All Forum Posts by: Scott McClelland

Did you contact the condo HOA about the situation? I had a similar situation happen to me and the HOA came in, assessed the damage, and compensated me for the repairs. They then charged the upper unit for the repairs. If it is bad enough they may help with any inconveniences for the tenant.

I also compensated the tenant for their energy bill since they had to run industrial dryers for a couple of days to dry everything out. Small cost to me and it went a long way with the tenant. I also let them pick out the new carpet (within a price range).

You listed a bunch of the big ones. Appliance repair and troubleshooting would be helpful as well (can't tell you how many times I hear the dryer is working properly, etc.). Also if you can repair and replace carpet cheaper than the big name stores many landlords would jump at the opportunity to have you replace the carpet during tenant changeovers while you are doing all the other maintenance.

I get the XRF testing done on all my properties built before 1978. Only 1 was built between 1950 and 1978 (1970s) and came out lead free. I like to be pro-active and do more than is absolutely necessary.

So far the XRF has only come up with lead areas that were small or easy to cover (encapsulate). It was easy to remove a little trim, an interior door, etc. I have also had to encapsulate a few areas with drywall or Luan but that was relatively painless. Annoying but painless.

If you get a very large affected area you can get a certified lead paint abatement contractor to quote you for abatement. You can also choose to just perform the dust swipe test and leave it at that if it passes (the swipes should pass unless you have areas of peeling lead paint in which case you should bite the bullet and fix this). It shouldn't be difficult to find very bad areas since lead paint has a shiny sheen to it similar to high gloss paint. If it is an area that normally uses flat paint and it shines and is peeling, you probably have an issue.

Scott

I believe they are going to expand the law shortly for Baltimore so that all homes built before 1978 will need to be tested for lead paint. If you don't do it now I'm sure you will need to in a year or two.

When you do get it tested you have two routes. You can do the dust wipes for the full-risk reduction or use the XRF gun to test for lead-free certification. The dust wipes are easier to pass since you can have lead paint in the house but as long as there isn't a high reading of lead dust you will pass. The downside to it is that it costs a couple hundred bucks and you need to re-test at ever tenant changeover.

When testing for lead-free an XRF gun is used to determine lead paint concentrations on different surfaces. The inspector will be able to tell you exactly where the lead paint is. I do this and if there are any lead paint affected areas that are small and not difficult to remove, encapsulate, etc. I have them taken care of. The inspector will then come back and ensure the lead paint is gone. Once it is lead-free you get your cert. and no longer need to perform any further testing. This is much easier to do when the property is vacant.

Also I believe if a high-risk tenant decides to move in to your property you need to have it tested as well. I'm also not sure about the risk to you if you don't get tested. I doubt that you could be 100% free of risk by saying "I didn't know of any lead paint because I didn't have it tested". You should get legal advice on this or just contact the MDE lead paint group and they could probably tell you exactly what you should be doing.

Hope this helps - Scott

Ned, Thanks for the info. I still find this unusual and difficult to enforce. I have never had to remove anything in a room greater than 6 sq feet (I have encapsulated areas that size but I can't see that as disturbing). The only way the state would be able to find out what I did would be to pull the lead-free cert., call the inspector, ask for the previous report (if there is one and the inspector complies), review it, and finally go out to the property to determine the size of the areas removed. This sounds impossible.

Also they wouldn't know my contractor unless I did more than cosmetic fixes which would require a permit (we don't pull permits to replace window and door trim). They would most likely just view my lead-free certificate and move on.

I think this is mostly just for large flippers who do many large rehab projects.

Small banks are the way to go. I got a loan for less than $50k about 2 months ago for a rental (20% down). Send me a private message if you want the information of the bank and contact I use.

Scott

I'm a little confused by this. I am not worried about my rental properties because I spend the extra money to get them all lead-free and registered with the state. My concern is over my contractor. He is licensed but I seriously don't he has any EPA certification.

I never considered this a huge issues because the majority of lead paint is on doors, door frames, window sills, etc. To remove the lead paint we just removed the door, frame, etc. and replace with new. Not really disturbing any of the paint. We also can encapsulate it by covering it with drywall, luan, or aluminum sheathing on the exterior but again this doesn't really disturb the lead paint.

Should I lean on my contractor to get certified or am I reading into this too much? The MDE and EPA websites are both vague and only mention getting certified and disclosing to tenants which I do.

Thanks,

Scott

I would run through a wall for a good tenant. Take good care of them and they will take good care of you.

Scott

I always lean towards cashflow. My goal is to find properties that have strong cashflow and that I can purchase for 20% below market value. This allows you to have some built in equity/appreciation. This also makes the property attractive to other investors if you wish to sell in the future and are not 100% confident in someone purchasing a primary residence in the area.

Eric,

I saw your e-mail for this property and have received your yellow postcard in the mail (I liked the yellow postcard by the way...it definitely perked my interest to take a second look at the property).

The first issue is that it doesn't appear to be in the greatest area (I would have to visit the property to confirm since I don't do much investing in West Baltimore). Also based off of your photos I believe the repair costs would be higher than $15k. The backyard overhang looks in bad shape so I would assume the roof is not the greatest either. I also see A/C window units so I know there is no central air and would assume a new furnace is needed. The kitchen also looks like it needs to be completely done.

It could be a decent investment but there isn't much to get me excited about the property. I just see a bunch of work and a good bit of time and money for an average rental return.

Good luck wholesaling the property and continue to send out your properties. I am always interested and will take a look.

Scott