All Forum Posts by: Dan Barman

Right on @Frank Gucciardo, very exciting! 

@John Place welcome to BP. I've only been on here a few months and have found it to be a fantastic resource & community. We're also new to real estate investing and are looking at small multi-families and single families in the HV area, mostly around Poughkeepsie and areas just a bit south, and are about to go into contract on our 1st property in Beacon. Great advice on the 0% financing for home-improvement btw, hadn't thought of that but yeah, awesome!!!

Hi fellow BP'ers,

We just negotiated an agreement to purchase a duplex in Beacon, NY and are looking for referrals for contractors to help with renovating the property. Our hope is to connect with someone talented and reputable ASAP so that they can give us quotes as soon as our inspection is completed this coming Monday, for work to be done after closing.

The duplex is a 2 story home with full attic & partially finished basement built in 1820, so depending on what we hear from the inspectior we may be in need of someone with experience working in historic/older homes.

At the very least we know that the two units will need cosmetic work; new floors, counters, cabinets, appliances, tile & paint. We may want to knock down or open up a wall or two as well. Some of the lighter work we'll likely do ourselves but that is to be decided.

If you are an experienced & dedicated (i.e. perfectionist), licensed contractor in the area please be in touch with bonafides, references and links to recent work. If you've recently worked with a contractor in the Hudson Valley whom you loved we'd love to receive a referral, any detailed info (photos etc) you can include would be much appreciated.

Thanks all!

-Dan 

Hi fellow BP'ers,

We just negotiated an agreement to purchase a duplex in Beacon, NY and are looking for referrals for contractors to help with renovating the property. Our hope is to connect with someone talented and reputable ASAP so that they can give us quotes as soon as our inspection is completed this coming Monday, for work to be done after closing.

The duplex is a 2 story home with full attic & partially finished basement built in 1820, so depending on what we hear from the inspectior we may be in need of someone with experience working in historic/older homes.

At the very least we know that the two units will need cosmetic work; new floors, counters, cabinets, appliances, tile & paint. We may want to knock down or open up a wall or two as well. Some of the lighter work we'll likely do ourselves but that is to be decided. 

If you are an experienced & dedicated (i.e. perfectionist), licensed contractor in the area please be in touch with bonafides, references and links to recent work. If you've recently worked with a contractor in the Hudson Valley whom you loved we'd love to receive a referral, any detailed info (photos etc) you can include would be much appreciated.

Thanks all!

-Dan 

@Jordan Stein, 

Yo! Just had an offer accepted to buy a duplex in Beacon this last Sunday, this is my 1st real estate deal outside of selling some property in CA that I was managing for a family trust a few years ago and super house-hacking when I was in my 20's here in Brooklyn. Would be happy to share my experience in the Hudson Valley with you, as little as it may be. I focused specifically in Beacon but know some other parts of the Hudson Valley (not as well). PM me and we can discuss. I'm always down for a coffee meet-up as well. 

Hi Frank, yep, he's on my short list and am trying to check multiple sources for reviews etc. not finding much online for reviews... Thanks so much!!!

Hi, just negotiated an offer to purchase a duplex in New York's Hudson Valley (Beacon) and am looking for a good home inspector and contractor who specializes in older homes (1820). I don't see much in the way of reviews on Yelp in that area, are there other review sites that might be better to check out? Any recommendations for places to look or recs for specific people/companies in that area would be great. The 2 units will need some cosmetic rehab (new kitchen, new floors, cabinets etc), will need a good contractor to do some of this work. Thanks! Dan

Hi @John Leavelle, thanks so much for your thoughts. I have walked the property with my realtor, took photos and video etc. Even had a chance to speak with the tenants, one of which told me a lot about the property including issues with a leaking pipe in the ceiling. 

As far as expense data is concerned, we haven't done an inspection yet; not sure if it's the same in TX but here there are no disclosures and inspection happens after an offer has been accepted. I know some fixes will need to be done; new carpet & paint, new countertops, new oven/range, refinish cabinets etc. There's also that leaky pipe but other than that I won't know about any other problems unless we go through inspection. 

When you say "priced based on current rent valuation", you're saying that the offer should reflect the price that tenants are currently paying rather than what we can get for the units once they're fixed up (accounting for rehab costs of course)? 

Thanks @Shawn M., that's the option we're leaning toward, but didn't want to save my pride but lose the deal.

Your question about the rents; with current tenants at a purchase of $340 we'd profit about $100/mo w/ ROI at 1.5%. After we fix up and raise rents to med/high end of market we'd profit about $420 at 6.25%.

If we bought at $325 that would change to current rents $155/mo at 2.4% and after fix/raise $475 & 7.4%. 

Hi BP universe! Negotiating what will be my 1st deal as a seller/investor, the property in question is a duplex in a fast-growing, popular rural river town with lots of city commuters. Negotiations have taken a bit of a strange turn and I'd love some advice from any experienced BP members. Here's the deal; will try to keep this short.

Seller's ask was $350K which we and our agent thought was pretty high, there's a lack of comps in the area but we put it more in the $320 - $340 range. We gave a low offer of $310, seller countered at $345, we countered by coming up $15K to $325. They held firm at $345 and we walked away. 24 hrs later our agent got a text from theirs saying they'd like to know what our absolute highest offer would be. She added that maybe there could be a way for us all to "meet in the middle" but that was her idea (the listing agent's) and not her client's words. On the one hand we're happy to hear that it seems like they might be willing to negotiate again but on the other hand we don't really like the way they're trying to frame the conversation by asking us to give them our highest number without getting a counter to our most recent offer. 

The most I'd be "happy" to pay is $335 but my target # is $330. At $340 the numbers would still work out in the mid-term, profits would be very slim until we can vacate both units and remodel to significantly raise the rents to the top end of the market. Also we don't think the property is worth $340 based on what we've seen from the comps. Here's what we're considering...

Option 1.

We respond to their agent's idea of meeting in the middle by saying the ask was $350 and our 1st offer was $310, the middle between those two numbers is $330 and we'd be ok with that number if she thinks she could get the seller to agree to it. 

Option 2.

Screw it. Even though we think it's a crappy way for them to negotiate we just say that $335 is our highest offer and see if they take it. If they do, ok, it's not $330 but we'll get the property at a price we're ok paying. If they won't take $335, then maybe we go for $340 and hope the appraisal comes in low. If it doesn't we won't be ruined, just very low profits until we get both units renovated and the rents up.

Option 3.

We tell them that something along the lines of, "We've given two solid offers and our last one was 15K above our first. We'd be happy to hear a counter to our last offer of $325 and if they want to give us the absolute lowest price they'd be willing to sell for then we'd be happy to consider it." I.E. we don't give them a number at all but rather flip the conversation to try and get them to submit a counter and maybe find out what their lowest # is.

What do you think?