Flip This Neighborhood

Yesterday, as I sat in Border's (I really wish we had something like that), I was thumbing through the Sunday Newsday and found myself reading a story in the LI Life section about the foreclosure crisis. Not surprisingly, there was a feature on Mastic Beach. The article (you can read it for yourself here) featured a street just not too far from Neighborhood Rd called Lynbrook Rd and interviewed a few of the residents in that small street. They spoke of how the vacant homes are an eyesore and bring nothing but squatters and others looking to steal (the copper pipes) or just cause damage to the properties.

One of the residents there expressed his love for the area and described how he has "deer roam into his yard and eat carrots from his hand". He was contemplating buying one of the vacant homes to fix it up and sell it but his wife is tired of the area and wants to leave.

Then I had an epiphany. What if a small group of local residents got together and did just that? Get a home, fix it up and sell it? The home has to be owner occupied, of course (I'm tired of all the rentals that bring shady people), and the objective is not to make money (though we wouldn't shy away from profit). The objective would be to minimize the vacant properties and have more owner occupied homes, affordable homes, to stop the "brain drain" in the island.

This group would have to be small (too many chefs ruin the soup) and each member would have their role based on the experiences that they could bring. I, for instance, have all my hard-money lenders, Realtors, and RE attorney connections. I'm handy with a hammer but it would be better to have a contractor or someone who's renovated a home before just to know the costs of material and have the renovation flow smoothly. Someone with a good eye for design would also be a good fit (I'm horrible at picking colors and all that design stuff). Someone who's good at marketing and could market the hell out of the property once it's done. And perhaps a silent partner to do small funding for small incidental expenses. I would, personally, prefer to take all the profit from the first year and not touch it. Keep it in the bank so that we'd have enough to bypass the lenders and pay cash for the properties in the second year (minimizing our monthly costs). I think a good goal for the first year would be to sell 4-5 homes.

Take this home that's on sale, as an example. It has fire damage but it's fixable. Now, how much would something like that cost? $50K? $75K? $100K? I don't know, I'm not a contractor. I do know that it's only $51K and could easily sell for $225-250K. So there's plenty to work with. Even if we'd have to sell it to break even it'll be a steal for a hard working family. And it'd definitely be better than a boarded up burned home.

Hmmm ... my brain is ticking. But I don't think I could set something up quickly enough to have the first home up for sale around April or May (the best month to sell a home). I definitely wouldn't want to have the first home out on the market in the fall or winter (the worst months to sell a home).

Celebrity Sightings

So I'm on the Myspace (so 2008), and I happen to come across a profile of Courtney Culkin and it reads that she's a resident of Shirley, NY. "Wow" I said to myself, a Playboy Playmate living in our little area?

Then I keep looking and I see that Monica Leigh also lives in Shirley. Could it be? Really?

TWO Playboy Playmates living in Shirley, NY? Of course, these 2 females must deal with stalkers and amateur stalkers so they could be lying.

It would be my luck, of course, if they are.

What I Don't Crave

So the rumor -- or maybe it's not a rumor, I'm just out of the "Cool People Who Tell Rumors" loop -- is that the last Roy Rogers in beautiful Long Island is closing down. That would be the RR's in Shirley.

It's replacement? A White Castle. As much as I want to meet Harold & Kumar I really don't want a White Castle here. It's not that I don't LIKE White Castle hamburgers. They're pretty yummy for some artery clogging reason. It's just that, well, I don't want any more fast food places around. When I first moved out here there was no McDonald's (only one around was the one in Moriches) and there was no Checkers. Everything else was around and I thought it was more than enough. There's also, supposedly, an Applebee's to be placed in that new shopping center on the corner of Montauk and WF, where the Staples is located.

I'm all for businesses opening up and bringing jobs to the area but I would rather see something original. A new business that isn't owned by some corporation. The Roy Rogers location (and the hardware store right across that just closed down) is a perfect spot for something ORIGINAL! It's right off of Sunrise Highway so people who thumb their noses at us, because we live in some supposedly horrible place that they only hear about in the news, can just get off at exit 58 and not drive very far for something cool.

How about an actual billiards place with a sit-down restaurant section and a bar area that lights up in different funky neon colors that would enhance your funky neon colored drink? Or a cool bar/lounge with a kareoke night or to showcase local bands or comedians? Everyone here that I meet around my age says that there is nothing to do here. I think we're all getting a bit tired of Mikes or the Manor House (even though it's under new management it's food is, apparently, not) and though The Beach Hut always has some awesome entertainment after 5PM it's only during the summer.

Please give us something other than a pre-fabricated fast food joint.

Oh, and we're getting yet another bank. Because we haven't had enough robberies.

Do Want!

So I just found out this home here is for sale at $125K. It's a 4Br/2Bth cape in Shirley. I know some of you are looking at it and thinking "gross, it's all boarded up". But I see something else. I see some nice landscaping on a home in a dead-end street (second to last home in the end). I see a new fence. I see some bleaching and treatment of the shingles (sorely needed). And the property, though only 50ft wide, is 250ft long. That's right, the backyard is HUGE. Two-hundred and fifty feet huge. You can, literally, fit a large pool in the back with more than enough room to move around. Or, if you have a big dog he or she can run around forever. The best part of all of this ... you can WALK to Shirley Beach. It is just around the corner.

I want. I sorely want. I must get. It is a great investment. It needs work, but the location and price is worth it.

PathMark in Shirley

I love to people watch. It's always very interesting. In this little Tri-Hamlet you get your share of amusing sites for sure -- someone must explain Mastic Mary to me -- and today was no different. I went into the PathMark in Shirley and saw a lady shopping in her bathrobe and bunny slippers.

OK, if I had been there at around 3AM I could understand. You know, sometimes you just don't feel like getting dressed when you have a craving for nachos and must, absolutely MUST, go to the store and get the beloved nachos.

But this was around 2PM. I'm walking down the Spanish foods aisle and there she is in all her fashionista glory. Grey bathrobe with blue PJ bottoms and pink bunny slippers. Hair a mess, and she had not a care in the world.

I literally stopped near her and pretended to be interested in the spices they had because I had to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. She was young, which surprised me since you only see that type of eccentricity from older folks. But she smiled, and I smiled back with a "thank you" on my mind because she literally made my day.