All Forum Posts by: Amiris Brown

Actually, my suspicions have now been verified.

They are legit White Collar Criminals masquerading as a management company.

Platinum Properties DMV are attempting to squeeze out double the deposit from us when legally they must only take one month worth of rent as the deposit: http://statelaws.findlaw.com/dc-law/district-of-co... "According to Washington, D.C. security deposit laws, any security deposit in a lease or rental must not exceed an amount equivalent to the first full month's rent charged to that tenant for the dwelling unit. This can be charged only once by the owner to the tenant."

Rent is listed as $2K/m therefor the deposit must comply with no more than $2K/m. Wow ... I truly despise the DMV area, so many crooks here who are trying to pass-off as friendly landlords and/or friendly management companies when they really are just slum lords or actual criminals — just wow. I cannot wait to buy to avoid these web of lies here OMG!

Plus, it's been listed for 24 days on most publicly available rental sites and we're the only tenants whom have applied for it? We are such the only potential tenants that despite my difficulties of getting past their cr*ppy automated outsourced TransUnion quiz they actually called us today (about a week-and-a-couple-days later) when they were closed for the holiday to finally ask if despite everything on my end if we'd still want to sign the lease lol. Made me look up the crime report finally lol! Even with bad crime and sex-offenders living within 3 blocks or more from this rental, it is telling that this rental has sat on the DMV market for 24 days in such a fast tenant filling market. Something ain't right, maybe?

Well @Ned Carey I have many reasons now to be sucpisious ever since moving to the DMV area, we have become victims of slum lords. I grew up an Army Brat and I also moved a lot within NC as an adult and I have never encountered problems like the DMV has when it comes to crooked slum lords and bellow-par-management companies. Only once in my life have I ever had a landlord rip-me-off and I was too busy as a full-time student to bother fighting with it so I just let him keep the deposit that was based on a false excuse made-up by them. That was once out of countless places I lived. I have always been a good tenant and always got quality rentals and service — until now in the DMV. Plus, I can say I have never dealt with incompetent management and/or maintenance until I moved here to the DMV. This area literally boggles my mind! It is so much better to just buy here, omg.

Have you ever heard of "Platinum Properities DMV"? I ask because they claimed to be 6 years old yet their website domain is only 5 months old (lying about how old they are is a glaring red flag to me). I'm wondering if they are reputable as they originally wanted $2K for the deposit for my fiancé and I. Now they want $4K for the deposit and only my fiancé will be on the lease, upon their request not ours. Sounds super sketch, even for the South East DC area and they don't even have their own credit checkers so they outsource to an automated TransUnion website form. Just sounds like another bad deal waiting to screw over anyone desperate to move as soon as possible. My fiancé feels desperate due to his axiety issues, but the reality is we will be looking at rentals this Saturday with the a recommended Realtor we were referred to. I think my fiancé is also freaking out now knowing that my identity has been stolen, but frankly my ID was apparently stolen as of 2011 according to the records I have looked at recently, and yet I've never had an issue getting past any requirements of the last two places I rented from — until we stumbled upon this incompetent management company in DC named Platinum Properties DMV where I had to go out my way each time to do their work for them after the TransUnion website kept insisting I had a house loan in NC lol when I've never been able to get a loan (frankly I'd like to meet this criminal who managed to get a loan with my horrible credit lol).

Upon viewing the rental the Realtor who was sent out to us by Platinum Properties even handed us the wrong rental application from a completely different management company too, thus we had submitted it to the wrong management company (we got the mix-up cleared and our money back). This company, Platinum Properties, just screams like a rip-off praying tenants involved (and maybe all other parties who knows, I don't want to stick around to find out), and while the current management company we are moving away from, due to them and/or the landlord not repairing the water damage and the mold that followed from the basement flood after the sump-pump failed, maybe insidious by letting their rentals go to cr*p so they can rip-off the landlord by gaining a sales commission here in the DMV area by convincing the landlord to sell after letting their rental get neglected with no repairs (I have seen other rentals from this management company and seen what they sell too lol, they use nieve landlords to get off-market sales), these people on the other hand at Platinum Properties appear to be so sloppy it makes me wonder if they are unprofessional criminals masquerading as a management company (the Realtor who showed us the house was very nervous and desperate to "sell us" on that lease, my fiancé seemed oblivious to this due to his inner mind workings, and that realtor even said stuff like "never give cash to maintenance" and that the repair people "are known to ask for that extra money from tenants in cash" even when there is no charges to the tenants). Like isn't that a bad sign if the only maintenance this Platinum Properties DMV management company got under contract are con-artist lol? I don't want any more headaches from this DMV area and their White Collar crooks — I certainly don't want to see my fiancé get his butt handed to him either, due to his gullible temperament. But hey, what do I know? That's why I need y'all two to weigh-in on this con-waiting-to-happen to both my fiancé and I over getting duped out of a false feeling of urgency to move (our deadline is 21st or latest the 28th of this month to start moving to be out no later than the 5th of Nov.).

Granted, I was the person who made the mistake of thinking our current rental that we are now moving from was a good deal, as I had no clue illegal rentals by slum lords breaking Code and evading property taxes was even an issue here in the DMV of all places. I also had no idea at the time that management companies would do more than management and so to have a funnel ushering unsuspecting landlords into a bind to force a sale out of them to then list it on the market (but I'm glad to have found this out before getting interested in Real Estate myself that's for sure, I can't say my landlord didn't deserve it – as he too is a crook lol falsely claiming the rental was his "primary residence" this entire time and thereby never registering it with the HOA here). Though, this past hard lesson has been learned by me, I'm now too sure if my fiancé comprehends it. I am now doing my due-diligence on freaking rentals of all things (totally worth just buying in this type of market here in the DMV, as tenants should NOT have to do their due-diligence because there should be regulations and enforcement of those regulations I cannot believe how crummy the DMV area is when it comes to high priced rentals with sub-par quality and service ugh).

Anyways if anyone knows anything about Platinum Properties DMV aka http://platinumproperties.co/ please let me know before my fiancé makes a rash decision (sadly, he doesn't always listen to me which is why I'm asking here lol ... it's a reoccurring problem).

Thanks

Thanks @Mark Gallagher, that's what I figured but I wanted to be sure by asking here — I am a newbie after all. I'll try to find another to work with, my Realtor has very bad connections (which may explain why he has been struggling as a Realtor lol I'm trying to help him out as I go along, so far he's learning some things from me and I'm more new to all this than he is haha).

I recently spoke with a 203K loan officer here in Maryland, and they were very skeptical that the property I had previously eyed would have even qualify. I find that strange considering that the REO stated it would qualify for a 203K loan program and required the purchaser to only use that program for the Homepath if there was a loan involved.

The reason it was questionable was it was a lot with one address that held two houses on it (a main house and a mother-in-law like guest house). This was seen as questionable regardless of my plans for it, and the loan officer wasn't sure if it would disqualify for the program or not. The loan officer went on to say that duplexes up to fourplexes do not qualify for 203K loans, only multifamily buildings qualify. I asked what the difference was (sounds all the same to me), and they said that duplexes had two seporate addresses whereas a 2 unit multifamily shares the same address. Wow, technicalities are a wonderment!

Is this at all accurate?

Thank you for clearing things up, @Joshua Velte! I keep trying to explain that pricing, especially in and nearby the DMV area everything is over priced lol. People outside of the DMV don't seem to grasp that everything is three to four times more than anything should be. Also, I personally thought it would be about $103K but the contractor quoted us for $130K (I did not tell him my numbers, I wanted to see what he would tell us). Now, to be fair, he quoted us $130K to do everything on the two moldy properties that came on this acre of land, the mold remediation alone for both properties was about $30K itself ($15K for the big house, and $4k-$6K for the small house — as he was unsure the exact price since some walls in there maybe kept or maybe not depending on what they find when they start demo). It was all the other repairs, and me wanting a sump pump for both properties as well as nice kitchens (3 total) that got it all the way up to $130K to $150K. Like my attitude was since we wanted to live in one and rent the other, I wanted to pay the costs now up-front to not have to worry about anything for the next 20 years. Everything has to be redone on that house, including the roof lol. The only thing in good shape was the deck haha, that was it. Out of the four full bathrooms in the main big house, only one full bath was completed lol. It was as if the house had been worked on and a rehab crew gave up (maybe the mold started and they freaked out). Most of the mold ruined their usual work other than the bathrooms since the bathrooms were ceramic tile lol.

I think the reason why the bank hasn't gone lower than $200K is because it has two houses and the land alone is worth $108K (according to the tax assessment). It would be a dream to nab all this at $80K or even $100K, but realistically they may only take 10% less than their listing price and nothing less. Yet, what you are telling me is it might be better to just go for the listed price as they may not budge at all?

As for it now being under contract, my agent confirmed that after I crunched all my numbers by calling up my insurance, someone that Monday morning got it under contract and I was late to the game by 2pm that same day when I got my agent to put in our offer. He confirmed that it has been on the market up until that morning sometime before noon. I bet us going to see the property that Saturday set off the people waiting to buy it and they finally moved on it, as it had been on some listings for 4+ months at the lowered $200K price. Ugh, as a newbie making sure my numbers were accurate I ended up being too slow. I had hoped that since the mold was so bad, and the house was so strangely unique for this area without having apples to apples as comparables to ever be a good candidate for a flip, that even at $200K it would send any and all investors running, I guess I was wrong. Someone who knows exactly what they are doing can make $200K work, even up to $230K would work if the investor had a cheap but still quality contractor if they were going to do something other than literally flip this property. Even our Agent was surprised that it got under contract at that price in that condition with its specs, because even if it was fixed up nice it would still be a difficult sell due to its location and uniqueness. I was only willing to get it as it was going to be a live-in flip + a rental. Its uniqueness didn't bother my fiancé or I as we are eccentric artists and the secluded wooded location was perfect for us given our personal preferences about noise issues. I even spent time that morning confirming that I could in fact register two separate addresses even though it has been one address for both properties, that way I could rent the big house with less problems from my insurance. All that time I spent, making extra sure about my numbers and if I had the resources to make my plan work ended up costing me this deal. Really a bit bummed, but it taught me about REOs and now I'm combing through the HUD listings now too lol.

Anyways, everything you said makes perfect sense to me. Thank you so much for your insight in this tough and overpriced market in and around the DMV.

I only have one question regarding this scenario, pertaining to what the contractor told me: is it true that the original hardwood floors can be kept from a moldy house if they get refinished and sanded on the back side too? Does that really take care of the mold that attached to the flooring (due to the moisture issue after the mold crept up all the walls it flung itself onto every single thing in that house lol including the floors), or is it like mold on bread where the mold has roots and is all over inside even when the surface is sanded off? I have mold allergies and really need to know if this is legit, in case we come across another mold property and end up buying and rehabbing it.

Thanks again so much!

This is a Fanie Mae REO btw, @Doron Nissim.

@Doron Nissim, yes thank you so much! That is exactly why I found a certified and licensed mold remediation contractor with a good track record, other than just for my own peace of mind (due to my allergies). As for it being my first project and being a big one at that, I might be setting myself up for something bad or something good. I'm trying my best to cover all my bases, but getting over charged $27K from what I expected has gave me some caution but not enough for me to give up if this property comes back onto the market again.

@Mark Gallagher that part of mold remediation I know about too, and yes he was going to stop the cause of water. The water soaked into the concrete slab the house sat on as well as had major roof leaks (been vacant and decaying since 2013 after all), since the roof needed to be completely repaired (this property was in disarray lol). Anyways, our contractor was first going to tackle the water issues and then knock out every wall (which I would have requested anyways lol) as nearly every wall visibly had mold and I am highly allergic to mold.

In fact, even though I suited up I'm now having to go see my eye and health doctors as my eyes weren't 100% corrected and now I'm having allergy issues due to doing just a quick walk-through.

So while you may think it is a scam, people like me literally need to have the job done fully and at highest quality. Not only did I not want to ever have to pay for such a job involving mold ever again, I needed to be assured my health would not be at risk nor any tenants. Despite my plans on getting the house insured fully as well, regardless.

We were going to take this project on as it was a location my fiancé and I liked to live in and we liked the two houses if it was not in disarray lol, as well as the one acre of land. It was also within our $350K budget, also within our property tax budget too, and fit every criteria we'd wish for other than it not being move-in ready. In a sense it was to be our dream property at a sweet deal price lol. That's the only reason we were willing to take it on, plus it had a good cash-flow potential after its ARV was met.