All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

I think the best thing I can contribute here for the DIY crowd is to recommend building granite tile counters. Besides looking great and selling the rental, they're way more durable than the preformed laminate on pressboard, the tiles are easily repairable or replaceable if a tenant does manage to damage a tile(hasn't happened yet but the family has chipped the granite slab in my own kitchen), they're cheap at ~$5 sq ft for the granite, and finally not too hard to build for the handy with a tile saw (I did my first with a real cheapie) and a set of diamond polishing disks off Ebay for the exposed edges. Even the last is not required, you can leave them rough or get them polished for a few bucks per edge at a stone place.

You might notice I install a built-in MW/hood. These units rent for $1200 and for the extra $140 over a regular hood it makes the small kitchen much more graceful. Apartments come with appliances around here. Those cabs are chinese imports from a local home center that are all wood, no particle, and have nice hardware, same price as the crap at the big boxes.

Heads up to Smartkey fans, apparently they're real easy to simply force the cylinder around http://youtu.be/nF4wbyJ5uLk

This place has a trashy door that looks like they wrapped a wood door in sheet metal to get it rated. I want to replace it but can't get an answer from Buildings Dept (they're still a post-sandy mess). Does anyone know what the code commonly is for these doors? I don't think it's 90 min, it could be as low as 20, a similar door in another place of mine that has passed state inspection looks like it's not fire rated at all!

You're looking at a huge expense, and not something that can be done in an occupied building. Is it rent controlled? My analysis of this on an unregulated 4U was that my "heating cost" wasn't the gas bill, but the error (or difference) between the heating cost I built into the rent I set and what it actually cost. Put that way, it would take a VERY long time to recover the capital to separate the heat.

It's funny, I once lived in a rent stabilized building with separate gas meters for the stoves, but heat and electric were included! Seemed insane.

At least here in NJ, I believe that you need to be in a place for 30 days to have legal possession of it and protection by anti-eviction statutes. You need to know the legalities of your situation and fast. Common sense says that if they haven't paid a thing they're not in possession, but tenant law often makes no sense.

I'd be fascinated to know if there's a rule change. I've been a landlord 15 years and I was just told they couldn't use income from a property I've owned only 6 months. Having a $225k mortgage with no income from it blows a hole in your DTI!

Far as I can tell, local lenders are currently out of their minds. I just had a lender tell me that on a refi of a place I've owned for 8 years they won't count my gross income on a 4U place I purchased this summer, leaving my financial profile with a huge hole for that mortgage! What about leases, or if I get my return done? Nope. So I can't say whether a smaller multi hurts or helps! And yes, under 5 is residential not commercial, though I'm being told commercial could be easier to get.

Problem with the cheap online's as I found out with Amerisave, is they use the cheapest, utterly incompetent appraisers. Truly, the low appraisal was mostly made up numbers.

As someone who started in the NYC metro area 15 years ago, Here's my take: here, RE is an investment, a retirement, but not a living. It's hard to find properties that throw off cash at time of purchase, you're lucky if they pay their way. But if they do, it's an investment that at 25% down on a 15 year note returns 9.4% over the life of that note, even if the property doesn't appreciate a dime and the rents don't go up, neither of which is likely.

So to make the most of the appreciation, buying in the sweet spot edge of gentrification is the key. My 1st property was in a neighborhood that subsequently got very hot, and values have quadrupled. That was lucky, but if you read the NY Times article this week about gentrification in Brooklyn, the game is still on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/realestate/moving-deeper-into-brooklyn-for-lower-home-prices.html

Joel is correct that locally you can't touch some of the cashflow going on out in the middle of the country, but if you want properties nearby that you can manage hands on, try zips 07306 & 07307 for multis under 5 units and $200-$400k in an area primed for gentrification.

NJ is more landlord friendly, I just had my 1st eviction after 15 years of landlording. When he didn't have the 3 months he owed when he showed up in court, it was over, they weren't interested in any exaggerated stories about maintenance issues.