All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Evan Thomas I am a big fan on Yonkers as most of my multi-family investments are there.  It's not hard to find a small multi-family that's cash flowing $1k+ including even after paying property management fees.   I've also started looking at New Rochelle since there's a lot of investments going into the city and prices are still reasonable.   If you'd like to stay in White Plains I can connect you with a guy that's trying to unload some properties there, from what I remember he has some really nice duplex, triplex properties that may be a good fit to get started.   Just send me a PM and I'll send you his info.

I will respectfully disagree with Eric in regards to getting your realtors license. If your goal is to become an investor than focus your time on that. Having access to the MLS is an advantage but as Ceasar Rosas said, you don't need to have your licenses for that. Find a friend who is a realtor or just ask your realtor to set you up with alerts.

If you're free on October 5th come out to the Meetup I am hosting in Yonkers.  There you'll meet a lot of local investors, lenders, brokers, etc: http://meetu.ps/e/BZxX4/n8jkY/f .   I'd be happy to make some introductions at the event. 

@Nick Harvey, PM and I'll put you in touch with my guy.  He's insured and licensed in NYC.  I have worked with him for a number of years now.

Ruben

Kaiser Akram I am in NYC as well and would be happy to meet up for coffee and walk through your deal. Send me a PM and we can coordinate something for early next week. Regards, Ruben

I use these guys for insurance on my multi and single family rehabs.: http://www.reiguard.com/ I've used them going on 3 years now and no complaints so far. Of course do shop around and get at least 3 quotes if time permits. Ruben

@Michael Demaio can you share some of the details of your deal?  Very difficult to provide useful advise otherwise.

Most banks will lend to LLC if the deal is right. You will still need to provide a personal guarantee on the loan. Also my experience has been that community banks are easier to work with than your large retail banks.

@Brian Bassano,  Thanks for the plug.  Looking forward to meeting you in person next month!

@Mateusz Prawdzik, Here's the link to the Meetup:  

https://www.meetup.com/Yonkers-Real-Estate-Network...

Hopefully you can join us.  If you can't make it this time around  then no worries, I plan on making this a monthly affair. 

Regards,

Ruben

@Aaron McGinnis You're a funny guy, I need to buy you a beer next time I am in ATL!  Which should actually be soon considering I am the process of closing on my next flip down there.

In all seriousness, what it comes down to is the value of your time.  If you're spending a few minutes a week doing bookkeeping in Excel or QB and you actually enjoy doing that kind of work, then carry on. In my personal opinion, bookkeeping and accounting, although important to the health of my business, are not activities that are going to make me money.  Hence I farmed it out to a fantastic bookkeeper I found on BP.  

Now I have much better visibility of how my business is performing and the time I reclaimed is now being spent on finding more opportunities and growing my investor base.  Scaling is all about the systems you put in place...automate the heck out of whatever you can otherwise you will go crazy and limit your growth.

Best of Luck!

@Eric A. Yonkers has always been overlooked but as of late it has been getting a lot more attention.  Specially from investors who can no longer afford Brooklyn.  That's because there are very few places left that are within 25 minutes of Manhattan and still boast affordable prices.  The best part is that you don't have to live there to own there.  All of my properties are managed by a third party property manager and still boast a 12%+ cash on cash return.  

Shoot me a message, I'd be happy to share my experience with you.  

Ruben

@Eric A. I also live in NYC so I feel your pain, maybe even a little more since I am currently living in Manhattan.  I've come to the conclusion that for me it makes more sense to invest my capital in multi-family homes than sink it in a home.   Of course our circumstances are very different so what makes sense for me may not be the same for you.  

I do think that there is room to do both.   You can purchase a modest starter home and invest in a multi-family outside of the city.  If you invest in Yonkers for example you can buy a 3-4 family home for under $500k.  That property will cashflow well enough to pocket a decent amount of cash even if you engage a property management company to run the place.  I've built a portfolio of 18 properties in Yonkers, I know the city very well and would be happy to share some insights. 

Living in NYC means sacrificing.  You can get all the room you want but you're not going to get it in the neighborhood you want and at the price you want.  So if you're serious about buying a home and preserving some capital for investing then you need to be open to moving.  Same for investing.  Make your money in the city but invest it in much more economical areas. 

Best of Luck!

You can check out citi-data.com and plug in the zip codes for the areas you want to evaluate.  Take a look at the population growth, is it negative, positive, neutral?  You want to stay away from places with negative population growth.

Also check out rentometer.com.  what's the average rent in each of the places you are considering?  Which one has the strongest rents?...Rank the areas from top to bottom.

But the best thing you can do is to sit down with local brokers and property managers in each of those areas.  I typically setup 3 broker meetings and 3 property manager meetings and pepper them with questions and ask for insights about the local market.  I find this real-time feedback to be more helpful than the countless reports I read regarding my markets. 

Best of Luck!