All Forum Posts by: Brian Zaug

UPDATE:  Wow.  this electric company went above and beyond to fix the problem.  By the time I made it over to the house (around 12), the ceiling was repaired and it looked great!  The electrical upgrade is finished and also turned out great!  .......And here is the icing on the cake.  The owner of the electric company was at the house to review things with me and he said that he's not able to paint the ceiling so he reduced the price of the electrical job by $600!  Now i'll go there this week to paint it, it'll cost me $50 in material  and i'm up $550. 

Great company.  Great service.  Great communication. 

Thanks for the info and advice.  I am meeting the owner of the comp. at the house later.  He already sounds like he's going to make it right.  I'm hoping everything goes well as this company does great electrical work. 

So the tenant of one of my duplexes called me saying there was a giant hole in his kitchen ceiling.  I drove over there and sure enough, he wasn't making it up. 

Apparently, the electric company I used to rewire the upstairs apartment had a guy just about fall through the attic floor into the kitchen of the upstairs unit.  ( I spoke with the electrician and he wasn't hurt). 

Anyway, the ceiling is plaster and now has a giant hole in it.  Also, pieces of the plaster fell onto the stove that we just purchased scratching and denting it. 

The electricians will be at the house all day today and I'm meeting with the owner of the company there as well.  My question is, should this company pay for the hole to get repaired, ceiling to get painted as well as a new stove?  Or should I try and negotiate a price reduction from work they are doing? 

I own a duplex and one of the Tenants called and asked me if he could install a humidifier system onto the furnace.  He says he has sinus issues and needs this system so he can sleep at night.  Our lease states that any improvements to the apartment must be approved by the LL. 

Do any of you see a problem with him doing this?  He will have to pay for a professional to install this system. 

I'm not sure.  I don't have a business facebook page.  Perhaps you could set your business facebook page as a personal page just so you could post listings....

Put your rental listing on Facebook Market Place.  You'll get a bunch of hits from it and you can view their profile before even responding back.  I got 2 out of my last 3 vacancies filled through facebook marketplace.  Free and it works!

I feel like I found a pretty good market and figured I'd share it to see if others agree.  I live in Lagrange, NY and I'm only 15 minutes from the small city of Poughkeepsie, NY.  IMO, this city has been slowly coming back to life.  The city has been updating all their parks as well as putting in a walk/bikeway that goes through the city and over the Hudson river into highland.  It's pretty awesome.  They have an ivy league college (vassar) as well as one of the best SUNY colleges in the state, Marist.  They are putting on a 500 million dollar addition to Vassar Hospital.  The waterfront is growing as we speak with new restaurants, and premium condo's.  Anyway, seems to me that the city is going in the right direction.  So onto multi families. 

I purchased two duplexes last year and they both have been performing really well.  I got them both for around 125K in a decent neiborhood, in decent condition (only took me about $3000 each to get them cleaned up and rent ready).  Anyway, I posted a rental listing on craigslist and received over 10 hits on it in the first day.  I screened and screened and found 4 tenants with no waiting or problems. Seems to be a good rental market.  The houses are almost exactly the same so I'll put down the numbers for one....

House has:

 2- 1000sqft, 3 bdrm units in average condition (laminate wood floors, older windows, small kitchens and baths)

-They rent for 1100 each (2200 total)

-They pay all utilities

-I put 25% down, so I owe 95K or so

-PITI Payments = $950 monthly (taxes are 4200)

-I pay garbage, sewer, water = $150 a month ish

So I pay 1100 monthly on this and it brings in 2200.  I always put 200 a month way towards maintenance  which leaves me with $900 per duplex. 

These houses pop up all the time on the MLS, craigslist and trulia. I'm just curious if others see this great market just as I do. Looking forward to hearing others thoughts and opinions on these numbers and this area.
Cheers!