All Forum Posts by: John W.

I have a holdover tenant I'm taking to court next month, and they are counter-suing me for rent escrow. Are there any attorney's out there in BP-land experienced with representing landlords in Anne Arundel County? TIA!

@Will Barnard Just speaking from my experience. I sued a landlord once for withholding an obscene amount of a security deposit. Long story short I got hosed. To be fair it was on the opposite coast - Virginia. And I'm not familiar with California law. Either way, my point remains the same. Wasting time over $500 or $1000 just isn't worth the headache. 

Depends on your goals. What will an index fund return? 2-3% at best? You may be better off investing in something like AT&T currently forward yielding about 7.5%. Then you deal with the fluctuations of the stock price. Or do you want a hard asset that has the possibility to return 10, 15, or maybe even 20% a year or more? To be fair if you then need access to the equity it will cost you. And you have to deal with the ups and downs of property management unless you farm that out. There's no right answer. Just what's right for you, and only you can answer that. In my humble opinion, you'll probably be alright either way you go. 

The amount of time after the 21 days is irrelevant. If the apartment is dirty or needs fixing you'll lose. Cut your losses and move on to greener pastures. Ask me how I know. 

Hi All! I'm curious if anyone has any recommendations for a CPA in Anne Arundel County, MD. I'm looking for someone that does tax planning and preparation as well as having experience with clients with multiple properties. I appreciate your help!

Just tell the kid to knock it off, but tactfully. It doesn't matter if the kid is 2 or 12. I don't mind parenting other people's kids if the parents aren't going to do it. Protect your property first. 

I like the idea of a percentage of the portfolio. Say you have $1,000,000 worth of properties, you might keep 5% in reserves. So $50,000. Maybe that's overkill. I think the bigger your portfolio gets the smaller percentage you could have. To me, if you have enough to cover a new roof for the property, you're in good shape. That much money will cover most repairs that may pop up. 

Hi Vickie, I am in a similar situation. I prefer low risk, and don't have time to rehab a property (I have a full time job and a family to care for). My plan is to do whatever is cheapest, whether it be a HELOC or Home Equity Loan. I'm not very familiar with refinancing but I don't like the idea of paying a bunch of fees and having nothing to show for it if it's not necessary. In my mind, slow and steady wins the race, and I'm not in a huge rush to get as many properties as I can under my belt. I go for quality over quantity. Hope this helps.

@Aaron K. and @Jerry Padilla, thanks for the feedback. I figured I would leverage the property one way or another and start working to expand to 5-10 SFRs. Would I just keep leveraging every time I get a little more equity? 

My fault for not being descriptive enough. I'm curious if it make sense to take a home equity loan to buy another property. Or is there a better way? Ultimately I'm looking to expand. But I don't have any capital. Just a fully paid for property. So what is the best way to leverage that to be able to buy more properties?