Landlord Discovers the Difficulty Of Managing a Rental From Afar | Real Estate Journal
It's difficult for the part time real estate investor to manage one or two properties long distance.
Landlord Discovers the Difficulty Of Managing a Rental From Afar
By Jane Hodges Real Estate Journal
The investor: Nick Gullo, 31, is a Long Island police officer and former New York City detective. He says he's always been interested in real-estate investing, motivated in part by friends in the mortgage and real-estate investment businesses. "It always sounded like a prestigious thing to say 'I own property,' " he says. He began researching investments three years ago, scouting potential neighborhoods by car during his off-hours. He cut his first deals over the past two years. In addition to the property in this column, he owns three duplexes in Nassau County, Long Island, N.Y., as well as a duplex and triplex in the Buffalo, N.Y., area.
The pitfalls: Mr. Gullo says this deal and others in Buffalo will make him money, but says he plans to pull back on investing outside his home area, because he'd prefer to handle his own renting. Because he is not on-site, he uses a Buffalo-area management company, which charges a 10% gross rent fee. He says that since he's now accruing enough equity to pursue higher-priced deals in Long Island, he'll focus his energy there. He also says that while the triplex has been appraised for $68,000, he had to ask for $59,000 because he didn't get much interest initially in the property, which he listed as a for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) transaction. "I don't know what's going on up there," he says, referring to the Buffalo real-estate market. As of mid-October, the building is in contract with a buyer paying the $59,000 asking price.
Landlord Discovers the Difficulty Of Managing a Rental From Afar
By Jane Hodges Real Estate Journal
The investor: Nick Gullo, 31, is a Long Island police officer and former New York City detective. He says he's always been interested in real-estate investing, motivated in part by friends in the mortgage and real-estate investment businesses. "It always sounded like a prestigious thing to say 'I own property,' " he says. He began researching investments three years ago, scouting potential neighborhoods by car during his off-hours. He cut his first deals over the past two years. In addition to the property in this column, he owns three duplexes in Nassau County, Long Island, N.Y., as well as a duplex and triplex in the Buffalo, N.Y., area.
The pitfalls: Mr. Gullo says this deal and others in Buffalo will make him money, but says he plans to pull back on investing outside his home area, because he'd prefer to handle his own renting. Because he is not on-site, he uses a Buffalo-area management company, which charges a 10% gross rent fee. He says that since he's now accruing enough equity to pursue higher-priced deals in Long Island, he'll focus his energy there. He also says that while the triplex has been appraised for $68,000, he had to ask for $59,000 because he didn't get much interest initially in the property, which he listed as a for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) transaction. "I don't know what's going on up there," he says, referring to the Buffalo real-estate market. As of mid-October, the building is in contract with a buyer paying the $59,000 asking price.
posted by Patrick Leblanc at 2:10 PM
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