All Forum Posts by: John Errico

Hey @Steve Faucette welcome! I live and invest in Union City so would be happy to meet up or grab coffee at some point. 

I'm more familiar with Union City than Jersey City at this point, but both areas are very block-by-block. Some rules of thumb that could help your search in Union City: if you value access to NYC, being closer to 30th St is generally better (that leads to the Lincoln Tunnel where all the buses to NYC go). There are also NJ transit and local private buses (the jitney, check out http://www.jerseyjitneys.info/, also runs throughout JC) that run down John F Kennedy (border of UC to the west), Bergenline (main commercial drag) and parts of Palisades Ave (UC border to the east with Weehawken). Streets run east/west and are numbered from 1st St to 49th St (1st St border Jersey City in the south, 49th St borders West New York). In general, north of 30th St is usually seen as nicer, particularly in the 40s. Further east (close to Palisade or Park Ave) is very nice because of its proximity to Weehawken/views of NYC. 

The past ~6-8 months have been pretty crazy in the Union City multi-family market. Not a lot of inventory, lots of deals going above ask and sometimes all cash, and almost everything you see listed on the MLS will be gone within ~48 hours. Lots of corrupt sell-side agents as well that make things extra difficult. When I first bought here in late 2013, you could get a 2 family in fair condition for the low 200s easily... now it's more like the high $200s for houses in bad condition, 300+ for good condition.

Happy to be of help, and best of luck!

Welcome @Kyle MacDonald! I live in Union City (Hudson County), NJ and own a few multi-families here, but am also in the process of buying a multi-family in New Haven (went to school there). I've focused primarily on Hudson County, but have started exploring New Haven and bought a property there as a sort of experiment--but, in my experience, it's been very hard to follow more than 2 markets, mostly because inventory goes extremely quickly.

I'm also a tech entrepreneur/run a tech startup, so happy to connect! Best of luck!

@Sunny Suh I am on vacation through this weekend, but would be happy to meet up sometime the following week or weekend (though hopefully everyone else can meet up!).

Agree with Joe, but I'll add that I had a neighbor do this (I am in Union City) and it was an expensive process. 

There are a ton of illegal basement apartments all around Hudson County--maybe 10-15 years ago there was a program (at least in Union City) where many of these apartments were made legal, I think partly as a way for the city to generate revenue, and partly as a way for the city to have some oversight, since people were renting these apartments out regardless of their legality. 

My neighbor did this during one those programs (had a 2 family, made into a legal 3 family by converting the basement) but, among other things, he had to install a fire suppression system in the basement, expand windows for egress/ingress purposes, and do a whole bunch of other things. The ceiling height of the basement is only about ~6.5 feet, so it's really on the marginal side of livability for most people. I think he ended up spending 30-40k for the fire suppression system, windows, and whatever else the city required... and I'm not even sure this is possible anymore, since I think Union City's program is not going on anymore, and, in general, they require showing off-street parking.

I'm uncertain if the economics will make sense for you, although I'm not sure what JC may require or how your basement looks now. Definitely go the legal route here, don't rent out the basement unless you have the OK from the relevant authorities--it's regulated for a reason (fire safety, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc.) and your insurance will not have your back if something goes wrong.

Good luck @Sunny Suh! I live and invest in Union City (city north of Jersey City) but have looked at properties in JC as well. I own two 2-family homes and am in the process of buying a third. Happy to grab coffee or the like at some point down the road!

Hey @Zachary Hancock welcome! I echo Nick's statements: I live in Union City (and invest locally in Union City, and have been looking in the nearby areas). Would love to connect at some point future!

@Jonathan B. hard to say in general, much of the area is street-by-street. The streets numbers run south to north in Union City: so 1st St is the southern border of UC and Jersey City, 49th St is the northern border with UC and West New York.

If you care about proximity to NYC, I'd recommend nearer to 30th St. (closer to the Lincoln Tunnel). Being north of 30th St is also advantageous: it's where more of the businesses are, where city hall is, and closer to some shopping areas (Pathmark grocery store is at 40th or so) and also Weehawken. Buses to NYC run down Bergenline (Bergenline runs in one direction through Union City, north to south) more frequently than buses run to NYC run on JFK or Palisade Ave (in my opinion). 42nd, 43rd, 44th etc. are seen as very nice, and I also like the area around the Monastery (18th-21st St near Bergenline). Bergenline is sort of the main commercial drag of Union City, although there are also shops/restaurants on Summit and Central.

Streets below 10th St are a little farther from New York and there are fewer shops and restaurants and more factories (auto repair, sausage factor, etc.). You are, however, closer to JC Heights and, if you're farther east in Union City (closer to New York City) in that area you have really easy walking access to Hoboken.

Anywhere on the eastern border of UC (Palisade or Park) is expensive, though usually quite nice, because (some) of those buildings have views of Manhattan and are right on the bus line.

It's really very much block by block. Some blocks look bad (burned out buildings, loud tenants, etc.), but you can turn the corner and you'll have beautiful, well-maintained brownstones.

@Jonathan B. I live in Hudson County (Union City) close to Jersey City Heights and own some properties here that we rent out. I like this area a lot and definitely think that are good opportunities.

Among other things, I'd suggest looking into rent control laws: 3+ families are rent controlled in Union City (and require a certificate of occupancy and other things), but owner occupied buildings I believe up to 4 families are not, so perhaps you can do something creative by owner occupying it. I own 2 families homes partly having to avoid dealing with the city regulations required in 3+ families and also because the majority of the housing stock in the Jersey City/Union City/North Bergen/West New York area consists of 2 family homes. You will likely find a lot of illegal "3" families homes with finished basements: Union City used to have a forgiveness program where you could legalize your basement without penalty (so, convert to a 3 family--my neighbor did this), but the cost of doing this is quite high, and I'm not sure if that program has continued. If it has, and you find a 2 family home with a workable basement, this could be a good deal. Absent this, most cities have a parking requirement to convert which is hard to meet (many homes do not have any parking here).

In my opinion, Jersey City Heights is already quite bought up/too expensive. I'm not sure of your price range, but if you're looking for deals, I'd suggest looking deeper into JC, Union City, North Bergen, West New York. With the exception of Greenville in Jersey City (the southernmost part of JC), most areas are quite safe and well-located to NYC. I'd suggest driving around to get an appetite for the area: it's definitely a street-by-street sort of thing.

As I've said elsewhere, I feel like the market here has heated up quite a bit in the last ~3 months, so it's been hard for us to find good deals, but maybe things will calm down in the winter. Best of luck, happy to grab coffee!

Hi all, thanks for all the great welcomes! Excited to connect with hopefully all of you in the near future!

Hi guys, my name is John--I'm originally from Florida but, for the past year, I've been living in Union City, NJ, about 20 minutes outside of New York City. I'm an attorney by education and (brief) experience, but I've more recently been working in the technology startup world.

My long-term girlfriend and I started investing in Union City about a year ago. We own two 2 families (a foreclosure and a short sale) and are about to buy a third. We've had a lot of success so far and had a lot of fun with it and, although we've learned a lot, there's still a ton we don't know. BP has been a tremendous resource to us in the past year, so I figured it was time to actually sign up!

A brief search here indicated that there weren't a lot of BP members in Union City, but I'm excited to learn more about northern New Jersey in general (including Newark, where we have an option to buy some vacant land) and connect with everyone. I'm part of a small team of friends from high school and college, some of whom are already on BP, but we're all on the younger side (< 30), so we are collectively looking to build a portfolio that can yield dividends many years from now.

Look forward to connecting!