All Forum Posts by: Jason Maguire

@Stephanie Jacobson LMAO. I just don't understand how a declining market & economy makes a good place to invest? Seriously? You never answered that question & it's okay if you don't, I wouldn't expect you too. Just because it's 10 CAP? There are a million other things to look at than an imaginary cap rate you just made up.

This is the exact reason i was offering my opinion at an unbiased level. Clearly you're living in some type of bubble. I'd stick to Ithaca if i were you :)

@Stephanie Jacobson- let me clarify a few things for you.

1) The OP never mentioned specifically investing in college housing. That is a completely different investing strategy than traditional LTR's.

2) Binghamton has a 30% poverty rate, over 8% unemployment rate (double national avg.) & violent crime rate 117% higher than the national average

You even said it yourself- the economy is historically depressed  & from 2010-2020, the whole greater Binghamton area lost over 6% of it's population. Tell me how a place with a declining population is a good place to invest? That's going to be a key indicator to future job growth, pop growth, housing appreciation etc.

Yes, it's possible to cash flow anywhere but it's not as easy as it may sound. Especially for a first time investor, investing in a place that they don't know & aren't local too/ close enough to take care of everything. Bad tenants, low appreciating housing, evictions, high maintenance properties, crime, the list goes on. What happens when her father is done with construction & the prop needs to be managed?

Lots of people from CA & NY invested in these types of areas thinking they we're going to be easy cash flow markets & are now selling their properties because of all the issues that comes with Class D Neighborhood's/ Areas. Read other forum posts on BP & you'll see. I could think of 10x better cash flowing markets in Upstate NY & that have half the risk's that Bing does as a first time investor. Cool frat parties out there though.

Reason #100 to not allow pets in your rentals. I would only allow them if I was really struggling to get one of my units rented, always seems to be some type of issue with animals. Not to mention my black lab has destroyed my primary residence's hardwood floors in less than 3 years lol.

Look at a post a few weeks ago on BP when a poster got their foot really badly bitten up from trying to put a gate at their prop to stop a dog issue. It's just not worth it.

The house looks very sterile looking, almost like a hotel room with not a lot of detail. The pictures are also very grainy & not the clearest.

I think this is also a big reason to not buy a property purely based off what AirDnA says. Should of also been analyzing comps in the area beforehand along with their ADR + Occupancy rates based on their calendars...

I'd send the link to the listing in this thread & see if there is anything else that can be improved upon as well. Best of luck.

I'd be careful with Binghamton- don't have the exact stats on me currently, but Binghamton is not a nice place & has been progressively getting worse over the years. I actually was just watching a video that said Binghamton was the worst place to live in NY. It's also kind of in the middle of nowhere and the only thing out there is SUNY Bing.

Please see the below link to Binghamton's crime stats. According to this site, Bing is only safer than 4% of U.S Cities. If you are looking for class A or B props, this is not the place.

Binghamton Crime Rates and Statistics - NeighborhoodScout

I'm from the Troy, Albany, Schenectady area & i think it adds a lot more value & there is a lot more opportunity in this area job wise & just in general more to do. There's also a wide variety of A-D properties, so you can find something depending on what exactly you are looking for.

I guess the main point i am trying to make, is don't just jump to the first spot with low prices because you are priced out of NYC, sometimes there's reasons as to why these towns are priced extremely low, so just some food for thought.

If you have any questions about the capital region area, let me know! I am not an agent, lawyer, or lender so have nothing to gain from giving any additional insight.

Conventional, Owner Occupy loans. Easiest way to leverage your debt, especially just starting out.

DO NOT accept anymore payments as each time you do, you will have to start the clock back over Unforutantely.

I am located in Albany NY, if you need a good attorney in the area, let me know!

As Patrick mentioned, since the lease is very unclear, have the tenants sign an Estoppel agreement/ certificate. 

You definitely want to know what your walking in too, a year lease with a bad tenant/ unclear lease could be bad. The estoppel should certify everything that's in place at current terms, rates & price. Once that's filled out, it should concretely answer your questions & should give you a better idea on the status of the leases.

Hi Josh,

You would need to "quit claim" the deed- this would transfer the property from your personal name, into an LLC. There is generally a "due on sale clause" rule in which could trigger from the lender, causing the whole dollar amount of the loan to be due. That being said, I've know multiple persons who have quit claimed their deed and have never had any issues.

I'm not sure on question 2, but i don't think you would need to wait to get a HELOC- deed & mortgage are completely different items so i don't see how the name on the deed would effect the HELOC, but it may be best to wait if the quit claim is already in process.

All of this may vary lender to lender, state to state so that is just my input. Good luck!

Love this post, great information!

I lived in our frat house the last 2 years in college- i 100% agree we were definitely way more concerned with how close the house was to the bars.... not the school LOL. Went to school 20 miles from the Canadian boarder where it was regularly -20 degrees in the winter, and we'd still rather be .2 miles from the bars & well over a mile walk/ drive from the actual school.

I do see a lot of first time investors thinking that student housing is going to be their passive golden ticket, but quickly realize how much work it really is. I think you did a great job highlighting both the pros & cons of student rentals & you definitely have the systems in place to keep scaling. Quite the interesting niche.