All Forum Posts by: Gianluca Rossi

Hi,

We bought mid-December a property on a private road in the Hudson Valley (NY). We were not able to visit the property until last week. On Tuesday, one of the other people living in the property told us we owe him $750 for the 5 times he plowed the private road (not including our driveway) this winter.

The private road is less than 0.4 miles long, on a hill. I'm not familiar with the cost of plowing in the area, but $750 for only 4 weeks seems overpriced to me ― especially since there are a total of 4 families living on the private road. I'm worried this neighbor is trying to scam us, as other neighbors also are complaining about the high costs.

The neighbor also informed me there is an existing Road Maintenance Agreement in place that the previous owner of our property (his brother) signed years ago.

As we didn't sign such an agreement, and as a matter of fact don't even know the content of it, what are our rights? Are we legally obligated to comply with an agreement we haven't signed?

Isn't it also common practice to receive an invoice, or something documenting the work that was done to maintain the road?

Many thanks,

Luca

Yes, "upstate" is upstate NY :-)

Thank you for all the info. I'll set up a separate account ASAP and speak with an accountant.

Thank you @Nathan Gesner! Should I also pay my monthly mortgage, insurance, and property taxes through this separate bank account?

Hi,

We are closing on Friday on a property upstate that I would like to use as a vacation home and rent regularly through VRBO/Airbnb.

I've read of the importance of keeping a separate bank account for our rental property. I was wondering, is a separate bank account useful only when you have established a company (e.g., LLC)?

I was not planning to create a company, but still have a separate bank account to ease keeping track of expenses and incomes from the property. From my understanding, the expenses associated with the property (e.g., buying furniture, bills, etc.) should also lower my taxable income. Is that correct?

If that's the case, should I also pay my mortgage through this separate bank account? After all, that is also a cost. 

Many thanks,

Luca

Hi, 

Do you have any recommendations on a great real estate agent in New York City? I'm looking to buy a MFP (2-units) in Bed-Stuy/Bushwick to house hack and would like to work with an agent that knows the area well and can assist us.

Many thanks,

Luca

That's an excellent point Abel about gaining acquisition, project management, and property management.

Regarding the property type, I'm focusing exactly on what you're suggesting ― multi-family with an accessory unit. I've started to research deals that meet my expectations that were closed in the last 180 days in those areas to get a better idea of what's available in the market. 

I'm also going to start looking at properties in the $1.5-1.75M range, as it might lower the mortgage and initial downpayment without sacrificing too much in living quality. I need to see some in person to get a better idea. 

That's good advice Adam! 

Hi,

This is my first post in this forum, so nice to meet you all, and I'm really eager to learn from you!

I'm in the lucky situation to have some savings set aside and am thinking about investing in real estate to diversity my portfolio and make my first step towards escaping the rat race. Specifically, I'm thinking about house hacking in New York City, likely in Brooklyn. I'm targeting multi-family properties in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, and Clinton Hill, but open to suggestions on other locations where better deals can be found.

My current rent is $4,600/month (+ bills) and I would like to find a property that would allow me to lower my housing costs. The idea would be for me and my family to live in one of the units for a year at least, and then consider moving to a better property and renting out the unit where we were living. Once we leave the property, the cash flow from all rented units would hopefully be enough to cover the monthly mortgage payments, and hopefully, even make a little profit.

That said, I'm struggling to find good deals in those areas, as properties go for close to $2M and rents are currently low. The future cash flow of the rentable unit(s) is hard to estimate, as there is quite a lot of gentrification going on and these unit(s) would be on the high-end of the market. In the long term, I think it shouldn't be a problem to find good tenants that could pay a little more than the average price in the area ($2,300 for a 2 bedroom), for an apartment that is considerably better. In the short term though, I think this could eat some of the cash flow.

My plan B would be to continue to live in the property for more than 1 year if the market continues to be weak and I struggle to increase the rent enough to make the property profitable.

Do you think this is a robust plan? Do you have any suggestions in terms of areas where I should focus my attention?