All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Wong

In all fairness, I have had a tenant that paid cash, and rather than deal with that myself, i had set up a bank account for which they would go to the bank and deposit monies into that account.  I could log online and check to see if and when cash was deposited.

I understand that this might not be the case i your region/area, but this was how I dealt with the "non-handing" of cash, allowing the bank to manage that.

Cheers.

Is it possible that the money order may have slipped between two boards in the desk?  Just a thought.  Good luck. 

-Cheers.

I have to agree with @Fred Heller.  Accepting cash is a big and risky effort, as there are so many ways an error can occur, through process and procedure, and all caused by the mere fact that cash is involved.  These tenants have to receive a paycheck, do they not have a bank checking account?

Seems like a Western Union office should open up in your area!  Cheers.

Hi Steve,

I joined over a year ago, got my real estate license, and then after listening to too many podcasts, my excitement just overflowed, and I decided to purchase a property on Wall Street in Waterbury. However, during renovation, I managed to fall in love with the house, and against my brain, I went with my heart (mistake) and restored the entire house- top to bottom. But, the house became one ofthe biggest and most expensive houses too close to some seedy areas.  Luckily, with some very creative terms, I just landed a couple seeking to lease-to-own, so I will be able to above break even, but not for 2 years.

I have found Waterbury to be a rough place to live.  In addition, since I like to hire local crew on projects, at least 75% of the folks I found had arrest/conviction records.  Even the folks who you might want to rent were either not financially qualified, credit scores below 550, or had criminal records.

So far, I have not found Waterbury to be viable for investing in real estate, for short term projects.

I swore not to buy another one in Waterbury, however, one of the contractors I hired, has asked me to partner with him on some multi-family homes, but I am not convinced.  Most cheap deals are too close to war zones of some kind.  

Cheers.

Welcome to BP, John.

I would suggest searching through keywords for areas you are interested, and review/listen to the podcasts here.  This is a nice site.

I joined over a year ago, and then purchased a property on Wall Street in Waterbury.  I managed to fall in love with the house, and against my brain, I went with my heart (mistake) and restored the entire house- top to bottom.  Luckily, I just landed a couple seeking to lease-to-own, so I will be able to break even.

Have you found Waterbury to be viable for investing in real estate? 

I swore not to buy another one in Waterbury, however, one of the contractors I hired, has asked me to partner with him on some multi-family homes, but I am not convinced.

Best wishes, and enjoy the site.

Cheers.

-Ken

Hi John,

I am so busy these days I rarely get a chance to poke around here.  I did not get any reasonable replies to my request.  I still have the Newburgh property and am trying to move forward.

My wife attended the local college, Mt. Saint Mary, so we are familiar with the lovely homes there.  

I was told that many years ago, if you were looking to build a home in New York City, you would take a boat trip up the Hudson, and view one of several model homes built in...wait for it... Newburgh!!  I've not been able to validate this piece of information, but it sounds valid.

You probably already know that: 

Habitat for Humanity and their partner families have rebuilt numerous houses, with about five planned every year- one of my friends from Boy Scouts from the Bronx is a team member .  I thought I would jump on this bandwagon to help change the area, one property at a time, but it is very hard, and very costly.

Newburgh has the largest historic district in the state, with over 4000 documented historic buildings.

There is a property next to mine that has been offered to me for a few thousand dollars.  It is very tempting, but I have some feelers out to see if someone would be interested in developing this row house property together, rather than having to  develop two properties.

Cheers.

Hi Rachel,

Much good advice has already been given by the wonderful BP community.

In addition to all of the positive ancillary factors about the property (location, transportation, crime, etc.) trying to educate the seller is a main goal of most realtors. And, unfortunately some home owners just think their property should be sold at "x" price, which in most cases is higher than anyone wants to offer.

And, although she has lowered her price from $540k to $500k, there may still be a huge difference in the actual value and selling price and unless the seller is motivated to sell, that price may remain high.

I agree that the upper floors (attic) may provide an additional 2-3 bedrooms, that might not actually be legal. My SF home eerily sounds the same, as I have a 6 bedroom, with 2 BRs on third floor, but our 2.5 bathrooms easily accommodates our family of six. Thankfully, the family before me that raised six children legally added the upper bedrooms.

Back to you, once you perform additional due diligence, and determine the ARV, if you still like this house, and the numbers work, you can still offer some number that you are comfortable, say, $300k cash. The seller can only say "no." Of course, make sure the numbers work for you.

Good luck.

RJ,

Welcome to BP.

Be sure to check out the Learn tab above and review the Free Beginners Guide. Good luck in your quest.

Hello BP community!!

Does anyone know of any contractors near Newburgh, NY and comfortable with referring them?

My neighbor/investor and I own an attached brick (32x50) which requires a full gut, and hence, new framing for basement, first and second floor and roof.

Thanks.

Hey Warren,

Hope you are well.

It seems like the message is clear: you should contact the local building department:

30 Montgomery Street

Room 412 (Main Office)
Jersey City, NJ 07302
Tel: Main - (201) 547-5055
Tel: RRC Only - (201) 547-4218
Fax: (201) 547-5270

Raymond Meyer, Construction Code Official

Also, I noticed that they have this program which might be of interest:

Home In Need Of Repairs Or Rehabilitation?

The Homeowner Rehabilitation Program
(HORP) has monies available as forgiveable
loans for eligible households!