All Forum Posts by: Les Jean-Pierre

I had a horrible tenant that I had to go to court to evict. In NYC a tenant is effectively blacklisted if the landlord takes them to court. I would do it again if I felt the need though from a business standpoint, cash for keys, or something similar is better. The tenant has to keep their end of the bargain. I think if a person can't pay the rent then call your landlord and work something out.

Count me in

Good luck with your son.

Great job.

I have a friend who owned a home there and just recently moved. I can ask him for his thoughts.

I would ask her how to follow the formalities and for one operating agreement. Then set them up yourself. Only one LLC per property.

I would talk to a lawyer but I would think you would have one LLC be the Managing Member of the two other LLC's. However, I don't think this is necessary. As the others have stated, having the proper amount of insurance is more important. I hold my property in a single person LLC and use Intuit's Property Manager and find I am way more organized. I also was sued and at the end of the day it is the insurance company that hires the lawyers and pays the settlement. I would also say that if you go the LLC route, it is not the set up that you have to worry about it is adhering to the formalities of the corporation. A lot of people worry about the piercing of the corporate veil but that was never an issue in the suit.

Also, be prepared for some silly things because they are going off a list. They wanted the insurance company to be NY based which I think it was not but they accepted my insurance. They asked for a cost of living increase clause in my commercial lease but it was a two year lease. The loan terms were ok at the end of the day.  The process did force me to have all docs pertaining to the property scanned and filed so, that is now a nice thing.

Hi, I don't know if the NYC market is one to compare but I just did a refi on a three unit mixed use(two residential, one commercial). I went directly to the lender. I didn't have to pay points. They had a 1% item that included the appraisal, inspection and underwriting fee. If the building did not pass inspection, I got most of it back. In NYC, a lot of people use brokers but I had seen on another blog this lender did not charge points so I went with them. In terms of putting a package together, it was some work but nothing you can't handle. Might try a local bank that does small mixed use. Overall, I think I did ok.

Another item is that the stock market has historically beat inflation while real estate appreciates at inflation. Maybe this does not matter if you flip or buy at extreme discounts. I think you need to do both.