All Forum Posts by: Jason Hanis

I have a 3 family property that i bought earlier this year in Bridgeport, CT.  When i was getting the insurance in line, the broker had asked me if there were any unregistered vehicles on the property.  At the time I didn't think much about it.  I noticed in the existing leases (and most form leases) that there is an item about storage of unregistered vehicles.  That got me to think a bit more about it.  Now, upon last inspection, i have 3 unregistered vehicles that have magically appeared in our rear parking area.  

1) Why is it such a big deal that insurance would be asking about it and it would be in the leases?

2)  How have some of you more experienced landlords dealt with this?

We've approached the tenants about them and we are obviously not getting any warm responses.  Any insight and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Victor,

I think your Water and Sewer is a bit low.  I have a 3 unit property (3 x 3bd, 1 bath) in Bridgeport.  I pay just shy of $200 for water and about $250 per quarter for sewer.

For taxes and property information go to: http://gis.vgsi.com/bridgeportct/

While I haven't had any vacancies in my property yet, i think your vacancy rate is a bit low.  with two studios, i would expect a bit higher turnover.  I used 12% for my property analysis (we are in West End).  Think about it, just one month of vacancy for your larger unit will be about 3%.  If you have a vacancy that lasts more than a month you are already over your vacancy expense for the year.  Maybe someone else can weigh in with their actual vacancy expense for properties in Bridgeport, CT?

Lastly, based on what I'm experiencing.. unless the place you are looking at has been recently renovated, I think that your Maintenance and Capex are low. Unless of course you plan to be your own handyman. If that is the case then you might be ok.

Best of luck!  I hope that I was of some help!

Financing a co-op is much more difficult to do from an owner occupied perspective than buying a condo or single family home. This is simply because there are not that many banks that will give mortgages for co-ops. When they do, the interest rate is typically a little higher than your typical mortgage. The reason here is risk towards the bank. Co-ops are highly leveraged. The residents will have mortgages for their shares of the co-op while the co-op itself will have a mortgage on the actual building. I have never heard of investor lending for a co-op. If you are ultimately able to find slender, be sure to check with the co-op rules on renting before you go down the road of trying to buy. Every co-op that I have looked at (and owned) had rules against, where you needed to have permission to rent and it couldn't be more than one or two years total in the time that you own. Secondly, any tenants needed to get board approval. These were in the Bronx... so I imagine that it isn't that much different than Brooklyn. Good luck!

@James S. and @Jay J., I'm good for next Friday too.  Let me know when and where. 

Nice Jay J. ! I'm trying to do the exact same thing as you. Really... almost exactly. I too work full time in New York, live in Westchester and am looking to find a rehab and rent somewhere in Fairfield county (still looking for my first deal, though). You have given me hope!

That's for sure!

So I'm about to do my first flip. I have 2 other partners that will be part of the deal. However, a contractor friend of one of the other partners brought us the deal. Obviously he thinks he should be "in" on the flip's profit in addition to being the general contractor doing the work. I feel like this isn't the optimal set up for the deal and will avoid this in the future.. Being what it is, what do you guys think is the best way to structure the deal? My group of 3 partners are ponying up all the scratch for buying the house, construction costs and holding costs. Thanks in advance for everyone's help!

Thanks Brandon.  Your blog post makes a lot of sense.  It is very well spelled out too.

Thanks for responding, Marcus. This would be our first property, which is exciting. With that said, I'm still trying to figure out what a good cap rate is around here. It seems like above 6 is good. To answer the rest of your questions: I'm looking for 3-6 units, multifamily. 600K to 1.2M range. Again, I'm looking for a broker that knows the area and know about investing in real estate. I've already dealt with one that didn't have a clue of what numbers where important (not that I'm any expert yet).

I have two properties in the Stamford/Greenwich (CT) area in my sights and need to find a real estate agent to start working with. Is there anyone in our community that has experience with multifamily investment properties? Or can perhaps refer me to someone EXCEPTIONAL?