RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Ed

Posted by Frank Chin on September 15, 2003 at 16:43:42:

Rich:

Thanks for explaining. The rehab he was talking about last year sounded like it was going to be in FL.

Someone named Barbara Karnes organized a Club in LI, and they’re having meetings via phone conference based on some e-mails I received.

Would like to hear of some experiences there.

Frank Chin

RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Ed

Posted by Ed on September 13, 2003 at 13:05:02:

Okay, here it is. I filed bankruptcy 4 years ago, I have one credit card with a limit of $1,000, savings of $10,000, a job that pays $35,000, a Roth IRA with $2,700, and stock worth about $1,000. I’ve never invested in RE before and need to make up for lost time. I know I can be diciplined enough to make it work if I can just get started and buy something. I’m thinking a 4 family in Brooklyn or Queens. Any suggestions on what I should do, what I should read, what resources I should use, etc?

Thanks,

Ed

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Frank Chin

Posted by Frank Chin on September 14, 2003 at 10:48:46:

Ed:

Suggest you do this.

Check out this link for the local NYC REI Club:

http://www.wbultimateinvestors.net

They have monthly meetings, and you can check the calendar. Go to a few to see if you can benefit.

As a short note, the Club President, an expereinced REI of close to 20 years, was doing all of his creative deals outside of NYC, when I last attended meetings some months back. When they talk about investing, they talk about where outside of NYC they go to invest.

As Ron mentioned, I wrote some more detailed posts on the subject.

I have since turned my attention to investing in “Commercial” stuff, waiting for the residential market to cool down. As a result, I didn’t have the time to go to more recent meetings, and didn’t make the time as my current focus is to spend more time at home instead of flying off to Kansas city as Wesley Barney, the club president said he did.

Long and short of it, if you want to fish, they can show you how and where. But if you feel you have to travel too far, then wait for the downturn in the market to take place here -and it’ll probably come soon enough.

I had a grand time looking at foreclosures and REO’s in NYC in 1992-1993.

Frank Chin

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA)

Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA) on September 13, 2003 at 23:43:42:

Ed–(NY)----------

First read all the posts by “Frank Chin.”

Then read my post for beginners which can be found by putting “beginners success” into the archive search function here at the main board of this CREONLINE.COM website.

Or vise-versa. Your choice.

Good InvestingRon Starr***

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Rich(VaBch)

Posted by Rich(VaBch) on September 15, 2003 at 15:49:20:

Hey Farnk my name is Rich and I too used to chase houses and buildings in NYC around that time (fantasizing). But I finally did a little something. I hooked up with Wesley Barney and others in a group purchase and bought a brownstone in Harlem at a forclosure auction.

Too make a long story short one of the investors bought us all out and he rehabbed it and moved into it.

Frank did you ever hear of this deal?

-Rich

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Ed

Posted by Ed on September 14, 2003 at 18:05:55:

Okay. I want to thank both you and Ron for the advice. I’ll look into it and get something started ASAP. I don’t want to be stuck in the rat race.

By the way, assuming I’m able to buy my first property within the next 6-12 months (that sounds ambitious to me, but that’s my goal), what kind of time frame do you think I would be looking at as far as being able to leave my job and become a full time investor?

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Frank Chin

Posted by Frank Chin on September 15, 2003 at 16:10:30:

Rich:

You’re right. Wesley was telling people that that they were pooling some funds for a rehab purchase when I was there last year. Didn’t go into where it was ,and it didn’t sound like it was going to be in NYC at the time. Said the deal’s only open to club members.

So when did it finally happen?

He was also going to organize trips to foreclosure sales too, in NY and nearby NJ. Were there any??

I’d be more inclined to come by for club meetings if the focus was more in the Metro Area. Several former members mentioned the same thing to me. I sat thru one meeting where they were going thru the geography of Maryland, and member’s experiences who went down there for tax sales.

Frank Chin

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Frank Chin

Posted by Frank Chin on September 15, 2003 at 09:08:06:

Ed:

Ron gave you an excellent answer, and I agree completely with it.

There are folks ditching their jobs in several years doing creative RE, rehabbing, wholesaling, flipping etc. But its not in fast appreciating buyer markets such as NYC.

I know of friends buying low end type rental apartment buildings in Jersey City some time back because it “cash flowed” better, and its the closet place to NYC that gives good returns. One such fella worked in Manhattan, lived in Queens

Unfortuantely for him, he had bad tenants requiring his attention several days a week, where he had to drive thru the “Holland Tunnel” late at night to handle the problems, and then get back home 2:00 AM in the morning, and had to go tho work the next morning.

Bottom line, with low end properties, you’ll get low end tenants, and issues that go with it.

I bought properties in good areas, that required good size down payments. It took nearly 20 years for rents to double or triple, and mortgage rates to drop from 16% in 1982, to 5% today to get “good cash flow”.

As a result, I had few tenant problems.

My wife and I both worked in 1982, and she ditched her job in 1993. I ditched mine in year 2000, but purchased an absentee business in 2002. So its not exactly a fast track to retirement.

But we are financially independent.

It took around 20 years. In fact, I’m at home today, surfing the net, answering you, and checking out the new digital TV boxes we had installed last week

Compared to government stats where folks have no savings at age 65, we’ve done well. Can’t complain I didn’t do it in three eyars.

Frank Chin

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA)

Posted by Ronald * Starr(in No CA) on September 14, 2003 at 22:53:24:

Ed–(NY)--------------

Trying to get real estate to support your living expenses is very different from being a long-term rental investor. Most rental properties do not provide a very high rate of return. It would be many years probably before rental properties could support a life-style. Perhaps on the order of 12-20 years.

If you want to try to have real estate activities support you sooner than that, you will probably have to either buy a lot of properties with very little of your own cash, and at below-market prices to get enough postive cash flow to support you. Either that to spend you time on finding bargain properties that you can resell for a profit as soon as you can after buying them.

After you have done three to five deals, you will have a better idea if you can support youself with bargain buying.

The people who are most successful in real estate activities are those that enjoy what they do. You might want to consider if there is some other business that you might enjoy more than real estate and try to start your own business in that field. Then, if you wanted, you could invest in real estate on a parttime basis while enjoying your working life also.

Good Investing*************Ron Starr***********

Re: RE investing in NYC. Can I do it? - Posted by Rich(VA)

Posted by Rich(VA) on September 15, 2003 at 16:34:08:

Nah, Frank this took place around 93’ or 94’?

I later moved to VA in 95’. I visited him again around 96’ or so and have lost touch with him since.

-Rich