All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Tavarez

Hi Damon and welcome!

To add to the conversation Banks will lend you regardless of the area as long as they can pull comps (there are some unique properties that is hard to pull comps and that's when you could run in to issues).  Also properties with structural problems are a No-No for most banks and last but not least if the mortgage you are looking for is for a property under $70K is going to be very hard to get typical financing because that's very close to the minimum amount that banks work with.  Best of luck!

Is all about the market you are buying in, the type of property and demand.  Here in Maryland there are a lots of areas where a cash offer wont make a difference because they can just wait for someone coming with a mortgage that can pay a higher price.  Cash offers are important when you have a motivated seller and a property that clearly needs work, turnkeys with good demand and specially in the current market conditions not so much.

Love the question.  The way I see it is like this:

Math 101 = $1 M

Human 101 = $10K/ Month

If I get an injection of $1M I know for a fact that I will leverage that money by buying a $4M investment and end up working even harder than before I got the $1M for the next 20/30 years of my life.  If I get the $10K/Month I wont buy more stuff that anyway I don't need, will adjust my expenses accordingly and I believe at the end of the day I will find a much more peaceful life.  More is not always best, $10K a month should be enough to have a great life. 

Welcome to the exiting world of real estate!!

I'm an investor in the DMV area as well, take a look at MAREIA they have a good community of investors as well.

Best of luck and feel free to reach out with any questions

For flips you will need cash (almost anywhere in DMV we are talking $150K++) there is a good amount of competition even at these crazy prices and a lot of people with much more experience and cash, just saying to get a deal on a flip in the DMV you need to look off-market. My best advice look for a HUD home, most of them dont allow investors to buy for a certain period of time, thats where you could get a good deal, move to the property fix it up and house hack. Good luck!

If your budget is $700K (I'm assuming that's cash) and you are not attached to a location pleaaaase don't buy in DC lol.  I just think there is so much more that you can do with that capital, I mean I don't know your goals but there are tons of places you can buy right now (Frederick, Laurel, Baltimore (Canton and Federal Hill), Columbia, Silver Spring) where you can buy for half the prices of DC and create cash flow or equity or whatever it is that you want.  To me buying in DC right now is like buying Tesla stock in this market, sure it can keep going up but the chances are against you (I love Tesla but you get my point).  Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to reach out.

Talking from personal experience there is probably not much you can do, reach to the county, explain the situation and see if they will lower the unpaid balance.  Legally there is no liability for the tenant, same for the previous owner.  In one of my properties something similar happen, we even proved that the issue was the water meter and after almost 3 months of back and forth, many many calls and crazy frustration the county gave us some credit and we had to pay almost the entire bill ($850 plus almost $400 extra for plumbers to check potential water licks from the main line and toilets).  Best of luck!

I would say give @Stephen Kehoe a chance, he does property management in Baltimore, let him handle the situation and if he gets it resolved then give him your business.  Just saying the guy is offering to take care of your problem (or at least try) sounds like a win-win to me.  Best of luck!

Also find a way to stop the payments to the property management company, that should get their attention.

Hi BP fam,

Recently I went to see this property seating on almost one acre and in the lot there is the main house and then a separate structure made of cinder block of around 1300 sqft (has kitchen plumbing, ceilings are around 12 feet tall, no bathroom, no electrical) and my interest in submitting an offer is the idea of making that second cinder block structure in to another house.  I check the zoning and there could be up to 5 properties in one acre so I dont think zoning will be a problem but can I really just finish up that cinder block structure and make it a house?  What things do I need to consider before I get this under contract?

For those interested in the actual data go search for “Black Knight forbearance tracker”, but long story short as of right now forbearance is declining so don’t expect a massive correction any time soon.