One of the largest employers n Albany is a regional hospital, that is about to get some serious competition from the county just to the North, that has a much better school system, and is where a large portion of people who work in Albany live.

Many reason I stay away from Condo's including:HOA regime feesUnexpected and expensive HOA assessment fees for upgrades or repairs that you may not agree with.RulesClose proximity to others that could cause disagreementsSaturation and competition on renting condo's ParkingI would personally never buy a condo for these reasons and look for a deal on a house.

I'm sure you heard how you can buy houses "for pennies on the dollar" just pay the taxes and the house can be yours. the reality is while that is possible the competition dosesn't allow it to happen.

Price to enter is high and the competition is high. 

So competition goes up.

Matter of fact I hope you don't because REI Reply gives investors a leg up and honestly I'd like to keep it to the little group we have now because we are killing it with this program and I definitely don't want my "competition" to have the same leg up we have.But since the owners have been so amazing to me and my business and clearly many others and have an amazing product we wanted to support them.

Looks nice and clean @Annie Balagot, but you are in a very competitive market and your bedrooms need better themeing.

I wish I would've thought about househacking back then so its cool to see someone taking advantage of the strategy.As you mentioned, Long Island is super expensive and competitive.

It is a common theme in the area and less competition is making it harder to keep prices down, but I'll definitely be shopping around. 

For new STR owners it's going to be difficult to get going with more competition - but not impossible.