All Forum Posts by: Lloyd Spencer

Hi, does anyone have a contact at Weichert Property Management?  I signed up with them to manage some of my properties but can't get them to return a call / email / text.  I need to organize rent collection next week.  Any direction greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Hi, looking for a lawyer in Northern NJ familiar with the docs required for hard money lending to represent me in a transaction.  Must have immediate availability.  Thanks.

Hi,

does anyone have first hand information on self storage economics in Hudson County?  I'm seeing some factory buildings suitable for conversion to storage in West New York / Union City / etc. Is there a lot of excess capacity?  Does anyone know what the economics are?  It looks like nearby locations are asking about $24/rentable sq ft /year.

Any storage experts out there? :)

This is directly from the fire prevention person at the JC construction department, whom I probably should have contacted first.  They were extremely responsive; sharing here:

As long as it is not 4 stories or greater, a sprinkler system would not be required. Meaning a 3 story 6 family would not require a sprinkler system for a gut /rehab. The only issue would be you would need 2 exits, of one which could be the existing fire escape.

Hi, I'm looking at a 6 family BRRRR in Jersey City Heights. It's an older building without sprinklers. We're not going to be changing the Certificate of Occupancy. Would prefer to just install alarms rather than tear it apart installing sprinklers.

Does anyone happen to know if Jersey City would require sprinkler installation?

It's my understanding that UC doesn't even allow rent increases after renovations.  So be careful if that is part of your plan.  I've inspected properties literally falling apart with holes in the roof, but the city won't allow rent increases in exchange for repairs.  Until there is a significant change to the city leadership, it is the only city in that part of Hudson County that I would not invest in.  JC allows for rent increases in proportion to renovation, West New York and Guttenberg have a higher annual increases, and are generally closer to market.

I have a couple of MF properties in the area, one close to the street you referenced.  They have definitely had appreciation in the past few years.  I use the zillow data files to look at zip code level historical prices.  You can see that the area roughly doubled in the last 10 years.  Of course this is not predictive of future trends.  IMHO, there are 2 factors driving the trends in that area:

1. the center of gravity of the city is moving west.  Hudson Yards is moving a lot of jobs to right across the water, making Hudson County NJ, closer in time than many parts of NYC.  There are few other low income neighborhoods left with similar proximity.

2. Brooklyn is now more expensive than Manhattan for some rental residential categories, especially new construction / full service.  If you go to open homes in Hudson County NJ, you will meet people from Brooklyn who are priced out of that market.

Still, I wouldn't buy with the plan to rely on appreciation.  Hope this helps.  Thanks.

I have MF in Guttenberg and West NY.  Both have separate water meters from the city on each unit supply.  Negotiations over new leases sometimes result in the water being the tenants responsibility, sometimes end up being mine.

Remember also there is water and sewer in Hudson County. Sewer is billed separately but based on the water usage.  (They have a horrendous online billing and payment system.)

On a 2 family I ended up paying $3600 in 2019 for the total of water and sewer.  One unit has a W/D.

Hope this helps.

It is my understanding that it is accurate to state that the property has not been registered with the Local Housing Authority.  There are inspection and other requirements which would be necessary before you can accept a Section 8 tenant (whom you should screen in the usual way anyway).

Also be aware of rent control.  Each city in Hudson county has a different implementation and rules for rent control.  In my experience Union City is the worst, followed by West NY, then Guttenberg, then JC.  Can't speak for the others from first hand research.

Rules vary in terms of the threshold for eligibility, eg: >2 or >3 units, rate of growth allowed each year, rate at which capital expenditures can be translated into increases.