All Forum Posts by: Ryan Vienneau

Hi Danny,

I've personally owned several rentals in Schenectady, and also own a local PM company in the capital region so we work with tons of clients in the area that ask this all the time. Several things to consider: 1) One of the main purposes of segmenting your assets into separate LLC's is so that your personal net worth or equity in other business ventures or properties isn't exposed, so unless you have a high net worth or a lot of equity in a property, it might not be worth bothering going the separate LLC route, especially when it restricts your financing of the property. 2) Most any commercial financing you get from a local bank for a small property is going to have recourse anyhow and require that you sign a personal guarantee, so you're still personally on the hook to the bank even in the case of a commercial loan. 3) If you're a newer investor and buying a deal that's tight on cash flow, or if you don't have a ton of cash sitting in the bank already, your greatest risk factor as an investor is your investment failing economically due to poor financing terms or not operating the investment properly, not because you get sued. Yes, getting sued is a risk factor and I've been involved with frivolous lawsuits which are not fun, but in my opinion you'd be in a much better spot owning a property in your personal name that let's you keep an extra 10-20% of the purchase price in your pocket as emergency funds, as opposed to buying the loan under an LLC that requires every last penny you might have to make the higher down payment, then you have to operate on a shoestring.

You can try and collect, but you're most likely SOL.  In theory you could go to court and request a wage garnishment, but in downtown Albany that probably isn't going to happen unless the tenant has significant disposable income, which is doubtful given the circumstances, so that's probably a waste of time.  So, your only other option is send to collections, and in the unlikely event the tenant ever pays, the collection agency keeps around 40-50% and you get the balance, which is better than nothing.  

But no matter what you can't get blood from a stone, so if the tenant has no money and already has bad credit, it doesn't matter what you do to try to collect, if there's no money there you have nothing to collect.  

@Michael Chalke depending on how long they've lived in the property, New York law dictates that you need to either provide a 30, 60 or possibly 90 day termination notice, so if your notice did not satisfy that you'll have to start over. I would recommend using a process server for termination so that if it does come to a holdover eviction there will be no debate about method of service. If they don't vacate by their termination date, hire an attorney to begin the holdover eviction, if it's the city of Albany expect 3 months or more before you can regain possession.

Saratoga County is the fastest growing area of NYS and with some of the highest tourism rates.

You need a broker's license to manage for 3rd parties in NYS. If you're looking for a meetup, the Capital Region REIA meets the third Tuesday of every month at the Hilton Garden Inn in Clifton Park from 6-9pm.

Saratoga and Warren counties are great, harder to cash flow but higher quality properties.  

This is a scam.  First, applicants need to have a SS# to submit an application in order to run credit and background, which you won't be able to do.  Second, in NYS you're prohibited from accepting more than one month's rent upfront as a condition of rental approval (see HSTPA of 2019), so the only thing you can rely on is credit for approval, not cash upfront.  Third, this person is definitely trying to trick you into giving them access to the apt, because if they know the laws of NYS, they know that it will take months to evict them, so they just need to find a way to get the keys and then they will have a free place to live in the states for at least 4-6 months.  Application declined. 

Office is brutal right now, that's one area where you may want to consider listing it with an agent (if you can find one willing) just so that it gets on the MLS. If the space allows, you may also want to consider converting it to multiple mini executive offices that are rented on an individual basis, ever since covid and the work-from-home thing has taken off, larger office space is tanking because more and more companies are still learning that they can shut down their office completely and go remote, and there are others who are just waiting for their leases to expire so they can go remote, so I don't see larger office space bouncing back soon, if ever. However, many of these companies that abandoned their offices still need a space to hold occasional face-to-face meetings, or some workers need a place to go if they can't work from home but their employer has no office, so the one-room exec suite space seems to be doing well. Or, you can always try converting to multifamily, but my guess is you bought the office to get away from multifamily...

@William Principal We would be happy to help, check us out, Veno Properties. And thanks @Rob Gifford, @Nate Monson, and @Steven Luttman for the referrals!

We manage properties all over the Albany region and any tenant right now in NYS just needs to apply for ERAP (yes, still) and they are untouchable for 6-12 mos, so if you buy it just budget for that worst case scenario.