All Forum Posts by: Alessandro Cardito

way too far for me- the beauty of Hoboken is living without a car :) 

I'm sorry for the delay in answering @Elizabeth L., @Matthew Cohen @Matthew Amabile, we did start a local meetup if you are interested happy to invite you next time!

Hey folks,

I need to add AC (No heating needed) to a duplex I'm renovating. I'm thinking of adding minisplits as it seems the most convenient option, what is your experience with the self-installing kits available on Walmart/Amazon?
I see some as cheap as 500$, assuming I need 4 for the duplex that's 2000$, how much should I budget for the installation if I ask a professional to come in?

Appreciate your thoughts!

@Deneuve B. I do live in Hoboken and don’t get me wrong- I think it’s a great place with still potential, but there is a lot of inventory and one can’t exclude a market drop (which I’m fact happened already) still for a couple of years

I'm closing on a multifamily that I plan to househack- I'm about to interview contractors and was wondering if I should offer them the whole job or divide it among different contractors..the job can be broken down in 5 sub-areas

1 redo my unit

2 freshen up the 2 units I would rent

3 retouch common areas

4 retouch facade 

5 add a sunroom on the back of my unit

What are your thoughts? Better to divide and spread my risk (and possibly avoid GC overhead charges) or hope in economies of scale through assigning everything to one contractor?

That makes sense- I thought they had their own workforce doing it..thanks!

I passed by homedepot the other day to get an idea of how much they would charge for a full bathroom and kitchen renovation using floor models...they mentioned prices that looked quite expensive to me and recommended me not to take any of their off the shelf cabinets for an apartment I would rent as they would tear off after 1 year...does anyone has any experience using Homedepot?

I do like the idea of working with them for a series of reasons (scale, financing, discounts etc)

hey guys, I'm also investing and living in hoboken!

100% agree- it's a great location- I live and bought my apartment there..I just think it's a difficult place to make big investments in as it doesnt provide a cash flow as strong as what you would get in Union City or Newark...but there are no doubts it has more appreciation potential in the long run

I was reacting to your comment that you would struggle to finance this deal and that the value of the building is between 2.4 and 3.5$M..if you could buy-out the partner maybe financing through hard-lenders at the lower evaluation and then work with your mother and aunt to sell at the higher price that could be a great way to "flip" the property and then reinvest in a smaller property yourself.

There are a couple of watchouts, including the fact that Hoboken is a declining market (at least according to Zillow and my personal observations) and that hard lending is a more expensive way of financing, but if you can make it work it could be a very lucrative flip and it would leave you with the cash needed to invest in another property somewhere else...Hoboken, similarly to all the NYC area, is very expensive and tough to have a good cash flow