All Forum Posts by: Matthew Irish-Jones

Your big property management company was on vacation?  Like the whole company?

@Adriana Daniels Maestas I am the owner operator of a property management company in WNY.  Our reviews are easily accessible on our company BP page.  Let me know if I can help.  

@Troy Smith been there done that!

@Troy Smith there are things you can do, but none of them are worth the time and money.

move on and re-rent.  One issue as mentioned is if you have a scam artist on your hands they could force you to evict.  

 Real estate agent is a good way to go to get into the industry and learn more about it.  The problem with newer investors is they do not know how to properly categorize risk.  If you get that part right you can add a lot of value.  You can also go look at as many houses as you want once you are licensed.  That is a great way to build an intrinsic sense of value.

Lastly, pick a brokerage that fits your goals.  They are all different and offer something different. 

@Shaun Ortiz

My advice is to learn how to value Real Estate.  We use a weighted average in chronological order, Location, Asset Condition, and returns.  There are a lot of details that go into each of those categories, but the order of importance should not be changed. 

That is a good plan and what many of our customers do. If you can get all of the key team members in place, buying in cash (HELOC), doing all of the reno work and then taking out a mortgage is a good strategy.

You may have to hold the property for 6 months before a lender will provide a cash out refinance though. 

 NY is a big state, you can't find cash flow in any of the roughly 8,500,000 housing units available?  That is a bold statement. 

 Its interesting there are no good deals 1.5 hours north of NYC.  With Rye, White Plains, Patterson, Newburgh, Red Hook, etc... all within that area I would think there would be some options.

Most of the rust belt cities are similar, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, etc... I like Buffalo because I am biased, but the advice is the same.

There is old housing stock, the asset condition is extremely important.  You need to know what you are buying, how old the mechanicals are, where and how to look for asbestos, lead, etc... Location is more important than asset condition, the C and F class areas are all the same no matter what city you are in.

Prioritize Location and Asset condition over cash flow and you can get some cash flow.  Prioritize cash flow over location and asset condition and you will get a headache!

@Vincent Pflieger I think 100% leveraged is normally a bad idea.  

1. Will the HELOC also provide funds to force appreciate?
2. This is a tough investing environment with labor costs so high, in particular in NY. I use the BRRRR strategy and do everything in house with my employees and still am leaving a lot of funds in each deal. With the potential for construction delays, increased renovation costs, rising interest rates on the HELOC and final refinance on the DSCR loan, being 100% leveraged in a deal feels risky.

Most of the deals I have been 100% financed in have required me to dump a lot of cash into them consistently because there is no margin between debt, cost, and revenue.  If you get into a big project like a 15 unit with NYC construction rates, you may want to make sure you have ample reserves.