New York City’s most well known blue collar neighborhood has been given to its creditors. Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a massive portfolio of 110 buildings and 11,227 units located on the East River in Manhattan was controlled by Tishman Spyer Properties and Blackrock Realty. Once hailed as the most expensive deal in the country sold by Met Life to the current ownership for $5.4 Billion.

The current ownership struggled under the massive debt it took on to acquire the portfolio and New York City’s rent control laws. In the end the rents collected did not cover the mortgage.

Read the whole article here - New York Times
Photo Credit - Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

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Just a quick observation for anyone looking in South Boston. I was just going through our apartment database (southie’s largest) and noticed a decent amount of 1 bedroom apartments that are under $1,000.

Click here to check them out.

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I ran into this the other day while looking at a Multi-Family that was in foreclosure and thought it might be of benefit.

The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 was sponsored by, soon to be retired, Sen. Dodd (D-CT) and is supposed to help tenants caught up in this current wave of foreclosures. Here’s what it means:

Tenants:
Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009, passed May 20th 2009, gives tenants a minimum of 90 Days to vacate the foreclosed property. This law applies to all states. Also, tenants must be allowed to stay in the property through the end of their lease, with two exceptions:
1. The new owner wants to occupy the property as a personal residence.

2. There is no lease (month to month), or there is a lease but state law allows the lease to be terminated at any time upon notice.

As a tenant who is occupying a property that has been foreclosed on, you have the right to stay in that property a minimum of 90 days from the day notice is served to you. You must continue to comply with the terms of the lease agreement including the payment of rent on time.

* What happens to my Security Deposit? - The previous owner or property management company should transfer your security deposit to the new owner or property manager of the foreclosed property. Within 30 days of vacating the property, your security deposit is sent back to you minus any deductions allowed by the lease agreement.
* I am on a Month to Month lease, what happens to me? - As a tenant on a month to month lease you are allowed to stay up to 90 days from the date notice is served to you.
* Do I have to stay? - No. The new law provides the tenant with the right to stay. It is the tenants choice whether to execute this right.
* My lease expires within the 90 day period, do I have to leave as soon as it expires? - No. You can stay for 90 days.
* I do not have a copy of my lease and neither does the new owner, what happens now? - You would be considered to be on a month to month lease paying market rent and subject to the 90 day period.

New Landlord

As the new owner of the foreclosed property, you have to provide the tenant with a 90 day notice to vacate the property. This applies to lenders, investors and owners with the intent to occupy the property

* We just purchased the property at foreclosure auction, what should we do? - First thing to do is get in touch with the current tenant and let them know that you are the new owner. Get a copy of the lease agreement from the tenant (if one was not provided to you from the previous owner or property manager). Determine if the tenant wants to stay.
* We were not provided with the tenants security deposit - If the previous owner or property manager did not transfer the tenant’s security deposit to you, it is not your expense to give a security deposit back to the tenant.
* We are not experience landlords, who can we contact to help? - An experienced Attorney, Property Manager or Licensed Real Estate Agent can provide the expertise you need.

Have questions? JamesM@NextGenRealty.com or 617.894.0305 I can help.

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I’m going to hear this question daily, come January 15th, when every student in the city returns and starts looking for a new apartment for next fall, “Should I get Renters Insurance?”.

My answer is always this, “Can you afford to replace all your stuff in a worse case scenario?”. I always get a blank stare back and something along the lines of… “Dude I’m still in College”. Think about it. Just about every student now-a-days comes equip with a laptop, cell phone, camera, DVD player and TV. Considering renters insurance is extremely inexpensive why wouldn’t you want to protect these items.

For the properties that we manage here at NextGen Realty, we actually expect the tenants to have renters insurance and ask them in the tenant interviews.

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Seems with the residential market plodding along slowly that Zillow has decided to add rental listings to its website as a new feature. I just did a quick search of the Boston area and found a whopping 5 apartments available for rent. Yes, I know that the feature is new and that more listings will be added as time goes on.

I do wonder, however, how Zillow will stack up against Craigslist or Postlets since Zillow is promoting its new rental feature as a pay service; $9.95 for a 180 days of advertisement. I can say this if you have an apartment on the market for 180 days you have some serious problems.

If the 5 apartments currently on Zillow don’t do it for you, might I suggest you check out BostonPads.com we have more than 5 apartments for rent.

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