All Forum Posts by: Ralph Chiaia

Thanks brother @Abel Curiel! 

Gabriel, reach out and let’s see if I can help you out. Thanks 😊 

So what do you do if you hold older properties near the water? How can you get wind insurance. My lender is asking us to add hazard insurance but it's 3-4x our homeowner's insurance. What gives? 

@Lawrence Aiello Hi Lawrence! Great to see reaching out. There are a few folks who can help you out here. You can learn a ton from @Abel Curiel (NY house hacking expert) and I’m always happy to jump on a call and explain some things to you. There are a few others frequenting the BP forums with a lot of good advice. In Brooklyn, you have many place where you can househack and bushwick is definitely one of the best places. Prospect Lefferts Gatdens and East Flatbush are a couple of others.

I just wanted to say hi. If you have any specific question for me, shoot. I’m happy to answer. Also, we can jump on a quick zoom or call.

I’m an investor and an agent. I work in Brooklyn specifically and love working with people looking to househack.

@Andre Walker that’s not a bad zip code at all. My advice is to be diligent about your comps and rehab costs, be cautious to a point, and then just jump in. I think of your first deal this way: you’re being paid for your education. Real estate can be pretty forgiving, even if your rehab costs more than you think. Just make sure that if things go wring it doesn’t end your career. I’ve bought places where the scope of work increases as we open the place up. That means the cost of rehab goes up. We recently went to do some plumbing and found pipes not tied into anything. That mean we had to run them and spend an extra 1500.

Where in Brooklyn do you suggest investing? I don’t have any investments here. I always get outbid.

@Yin Choi likely a scam

@Andre Walker hi Andre, I’m also from Brooklyn and have two SFHs (3/2s), a duplex, and a 20-unit in JAX. The key thing is the zip code. I can’t tell from your info if the deal is good without knowing the location. Share the zip and I’ll give you more of my impressions. Feel free to share here or message me if you’d like more privacy. My general impression is double the rehab number they gave you and make sure your comps are accurate, same number of bed/bath, similar square footage, etc. If the numbers still work, go for it. My worry is you’re paying them for their unfinished business.

@Cherif Medawar would love to hear more about #2 of your conclusion

@Adam Martin this is awesome. Once you hold a property 5-6 years think about doing a cash out refi on it to pay pack your heloc. Love your plans!

@Nick Barlow love this story. I just created a relationship a small commercial bank and feel like the world is opening up to me

@Felix Stone you can do a house hack in NYC. I recommend E. Flatbush.