All Forum Posts by: John W.

@Andrew T. that's a fair price for Clarence. I would never pay it but it's about what you can expect. My buddy owns a landscaping company and that seems like what his prices would be. Best to do it yourself or scale it back a little as you don't need a show lawn. Come over to Fairways Circle and drive around it till you see my lawn lol, it will look nice someday when it stops raining, after the driveway is put in. I would say try and save 50% or more by doing it yourself (unless you have to buy expensive equipment, but that might be worth it to in the long haul) and put that money into something that will generate you more money down the road. Or buy equipment needed and use it for tax write offs for rentals.  Couldn't get pic upright :/

I feel great after eviction....like there is some rule of law and justice. But the people I've evicted were terrible people...not just good tenants that fell on hard times. 

@Thuy Pham-Satrappe I got started in these areas because you can buy homes for cash for a discount, but my intention was never to buy and hold long term, even with the good tenants I had. I only bought to sell for a profit, eventually enabling me to buy nicer properties closer to home. But there is money to be made. If I lived closer to the city I would snatch up ten or so of these units, self-manage, and keep the good tenants and really be patient about finding new tenants. 

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@Samuel S. 

@Jay Hinrichs is right, there are large areas in Buffalo where people took out a mortgage in the 80s/90s for more than I paid for the same house last year, and especially when you consider inflation, that is some terrible depreciation! Most of Buffalo has increased in price over last decade, but most of it hasn't returned to it's former glory, not even close. There are some gentrified areas in North Buffalo where houses are overpriced but a large part of Buffalo remains a sh*thole. In last couple years I bought a rented house on Newton St for $13k, a decent house on Oakmont for 10k, rented double on Paderewski for 12k,  single on Minnesota Ave for 25K, rented single on Forman for 17k, single on Beatrice for 35K....

@Mike Flint that sounds about par for the course. In general, lawyers are hard to get a hold of and persistence goes a long way. 

NY and NYC are unfriendly to business. 

@Meg K. I would have charged you at least $325 in suburbs of Buffalo

Lol I agree with @Thomas S.  approach. It is better to be feared than loved as a landlord. No nonsense approach from the start. My tenants do not bother me unless it's important. 

Zillow works pretty well in areas where people mostly list their houses because the MLS data eventually goes to zillow and you also have people that listed their house on zillow that may have entered what they sell it for, or they can put false data in there. The zillow listings also retain the pictures unless the owner edits it out. But sale data can be slim in lower income areas where people tend to FSBO and it often has no way to get reported to zillow or takes a very long time.