All Forum Posts by: Jim S

Watch out for condo fees as they might eat all your profit up. Some older condos might have $500 per month in condo fees. Also, Baltimore has certain pockets that are more desirable for long term buy and hold. There are some very attractive deals based on initial cost vs cash flow. I found a property in Baltimore that cost $99,000 and was a 6 unit building probably grossing $3000/month. The tenants are probably going to be your biggest issues.

This is where knowing what you can pay for a property and still make the profit you need.

They can essentially do what they want. The current ploy is for the bank to ask for "highest and best". I made an offer on a property that was on the market for over 100 days. 2 days later I received the highest and best response. There was little chance that magically after 100 days that someone else submitted an offer. I held firm and got the property. I think it's just a way to try to jack us for more $$.

What loan rates are you seeing on commercial property loans through banks?
Just got a quote of 5.5% for a 25 year ammortization. 5 year call. It's for warehouses.

Wouldn't it be easier, less potential liability and less damage if you just stated "No Pets"?
We have not been allowing pets for 5 years and it hasn't hurt our ability to rent our properties.

No jail time. They should penalize them by forcing them to go out and remove all the bandit signs in the area for a weekend as a community service.

Chris Clothier You are correct about inexperienced appraisers. My parents had 3 appraisals on one of their homes in 6 months. 2 due to a bank screw up and the 3rd on another refinance due to continually dropping rates. There was a huge spread in the values of 1.8M, 1.2 M and 990K. The house is located in a very desirable and popular area. For what it's worth, no pun intended, I believe it's really worth 1.5M.
Even with my primary residence, if you go across the main road out of the neighborhood, the same size house is worth 30% less.

That's a great example of why I don't allow pets in any of my units. Absolutely no good ever comes from renters and their pets. Even an extra pet deposit will never cover the cost pet damages to carpet and padding plus potential liability dog bites.

I used legal zoom.com to establish my last LLC. Went very smooth and easy.

This should get interesting