All Forum Posts by: Tim Moran

Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread. John, sure enough, once I found a lawyer she brought all the other players to the table (including the surveyor, Dave).

Virgilio, I did a lot of reading to and was happy to see that most of the prominent real estate-centric authors use similar math for valuing deals. For "motivation", listen to the Bigger Pockets Podcast. There are, like, 200 back episodes so there's bound to be one that speaks to your situation and will offer insight. 

There was a bit of luck in finding my deal, but also not really. If you look at enough properties you'll eventually "luck" into one that's right. People have said that on here before and I now it makes more sense than it did before. 

I did it! After six months of nightly research and reading in places like Bigger Pockets, I found a deal that I couldn't make lose money even by being tortuously conservative with the numbers. I had a great negotiation with the sellers where some unconventional thinking lead to some great concessions. Now I find myself in closing... 

... And though I budgeted for it, I now I realize have no idea what the actual closing schedule is and I have no professionals contacts to help set it up. No lawyer, no one to do the survey (or to answer the question "do I actually need to do a survey"?) and no one to research the title. I'm looking for pros in Sullivan County, NY, and also any friendly advice from those who've been down this road before. We've done great work on this deal so far and I don't want to screw it up in the final stretch!

Wayne, 

I can be semi-helpful here as I'm also researching the area and am looking at the both the seasonal and year-round rental markets. Sullivan County home prices are all over the place, but there are a lot of people who have been trying to ride out almost a decade of decline since 2008 who are now extremely motivated to sell. I've been up there the last few weekends looking around and getting a sense of the place. Locals say there's a lack of annual rentals in some towns (Livingston Manor, for instance). Summer rentals can bring in big money for the right spot, as the county has been "rediscovered" over the past few years by hip city people with deep pockets. That said, there are still A LOT of cheap properties up there and there's still a lot of economic blight in towns like Monticello and Liberty. To me, it's a mixed bag but seems the area seems to be on an upswing and it's a great place to pluck cheap deals. Write me and let me know how your research is going!

Jason, I'm also looking around in Sullivan County, though specifically not in Monticello due to its notably higher crime and property crime rates compared to the rest of the county. As you probably know, the market in SC continues to reel from 2008. Sales volume for homes, as far as I can tell, are way up, but prices have not yet turned upward (this is why I'm looking there). Many parts of the county are slammed three months a year with a new crops of hipster city visitors. If you want to talk more about the area, PM me. 

I took a drive through some towns on the west side of the river last weekend (Catskill, Athens, Coxsackie). I liked what I saw, but get the feeling that the high ownership rates in the area/ lack of institutions would mean that buy/hold would be a difficult strategy even at rock-bottom prices. 

Anyone more familiar with these towns? I go by them weekly but have just started to familiarize myself with them.