All Forum Posts by: Bryan W.

Why not offer your design services for hire? There might not be enough of a spread to make the transaction hassle worthwhile, but surely you could charge sellers for this type of service. Your risk would be much lower and you could probably charge pretty well if you could prove that it was adding to the sale price. If nothing else, it's a fairly cheap and easy way to test your idea.

Thanks Mark, I personally never minded on-street parking, except when coming out to the car after an all-night snowfall or freezing rain. Brushing off a couple inches of snow was fine, but I hated digging out from a plow pile, pushing a foot of snow off the roof, or scraping icy windows. Now that I don't have to, I realize how much it would have been worth. I guess for city renters, they just don't know how bad they have it. You should give them a "one month free trial" garage space in mid-December. Time the trial to expire right when the big January blizzards are due. You should have no trouble filling those garage spaces.

In my search for SFRs and small Multis in Rochester, I've noticed how few city houses have *usable* garages. I say usable because there are plenty of garages that aren't big enough for a modern car, are deep in the fenced in, unpaved back yard, etc. Let's just call those what they are: tool sheds.

For those of you with rental properties in the city, have you found that access to a garage has a noticeable impact on rental rates? Given the long, cold winters, I would think that it would be a huge selling point. But I've noticed that my friends and family in the area really don't care too much about having a garage. Perhaps they've all given up looking for a place with one and are just happy to find off-street parking. For comparison, in California where the weather is perfect 350 days per year, most people wouldn't even consider a place that didn't have a garage.

Have any of you considered adding garages or carports to properties that don't have them? Have you followed through? If so, what effect did it have on your rental rates?

Have either of you seen any figures about how many people they expect to hire (not the number of low-paying support jobs they will indirectly "create" as new restaurants spring up near the tower)? I haven't been following the story that closely, but when I do, I keep seeing headlines and quotes like, "this will be great for the local economy for years to come" or "Photonics will inject a much needed boost of job growth in the area". $600M is a lot of money, but it's not an earth-shatteringly high number.

I'm also curious about the number of people they expect to hire from outside the area versus within the area, and what effect that will have on the growth patterns. There would be a big difference in housing preferences between 40-year old engineers with kids in junior high who are moving from out of state (to Pittsford or Fairport, probably) vs. hipsters coming right out of their undergrad who know the city neighborhoods better and aren't afraid to move to an up-and-coming area.

Or maybe they'll all move to Park Ave, putting even more pressure on the market there and driving more people to the South Wedge, Upper Monroe, and Swillburg. That would be nice :-)

Welcome, Dalton. I'm new to BP and have found everyone here to be very helpful so far. I hope you have the same experience!

@Joshua Dorkin.  If you search for Rochester, you'll see quite a few threads that could be moved into the Upstate forum (or directly to a Rochester forum).

I think part of the problem with participation in an Upstate thread is due to the ambiguity of the term and the disparate markets that could all be considered Upstate. http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/796/topics/220290-upstate-ny-forum-launch---what-the-heck-is-upstate?page=1#p1469545

Most Rochester residents would probably say Upstate, but in the context of this forum, Rochester should probably be a part of western NY. Rochester has a lot more in common with Buffalo than, say, Troy or the Hudson Valley.

If we're getting that specific, there are a few more areas to consider.

• Adirondaks
• North Country - Watertown, Potsdam, etc.
• Long Island (very different than NYC)
• The Finger Lakes

+1.

Welcome, Kevin. I'm new to BP too and also looking to get started in Rochester. Maybe I'll see you at a future meetup.

Hi Rebecca,

I'll be in town in September. Do you plan to keep these on the 4th Wednesday in the fall (September 23). If so, I'd love to go!