All Forum Posts by: Chris Szepessy

Originally posted by @Scott Mac:

All of the newer cars look approximately the same style wise. Nissan, Ford, Mercedes...all seem to be Grey, Black or white...with a few burgundy and few blues now and then....

In the olden days, cars had personality..and SIZE....and every manufacturer looked a lot more distinct.

If they made big cars like this again in electric--I'd buy one.

You couldn't be more right! I remember every time my father and I would drive by/see a pre-1970's car, he would know the year, make, and model of it. Now you can't tell if a car is a BMW or a Toyota. 

As for vehicles my wife and I drive, mine are all older and paid for. 2006 Ram, 2009 Caravan, and 2000 Jeep Cherokee. I'm getting a "free" 2007 Mercury Milan soon from an estate (just have to do the leg work to get paperwork for the car) and I couldn't be more excited! 

I also have a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda that needs restoration. It's been a project for years, but something else always seems to take the money that I could use to restore that.

I put in the ad to call between a certain time frame. For a couple reasons. First, if they actually read the ad, they'll see it says to call and I won't have to respond to "Is it available." Second, you can weed out about 90% of potential tenants because it's too much work for them to call. And third, you can get a feel for someone when they're speaking to you. It's a little more old school and maybe takes up a little more time, but I think when so many are weeded out in the beginning, at least most phone calls are from people actually interested and more qualified. Luckily I haven't had any vacancies in a while, though. 

I have to agree with the rest...get married and then buy/invest with your wife. It can get too messy buying a house if things don't work out. I also think you're going to have a problem convincing a lender that you're owner occupying an out of state house. Don't give up, though. There are plenty of other options out there!

I have a tenant who's been there for the 4+ years. I haven't raised his rent because he takes care of a lot of minor maintenance issues, lawn care, updating some things in the house, etc., just like @Joe Aiola mentioned could probably be done to offset the rent increase. It may not make the most financial sense, but it currently works well for me.

While it would be good for the college kids to show some responsibility and make them do it, there's a very good chance it wouldn't get done. Not saying all college kids are lazy, but it would just make life easier to outsource it and add it into the rent.

Also, if you have multiple roomates in one house, I think it would cause issues on whose turn it is to do it and who's at fault if it looks terrible. 

Your lease should've been proof enough that you and your roommate were the new tenants and National Grid should've put it in your name. Has the bill not been paid in a year? I can't believe they didn't cut the power off months ago.

I had originally glanced over this post, then I saw the article in my local news and realized the victims were "dumped" about 15 min. from me. Your post is 100% accurate. Anytime the gov't shows up to help, they wind up making matters worse. I could never understand why there was a need for "rent relief" during Covid. Anyone who lost a job was making $600 MORE a week! There should've been no reason for them to not be able to pay rent. I do understand there are exceptions to every scenario, but in those cases, they (tenants) could've gone to DSS and applied for help like they used to have to and DSS would've made the check out to the LL. Pretty simple to figure out, but your last statement says it all. I've been saying the same thing.

House hacking doesn't have to completely offset your mortgage/expenses. In a perfect scenario it would, but if you're saving $1000/month by house hacking, I'd call that a win. However, if/when you decide to move, you want to make sure that whatever unit you're living in can rent for enough to cover everything. In this case, I assume it will since you're only "negative" $300 and my guess is that you're unit will rent for much more than that.

I knew they had big plans for that building. Last time I walked by it (probably a month or so ago), the ground floor was still totally unfinished...I thought they had run out of money or ambition. Glad to hear parts of it are already being rented out!

I think @Samantha Cash is pretty accurate with what she said. I can't speak a whole lot into the other towns, but if you have questions about Catskill, feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to help. I will say that I don't think Cairo is in any hurry to be an "up and coming" town. Catskill has some plans for jobs and tourism (hopefully they come to fruition) and now may be a good time to get in.