All Forum Posts by: Les Jean-Pierre

I have heard of this before the bubble. I guess the concern is what happens if your stock portfolio crashes(and how you hedge your portfolio). Do they allow this against retirement funds? And what is the LTV?

I would try the county or town website  first then if you don't see it there, call up up the dept of buildings. If not, then you likely have to pay. I don't know how much to expect from the suburbs.

As far as an experience, it was frustrating. The tenant signed a stipulation to be out by a certain day. Of course, she didn't honor that. Even with that, it took another two months to kick her out because the Marshalls were backed up. It would have been cheaper and easier to give her money to go away. I have a judgment against her but she has no money.

I let my lawyer handle it. There might have been one time when I should have been there but at the end of the day, didn't matter. The real issue is that the courts are very slow and side towards the tenant. Where are you looking to invest in NY?

I manage a property in Brooklyn. I had to evict a tenant who was never on the lease(she moved in with her mom). It took six months. If you are talking about NYC, it is very tenant friendly plus the courts are backlogged. I would also say that people need to do the standard credit checks, etc. The flip side is that rents are going so high and somewhat affordable apartments are so scarce that you really can choose tenants that look great on paper.  I can't comment on the rest of the state.

Exactly. But, if you want to separate out the heat and have tenants, how would one go about this? I think the place would have to be vacant and only deep pocketed landlords can afford that. Also, local utilities have incentives to convert to gas heat.

I would also say that tenants can be a pain and complain about heat being too high or too low so ideally they control their own heat. If it is not too intrusive/expensive to separate the heat, I would do it. I think the best time to do it is before the tenants come in.

I do not pay separate for hot water. The heating/hot water heater seems to cover that.

We have gas. The past winters have been bad and we have lousy windows so, around $800 a month. I turn up the heat just so the tenants won't complain. I have a level payment plan also.  Water bill is 220 a quarter. But, I am about to upgrade the windows so, hopefully, the heat bill will go down.

I have a three family in Brooklyn that does not have separate heat. Ideally you would have separate heat but I think that is close to a six figure job. I have a real good thread from Brownstoner that discusses the issue. Will dig it up.