All Forum Posts by: Allan Szlafrok

You may be overpriced if no one is looking. Might be worth offering first month free or something to get eyeballs on your listing.

Carrie Craft

The south, west and central wards are the toughest but some areas are seeing a lot of redevelopment. FInd out where the big construction projects are happening and look over there. The north ward is a bit better in general but some blocks are really bad. Just need to go on a block by block basis.

Honestly i wouldn't bother with a condo unless you want to live in it. The area is pretty good on my opinion i own an investment property 2 blocks away. I think if you wanted to move there its pretty cheap for housing but you wont make money on it as an investor. I think@Jessica Zolotorofe is right its important to check on the condos financials as ive seen more than one foreclosure in that building over the years.

I invest heavily in Newark. Im kind of glad it doesn't get so much attention. I make great returns on my buy and holds. The less people talk about it the more inventory for me to buy!

Ive successfully appealed the taxes on every property i own in NJ and especially in Jersey City i was able to knock them down to a much more reasonable rate sometimes by 50%

These days im focusing more on rentals because its getting really hard to buy properties cheap enough to flip. Its also really hard to find qualified buyers for a flip in areas like Newark. Its a really great rental marker though as long as you have a nice product you wont have trouble getting tenants. Collecting the rent is another though....

I don't think there's much demand for short term rentals and given the type of renters you would have i wouldn't risk renting something for less than a year at a time. You definitely want to have a security deposit up front and turnaround is the biggest killer of rental profits. I just don't think its a good idea to have such a high turnaround.

I deal with just about every town in that area EXCEPT East Orange. Property taxes are far higher there than in neighboring towns. I own a new construction in Newark and directly across the street the houses are in East Orange and the property taxes are double that of my new construction. Its really hard to make the numbers work over there that's why the properties offered there are usually far cheaper than in neighboring towns. I wouldn't bank on any development over there as the city is very hard to deal with when it comes to permits and inspections. There's a lot of development happening in Newark and even parts of Orange but i wouldn't hold out much hope for East Orange getting much better.

Flipping i Newark is tough because the inventory isnt as cheap as it used to be and its really hard to find qualified buyers on the back end. Still it can be done you just need to be smart. I like to buy 2 family houses so i can rent out 1 unit to cover my expenses while i try to find a buyer to live in the bigger unit. It makes sense for the buyer because the rent will help cover his mortgage and it makes sense for you because you have some income coming in to cover your expenses. Also your house is less likley to be vandalized if its at least semi occupied.