All Forum Posts by: Ari Bachrach

Find out when they're not going to be home, schedule showings then?

I'll leave most of the questions to others, but I can help out with the finance aspect. How much money are you actually talking about? If it's over 1~2 million, then you have a lot of other options open to you beyond simple mortgages. First of all you should probably be looking for a financial adviser, and at the 1 million asset mark they're usually called wealth managers or private wealth managers. 

If you have assets, amongst the easiest and cheapest ways to borrow is to borrow against securities. Basically your brokerage account (which should be invested in low cost index funds - don't let them push high priced junk on you), can be pledged against a line of credit. Then if you want to buy something, you just write a check or wire money straight from your line of credit. Interest rates will vary depending on a lot of factors, but are usually comparable or better than even primary home mortgage rates. Because the credit is based on your assets and not your income, it actually won't matter if you have verifiable income or not. 

Also a final word of advice: you have assets. You worked hard to get them. Protect yourself. There's a vigorous debate on these forums about whether or not to get an LLC when you start investing. If you have assets then there's no question you need an LLC to limit your liability from lawsuits. Also it might be worth talking to a lawyer for an hour to make sure you're setting everything up in a manner that will limit your liability.

I'm about to get my first tenant, so I have two quick questions about security deposits in Maryland. 

MD law states that:

> Landlord must keep the security deposit in an interest-bearing insured escrow account in a bank or savings and loan association in Maryland and must administer it for the benefit of the tenant.

Does this exclude any national bank incorporated outside of MD? Bank of America is incorporated in DE and headquartered elsewhere, but they obviously have branches in MD. Does that count?

Secondly, does anyone have recommendations for a local bank that will let me set up several bank accounts for this purpose relatively easily? I'm afraid the primary bank I use is one which does not fit the above requirement so I'm going to be looking elsewhere.

If you have a name and address from the property records, why not just look them up in the phonebook? (They still make them for the record).

There's a house near me that I'd love to buy and flip. It's a great neighborhood (I live there - of course I say that). To give an idea of the neighborhood, houses like this one usually go for 500-600K. This particular house has been empty for several years. The owners moved and still live in the area but never bothered to sell the house, never rented it, and it's sitting empty. I have a GC and we'd love to flip it. My impression is that they have the kind of money where they can afford to do things like that, plus the mortgage is all paid off so their expenses are minimal. 

I need some ideas. What's the best way to approach this? What can I offer them? Most people need a house to be sold quickly and are willing to compromise on price. In this case they obviously don't care about the timeframe, and I feel like they probably won't be motivated by money. How would you approach this?

Can you (or someone else) explain what this 20% deduction is? As I understand it, normally pass through income is all taxed at the individual's rate. (Basically it's just added to their income). Are you saying that now with the new bill it would be reduced by 20% and only 80% of the pass through income would get taxed?

Okay, we have people. Who wants to do a meetup? I'm thinking nothing fancy (no prepared talks or anything), just all meet at a local pub or some-such to meet each other and make connections. I'm thinking Columbia, Jessup, or Laurel because it's easy to get to from both Baltimore and DC.

I'm also in MD, focusing on the DMV area because that's the area I know. I've bought four units over the last few months and I'm looking (or will be looking soon) for tenants. I'm also considering doing my first flip with a partner in the near future.

For those of you with turnkeys out of state, can you chime in with some numbers and results? I'm also curious, but so far most of the stories I've heard have been either negative or clear advertisements.

I've been reading through the PG county housing choice voucher program and I'm a little confused by the order of operations and timing for some things. I'm hoping someone can help get me straightened out here.

The main thing I'm trying to get my head around is the order of operations. It seems like it's:

1 - get PG county rental license

2 - find tenant

3 - submit property to section 8 for inspection (any idea how long this takes?)

4 - repeat inspection until it passes

5 - tenant moves in, start collecting rent.

Do I have it in the correct order? Am I missing any steps?

Also, when applying for a PG county rental license, there is an option you can select for "property is a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) property". Does this trigger anything? Does it commit me to the section 8 program exclusively? Should I get this license before or after I find a tenant? Do I need to do anything to get either myself or the property approved before I list it? 

Thanks in advance