2 or 50 percent that people rave about here. 

I've been looking around trying to find people that actually successfully buy and hold here in Suffolk since that has been where most of my experience is at.  Suffolk is notorious for having AWFULLY high taxes.  My old landlord's taxes were over 1,000 a month (more than my rent).  If anyone is doing it successfully I'd love to buy them a liquid of their choice and chat about how they've done it!   I searched the forums before posting this and turned up empty handed.  

@Jason Stephens  @Michael Anspach @Junaid Subzwari @Mike Garofalo

I sent colleague requests to you guys and the system thought I was spamming as I added you.  I wanted to work on getting a meetup with all of us, maybe coffee somewhere.  I live in Nesconset.  When I don't reply to your messages cause mine are currently locked I wanted to make sure you know I wasn't just ignoring you guys.  

I was buy and hold in Hawaii for a number of years and still have some stuff there.  Long story short I found myself here on Long Island and am finishing up my RE License and am starting to network now.  I'd like to get back into the market for possibly rehabs.  From what I understand buy and hold here is next to impossible cause of astronomical taxes.  @Joshua Dorkin and @brandon turner (who has apparently disallowed people to tag him in posts) and many of the guys I've heard in the BP Podcasts would guffaw as there is no way (that I've seen) you can be anywhere close to 50% rule here. Once you get into commercial, maybe 50 units, you could but those, here, are millions to get into. Some of the agents I've spoken to here swear by flips and even the investors I've spoken to swear by the MLS here. Apparently Suffolk county doesn't sell their list of tax delinquencies. They go to auction I think after 3 years?