All Forum Posts by: Greg B.

@John Ratigan

I see you're in Penn. I'm from Syracuse, NY. It's winter time. A lot of people say to take comps from the past 6 months but for us in the northeast we know house hunting in the winter time is for the birds. You have to go back to last spring for accurate comps. Our months of thaw are always great seller markets. Winter months are for the buyers. You get a lot of deals in the winter time.

Your carrying costs will be your payment, taxes, utilities, and insurance per month held

Try not to focus on REO exclusively, banks don't want to own houses but they are in the business of not taking too many shorts.

Call a couple contractors and have them meet you at the house at overlapping times for a walk thru and estimate.

Westside, that's rough. I lived over there for a few years. Any updates on the property your talking about?

@Account Closed, Are you still looking at investments in Syracuse? What types of properties are you looking to get into?

@Account Closed

Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse are Upstate NYs triplets, Syracuse being the runt, smaller population. But, statistic wise they are pretty much identical. I know people in Buffalo and Rochester and lived here in Syracuse for most of my life. I've lived in A, B, C, D and I think an F neighborhoods.

http://places.findthehome.com/compare/70531-71305-71446/Buffalo-NY-vs-Rochester-NY-vs-Syracuse-NY

I'm kind of surprised there isn't more activity on BP from Syracuse investors. We have a high property tax rate within the city but the low property values which makes it a very livable city. We have expansion from the hospitals (Golisao Childrens Hospital and the new $74m Upstate Cancer Center). The downtown area is on the rise. Older building renovated into new upscale apartments and townhouses.

Have a visit or talk with a local realtor. There is money to be had.

Happy hunting

@Will Chamberlin, if you don't mind me asking what type of deals are you coming to Syracuse to check on.

Can we get a few details?

Thanks

What are you looking to accomplish?

@John Kaftan, I think in terms of what are other similar rentals selling for. Check craigslist or call a local realtor or management company.

I might have a few wholesale deals coming within the month. I think we're finally coming out of winter and into the selling season. March to mid October is when Syracuse becomes a retail sellers market.

I've lived in this town most of my life and I have been in every corner of it

Good luck

Thanks for all the input

You have way too many ranges to give you a go or no go but simply looking at your numbers and what expenses you're missing I would not make an offer. Not saying its not a deal because it could very much be one. You need to firm up your numbers. Get a better handle on your ARV. You have a worst case for your mortgage payment but fail to provide monthly tax, utility, insurance payment. You need to figure out how many months from close to finishing the rehab, then multiply those monthly expenses by that number (holding costs). $90k of rehab should command a better profit. $90k rehab budget, how firm are you with that? Also, knock 6% off your sales price for the agent if you're using one.

@Andrew Syrios, yes, that's the feeling I got. That was the part I was concerned about. Who's on the other end actually "signing" the documents and if something falls apart would that make the entire contract void?

Still researching