All Forum Posts by: Matt B.

@Kevin Drouillard - As already mentioned, I would invest outside of NYC. Our city is not landlord friendly, prices are always sky high, very hard to cash flow and evictions are a nightmare. I stopped investing in NYC and started focusing elsewhere.

With that being said, you can try REO however like someone mentioned you will be competing against cash buyers. Also, inventory is low across the city. What I did to get my first property in NYC was to buy a condo and then 2 yrs later move out and rent it. I think FHA loans have a time period of when you can rent them out (may be 1-2 years or more, not sure). I don't think that's what your looking to do but that was how I overcame my barrier to entry.

Good luck!  

I believe you need a license to rent a property in PA. I know that's the case in Philly but I'm pretty sure that's a state requirement.

Move in and let them take 1+ years to evict you lol. just kidding. don't do that.

@Jeff Sheraton Are you able to add them into your google contacts and hit a reply all? not sure if that function exists but someone at google would know. p.s. if you send that idea to google, you and can split the royality.

@James Lee Glad to see another NYer on here. Welcome to the forum and to the lovely world of RE investing. Investing in NY is like no where else. Good money can be made here but it is tough. As someone mentioned already, most investors (not me) are cash buyers. If you interested in Staten Island, I can tell you the Midland Beach might be a good spot for flipping. Most of the area has been fixed and flipped already but there are still some Sandy victims there that may be a good flip. The best ones are gone already and with the recent housing boom raising prices have increased but you might still be able to find something. Good Luck! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.  

It's customary to reimburse the tenant in that situation. I've never had this happen in a rental but I certainly would reimburse them if it did.

@Jonathan Safa, unfortunately I tend to lean on the side that its the tenants responsibility. My reasons are as follows:

-The landlord is not the gas supplier.

-The landlord may not have even been the person who shut the gas off.

-Everything in the house functions as it should, which falls under the landlord's job.  

-In almost every jurisdiction, the landlord and tenant, are both not allowed to tamper with the meters or turn their own gas on.

...with that being said, the landlord should not have advised you to play with the meter. He's not thinking that through clearly. That's a crime, to me its like saying go be a crack dealer to pay me rent in hard times. The landlord should have advised you that their is no gas on at the moment so you can delay move in or get those arrangements squared away by the time you move in. To my understanding, that is not required, but to me that falls under common courtesy. 

Real world situation - I rented out my condo to someone, we delayed move in until the 15th. I told him at lease signing, he can use the property until the 15th for moving stuff in and getting it set up so he is ready to go by the 15th (I'm an easy going guy). I also advised him that the gas and electric were under my name and I called them and notified them that effective the 15th to terminate my relationship with them and send final bill. I advised the tenant he has to call and notify them that he will take over the gas and eclectic by the 15th so they can covert it over (in NY, this is a simple phone call). Long story short, he didn't call. They shut the gas off and it took two weeks to get back on. My tenant realized this was his fault and I gave him more than two weeks warning. I did not refund any part of his rent.

I know your situation is different and you had no warning, but I don't know why you didn't ask about this before the lease was signed. This is something that should have been brought up when you looked at the place and saw no gas and/or electric. Should he have notified you, I'd say yes. Is he required to notify you, I don't believe so. I'm not a lawyer and the only thing I know about OK is it's very flat but I don't believe you have any legal recourse here or right to with hold rent. In fact, I'm pretty sure a tenant never has any right to withhold rent even if the property is uninhabitable. At least they don't in NY, and if they don't in NYC, a tenant friendly city, I doubt they do any where else.

@Jonathan Safa @Shaun C.

  come on guys, were all friends here.

1 hands down

I go pick up a check each month.