From the NYT:
Some New York City renters are skipping the typical first rung on the urban homeownership ladder: Instead of investing in an apartment, they are buying a country house. Disappointed by what their budget will buy in the city, they are still living the American dream of having a place of their own, if only on the weekends, in the Catskills, at the Jersey Shore or in Connecticut.
For less than $350,000 — an amount that barely buys a studio in brownstone Brooklyn these days — they are finding that they can afford homes with three bedrooms or more on several acres of land, sometimes on lakefront property, or with a pool. For those with as much as $2 million to spend, the options range from turn-of-the century mansions to sprawling estates.
Graeme Sibirsky and China Aroh Sibirsky are both artists and educators who live in a three-bedroom apartment they rent in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. With a $600,000 budget, they initially searched for a house of a similar size to buy deeper in Brooklyn, looking as far as Mill Basin, Canarsie and East New York. But within their budget, they found that the places they could afford were smaller than their current apartment. “If we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, we need to feel we upgraded, not downgraded, our living space,” Mr. Sibirsky said.
Switching gears, they cut their budget in half and began searching for vacation houses upstate, in Sullivan County and Orange County, N.Y., and the Poconos in Pennsylvania. “We wanted to start investing in real estate, so we decided to start with a vacation home that was more affordable, can be rented on Airbnb and would be fun to enjoy ourselves, and with family and friends,” he said.
…
“We’re seeing this now more than ever before because prices are historically high in the city,” said Kathy Braddock, a managing director of the New York City office of William Raveis, which also has offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine and Vermont. While there always have been New York City renters looking to buy weekend homes, she noted, demand has been so strong that the company is introducing a new division this month called Raveis Escapes, to cater to New Yorkers shopping for their second home first. “A lot of hard-working young people can’t amass a down payment that’s substantial enough” to purchase something in the city, she said, noting that many co-op boards require sizable liquid assets in addition to hefty down payments and closing costs. “But they still want the benefits of homeownership.”
Switching gears, they cut their budget in half and began searching for vacation houses upstate, in Sullivan County and Orange County, N.Y., and the Poconos in Pennsylvania. “We wanted to start investing in real estate, so we decided to start with a vacation home that was more affordable, can be rented on Airbnb and would be fun to enjoy ourselves, and with family and friends,” he said.
What a waste. This is a dead strategy and a financial disaster.
I find the only people that think a home is a cash cow are the ones who let the thing fall apart both outside and in. Small things break inside and appliances tend to go down. Outside, nice green lawn and landscaping turns to out of control weeds and crabgrass lawn within two years.
Scheme cooked up by the Poconos marketing association.
AirBNB and Poconos…. snicker.
2. Ben,
What makes a home a cash cow is determined by the date of purchase.
Did you purchase in 1940, 50, 60, 70? Guaranteed cash cow, especially if you sold f few years back, took your REAL PENSION, your Social Security, and your Medicare and scooted off to a low cost state.
If you are younger, overpaid for the house, have no pension at your job, pay taxes that support a group already retired people, are paying into Social Security and Medicare (that politicians, unnamed, think you should wait until 80 to collect along with a VOUCHER for Medicare), have no job security, are competing with an endless supply of h1b visa candidates, are sucking wind on debt for your college degree, are micromanaged thru your “smartphone” every second of the day, well………..
Sneakin Into The USA
http://www.safeshare.tv/w/eUqDmyBbir
What makes a home a cash cow is determined by the date of purchase.
Did you purchase in 1940, 50, 60, 70? Guaranteed cash cow, especially if you sold f few years back, took your REAL PENSION, your Social Security, and your Medicare and scooted off to a low cost state.
Obviously, if you own it, you can use it to generate plenty of cash. But people go around buying a property thinking they are going to rent it out and get steady income. My experience with them is, the second something breaks, they go cash flow negative and stop maintaining the property to try to trick themselves into thinking they are making money.
True story. My new neighbors turned a sod lawn into a hang out for crabgrass and weeds in less than a year. The idiot cuts his grass at 1 or 1.5 inches, thinking he only has to cut it every 3 weeks. I feel like asking him if he likes pissing away money in the spirit of being lazy. It’s prob 15,000 sq ft of lawn that was sodded, does this idiot understand how much that costs? Just pissing it away with laziness.
“Outside, nice green lawn and landscaping turns to out of control weeds and crabgrass lawn within two years.”
True story. My new neighbors turned a sod lawn into a hang out for crabgrass and weeds in less than a year. The idiot cuts his grass at 1 or 1.5 inches, thinking he only has to cut it every 3 weeks. I feel like asking him if he likes pissing away money in the spirit of being lazy. It’s prob 15,000 sq ft of lawn that was sodded, does this idiot understand how much that costs? Just pissing it away with laziness.
“Outside, nice green lawn and landscaping turns to out of control weeds and crabgrass lawn within two years.”
Yup…..yet some of these old folk complain, like they have it bad.
phoenix says:
September 12, 2015 at 10:05 am
2. Ben,
What makes a home a cash cow is determined by the date of purchase.
Did you purchase in 1940, 50, 60, 70? Guaranteed cash cow, especially if you sold f few years back, took your REAL PENSION, your Social Security, and your Medicare and scooted off to a low cost state.
If you are younger, overpaid for the house, have no pension at your job, pay taxes that support a group already retired people, are paying into Social Security and Medicare (that politicians, unnamed, think you should wait until 80 to collect along with a VOUCHER for Medicare), have no job security, are competing with an endless supply of h1b visa candidates, are sucking wind on debt for your college degree, are micromanaged thru your “smartphone” every second of the day, well………..
I sodded an area by my pool last year a small strip 2 ft side ft by 50 ft long, it was previously stone garden and plants. That sod has already been taken over by weeds, rest of yard is fine, the grass is 5% clover mix instead off 100% Kentucky grass. Weeds don’t take over because the clover feeds it nitrogen, plus I run the sprinklers every other day. I did go crazy with mulch, and weed killer though. It does take some work to maintain weekly, but I let the guest workers from South of the border cut my 1/2 acre, they only charge $35 cut,trim, blow etc.
A NYC investor a young woman purchased a 3500 sq ft home by me and has it listed on Airbnb for $450 a night.
Get this unfurnished.
From Airbnb
I just purchased the house so it hasn’t been furnished yet. I will provide however many high quality pillow top full/queen sized airbeds are requested with nice beddings for a comfortable sleep. I will also try my best to fulfill any other requests prior to your arrival so please don’t hesitate to ask.
10
Do my own. Guest workers do a lousy job.
Paid my way through college as a landscaper, way back when white kids did it as a summer job. Good job for a stoner for the summer. Get tanned and lose the beer and pizza weight. Can still bang out five yards of mulch and a few ton of stone and be done by lunch. Kids don’t do physical labor these days.
Tilled up some bare spots and over seeded the lawn today. Repair the lawn in September.
Yup, this is the best time of year to seed your lawn. It’s also the most important time to lay down fertilizer. I like to take care of my own lawn for the exact same reason, if you want the job done right, do it yourself.
Alex Bevan says:
September 12, 2015 at 7:22 pm
10
Do my own. Guest workers do a lousy job.
Paid my way through college as a landscaper, way back when white kids did it as a summer job. Good job for a stoner for the summer. Get tanned and lose the beer and pizza weight. Can still bang out five yards of mulch and a few ton of stone and be done by lunch. Kids don’t do physical labor these days.
Tilled up some bare spots and over seeded the lawn today. Repair the lawn in September.
Sod is a waste IMO. I get compost from the town, top dress the entire lawn, overseed with spreader, water, and it’s done.
Did the entire top dressing and overseeding today. Rain is making my life easier with the watering. Tomorrow, I core aerate.
I put down preemergent in the spring and mid summer. A few random weeds that appear just get sprayed.
I also use seed as opposed to sod. Type of seed is very important. Pay for the expensive stuff if you want the best results. If it’s not sod certified, it’s not the good stuff. Core-aerating gets awesome results, I do it around the last week of august on a yearly basis.
Ben says:
September 12, 2015 at 8:27 pm
Sod is a waste IMO. I get compost from the town, top dress the entire lawn, overseed with spreader, water, and it’s done.
Did the entire top dressing and overseeding today. Rain is making my life easier with the watering. Tomorrow, I core aerate.
I put down preemergent in the spring and mid summer. A few random weeds that appear just get sprayed.
I need to get some kind of tow behind top dress machine for my little tractor. I’ve got no problem moving dirt, but spreading it over 20k square feet of lawn sounds terrible.
We seeded, but brought in many many trucks of dirt to do it.
This year has been terrible, I waffled on putting in the sprinklers last year, should have done it. But even then, the heat was oppressive, even most of my neighbors with sprinklers didn’t fare all that much better.
Yup, I have a sprinkler system, and my lawn was hanging on for dear life. I had to water every other day, God knows what my water bill is going to be. I’m thinking at least 400.
grim says:
September 13, 2015 at 7:01 am
I need to get some kind of tow behind top dress machine for my little tractor. I’ve got no problem moving dirt, but spreading it over 20k square feet of lawn sounds terrible.
We seeded, but brought in many many trucks of dirt to do it.
This year has been terrible, I waffled on putting in the sprinklers last year, should have done it. But even then, the heat was oppressive, even most of my neighbors with sprinklers didn’t fare all that much better.
17- which is really nothing, based on how much water I used. If I lived in other parts of the country, where water was not so cheap, it would easily be double the price.
Grim,
put in in piles around the lawn and leaf blow it around. If you point the leaf blower directly down, it shoots it all up in the air and it falls into the lawn nicely.
All the grass in my “parking strip” area is dead, neighbors say the town added crappy soil when they put the curbs in.
All the grass in my “parking strip” area is dead, neighbors say the town added crappy soil when they put the curbs in.
That’s what the builder of my home did for the entire property/development. Very low quality clay. Every year, spring and fall, I top dress with compost and core aerate which improves the soil structure dramatically. Roots grow so much better in it. When I dig out a square in the lawn now, I have a 1/4 inch thick dark layer at the top. I also spread azomite all across the lawn to supplement any mineral deficiencies within the lawn. The lawn went from decent to dark dark green in a year.
I went a bit further in my garden areas. I dug up a lot of the clay and just disposed of it. I filled it with an 6 inch layer of compost and worked it into the existing soil. The improvement has been ridiculous. Last year, I grew cucumbers in it and 4 plants yielded 250 cucumbers.
Pumpskin – Get used to it. The money will live in the cities and all the poor and stupid will be pushed out to be your neighbors. At least you can lay claim to being the first idiot on the block. Start counting cars parked outside of the garage to measure the infestation.
True story. My new neighbors turned a sod lawn into a hang out for crabgrass and weeds in less than a year. The idiot cuts his grass at 1 or 1.5 inches, thinking he only has to cut it every 3 weeks. I feel like asking him if he likes pissing away money in the spirit of being lazy. It’s prob 15,000 sq ft of lawn that was sodded, does this idiot understand how much that costs? Just pissing it away with laziness.
If JJ had that kind of crop he might actually be able to satisfy the women he claims to.
The improvement has been ridiculous. Last year, I grew cucumbers in it and 4 plants yielded 250 cucumbers.
Expat. You sound like Dr Ruth Westheimer
[24] Dr. Ruth is half the man I am…wait a minute.
Moses Malone<Vigoda
crap I left my Tux at the dry cleaner in Hoboken when I moved two years ago and I need it next week, I wonder if they got rid of it or sold it. Anyone try and retrieve a garment after two years?