All Forum Posts by: James Masotti

Fellow BP Members,

Recently, there were four community meetings to discuss proposed housing code legislation in WIlmington, DE. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but am wondering if any of you were and what sort of feedback you heard. These changes are well-meaning, some good and some not so good in my view, with the not so good resulting in increased costs for "good" rental property owners. I've pasted a list of the proposed changes below as well as the website. 

What do you think about these proposed changes? Have a good day.

Mayor Purzycki Schedules Two Additional Community Meetings on Proposed Housing Code Legislation to Preserve City Neighborhoods

• "The new ordinance to amend Chapters 4, 5 and 34 of the City Code would:
  
  Change enforcement of the housing code with respect to vacant and rental properties from criminal enforcement to civil enforcement with civil fines for non-compliance.
  Establish a target goal of 1,500 rental properties to be inspected annually by L&I and require that all rental dwellings be inspected every three years instead of every two or five years. If no violations are found during a rental inspection, the L&I Commissioner may delay the next required rental inspection one additional year from three years to four years.
  Change the fee assessed for a second rental re-inspection from $25 to $125.
  Add language reiterating that regular rental inspections are a condition of a City rental business license.
  Add a civil fine of $500 per rental unit for failure to register/obtain a rental business license.
  Add a civil fine of $250 for each violation of the housing code if the violation relates to a rental property or a vacant property. Each week’s failure to comply is a separate offense subject to an additional $250 fine. There is no change to the criminal fine structure for all other types of property, except that the new law would change “each day’s failure to comply may result in an additional fine” to “each week’s failure to comply may result in a separate offense.”
  Increase the business license fee for rental properties to $100 per unit, not to exceed a total business license fee of $10,120. It would increase the fee from the current formula which is $50 (for one or two units) or $120 (for three or more units) plus $10 per unit.
  Amend the vacant property registration fee program to: (1) increase the registration fees for properties that are vacant three or more years; (2) require registration of buildings vacant for six consecutive months rather than 45 consecutive days; (3) impose a civil fine of $500 for failing to register a vacant building within 30 days of the required time to register; (4) exempt vacant buildings owned by the Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank Corporation (“Land Bank”) from registration requirements; (5) provide that purchasers of a vacant building from the Land Bank be billed a vacant registration fee based on the duration of vacancy from the time he or she received the building from the Land Bank, rather than a vacant registration fee based on the complete duration of the vacancy prior to that new owner receiving the building; (6) provide for a vacant registration fee abatement program.
  Change the minimum amount of time citizens have to correct a code violation from 45 days to 30 days, unless a shorter time period is required to protect public safety. Dwellings that are unfit for human habitation are provided only three days to comply.
  Change the requirement that the City mail notice to the “last known address,” to instead, the property address and the tax address, and provide that the time notification period begins to run on the earlier of: five business days from the date of mailing; the date of actual delivery; or the date the notice is posted.
  Change the appeal fee charged to citizens who choose to challenge a citation from a non-refundable $50 to a refundable fee if the appeal is successful.
  Change the time in which a person may appeal a citation from 10 business days to 20 calendar days.
  Amend the code to require distribution of housing and rental program information by the City to owner occupants and tenants during all inspections.
  Amend the code to require quarterly reports to City Council providing the results of rental inspections and other information the L&I Commissioner determines should be included."

@Eric Luzier, welcome to the BP community! The BP podcast episode with @James Masotti is really good, he's just being modest :-). Best of luck!

Hi @James Masotti,

Thanks for your response!  That is great advice.  Looking forward to attending a meetup, hopefully soon.  I gotta check out your BiggerPockets episode, too.  I don't think I've listened to that one!

Thanks @James Masotti.

I don't have the expectation to find a property that hits all of my criteria.  I just wanted to mention some things I am considering when making any sort of purchase.  Overall, my goal is to have a few areas for my family to at least drive through when they get to the area.  

I appreciate your list of areas to dive deeper into. I did notice that they seemed to be mostly situated in Northern Delaware. After looking at your LLC's website, this makes sense. While doing more due diligence, I realized that the Air Force base in Dover would likely be a driver for the rental market in Kent County. Do you have any insight in this regard?

If you would be open to it, I would love to be able to pick your brain a little more via PM. I am new to REI and have read extensively on the subject. I just have far less real world experience.

Thanks again,

Eric

Hello!

I am looking to invest in Delaware as an out of state investor looking for SFR to buy and hold. I'm choosing Delaware because I currently live overseas and will have family who are looking to retire in the state of Delaware. They will act as my "boots on the ground" to help keep an eye on area trends and what not. I've been trying to determine the good markets in Delaware but am finding that assessing the areas to be quite challenging mostly due to the small population size and the ease which people can commute to and from other states for things like work and fun.

Some brief criteria I'm looking for are

1. 3+ bed 2+ bath, 1/2+ acre lot
2. B to B+ area
3. Decent schools
4. Not in a college area as I don't want to deal with the college age population.
5. Consistent population growth
6. Consistent median income growth

What areas are good places to start diving deep into?   I dove into the Millsboro area and based on what I'm seeing, the rental market seems pretty weak.  I compared some recently sold homes (past 90 days) to roughly match the few houses I could find for rent.  I cannot seem to make those sold homes cash flow unless I use some aggressively low estimates (4-5%) on things like maintenance and cap ex and knock $20k or so off the purchase price.  That being said, that is using Zillow.  Once I get my familiar with a 2-3 areas I plan on reaching out to a real estate agent that came recommended to help find some better deals.

Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.