That’s the message to Long Island property owners and could soon hit you too…
Most real estate investors have heard about the plight of neighborhoods where banks have allowed foreclosure properties to rot, while cities hustle to issue violations and try to maintain some sanity by flooding homes with code violations.
However, one NY village has taken this to a whole new level. Purchase a property in Massapequa Park, NY and leave graffiti on your homes dumpsters in full view, have boarded up windows or forget to mow the lawn and you could get slapped with real jail time or $10,000 fine. Sounds like a great time to get into the lawn care business.
Even if jail time doesn’t become a penalty for poorly kept properties in your city, recognize that the structure is already in place to turn tiny violations like these into $100,000 liens once usurious penalties are accumulated. That not only makes it pretty hard to sell many homes for a profit but doesn’t feel too great to have to pay when you only discover it needs to be paid off at the closing table.
Don’t just concentrate on maintaining properties be smart about what you acquire. In fact some investors in areas with large code enforcement teams are wisely avoiding hold times altogether and flipping houses in just a couple days as wholesale deals. However, this is a major pitfall which ensnares many new real estate investors. Make sure you conduct inspections and check title or someone could stick you with a real estate investing ‘deal’ with violations or illegal work down without a permit which could see your anticipated profits evaporating.
This is why it is critical not just to listen to current trends but really investing in your real estate education.
In fact, just avoiding one bad acquisition or learning how to negotiate a $2,000 pay off on a $100,000 lien makes a real estate education course worth the investment at almost any price.
