All Forum Posts by: Brian Silvia

This is a bit of a bizarre scenario, and I think we have a way forward; however there is some risk that I’m hoping to mitigate.


We are under contract on a townhouse in Baltimore City, and the owner is an estate with no next of kin, and nothing else in the estate other than the house. The property is overgrown with ivy and a complete gut-job, and the estate owes ~65k in back taxes to the city; however it’s only worth tax assessed value (17k), so its never going to be sold conventionally since the estate can’t bring any money to the table (and neither will anyone else).


We were able to get approval to go through the city tax lien release process, which requires paying the city the tax assessed value, then they  will waive the lien. Once they have the money, they issue a blue sheet ~2 weeks later saying there are no liens on the property. The challenge is that our title company won’t settle before having that sheet (showing 0 liens), but the city won’t give us that until we pay them the 17k.


We figure we can cut a check to the city for the money, but nothing protects us if the seller just walks away from settlement. 

Any ideas? Am I overthinking and should just cut a check and move forward?

My wife and I are in the process of BRRRRing 2 properties (held in an LLC, we purchased both with cash). We talked to a lender about the refi step for the first rental property, and were told that one of us has to persoanlly guarantee the mortgage, which means that our personal DTI will get factored in, and rental income from properties won't get taken into consideration until they are reported in 2 years of tax returns.

Is this standard across all lenders? If so, how do people BRRRR multiple properties a year, without being limited by their DTI?

So I recently found out that my parents are sitting on a relatively large amount of equity in their house, and they have no plans on HELOCing or otherwise using it. What are some options for me to leverage that equity in a way that is low-risk for them, while providing access to capital for me to fund deals?

Off the top of my head, we could ask them to HELOC their house, and have a real estate attorney draw up a contract where we pay then their interest rate plus a percent or two, so they make some money.

Obviously there is some risk when partnering with friends/family, so besides that, what are my options? What are the risks? 

@Ozzy Sirimsi Gwynns Falls Park / Franklintown / Winchester 

We are under contract on two side-by-side townhouses in Baltimore City -- one is an end-unit that is a "standard" renovation -- adding a kitchen, upgrading both bathrooms, redoing floors, etc, and one is a full gut-job (down to the studs) that we'd like to renovate to the same approximate level as the first. We estimating that this is a 135-140k total job + contingency; however we're having trouble finding contractors who will come out and do a walk-through to provide an estimate.

We had someone that a friend highly recommended that we were hoping to work with, but they aren't getting back to us. I'm hoping to find a couple interested people that we can meet and walk through the property with -- we need bids by COB Wednesday the 23rd.

We are planning on pursing other homes in the area after these, so we would be repeat business down the road!

Thanks @Tim Johnson! It looks like Chicago Agent One isn’t in Maryland; but I was able to find another free app from a local title company. Thanks for the idea!

I've heard various estimates for closing costs, ranging from 2.5-5% of the property value to the $1500-$2500 that the BP calculator suggests. I'm assuming that all cash offers will be a bit cheaper than convention financing closing costs, since it wouldn't have the lender fees.

Any good heuristics for all cash offers in MD? We've put a couple offers in but no accepted contracts yet, so I'm hoping to hone our estimates in the meantime!

@Account Closed Agreed it does sound like a good deal. I'm guessing we're going to run into a multi-offer bidding war so I'm trying to get a handle on how high my offer should be. Do you have a minimum CoC that you shoot for? The unit is already metered to support both possible doors. By 1031 I'm assuming you mean 1031 exchange? Still working on wrapping my head around all the lingo and options available, hah.

@Joe Villeneuve thanks for your reply! I’ve read it a few times, and I’m struggling to follow what you’re suggesting. What is “DP”? Are you saying that you buy properties, rent then out until you get your money back, and once your initial equity is doubled, then you sell it and buy another property and do it again?

Is there a general rule of how much total cash should be left in a deal, vs the monthly/annual cashflow?

For example, if I were to BRRRR a property and end up leaving a total of 24k cash in the deal, knowing that it should cashflow for 500-550 a month (conservatively $6k a year), that would be a 4 year break-even point, before factoring in asset appreciation. Would breaking even in 5 years be worth it? What about 10 years, etc?

I've seen some of the free webinars that BP hosts, and they seem to boil down to essentially the same content (not meaning to knock them, or disrespect them in any way): find deals, and run them through the BP calculator to evaluate them, and move on the ones that make sense based on your assets/market/numbers/etc.

I've heard that there is a ton of video content once you become a pro member, and am thinking of pulling the trigger, and was wondering if they end up going more into depth or if they run through different scenarios etc. Essentially, is there a difference in the quality/content of the paid videos and the free webinars?