All Forum Posts by: Eric Bassett

@Billy Archer congrats on getting started. All of my student rentals are a little north of you in the SUNY Potsdam/Clarkson and SUNY Plattsburgh markets but happy to share any info if there’s anything I can help with. I would guess that there are some similarities and some differences in our markets, but as a whole, they are probably very similar. Best of luck

@Account Closed we are in the beginning stages of constructing a new park now.  I know for me, when I was trying to research this same thing, the problems I was running across was that it seemed like construction cost for many things varied greatly from one municipality to another.  For example, road construction will cost a certain amount for the ground work and pavement, but if your zoning/planning board requires you to add curb and gutters and/or sidewalks, the cost could almost double.  We are in New York, so I figured on the high side for everything.  I am planning on doing a lot of the rough ground work myself as I have the equipment etc.. to do so, but once I have some numbers on the things I will be hiring out, I'll gladly share if you'd like.  

@Tracey G. thank you for weighing in as a parent.  That is the exact same opinion I’m hearing from all my students and also their parents.  Not to mention that the majority of off campus housing, at least in my market is thousands less than living on campus. So even the kids that are concerned about their loans and saving money tend to go off campus for that reason also.  College housing imo has always been about location and I believe that will continue to be the case even with smaller scale schools.  The benefits of a college degree go so far beyond the actual classes and that will never be able to be replaced online. Not to mention the quality of the degree won’t be able to be matched imo either.  
Also, anyone that has some units in a prime location next to a university that is fearful of the market and wants out, please send it my way.  I’m always looking.  

I’m not sure any of these choices apply.  What some people are forgetting is that there’s so much more to the college experience than just showing up on campus and sitting through a class.  A lot of kids go to college for much more than just sitting in the classroom.  Sports, the social aspect, getting out of mom and dads house, the list goes on.  Non of which can happen with online classes.  Not to mention there’s some things that really can’t realistically be successfully taught online.  Sure some kids will choose online learning, but those are the same kids that are already doing it.  As @Mark H. Porter said, online classes aren’t a new thing.  I’ve spoke with all of my student tenants and not one of them is in favor of distance learning.  We had 100% rent collected for spring semester and are 100% leased for fall/spring this coming school year.  Most of my kids can’t wait to get back to school and want to move in early actually.  Sure things are going to be different for awhile as is everything and maybe it’s still too early to judge but I just don’t see brick and mortar schools going anywhere.  

@David London

I received that same question from a lot of my student tenants. I’ve basically told them the same thing I told them all last semester when school transitioned to online. The apartments are still there and available for them to live in whether or not school is being held on campus or online. WiFi is included along with the other utilities so they are welcome to live in the apartment and take their classes online from there. Nothing says they have to leave just because school is not on campus.

I’ve found that 99% of them understand and most of them prefer to stay as oppose to go home actually.

@Samantha Epps

I haven’t attended any auctions specifically in Buffalo, but have attended many tax auctions in other parts of NY. The challenge for those has always been the difficulty in doing proper due diligence for these properties so you almost have to calculate the extra risk for surprises when evaluating I think. After funneling out the properties I’m not interested in that are on the list, I always try to evaluate every property using a worst case scenario from a numbers standpoint and then attach a “max bid” value to all of them based on that before the auction starts. The other thing you have to keep in mind and calculate into your numbers are the auction fees you have to pay on top of what your winning bid is. Usually a % of the bid, but I think many people forget about those when evaluating the numbers.

That’s the easy part, the hard part is forcing yourself to stick to those “max bids” when you get caught up in the bidding war :). That’s the part I struggle with.

As far as financing, if this is a tax auction your referring to, most are probably purchased with cash or possibly a line of credit thats secured ahead of time by something else. Although I’ve never used “hard money”, and can’t personally recommend it, I’m assuming that may be an option if that’s something your familiar with.

@JD DiGiacomandrea

Clarkson is a great school. Many of my tenants are clarkson students. The market consists mostly of student housing, at least in the village, although we do have some non student tenants.

Anyone have any property management company recommendations in the Potsdam NY area. Currently self managing but as the portfolio keeps growing, entertaining the idea of using property management.

Any developers care to share their opinions on building multiple duplexes vs fewer but larger multi family buildings? If your ending up with the same number of units in the end is there any advantage to one vs the other?

@AJ Pryor

We structure ours similar to what you inherited. They all sign individual leases but are bonded by a joint and several clause. Everyone pays separate deposits and we charge per student per semester due in full on or before the first day of class each semester. Each group is required to do 10 month leases from August to May. If someone graduates or needs to leave after fall semester make them find someone to take their place.