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Renter vs. Owner Occupied

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Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby windsorite » Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:26 pm

Dear fellow board members. My Wife and I are interested in property in the Manhattan area and were wondering if there were any ways we could determine the renter vs. owner proportion in particular condos. I've looked at ACRIS to see owners of individual units, but it doesn't tell me much about whether these owners are occupying the units or whether they have tenants renting the units. Is there a particular entity which keeps records of rental units in New York City?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby TenantNet » Wed Jan 14, 2015 12:24 am

Are you trying to stay away from too many renters?
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby BubbaJoe123 » Wed Jan 14, 2015 10:27 am

Lots of good reasons to avoid buying in buildings with lots of investment units. For one, if the owner-occupied % drops below 70%, many lenders won't lend for unit purchases in the building, meaning that your apartment could become extremely difficult to sell, since you'd only be able to have a cash buyer.
Secondly, when it comes to investments in the building (i.e. should we raise the maintenance to do XYZ capital project), someone who lives in the building could easily have a different view than someone who's just got an investment asset there.
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby windsorite » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:04 pm

Hi, thanks for your responses! One of our concerns is, like bubbajoe mentioned, a very skewed proportion of renters vs. owners as it affects lending. We are not so much worried about rental turnover, but more so as it relates to our ability finance and sell if we choose to do so in the future.
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby TenantNet » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:54 pm

This is a renters site, so it seems you need to find a site that has coop or condo information.

I find much of what Bubba said to make no sense whatsoever. But to the extent that it might, you should exercise caution as it might violate Fair Housing statutes and community banking regulationsand redlining prohibitions.
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby BubbaJoe123 » Wed Jan 14, 2015 6:52 pm

TenantNet, I know it's not your bailiwick, but none of what I wrote is at all controversial or even in the slightest a concern from a fair housing standpoint. FYI, the FHA (which has the loosest rules) requires at least 51% owner occupancy, and that's a federally-funded housing program!

Windsorite, I doubt this site will be helpful to you, as TenantNet noted. One final point - owner occupancy is much less of an issue with co-ops than condos, since co-ops typically have much tighter rules on renting out the unit, and if they're concerned about getting close to a cutoff, can just refuse to approve any sublets.
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Re: Renter vs. Owner Occupied

Postby TenantNet » Wed Jan 14, 2015 9:10 pm

You can disagree, but I've seen instances where Fair Housing complaints have been raised on questionable financing practices. In the old days it was called redlining. Of course, every instance is different, but complaints can be made almost anywhere.

So to the Commuity Reinvestment Act has financing requirements that, if not made, can raise concernes and investigations on local banking practices.
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