All Forum Posts by: Val Csontos

Just have some money in reserves, that the best "prepaid legal service" that i know of.

@Brandon Turner

Tenant will not call repair folks regardless of co-pay or not(we tried both ways) so we do use co-pay now for years, but months before they move, we try to schedule an inspection to see what if anything needs fixing. This is sort of the "best of both worlds".

@Christina R.  I love to be there, but i have an appointment @0630 in Odenton. If you guys go, please post here what is the legal expert's take on the legality of wholesaling here in MD. 

@Ned Carey When we acquire a property that happen to have an odd layout, in otherwise great neighborhood, we normally rent it out to Sec 8, or Quadell Receipients to increase cash flow . So to improve our overall portfolio, usually in buyer's market, we periodically sell a property or two, and i am trying to get ready for that situation with research on best way to liquidate.

To go back to the original question if "Wholesaling is Legal in Maryland"? 

    Since this conversation started, a few weeks back, I became more curious so I did some research.( I used to be a professional researcher/analyst with the military intelligence unit over on Ft Meade.) 

    So in brief here is what i had find:

       I had spent a couple of more hours looking at the "Legality of wholesaling in Maryland" and the more I had looked the more I realized that most of the articles on  Wholesaling  are just views of opinions of individual authors, passing moral judgment (in some cases for good reason) but as far the law concerns, I could not find any EVIDENCE that wholesaling would be illegal in Maryland or on a Federal level. The closest i was able to find: I had contacted the MAR and was informed over the phone that "bird dogging" is illegal UNLESS you have an Maryland RE sales license. They even refused to put this in writing after they learned that I wanted to share this with an RE Investor group. 

I had learned a lot in the past few days and I enjoyed it

 but i will stick with "Buy and Hold"

Happy Investing!

@Ned Carey 

    This is the article I was referring to above ( I think) but now looking at it does look a bit dated ( 5 years old) As a "Buy and Hold" investor I don't  really keep up with this any deeper than a "good to know" info. 

    If you don't mind i would like to get your expert opinion on something:

I am getting ready to sell a property, that is owned buy us, and has Sec8/voucher tenant for the past 10years. People here on BP said if your property have Gov/assisted tenant for over long period of time for say over 120 months than you as the owner will be exempt    from Cap Gain taxes.  I checked on the IRS website and it does mentions this. 

     I was wondering, have have you heard anyone done a sale like this before? I would be curious about any possible pitfalls etc....

@Nadiya Lonkevych Here is my view on the exact same subject from a few months back.

I had found over the years (by accident since I had no idea what I was doing back in the 90s) that areas with the best schools make the best long term investment properties.

My real "wakeup call was " in 2007, when I was talking to other investors from the Baltimore city/County, and they had told me their homes went down to the same price as they purchased those properties 15 20 year ago) Some of the houses they purchased ten years ago for low $60s, are now 5-6 year later worth in the mid $60s $70s at the same time I purchased some of my properties out here in the AA County(HO county is the same or better) for low$100s and they worth low $300s now.

Obviously there are exemptions based on neighborhoods etc,, and my statements are a sort of generalization. But in my view the point of long term rental is to "seat on" a low risk property which we can "cash in" just about anytime even during a low economic cycle and reword ourselves for our efforts times.

. I know some might say that it is almost impossible to find deals out here in the great areas, but in my view with some patience and with the knowledge of the area you can find some really nice deals. And when you look back in a few years, does it really matter that it toke you a few weeks or even a few months longer, if your property worth $100s of thousands more and is a lot more immune to the economy's ups and downs. Also rents better sometimes with waiting lists :)

By the way another advantage of investing in HO county that the quality of tenants has been shown an increase over the years as the "flakes" has been continuously priced out of the area and tend to be moving towards Baltimore County, Glen Burnie etc...and this trend with tenants seems to continue for the foreseeable future as BRAC, Cyber Security, Verizon and other project are bringing more jobs into our area etc.

ps I would definitely not buy anything even in first class location UNLESS you can brake even from day one! By brake even i mean to have a some money left for repairs as the next furnice brake-down or complete roof replacement will sneakup on you soon :) Good luck to you!

@David Ackerman I agree with you 99% as if you keep looking for "perfect" indicator than you will never buy anything, means you are not serious RE investors. I have been doing similar thing as you since 1997 and most of the properties have 50% loan to value and now they each cash flow 500-1200/mo! This is after i had refinance some of the properties to pay for a "gut-out rehab" my personal residence.

The only thing was diferent in my case: i had zero money to invest so i had to get creative with down payments.

An example from my early investing with less cash down: i called around for a buyer's RE agent who would accept his commission in a form a note with payments over 60 months. So i could cover my closing cost from his commission.

@Girard Curry

I am a "buy and hold" guy so i am defiantly not a subject expert on this, but i can easily imagine that some of those "investors" who are contacting me about my rentals from CL are going to end up in prison, thanks to the new Dodd/Frank guidelines that became the law as of 2014.

IMHO, a great example of this would be that some of these folks are still offering lease option with rent credit, with "in house closing" and that part is widely known now that sort of a behaviors could land you prison not just here in MD but in all states of the good old U.S. of A.

@Girard Curry

@Girard Curry

@Girard Curry

ps.:I even remember reading in the Sun that "flipping" is illegal now in Baltimore unless you show some value creation? But why not visit one of the main investment clubs in the city (Mr Parish's or the other one and find out from the "horse's mouth" what is going on here in MD.

@Girard Curry

Reserves, Reserves and some more Reserves!

If you have reserves you have confidence, and time to properly qualify tenants (weed out the bad ones) and ask the one that somehow turned bad on you to leave your rental unit as soon as you think it needs to be done so you do not compound problems with differed maintenants!

Reserves = sound business practice= better loan terms on next property etc........

@Tony Nguyen

Lead generating is a Big One for "distraction" in regards to achieving your investment goals !

IMHO If you broker for other people, you will lead generate for your clients mostly because you are motivated by the commission you will receive, and you might not put enough effort on your own investment needs as you would otherwise if you were an investor only.

@Bill Gulley I looked at @Karma Senge 's RE investing goals and in there he had said he would like to owe 1000s of units in next 10 years or so.

So when i responded to him about his carrier move question, in regards to Comm RE. brokering, I suggested:

Instead of worrying about, brokering commercial properties for other folks he could just really focus on to take his investment portfolio from a Ma' and Pa's to the next level

Gary Keller's book is sort of a how to book on evolving in to a large investor from the small time one's.

For example, it includes detailed interviews, DOs/DONTs and investing habits of about a hundred highly successful self made large investors in the USA. The book is close to 10 years old and if you Google on those guys/gals they are still around and investing, so that is why I highly recommend the book!

Of course there are many books out there but this comes in mind the most for what Karma is trying to achieve.