All Forum Posts by: Sean Tracey

I wonder if there's a way to structure things so that there are monetary incentives for the PM when they keep a tenant in place long term (reducing turnover), and perform enough preventative maintenance to avoid high cost repairs that could have been prevented. I'd be interested in hearing some creative agreements others have. 

As of right now, the amount of capital I'm willing to invest in Real Estate probably won't be enough to get me anything in Queens. There might be diamonds in the rough, but I'm going to ease into Real Estate, and a major fixer-upper or property in a class D-neighborhood won't be where I begin my journey. I'd also like to use as much leverage as possible, and hope to get a really good COC return.

@Brit Foshee this looks like an incredibly top-notch, professional job from top to bottom. Not only the quality of the work, but the efficiency required to complete it in that short amount of time is awe-inspiring. Congratulations! I'm sure it will pay off big time. 

Great to see advice extending beyond RE, and into sensible personal finance habits. I live in Queens myself and currently save over 50% of my salary. In the process of developing my initial REI plan, I've already ruled out the boroughs due to entry level pricing/poor value. I'm sure money can be made, but I figure why not keep pumping money into index funds and allocate a smaller chunk of my capital into lower cost RE markets?

I've just begun looking into Syracuse because I'm not at the point where I feel comfortable with out-of-state investing, but this thread may lead me further in that direction. Great post. I'll be checking out your blog. 

 Hi Alvin, 

Care to elaborate on some of the challenges you've faced with PMs in NY? Do you have a great PM in Memphis?

@Ryan C. when you say "dependent on one economy", to which are you referring?

@Will Chamberlin thanks for the invite! Not sure if I'll be able to make it, but it's great to see someone reaching out.  Perhaps you can shoot me the info if you all decide to meet up in the event I'm able to come out. How do you like Syracuse for out of state buy and hold? I assume it's going well given you are acquiring some new ones. Do you have a strong PM company in place to help while you're back in Cali? Good luck on your new properties!

@Cerwin Haynes have you been searching for a good PM company to prepare for your move to Cali? Your post didn't seem to indicate you'd be selling your two-unit. How did the house hacking go for you? Was it your first foray into REI?

If anyone is and would be willing to share their experience, I would be grateful. While I'm from Queens, I'd be interested to hear about examples anywhere in the state. I'm not sure if I need to specify, but I'm referring to buy and hold rental properties. 

 Thanks for the response, Wayne. What I meant, though, is if you're going to incur the expense of PM, do you look for any key aspects of a deal e.g. property taxes being low, how much below market a property is, new electrical, plumbing, roof etc. that may ease the blow? Something that would make a savvy investor think it's well worth the expense. Even something like tax benefits in a particular market. 

If you need to factor in property management costs (around 12%) for a rental, do any of you look to make up the difference somewhere else in the deal for a property? As an investor trying to gain a clearer picture of what I should be looking for when analyzing a property, what creative/obvious ways could I offset those costs?