All Forum Posts by: Christopher Liu

Thank you for sharing all this information. 

I also like this market a lot. It has a very nice balance between steady capital appreciation and decent rental income yield. As Nick says, the universities, the lake, the wine trail, and the beautiful geography makes it a wonderful place with a lot going for it. These advantages bode  well for sustainability of the city's long term growth. 

Stephanie, you make an interesting comment regarding the increase in prices being due to buyers being the same usual suspects who live locally. I would have guessed that the people driving up the prices are the fair number of buyers from out of state and even international countries given the profile of the universities and the strong tourism in the area. But your insight about the local buyers is interesting and frankly makes me feel even better about investing in Ithaca. If the local market has strong buying power and continues to invest into the city, it's a good sign.

Hi Adonna, I've worked with Jonathan Ward at Tioga State Bank and he's very knowledgeable. I would recommend getting in touch with Jim Mastronardi at Visions FCU. They're awesome and he's super helpful in working with investors run numbers on various scenarios. Visions definitely covers Ithaca.

@Dave Poeppelmeier

I own student rentals and your advice is pure gold. Couldn’t agree with you more.

Because the property is now owned by the LLC.

@Asha Carpenter we provide them when it makes a difference to the rent you can get and whether it’s an expected amenity in that specific area. If it’s not expected and it makes no difference to the rent you can ask for then we find there’s no benefit to putting them in.

@Simon W. I would modify it as follows : instead of having the property manager send you the rent minus his expenses he should send it to a bank account opened in the name of the LLC.

Great that you're getting more serious about buying your first property. There is obviously or right or wrong way to get started.

I would suggest that whilst it's important to make sure that the numbers and the performance of your first property are positive and will work, it's maybe beneficial to find a property that you can learn as much from to start with, even if that means you sacrifice some on the numbers. First properties are all about education if you ask me. 

I would advocate for buying a property very close by as that will benefit you in many ways and frankly give you a better understanding of the levers that affect the numbers. You will be able to visit the property more often, learn the neighborhood, visit other properties in order to compare your property to, and may be even manage the property yourself and learn about that side of it. Either way, best of luck !

Congrats on  a successful project ! The photos of the renovated units look great.