The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16
SHOULD THEY BUY TOYNLOTS?
CHARLES M. SCHWAB'S ADVICE
TO YOUNG MEN DISCUSSED.

New Yerk-Goed Prospect Tor the
Man VINO Buys wisely and Doesn't
Bite or More hsn He Can Chcw.
Charles M. schwab is quoted as having
given this advice lately while travelling out
West in his private car:
Young men who want to get a start In
life should invest their money In real estate.
Town lots are good. Mr.. Hill OF the Great
Northern Railroad thinks it better to invest
In farm land, but to my mind city real
estate offers good prospects, especially In
manufacturing towns"
Does this advice apply 70 New York;
There Is q difference Of opinion on the sub
ject among real-estate men in New York.
Some say positively that IL does not.
On the other hand, the men who buy up
large tracts Of unimproved suburban land
and sell the property in small plots assert
that the chances to make money on even
small parcels OF suburban real estate are
good. They cite examples Of large gains
resulting from an outlay Of $500.
Occupying middle ground between these
two classes are b conservative real estate
dealers Of Manhattan and The Bronx, who.
while not believing that it Is invariably
wise to follow such advice as that attributed
TO Mr.. Schwab and 10 invest ones savings
In unimproved property in or near New
York. are unanimous in asserting that fort
unes have been made n that fortunes
will continue to be made by buying and
selling Greater New York real estate.
THE man who doesn't believe that a lot
must believe that the city has stopped
growing said one Of them.
My advice to the boys is Stick to Man
haitian another dealer remarked, a to
the young man with only $500 l say, Keep it
in the savings bank till 1t grows some,
and every time. IL possible, buy a lot with
a house on It. Unimproved property has
a way Of costing more than the buyer
figures on
For instance, ten years g a blind
caretaker OF this building bought W
lots in The Bronx for %, 200 and sold them
the other day for 5000, the biggest price
he could get.
This, OF course, was more than double
the purchasing figure. But even so, the
sum realized was barely large enough to
reimburse the owner. counting the interest
on his money, his taxes, the interest on
taxes and the assessments during the ten
years. Tocome out ahead he ought to rave
got 5000 for his lots.
Another case l recall represents three
city lots in Eighty-sixth street not far
from Riverside, bought in 1896 for $4,000,
and which l sold for the owner he 9th er
day for $4,000. Yes, a big jump. But, as
/ pointed out to the owner. counting the
enormous assessments he had paid for
improvements, besides his regular taxes
and the loss Of the compound interest on
sl5, 900 for forty years, he was actually a
loser on his lots.
There Is a better chance for a young
man in improved property than unim-
bound to bring in some sort of income
paying of the mortgage, supposing there
Is a mortgage.
Buy a house and lot say for 500, 900, as a
client Of mine did the other day on the
upper W est Side, paying 5000 down, then
rent the house for 5000 a year. as he has
been lucky enough to do, or for less even.
Allowing $500 a year for K and 81 900
more for interest on the $40 900 mortgage,
leaves a tidy little sum to apply to wiping
out the mortgage or for sorne other money
making purpose.
Were l going to a village | would buy
the cheapest bit of improved property I
could find on the main street, unless ] could
afford to buy a large tract and cut it up in
parcels to sell again.
Now, Hills advice 1 believe in-that is,
IL the farm Is anywhere in the path of
q growing community. Take Stamford,
Conn, for instance. In the last three years
several farms ave been cut up into villa
plots and big SUMS made by a few men;
and not longer age thar that land near
North street. New Rochelle, oouldbe bought
for from $500 10 81 900 an acre; and because
the place couldn't grow into the Sound it
had to grow toward those acres, which
now bring from $500 to 81 ,OOs a lot.
-One farm of eighty acres n another of
100 acres have been absorbed in this way
in the last four years. and the biggest profit
has probably come u of the first sale
In a majority Of cases the man who
buys a couple OF lots and holds them ex-
pecting to sell again in half a dozen years
at a big advance gets left. Therefore my
advice to young men is: Buy improved
property or else build on your lots as soon
as possible
~ Y NACvAA AN@A ~ BCAubOI IA
The Bronx, who represents the fourth
generation OF his family in the business,
takes a somewhat different view from this.
He has maps illustrating the growth Of New
York from his infancy almost and these prove
to his satisfaction, ,at least, that the city's
chances for money making in real estate
deals will be as great il not greater in the
future as in the past.
Let the sceptics," the dealer said, take
warning by some OF the old timers, whose
imagination wasn't equal to picturing a
time when lots on Fifth e would fetch
more thar q, 900, because in l843 one could
buy a lot anywhere from Thirty-hfth to
Fortieth street for $500, with 500 paid
down, and by the recorded fact that in
is45 John Hunt, a millionaire whose sanity
was In question, had no show at all in court
when witnesses brought out that he mad
purchased a lot at the corner of Thirty-sixth
street and Fifth avenue for ~, 400 and made
other deals equally reckless.
MY grandfather was an optimlst and
seventy-fve years e predicted that
Thirty-fourth street in 1900 would be what
IL has become, and there was a far sighted
man who in 1853 wrote to a newspaper
pointing out that IL was no more improb-
able that lots In Tooth street would some day
bring 81 900 than it was in 1926, at which
date Madison Square land was sold only
by the acre, that lots around Union Square
would ever bring 81 900 and then proceeded