All Forum Posts by: Kevin Ha

@Brian Adzadi

Hi Brian, Thank you for the feedback and responses. It has made me feel more confident in my property and future tenants. I appreciate your response and wish you well on your endeavors.  

Hi everyone,

I have just went under contract on a home in East Flat bush / Canarsie area in Brooklyn. I understand that the location is lower middle class but it looks like a faily decent neighborhood, especially somewhere to start. Now I am looking to figure out how to best screen my tenants early so I would have the lowest amount of vacancy as possible. Listening to @Brandon Turner (ask BP podcast), He goes and says that he won't accept a tenants that make less then 3x the rental. However, it seems like the rental income in the neighborhood would fall around $1.5-1.8k, which would make the monthly income about $4.5k on the low end which is about $54k year. In the podcast, he talks about his rentals to be about $600, which obviously would be easier to reach as that means the avg yearly income he requires is about 21k. which is below the poverty line in my city. Does it make sense for me to follow his standards in a city and area like mine? Will is scale properly? I'm asking because I hear all the time that trying to invest in NYC, the game is different and they always speak about investing out of state, a couple of hour drive away. I just want to make sure it makes sense with the market that is available as I love NYC and always dreamed of owning a home here and it would be great if I can make the right decisions to ensure success before I focus out of state. Thank you.

Hi everyone, I am about to close on a home in a R4 zoning location in NYC. I was looking to house hack to save a bit of money and hopefully get my feet wet without too much risk.  So the issue is, i have a basement but a part of the garage. There is a dip in the driveway that leads to said garage and I was hoping to convert to you a makeshift living space for myself. However, r4 zoning states,  "One off-street parking space is required for each dwelling unit." meaning I cannot take away the garage or I will only have 1 parking space. Is there something that can be done. I understand that I can try to change the zoning but i'm not sure how effective that will be or will it be even be worth it. Should i just make due with a garage?

@Jared W Smith, Yes I think i found some people through my agent and attorney. Thank you.

I am about to close on a house and I would like a GC to come out and help estimate the cost of my renovations. I would like to see how much the renovations would cost and if it is in my budget to do so. I have an accepted offer and would like to know if it makes sense to buy the house at this value.

Hey guys,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. After many many months, I am finally close to closing on a property in NYC. It can be possible! I have an inspection this Thursday and am looking for a contractor to come along and provide a quote on what the renovation costs estimates would be. Does anyone have referrals of a good contractor that works in the NYC, Brooklyn area? Thank you!

Regards,

Kevin

Hi BP market place,

I was told that this will be a great place to find real estate agents and connections especially for first time home buyers! I am looking for multifamily units in or around the NYC (Brooklyn / Queens) area. It seems I have a FHA 203k loan so I am looking possibly a foreclosed or tax lien home for the greatest chances of success for the amount of money I am approved for. Can anyone help?

Hey BP,

I'm super excited because I just got my first ever pre-approve loan. I went through about 5 different lenders before one came back with an offer what I was looking for. Thank you everyone on PB for the help! However, hearing the podcast with Craig, a worker from BP, he said we can use the marketplace to find more lenders and agents. it was also told that it is better to find a good number of lenders and try to find one that you have the best relationship with. I'm over my 30 day mark to count it as the 1 hard pull and I wonder if I should try and reach out to find more lenders? What will the 2nd hard pull do to my credit? 

Also, I would like to try and find foreclosed and tax lien homes that could be available, especially in the NYC / greater NYC area and i'm not sure how to go about it. Any suggestions? Is there something that I can do to help put me in a position to find some of these deals? Thank you!

Regards,

Kevin Ha

Hi Everyone,

I would just like to thank and update everyone that has been on my page and either responded and/or reached out. I got an pre-approved letter from a lender for the amount now I am on to my next step of finding the prefect home to start. I am super excited and very happy for all the guidance that you all have provided. Thank you again so much. 

Hi @Marlon Fong , 

Thank you for the welcome. I just tried to go to the link you sent me but it keeps rerouting me to https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/users. do you know why that might be? Is there another link I can check out?

Regards,

Kevin Ha