I grew up in Rochester as a kid, Riding The Monorail at Midtown Mall.  Downtown retail was starting to die but wasn't quite dead yet.  Most of my family worked at Kodak.  My dad owned almost 40 rental units in the City of Rochester.  As the titans of Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, & Xerox toppled, I started to see our city rapidly descend into what looked like ruin to a child.  I saw the monorail dissapear.  I saw Midtown Mall go vacant.  I saw family members, Aunts and Uncles, get laid off.  I saw my father lose all of his working class tenants and the once lively communities in which he owned property, the rise of neighboring properties go vacant, get boarded up or turn into drug houses.  He ended up having to sell all of those properties, all at a loss.

As a city resident, over the past 5-10 years, I've started seeing investment come back into our city; and the revitalization of city communities.  This little transformation gave me a glimmer of hope that our community can not only become prosperous but experience what it never had before:  UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY.

Until now.

For those of you who know me I am a pretty positive person.  However, as Lobby Day nears I cannot help but feel disappointment that more of my colleagues involved in housing are not registered to join us this Monday as we advocate to save upstate housing from legislation which will fundamentally change our community.  Which will lead to one inevitable conclusion: DISINVESTMENT.

If you do not know what disinvestment means, I can express to you what it looks like.  It looks like boarded up homes in our communities.  It looks like further deteriorating housing stock.  It looks like homeless shelters exploding in population.  It looks like poverty (worse poverty in our case.)

The reason why I am disappointed is, over 550 tenants showed up to the capitol on Friday to advocate for their form of housing justice.  How many people does our Landlord Tenant coalition Under One Roof have registered coming from Rochester?  About 50.  Do you think we are going to have a chance to stop the passage of Rent Control with those numbers?  Universal Statewide Rent control won't only affect our low income communities (it will eviscerate them), it will lead to statewide structural disinvestment in ALL HOUSING in New York.

What's frustrating to me is that there are groups who have a very strong opinion on housing that have never: created housing or managed housing.  However, they are the only ones controlling the narrative of housing in Western NY to Albany, which is this:  That our entire state's housing stock is controlled by Ron Zours and Peter Hungerfords, unscrupulous landlords.  Who they fail to hold accountable is our local government who already has the legal mechanisms to use a scalpel to scoop out these cancers of our community.  Instead of a scalpel, they are proposing an atomic bomb with the creation of policy levers which will leave our most vulnerable communities in a nuclear winter.

You still have a choice.  Get Registered for Under One Roof Lobby Day, right now.  If you are interested in joining us on the bus, please reach out to me directly.  The bus leaves promptly at 5:30 AM from Boylan Code at the Culver Road Armory Monday January 13th.
Event Registration Link:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=vjljhkqab&oeidk=a07egqk9unrf8901efb

For a long form interview of the Spectrum News broadcast what Under One Roof is about, check out the YouTube video below!

Yesterday, Jaime Cain of Boylan Code organized an event to get the word out about underoneroofny.org. Not only did developers, landlords show up to organize, but so did tenants and home owners! ​

We really need your help to save upstate housing. We need compassionate landlords and concerned tenants to join us in Albany on January 13th on lobby day to articulate how the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 is a disaster for the creation, development, and preservation of housing in our region. Other legistlation in the queue includes Universal Rent Control and other policy levers which will lead to mass disinvestment in our most vulnerable neighborhoods and communities.

We are already seeing the negative affects of this legistlation. For instance, in lieu of the law's passage landlords who own property in desirable areas are tightening their screening criteria and no longer taking risks on accepting marginal applicants, due to the length of time it takes to evict tenants for non payment of rent. Furthermore, accepting double security deposits from lower quality applicatnts is now illegal; cutting off access to housing in good areas to tenants who are more than capable and agreeable to paying a higher deposit in order to get into an apartment in an area in which they want to live.

The tenor of these laws that are passed are indicative of policy makers who have never managed housing or created housing. If left unchecked, policies that are passed in Albany will lead to more vacant boarded up housing in our city and lead to worsening the racial segregation that we have in Rochester.

We need them to hear our voices this January 13th. Will you join me on the bus to Albany? Register here:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07egqk9unrf8901efb&llr=vjljhkqab

#realestate #multifamily #realestateinvestor #realestateinvesting #apartment #multifamilyrealestate #entrepreneur #investor #mixeduse #realestateinvestors #apartmentliving #commercialrealestate #realtor #investing #apartmentinvesting #realestateagent #apartments #activism #entrepreneurship #passiveincome #propertymanagement #investment #upstateny #westernny #lobbyday #thisisroc #rentalproperty #rochester #roc #rochesterny

Yesterday we were finishing set up for our Multifamily Masterminds Winter Summit. It was a ton of work. Overall I think the event went successfully. My wife was taking notes on all of the details we could have done better next time so we will have another event in the near future!
I was reflecting on why I put so much time, energy and financial resources in putting out free content, networking and building relationships with people with no expectation for anything in return.
Well it's part of a 30 year plan! I am digging a well that will produce wealth and prosperity long after my time on earth.
Real estate entrepreneurs get frustrated when they take action and don't see immediate results or don't "see the point" in doing something. "It's not worth my time to help a colleague out or put the ladder down for someone else. What's in it for me?"
If you are going to build long term business relationships you need to focus on making a deposit into those relationships instead withdrawals.
#realestate #realestateinvestor #rocinvestor #rochesterny #upstateny#westernny #apartmentinvesting #realestateentrepreneur #roc#multifamilyinvesting #multifamily #multifamilymasterminds

​The moral of the story: even if you can get a loan on that investment property, make sure you can maintain your bank requirements during your ownership. Especially when the rate resets.

You want to make sure that you have a business plan with each property that mitigates your risk given likely scenarios during your hold period.

If the numbers are tight, but it’s a really great property, put more money down if you can in order to give yourself more cushion above the usual bank minimum DSCR of 1.2 to 1.25.

Do you get something of value out of these videos? If you do, be sure to register for our next Multifamily Masterminds event on March 2nd! You will have the chance to network with 75 other active investors and learn from the best real estate minds in our market! Link below!

​Walking my listing at Benny Green today. My toes are frozen but we had a great tour! Haha.

In this video, you will learn what a stabilized value add deal is and why they are attractive to real estate investors!

And I explain what my business plan would look like for this property.

#realestate #realestateinvestor #rocinvestor #rochesterny #journey #relentlesspursuit #upstateny #againstallodds #westernny #withoutlimits

“Hit the snooze 😴, Kill your dreams 🔪😵” - Jocko Willink

I caught Nate Pope working on his goals this morning.  He made a commitment to stop hitting the snooze button... with Isabella Tess Foltyniak’s help of course!

Sleep and rest is necessary, but sleeping in.... is not.

The people that rule the world, get up early and get after it, because after all, your dreams aren’t in your bed.

If you have a hard time getting up early, watch this video and hopefully it will help you as it’s helped me.

#realestate #realestateinvestor #rocinvestor #rochesterny #journey #relentlesspursuit #upstateny #againstallodds #westernny #withoutlimits

​In this video, I chat about what my take on the local and national real estate market and where it may be trending.

​As real estate investors and real estate brokers, what are you guys seeing out there?

​A new year is upon us.
Many of us will make a promise to ourselves as to what type of person we want to become this year.
This year? Isn’t that short sighted? A year is not a lot of time. And IF we achieve what we set out to conquer for the year, then what? This yearly revolution tends to require us to constantly be reinventing ourself.

Instead, try to ask yourself where you want to be in 20-30 years and beyond. What type of legacy do you want to leave on Earth after you die? Make sure this vision of yourself is titanic. Make sure it’s unreasonable.

Then determine which specific critical actions increase the probability of getting closer to your goals. And instead of making a resolution or goal around what specifically you want, make it a goal to form new habits of action to perform on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Write these critical actions out on a desk calendar for the whole year. The repetition of writing these out over the course of an entire year will solidify your commitment and promise to yourself. Every day you complete all of these critical actions will be a win for the day.

You will start to see the results from your newly formed habits. And once you start seeing the results then you will start to believe. And once you believe, watch out! Your self doubt will begin to fade and before you know it, winning will be something you do just by habit!