All Forum Posts by: Brad Cogswell

No problem @Candace Noel , and good luck! We've been purchasing in Baltimore for over a year so have a great understanding of what it's like to invest out of state.

Hey @Candace Noel , we have actually done both methods. We've got a California LLC that is registered to do business in the state of Maryland and then we've also got a Maryland LLC that we formed.

Our California LLC has more in it than just Maryland properties, while our Maryland LLC only contains Maryland properties. As long as you register your out of state entity with SDAT, I'm not aware of any additional tax implications. Could be wrong here, so someone correct me if you know better.

You definitely want the asset in an LLC that is registered or formed in Maryland though because if you have the property in your name you will be subject to an additional 8% or 8.5% tax holdback upon sale.

@Marcus Stagi - join the Baltimore Wholesale Properties group on facebook. There are both good and bad wholesalers on there but it will get you started with deals.

Hey @Kenneth Futrell , unfortunately your seller isn't truly "motivated" yet from the perspective of a wholesaler as they are still looking for a retail price on their home. You can wholesale a home that has an agent as long as you remove the clause that the contract can't be assigned, but most agents won't want to deal with that (the commission comes out of the purchase price anyways, it doesn't affect you). I would watch the property on the market a bit and see what happens. If it's on market for a while or the price is dropping towards your price, then you can get in touch with the agent and see if you can get it to work from a wholesale perspective. I think this one might be tough though.

@Caleb, it doesn't sound like this was his original strategy, sounds like he was sending letters out and the seller that called him was more like "yeah, I am interested, talk to my agent if you want to buy it".

Hey @Alexander Spira , I would take a look at your analysis, the expenses seem low with roughly 20% ($10k) expenses on $48k of gross income.

@Alexander Spira without knowing where the property is, that number seems really high. Everyone says "Johns Hopkins area", but the Johns Hopkins area can mean both really nice or total warzone depending on the block.

The 1% rule is relative, in Baltimore I would expect closer to 1.5% or 2% depending on the area and corresponding level of risk. As an example, many of the single families we look at are around 2%. Granted, those are lower income or Section 8 units so they are a bit higher.

Have you visited the property to see the block?

Hey @Shane Malloy  and @Phillip Bicker, small world, when I was at Wells Fargo a number of years back I did the loan for the development and stabilization of the Castle Rock Outlets. It was struggling a bit at the time for tenants, how's it doing now?

Shane - We invest full time in Baltimore, would be happy to share what we're doing if you're interested. Good luck!

@Dave Meyer your post is a little vague so I'm not sure about what type of opportunity you are talking about with these houses (rental, flip, development, other, etc). That being said, I would push back on the assumption that you are bringing to little for the table for a real estate investor to partner with you. There are a million ways to structure a deal, and if the deal is good there are always investors that will partner with you in various capacities.

Hey @Alice Jou, as @Ian Smith mentioned, it might be hard to get what you want in those areas with $200k. That being said, we are working on a gut rehab in the Patterson Park/Highlandtown area which benefits from the "yuppiness" you mention but is not quite as expensive. We haven't put a price on it, but it will likely be around $300k. If you want any more info let me know!

@Tim Youse really appreciate the reference. Sorry for the delay, I haven't set up my notifications well here so I was diving back into BP to check.