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I plan on purchase a small house in Elmira New York and lease it out.
I have the following questions,
1. What is the property tax rate for this area. In my area (California) I pay 1% for my rental property in San Bernardino county.
2. How much is the home owner association fee. I will purchase a single house, not a condo or a townhome. Is there any HOA fee at all?
3. Can anybody recommend a good property management company? I will be still living in California most likely, need a reliable management company that can handle my responsibility.
4.What is the average rent for a 3 bedroom 1000 square fee house in this area?
The property taxes are based on the home's assessed "fair market value". The tax rates vary by community. Your best bet is use Realtor.com to look up homes for sale in the area you are interested in. Most will have the property taxes listed which will give you an idea of what your taxes should be. Generally the tax rates are more than 1% because homes in Upstate NY cost so much less than in many parts of the country, especially California.
Unless you are purchasing a condo, you aren't going to see HOA fees -- or rules -- in Upstate NY. There are some single family homes that are classed as "condos" but these are pricey newer developments in popular suburbs and not what you'll be looking at.
If you purchase in a city or incorporated village, building/maintaining of streets, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, water mains, sidewalks, street lights, fire, police, ems etc are generally covered by taxes. Snow plowing and street cleaning is, too. Older, established areas in the suburbs will have most of these amenities already in place, too. Rural and newer suburban areas may sanitary sewer, water, and fire districts which are covered by tax monies, too, but that varies by town.
Occasionally, there may be special assessments, such as the city or village will replace the broken sidewalk in front of your house or a growing suburban town extends a sewer district, but those assessments are only on the individuals or areas served NOT on everybody. These are added to your tax bill at x% for a certain number of years.
You will also have water and sewer bills, in areas that have water and sewer, depending on usage. All cities and villages and some suburban towns either have their own garbage collectors or contract with a private service. Residents are billed by the municipality. Other towns leave it to the residents to arrange their own garbage collection or take their trash to the town transfer station themselves which charges a fee per trash bag to encourage recycling.
Most cities and villages require homeowners or tenants to remove snow from their sidewalks in the winter and the USPS can refuse to deliver mail to your home if the sidewalk to the mailbox is not shoveled. Most landlords, at least in 1 or 2 unit houses, require snow shoveling by tenants. In bigger multiunit buildings, the landlord hires a maintenance company/individual to shovel the sidewalks and plow the parking lots.
BTW, you'll have better luck renting a house out if it has at least off street parking. All suburban houses have at least driveways because virtually every upstate town forbids parking on the street during the winter. Most upstate cities have some kind of alternate parking regs year round, so most people want off-street parking.
The property taxes are based on the home's assessed "fair market value". The tax rates vary by community. Your best bet is use Realtor.com to look up homes for sale in the area you are interested in. Most will have the property taxes listed which will give you an idea of what your taxes should be. Generally the tax rates are more than 1% because homes in Upstate NY cost so much less than in many parts of the country, especially California.
Unless you are purchasing a condo, you aren't going to see HOA fees -- or rules -- in Upstate NY. There are some single family homes that are classed as "condos" but these are pricey newer developments in popular suburbs and not what you'll be looking at.
If you purchase in a city or incorporated village, building/maintaining of streets, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, water mains, sidewalks, street lights, fire, police, ems etc are generally covered by taxes. Snow plowing and street cleaning is, too. Older, established areas in the suburbs will have most of these amenities already in place, too. Rural and newer suburban areas may sanitary sewer, water, and fire districts which are covered by tax monies, too, but that varies by town.
Occasionally, there may be special assessments, such as the city or village will replace the broken sidewalk in front of your house or a growing suburban town extends a sewer district, but those assessments are only on the individuals or areas served NOT on everybody. These are added to your tax bill at x% for a certain number of years.
You will also have water and sewer bills, in areas that have water and sewer, depending on usage. All cities and villages and some suburban towns either have their own garbage collectors or contract with a private service. Residents are billed by the municipality. Other towns leave it to the residents to arrange their own garbage collection or take their trash to the town transfer station themselves which charges a fee per trash bag to encourage recycling.
Most cities and villages require homeowners or tenants to remove snow from their sidewalks in the winter and the USPS can refuse to deliver mail to your home if the sidewalk to the mailbox is not shoveled. Most landlords, at least in 1 or 2 unit houses, require snow shoveling by tenants. In bigger multiunit buildings, the landlord hires a maintenance company/individual to shovel the sidewalks and plow the parking lots.
BTW, you'll have better luck renting a house out if it has at least off street parking. All suburban houses have at least driveways because virtually every upstate town forbids parking on the street during the winter. Most upstate cities have some kind of alternate parking regs year round, so most people want off-street parking.
Thank you so much for the information! I really really appreciate it.
According to that chart, in the city of Elmira and Elmira City School District, the total tax rate is $42/$1000 of value, so you are looking at a little over 4K in taxes on a 100k house. I don't know if that changes for landlords vs. owner-residents....
Quote:
4.What is the average rent for a 3 bedroom 1000 square fee house in this area?
When we were renting, we had a 2-bedroom townhouse with a parking lot (no snow shoveling or lawn mowing), water included, for $750/month. We bought a 3-bedroom, 1100 square foot home with an attached one-car garage and driveway wide enough for a second car for under 100k, and our mortgage payment is less than our rent was.
I did a quick search on Craigslist, and here is a house similar to what we own and what you seem to be describing, renting for $950/month. 3 Bedroom House
(Honestly, once you break the $1000/month mark, you get into some REALLY nice homes. At least on Craigslist....for $1200 I could rent a 4-bedroom, 2-bath remodeled 2-story in a good neighborhood! In one of your other threads you mentioned getting $1100/month in rent...probably not going to happen with a small home in a middle/working class neighborhood.)
Last edited by exploringoptions; 07-22-2013 at 10:17 AM..
I can only afford to invest $80,000 to purchase a house. Anything more than that, I just simply couldn't afford it.
If the monthly rent is around $1,100 Minus the expenses, I perhaps can still pocket $800/month. Since California real estate is crazy right now, I am looking for other investment options.
I guess at this point, I just need to do my own research and see if it is worth it or not.
Last edited by lilyflower3191981; 07-22-2013 at 03:13 PM..
According to that chart, in the city of Elmira and Elmira City School District, the total tax rate is $42/$1000 of value, so you are looking at a little over 4K in taxes on a 100k house. I don't know if that changes for landlords vs. owner-residents....
When we were renting, we had a 2-bedroom townhouse with a parking lot (no snow shoveling or lawn mowing), water included, for $750/month. We bought a 3-bedroom, 1100 square foot home with an attached one-car garage and driveway wide enough for a second car for under 100k, and our mortgage payment is less than our rent was.
I did a quick search on Craigslist, and here is a house similar to what we own and what you seem to be describing, renting for $950/month. 3 Bedroom House
(Honestly, once you break the $1000/month mark, you get into some REALLY nice homes. At least on Craigslist....for $1200 I could rent a 4-bedroom, 2-bath remodeled 2-story in a good neighborhood! In one of your other threads you mentioned getting $1100/month in rent...probably not going to happen with a small home in a middle/working class neighborhood.)
Thank you so much for your reply! I really appreciate it.
No problelm, lilyflower. The other thing I would tell you is, if you are looking to rent a 3-bedroom house, you'll probably be attracting families, and school districts are often a BIG deal out here. The Elmira City School District has been having a lot of problems lately.....combining/closing schools, etc....and I've talked to many people who want their kids out of the system. Also, Elmira's property taxes are significantly higher than the surrounding communities (Horseheads, Corning, others). What it boils down to...IMHO...is that many of the kinds of people you'd want renting your property are leaving the city proper. It is kind of sad, really. I think Elmira is a cool little town, but I honestly wouldn't live or raise my kids inside the city limits.
No problelm, lilyflower. The other thing I would tell you is, if you are looking to rent a 3-bedroom house, you'll probably be attracting families, and school districts are often a BIG deal out here. The Elmira City School District has been having a lot of problems lately.....combining/closing schools, etc....and I've talked to many people who want their kids out of the system. Also, Elmira's property taxes are significantly higher than the surrounding communities (Horseheads, Corning, others). What it boils down to...IMHO...is that many of the kinds of people you'd want renting your property are leaving the city proper. It is kind of sad, really. I think Elmira is a cool little town, but I honestly wouldn't live or raise my kids inside the city limits.
wow, it is sad.
I've heard that Elmira has a contract with oil company. Oil company employees always look for houses to rent, therefore, it is relatively easy to lease out a property if it is located in a safer neighborhood. Wondering if anybody have heard that.
By oil companies, I'm guessing you are referring to the natural gas companies that do hydraulic fracturing? I think there are a few other threads around here about that. NYS has not yet committed to allow "fracking" in the state. There are, however, almost 1800 well sites over the border in Bradford County (PA). I know that the workers come to the Elmira area for food, shopping, and entertainment....I can only assume that at least some of them get housing around here as well. I've not heard anything about housing deals between the companies and the city. There are also a lot of differing stories about exactly where the gas workers come from and how they are housed....I believe the industry term is "man camps" that are built and maintained by the companies themselves? Here is a story about the trend from 2010. Can Hydraulic Fracturing Help Local Communities? - GrowWNY
By oil companies, I'm guessing you are referring to the natural gas companies that do hydraulic fracturing? I think there are a few other threads around here about that. NYS has not yet committed to allow "fracking" in the state. There are, however, almost 1800 well sites over the border in Bradford County (PA). I know that the workers come to the Elmira area for food, shopping, and entertainment....I can only assume that at least some of them get housing around here as well. I've not heard anything about housing deals between the companies and the city. There are also a lot of differing stories about exactly where the gas workers come from and how they are housed....I believe the industry term is "man camps" that are built and maintained by the companies themselves? Here is a story about the trend from 2010. Can Hydraulic Fracturing Help Local Communities? - GrowWNY
Thank you so much again for the information.
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