All Forum Posts by: Jan Kutrzeba

What resources do you use when speculating on the future of a town you're investing in?

I found a property in a small town (population of <10k) in Florida. I've never heard of the town and know nothing about it (besides what I can find on Wikipedia and a basic google search), but the property looks promising (it's a mixed use building with 7 small residential units and three store fronts) and the numbers seem to add up when using the BP calculator, even being very conservative. 

Small towns are often small for a reason, but even small town folks need a place to live in and small town businesses need a place to operate from. My fear is that the town is dying and real estate value with it.

Would love to hear some insight!

Thanks in advance.

//Jan

First time investor from Brooklyn.

Hi @Andrew James and everyone else,

Very interested in this too. I backpacked in Nicaragua in the Fall of 2014 (it was amazing, needless to say) and I noticed that there were a lot of 'for sale' signs and banners in front of gorgeous single family houses and villas near the beach around Juan del Sur, where I was mostly staying. I wasn't interested in investing at the time, but I did have a chance to talk to a local broker and remember the asking prices being shockingly high compared to what the locals make. Just by googling 'buy a house in Nicaragua' I now found the cheapest SFH going for $44k on one of the brokers' websites, a lot of them in the hundreds of thousands USD.

My main concerns would be:

- corruption

- collecting rent (what to do when tenants default?)

- vandalism

- unstable economy 

- and many other problems of an impoverished country

I'm sure once you have a good team (broker, agent, lawyer, insurance broker, contractor, prop.mgr) that you can trust, it's all doable, but building that might take time and money and physical presence. That said though, I'd also love to own a beach property in Nica, rent it out to surfers, maybe AirBnB it, and sell it when the time comes... 

Would love to hear from someone who's actually done it. But like @Luke Carl said, life might be way easier if you make your money here and enjoy a stress-free vacay in a prime destination.

@Jeremy Pastore thanks for the insight! Would be interesting to hear about your next move.

Following this... To piggyback on your question, what's your feeling about Bklyn multifam buildings going up in value another 5y? I hear ppl saying the bubble is about to burst. I've been hearing about it for at least 5y now but prices have just kept climbing. Buying an $800K property seemed nuts only a couple of years ago, but now they're going for $2M+.

Hi @Ryan C.

Brooklyn RE agent here. I agree with @Ceasar Rosas here. Ultimately it's you who has the decision power over who you'll let live in your units, but let a broker and his agents do all the hard work. Especially if the Bronx market is a fee market, meaning the agents will collect the fee from the tenant, meaning it'll cost you $0. 

Here's why it's worth it:

1. you'll save a lot of TIME. I market my landlords' properties and find them tenants for a living. I get about 100 phone calls and texts a day. It's a lot of work that you might not want to do. A lot of the calls are a total waste of time. After closing hundreds of deals I can usually tell within the first five seconds whether the caller is serious and whether they qualify. This is something that comes with experience. Also, no matter how much you pre-qualify applicants on the phone and confirm with them before showing the property, no-shows are still a reality. I just drove 40min to a property in East Flatbush late last night (instead of spending time with my wife) just to learn that the client won't make it after all. An hour of my time murdered. Thank God we have the BP podcast to listen to while driving... 

2. you'll save a lot of $$$. Advertising costs alone can run in the hundreds a month for a single unit; StreetEasy now charges $3/ad/day; that's $90/month for one ad only! Another $175/2wks, or $350/month to 'feature' the ad; that's $440 in advertising costs for one unit only, on StreetEasy only (they do have the monopoly nowadays)! Then there's NakedApts, Zillow, Trulia, HotPads - you name it; all these portals charge money that you'll have to pay out of your pocket if you do it yourself. For us agents, this is just the cost of business. Add credit and background checks (we charge $75 per credit check) and the costs just keep adding up. 

In order to be successful on CL, you'll have to post 20-30-40-50... ads per day. I have a guy post 100 CL ads per day 6d/wk for me; that's 600 CL ads per week, every single week, and all of these get flagged within hours. And obviously I've got to pay him for that. Doing it myself, I'd be posting ads 8h/day... The competition is fierce. If anyone here has cracked CL flagging (I think I've tried it all over the years), please PM me.

3. brokers and their agents cast a much wider net when looking for tenants, as they're advertising other similar apts in the same area and/or price range, and can thus bring you customers who initially inquired about another property. It happens very often that a customer contacts me about apt A but after showing him/her BCDE they end up with apt F. 

Good agents who've been in the business for years are good for a reason. They get business because landlords trust them with finding them good tenants. It wouldn't behoove me pushing you a bad tenant, as I'd never get business from you anymore. We think long term and love long term business partners. And, don't forget, ultimately it's you who makes the decision on which tenant to approve or not approve. Your realtor will simply present you a qualified file (good credit, proof of income, landlord references, etc.) and you'll say yes or no and then it's just sign the lease and give them keys. Easy and simple.  

In Brooklyn, the standard minimum credit score is 680 and not a tad below, and minimum income requirement of 36 x monthly rent. Used to be 40 x and some landlords still require that, but it's come down. My experience is, credit is more important than income. The fact that your tenant makes a million a year doesn't mean they pay their bills. My earliest lesson in approving tenant was: credit is king. Credit doesn't lie.  

Good luck finding a good realtor and having good, long term tenants. I bet it's worth having a chat with Ceasar as the Bronx is his market. 

//Jan

Thank you @Jack Butala! Looking forward!

//Jan

Hi guys,

Brooklyn based newbie here. I stumbled upon the BP podcast the other week and have been listening ever since. I'm very excited to learn from all you guys, and I'm hoping to add value to the community with what I have to offer. 

SUMMARY

Licensed real estate agent in Brooklyn, New York, with an international BBA degree from University of Tampere in Finland. Renting apts in Brooklyn, NY for a living. Also a professional actor; you can find my work as 'John Patryn' (stage name) on IMDb 

ROOTS

Born in Poland, grew up in Finland, moved to NYC from Stockholm, Sweden. I've also spent a semester abroad in Reykjavik, Iceland studying Economics and international law at the Univ. of Iceland, and I did my internship for a small EU office in Brussels, Belgium. As you might've guessed, one of my strengths lies in languages. I'm fluent in Finnish (native), Polish (native), English (native), Swedish (excellent), German (intermediate/good), and now studying Spanish, thanks to my Texan wife Jenny, who's family is from Mexico.

EXPERIENCE & REAL ESTATE BACKGROUND

We (my parents & I) I accidentally flipped my apt in Finland during my college years (I give all credit to Mom & Dad). I had gotten a mortgage for my apt as my primary residence in 2002, and sold it with a ~46% profit six years later. When traveling in my 20s, I was an avid CouchSurfer, and later became a big fan of AirBnB. In Brooklyn, I used to rent a 3-4br apts and sublet my other rooms so that my rent was close to $0. Currently, Brooklyn rooms in shared 3br apts go for $850 and up... As an actor, I was always looking for a flexible job, and decided to give it a try as a real estate agent back in 2014. I was very successful from the very start (to my surprise) and made more money I had ever made before. I currently have my own company, Patryn Realty Corp, but I'm affiliated with Brooklyn Group NYC, and one of their team leaders and top producers. I currently have four agents under me.

GOALS IN REAL ESTATE

1. educate myself on RE investing and make new friends, meet mentors, investors, and potential business partners in the community

2. choose my niche and a market (as of now, the Brooklyn market seems insane as prices for multifam are in the millions)

3. take action: start investing.

As of today, I'm mostly interested in buy & hold of multifam properties and commercial properties to generate rental income and build a sizable portfolio, that would also secure my retirement. I'm also interested in investing internationally, especially in Poland and other Eastern European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovenia, etc.) where prices are still cheap, but growing hand-in-hand with their growing economies. Anyone else interested in this, feel free to PM me.

STRENGHTS - WHAT I HAVE TO OFFER

Given my international background and experience living in several different countries, immersed in different cultures, I can research and understand international markets with an ease. In the Brooklyn area, I have a strong experience in the residential rental real estate market. Brooklyn landlords, feel free to keep calling me to discuss pricing of your residential rental properties. Anyone else interested in investing in Brooklyn, feel free to drop me a line. 

As an actor and a performer, I'm very used to presentation and public speaking in front of large audiences. I can't wait to utilize these skills when going over my business to potential partners, investors, lenders. 

Thanks for reading and hope to connect with you soon!