All Forum Posts by: Harriet Baldwin

If there is a local insurance cooperative (or local mutual insurance company), check those out.  In our region there are a couple and they can be a bit more flexible/landlord friendly.  But each company has their "quirks" - one doesn't do student rentals, pools or trampolines; the other will do trampolines but won't do manufactured homes...

Good summary by @greg dickerson

For a large project, many jurisdictions require an approval from the Plan and Zoning board (there may be no "as of right"). If so, this is a pre-step before building permits. 

In some areas and/or locations you will need an environmental review (statewide DEC or similar and/or local wetlands review or similar and/or review of any EPA-classed conditions and history).

@Madeline Davies this sounds like a bit high-difficulty for a first deal, but I could be wrong.  

It is not our core business, but we have installed new manufactured homes on vacant land (for outright sale) and in mobile home parks (for rental; we are not the park owners), and each state has its own degree of regulation. To vastly over-simplify, manufactured homes are regulated by HUD (administered by HUD or the state), mobile homes are locally regulated (town/city code office). But zoning still applies - the local code officer in NY has to sign off on the foundation or piers, but doesn't deal with the manufactured home itself.

If NV requires licensed/registered installers (NY does), you might reach out to a couple and see what they think about your plan.  In NY state, we also needed to register our company and I took required training to qualify as a manufactured home retailer, even though we are selling the home & the land together as real property (not personal property).  

Manufactured homes are an interesting niche, so I don't want to tell you not to focus here, but the whole move-a-home-during-escrow sounds like a risky proposition (what happens if you don't get approved?  Will the seller let you move the home back off their land at that point? And then where do you park the units?).  But if you can work out the details, could be a great deal...

@Alexander Felice thanks for sharing your effective approach!  You may want to adjust what fees you charge and/or what you call them, looks like the newly updated NYState rent laws limit application fees to $20 per person or the cost of the background check, whichever is *lower* - ianal though.

Link to new law s6458 (went into effect 6/15/19, started causing chaos at our local courthouse about 6/21/19).  This is mostly updates of existing law; there's a "Download Bill Text pdf" link toward the top; helpfully the document shows added items in green and deleted items in red.  Of course the document is 74 pages and includes plenty of regulation of rent-to-own manufactured homes lol.

One local legislator suggests there may be updates coming soon, as the bill was passed in a bit of a rush and may not reflect what folks *thought* was being passed (example-at one point the idea was for upstate counties to have to opt in, but that isn't in the bill that was passed...)

Another factor to mention - zoning.  In some (most?) markets, allowing accessory apartments or higher dwelling-unit limits can help make it easier for the private sector to create more units at a relatively low cost.

Although Harris County TX, including Houston (famous for no zoning), is about average for population-per-housing-unit compared to other large population counties...so zoning flexibility isn't a panacea, but certainly seems like it could help.

Agree with the comments that this is unlikely to be a super-major issue.  

What does the contract say about your options after completing home inspection?  Sometimes with as-is sellers, the contract says no adjustments can/will be made for condition.  But if the contract was more cookie-cutter, it may give you more options.  Some as-is sellers are just communicating that they aren't going to do any work; others have the mindset of "whatever you find, you can't change the contract".

You may want to add "flush all toilets" to your walk through check list lol.

Many New York State landlord/tenant regulations are jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction (in practice, if not statute), rather than state-wide.  A local landlord/tenant lawyer, or local landlord association, may be good resources as well.  Or attend a few sessions of your local landlord/tenant court (better than tv lol!).

Thanks @Mike Cumbie.  "Just talk to them" is golden!

Luckily I think the only contractor complaint was from the adult sister of a neighbor, once, lol.

When a neighbor calls to complain about detached-home tenants swearing loudly, other than saying "tell me more" and letting the caller vent, any favorite phrases I could use to let them feel heard without triggering wounds or having the conversation dragging on forever?  Had a call today that went almost 15 minutes...I need to work on my phone skills lol!  At least most such callers are one-and-done...

Background - we have about 100 units now, mostly single families in the county we live in.  Once a year I get a call from a "concerned" neighbor about the "language" used by a tenant or contractor - usually complaining about "the F word" (why does no one call to complain about "the S word"??).  Usually B- type neighborhoods.

Typical profile of the caller is a long-time owner-occupant (or their sibling) who is distressed by the "loud and coarse language" of my tenants or contractor.  Often the caller is passive-aggressive (doesn't want to give name, doesn't want to get in trouble for turning someone in, doesn't want to talk to the tenant directly).  I understand that change is rough and that swearing offends many people, but as long as the property is maintained and regulations are followed, how is this my (much less their) business?  I just put them in my contact list as "Eeyore who lives near [unit]".

I went to an insurance continuing ed presentation recently and the definition that sticks in my mind is that insurance covers a "sudden, unexpected loss".  

Insurance definitely does not take the place of maintenance, much less capital expense (which would be a permanent upgrade in my book, but everyone's definition is different).