All Forum Posts by: Jeff Bridges

I'll just throw in my 2 cents about the treatment. None of the furniture needs to be thrown out unless the exterminator deems it necessary (always follow exterminator written and verbal guidance). It all gets treated and can be used following treatment. Sometimes the mattress is too far gone and they require the mattress be thrown out, but its always AFTER treatment and has to be specially wrapped and spray painted so others don't try to reuse (gross but possible). So if they preemptively started tossing furniture and mattresses before getting an inspection from an exterminator with guidance on treatment options, then contacted you afterward, they were also a bit too quick to claim that you should be sued for cost of replacement furniture. How could you respond to their notification if they already threw out furniture and didnt allow you to follow your due diligence? Regardless of how you settle who pays, I would get a bit more in front in vetting and selecting the exterminator so you can get feedback to make sure tenant complied with exterminator instructions for the multiple treatment visits required to get rid of the bugs. they need to follow washing clothes procedures etc... some get lazy and dont follow instructions and they might come back... good luck and sorry it happened to your property...

@Pascal Arthis yea but you need to read the responses more carefully. Your numbers don't make sense and we asked you to break it down for us to help us understand the actual numbers, not the calculators you used. If the comps are 1 million and you are paying 7.5 million, why are you asking us if this a good deal? We don't understand the deal and you didnt provide us with any meaningful figures to provide any insight. Also, post a screen grab from the results of the BP calculator so others can chime in better:)

Think about it. 10 year old property means most buyers bought in 2006-2007 right before the floor dropped out on prices. Many owners are likely still underwater and can't sell for more than their mortgage. Perhaps there were already forclosures in your complex, but I'm sure some stayed put. Find out how underwater they are by looking up what they sold for in 2006-07 and what they are worth now. These are the folks that are delinquent and might have also walked away from their mortgages or waiting for foreclosure. Sometimes the bank catch up on dues once they foreclose, but it doesnt help the HOA fix foundation problems today. Your seller wants out because he knows more than he is willing to share about the state of affairs in the complex. I think it would be safer to buy elseware because so many owners in the complex were affected by buying at the wrong time/ peak and the complex financial status is being hurt by that issue which won't get solved overnight.

I see red flags. repaving private roads can be in the 10s of thousands and beyond. I assume you meant their operating account has 15k. Is there any indication what the reserve account has? the reserve account would usually be where they would fund the road repairs and Cap Ex replacement? If it has less than 50k, then I would be worried that they would kick the can on road repairs or be forced to replace and then take out a loan and use special assessment against owners to pay for what the old board was unwilling to save up for. So that is a real risk that you inherit a special assessment in the near future and cant do anything about it. At the very least, consider what your cashflow would be with a 200 or 250 increased HOA fee. If it doesnt work, I wouldnt take on the risk. With so many unknowns, and lack of control, I would be wary of jumping in to that situation

FYI you posted this twice. I would delete one of them if possible to be fair to people reviewing your inquiry.

hard pass on the applicant! Even if the rent is pro-rated for some reason, I always charge the normal full first months amount and deposit in order for them to get the keys. Then the following month they will be charged the prorated amount. Otherwise I have people making "deals" saying they'll pay the prorated amount if they move in end of month for example to make out of pocket cost low... full month plus deposit is a good barometer of whether applicant will be able to pay ongoing rent or if they are just blowing smoke and you can find out before you hand them keys.

Snap some photos of the serial /model number of the furnace and water heater and go home and google how to read the manufacturing date using the serial number for that brand or see below. Each brand has a unique way to decode to lookup build date. that will tell you how old they are and determine remaining life (assuming they were properly maintained). water heaters left drained for 12 months or greater I would trash or older than 6-8 years end of life. HVAC depending on system type could last 15-30 years and is dependent on how well they were maintained or how much in repairs are needed, but you can google that as well. Ultimately i use these for estimating replacement costs for my rehab based on likelihood they will be non-functional and require replacement. a 20 year furnace, I budget for HVAC replacement for example. Otherwise all of these assumptions are followed by my inspector going in and testing these during my inspection period when electric is on or any utilities I am allowed to turn on and determine function. this way I can shore up my numbers and make sure my repair estimates still make the acquisition worthwhile. sometimes it can be catastrophic for some newer folks to need new electric, new furnace, new water heater and all new plumbing who hadn't budgeted for these items. use inspector until you get more comfortable. I still use one on my 6th unit. good luck!

Furnace Age lookup

baltimore is a tough market for finding high quality tenants. Its also tough to find a good PM in this city because its much more hands on for the same fee as other PMs earn for less work. Online rent collection will not work here. Your neighborhood appears less bad than the primary part of downtown, but it your likely to be stuck renting to an applicant pool of less than stellar individuals. See some of the data I uncovered below for a better understanding of your market. You might have to open up your pool of applicants to voucher holders and see if you can find a better qualified (read: less indebted) applicant. the downside will be that their score and income will be lower, but guaranteed by voucher. 

I don't have more advice for you except, be sure to learn more about your new neighborhood before buying more units and keep it vacant indefinitely before renting it out to bad tenants. You might need to accept a lower quality tenant in a pool filled with lower qualified tenants or reconsider your market. I'm personally not a fan of buy and hold in baltimore city for many of these reasons and more. do you have any vacant houses on your block?

Article quote:

"In 2015, more than 66 percent of households in Belair-Edison, Washington Village/Pigtown and Madison/East End spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent costs. These same three communities had the highest rates of housing choice voucher utilization, more than two times the citywide average. With median sales prices of homes below the citywide average, the fact that renters are housing burdened is a function of the higher demand for moderately-priced rental units in Baltimore." link

crime map for your area bordered in green:

they only put filters usually close to the air handler by the return vent or in a tray next to the air handler itself. If they skipped the filter altogether or it was never replaced and is missing in the tray, then the dirt just collected in the coils inside the air handler and might have led to your freeze up issue.  first try replacing the dirty filter if you find one, then let the system defrost, then try to run it again to see if that fixed airflow. if not then proceed to calling in a pro.

I would go on thumbtack.com and solicit bids for a A/C coil cleaning for dirty coils/ freezing issue and see what bids turn up. at least you have a few folks let you know what they charge before you waste the time setting appts with each of them and get their sales pitches.

based on below in my area/zip it suggests the service is between $200-240 assuming there is no other damage. You might be charged extra from above for a replacement filter if you don't supply one yourself as well. you can type your zip and find out. I usually buy a multi pack for my rentals to start my tenants off. I check the filters annually to make sure they have been changed regularly and do so if they havent. tenants cant be trusted to change out the filters themselves even if I put it in the lease.

https://www.homewyse.com/maintenance_costs/cost_to_clean_evaporator_coil.html

your anticipated interest rate is based on owner occupant. You need to estimate 4.125-4.5% interest rate based on investment loans rates. the rest appears accurate. like with the first property being negative 272 cashflow annually with a PM and 1238 if you self manage. shows that it might prove harder to find a good cashflowing property OR that you need to be persistent and be willing to find something undervalued that needs some repairs and could cashflow after repairs. Id want to be paid more than that like 4-5k wth PM to make it be worth my while. every investor is different, but its good practice so you can get better and know when you have found a deal worth taking a closer look at.

@Jason Bott Great resource! Well I believe I can since I am not affiliated with any business and this is an excellent universal resource for BPers looking to begin their search to find independent insurance firm with the greatest access to available providers and get quotes quickly. I quickly found a couple in my region because they list the business location in the list and by overall income. It was quick to google one on the list that dealt with non-commercial business. This would have made my research efforts much less difficult than merely googling for local insurance brokers. Hard to overcome SEO and advertising when billions are being poured into these by the insurance companies.

listing of top 100 Insurance agencies to help investors find independent firms with access to greatest amount of insurance policy providers in your area:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/top-100-insurance-agencies/