SCHENECTADY — The city is poised to sell another building under its Home Ownership Made Easy in Schenectady program, two weeks after its first contractor backed out amid revelations that he had previously been convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud.
The new property, a two-family home at 1108 Albany St., is set to be sold for $10,000 to a man whose sister is renting an apartment there.
The first building at 14 Myers Alley was supposed to be sold to Gary and Lynn Pappas for $13,000, with a contractual promise that the Pappases would invest $75,000 in renovations and live in the three-story brick building's first floor. They had just moved back to New York state from Colorado, and registered a contracting business with the state called Regeneration Construction under Lynn's name. But after it was recently learned that Gary Pappas was convicted in 2004 in Colorado of stealing from his employees' pension fund, the Pappases backed out of the deal.
That deal was a departure from the purpose of the HOMES program, which is to enter into agreements with qualified contractors who rehab and sell the building, with the profits being shared between the contractor and the city. Mayor Gary McCarthy has positioned the HOMES program to be not only an answer to turning around blight, but to bringing much needed money back to the city's coffers.
If these properties were in desirable areas and sold cheaply enough on the open market, without having to pay back taxes, they would sell without any program. There are so many reasons that this program does not make sense and is probably not even legal that I won't even go into it all here. One forinstance - what if a house is in a decent area and not worth much due to the condition and back taxes, and there is someone who wants to buy it cheapto live in, and someone else who wants to fix it up to sell it to give the city half the profits? Can the city really decide which one gets to buy it? The question probably won't come up as most of these places don't have anyone standing in line to buy, but the Albany Street deal isn't that much different from the tax auctions the city used to hold years ago, except for the tax forgiveness part.
these are probably some of the properties that will 'have' to rent to section 8!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
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I read the TU article, it says the buyer has to put 50k of renovations into this place? What is that for? To fix code violations? If not, why the 50k? How can someone already be living there?
I read the TU article, it says the buyer has to put 50k of renovations into this place? What is that for? To fix code violations? If not, why the 50k? How can someone already be living there?
Your right must have alot of issues to put that much money into it
Your right must have alot of issues to put that much money into it
PRetty scary that once some of the pieces of a story are put together how much doesnt make sense. Someone lives there........they are paying $10,000......it needs $50,000........how are they even living there........ The fact is that the person living there probably didnt pay the rent for 2 years and now they have the money to buy the house......last man standing I guess....
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You are all right, it doesn't make any sense that someone "needs" to put $50,000 of renovations into a house in that location that is evidently in livablecondition already. I think it's Judge Judy who likes to say "if it doesn't make sense, it isn't true". I don't know why the papers bother to print these bs articles without question.
You are all right, it doesn't make any sense that someone "needs" to put $50,000 of renovations into a house in that location that is evidently in livablecondition already. I think it's Judge Judy who likes to say "if it doesn't make sense, it isn't true". I don't know why the papers bother to print these bs articles without question.
Yup just like the TU never followed up on P. Morris's double STAR which is STILL in effect.
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