All Forum Posts by: Dan Barman

Looking at purchasing my 1st rental property, a single family 3/4 BR, 2 BA in a hot area of NY's Hudson Valley. Older 2 story home (1900) with some updates. Looks good on the outside but inside it's a MAJOR fixer-upper, slanted floors, former tenants evicted and likely trashed the place before they left. Kitchen/Dining room looks great though and house is located on an amazing, quiet, family friendly block near center of town + has great back yard with deck (needs rebuild) & detached workshop/artists' studio (has elec, needs insulation & new floor). Bedrooms are a bit small and no in-room closets (large hall closets and attic storage however), one bedroom is a walk-through. Looks like damage is mostly cosmetic, house probably has good bones but won't know for sure until after inspection. 

Asking price is about 2/3 of what houses like this in good condition go for in this area. Have run it through the BP rental calculator with conservative, medium and liberal scenarios and it looks like the property would cashflow between $450-$1,000 / mo.

I live about 1.5 hours drive south but have help from friends/realtors who live nearby. I'm hesitant to make an offer because it's such a fixer-upper / project and am wondering if I'm biting off more than I can chew for my first purchase, but when even my most conservative scenario has a monthly cash flow of $450, it's hard to not consider. This house could also be a flip but I have not looked at that scenario in detail. 

Any advice would be much appreciated. Are there things I may not be thinking about that I should be? 

Thanks!

Thanks so much for the kind words and sound advice Michael, it's much appreciated. My wife and I have an unbeatable living situation (rental) currently in Brooklyn that we'd like to hold onto, so it's unlikely that we'd be moving into the property that we buy, at least not at first. Primarily we're looking for something that's about a 1.5 hour drive of where we live, there's a specific area that we like that we have in mind. So one of the issues on my mind is maintenance, especially dealing with snow and ice once winter comes. I was hoping to avoid having to hire a management company but I'm starting to think it may be unavoidable. 

Best,

Dan

Hi BP community, my name is Dan Barman. I'm a pro studio and touring musician (drum set) living in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. My wife and I currently have most of our investments in various stocks & bonds and are are looking tooward real estate as a new investment option to; 1. Generally diversify our overall investment strategy, 2. Invest for retirement (currently 36 y/o), 3. Generate additional monthly income to help with the growing expenses of raising a family in New York City (currently have a 1 y/o baby girl). We're totally new to real estate investing (although we sold a townhouse in San Jose, CA a few years back as part of a family trust I was managing). We would love any general thoughts and feedback those of you with experience might have to lend and have a couple of general questions below in case anyone feels like sharing.

We originally were looking at buying a single family home with the intention of having renters cover the mortgage etc. and hold the property long-term as it gained in value. Now we're thinking we'd like to start with something that can generate additional income right out the gate and a broker friend suggested we look at some 2-4 unit multi-family properties instead, so that is the direction we've started to look in. Good idea / bad idea? What are some things / questions we as first-timers might not think to look for / ask? We've never been landlords before so would love any advice on things to keep in mind going forward.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to getting to know the BP community and to starting this new (and hopefully lucrative) adventure.

-Dan