All Forum Posts by: George F.

2 websites I can think of besides the usuals are:

Baltimore city water bill lookup-just put street names in without the numerical address.  There you should see a listing of the addresses along with billing address.  The more you see that the billing address is different increases the likelihood of renters.

Baltimore housing -search for violations by street name.  This can be temperamental so you may have to try a few times.   Here you would see violations, houses marked as vacant as well an manager/owner info  by viewing violations.

Ive also used comcast or verizons service signup and calling bge to figure out how many units a smaller multifamily has.  I know thats off topic but have found it a useful way to get onfo that most people don't think of.

I really like the fact that its 5 unit as opposed to 4 just for the fact that you can now get a commercial loan on the property.  This is especially true if its a value add deal.   

Being that its a commercial loan there is much more emphasis on the income/expenses as opposed to what other properties are selling for in the area.  So, your property would appraise for more if you raised rents/cut expenses whereas a 4 unit properties value would hardly change at all. 

You can force appreciation!!!

mdlandrec.net

you have to register but its worth it

Hes been around a long time and typically lists smaller multis in decent neighborhoods that are in decent condition.  I do find that his listings are usually priced at a premium.  

If I had to guess Id say Seth is  having a bad day.  Here is something he wrote just 2 weeks ago

"Baltimore is a great city for buy and hold landlords I own many rentals, manage them myself, continue to acquire, and I'm speaking of the lower income urban areas. I find lower income properties present many pluses. 1. cheap acquisition 2. low amenities 3. multitude of willing and easy to replace tenants. If one can be at ease with the negatives, specifically 1. rent court/evictions 2. maintenance 3 chasing rent money...(you'll usually get it but rarely on time) land lording can be quite profitable. the city is definitely block by block and have to know each area intimately as well as construction to succeed doing this, a lesson learned the hard way."

Id agree with the above assessment of Baltimore.  However, although I do like to be involved with my properties I have managers as a buffer to handle day to day issues and headaches.  For me if you want to grow you have to be an investor and not an hands on landlord.   Doesn't to take long to burn out.   Especially if your properties are management intensive. 

I have multis in both the Baltimore county and city and prefer the county.

Besides all the reasons given above (especially half the city's property tax rate) you also save on registration charges. City is now $30 a unit per year and county requires no registration whatsoever if the property is over 6 units.

I just went through a similar situation. The building was about 2/3rds rented and a few needed to be evicted. My plan was to take care of some long deferred maintenance and to update vacant units before increasing rents.
Once we began filling the vacancies with tenants paying higher rents we let everyone know that their rents were going up (not as much as the rehabbed units but definitely quite a hike from what they were paying). During renovation of the vacant units we gave the current tenants the option to move into them if they wanted. Nobody moved but surprisingly nobody complained too much about the hike.
The increase occurred 4 months after purchase. I feel by doing it this way the current tenants realized that we were going to improve the property, that others were willing to pay much more then they were paying to live there and that their rents were definitely going up.

Bryan,
Did you receive any bids to repair the units? Im curious since there is such a large disparity between what they are offering and you are asking for.
Im in a similar situation but havnt received a dollar amount from the insurance company yet. I do have 3 bids though and figure if the claim amount is over my bid amounts I should be fine, if not Id probably consider hiring an adjustor.
Do you think an adjustor is needed if I am offered an amount that is comparable to my bids? Also, what do they typically charge for their services?
Thanks,
George

When its close between doing a repair myself or paying to have it done I usually pay. Whats tips the scale for me is that I can deduct the service charge.

I used to be in a barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois. The baritone was this guy named Kip Diskin, big fat guy, I mean, like, orca fat.