All Forum Posts by: Kyle Deutschmann

Quote from @Corby Goade:

Quote from @Kyle Johnson:

Hello All,

I'm just curious. Will getting solar add any value, marketing and/or rental value to your SFH rental? Is it worth doing?

I can see it may add some marketing value but that's it. Curious if other have done this if they have a SFH rental.

If you ask a solar salesperson, they'll tell you it adds all kinds of value, but I've never heard of anyone getting any value out at the sale of the home. In my market, it makes them harder to sell, at best. If your tenants pay utilities, I'm not sure why you'd take on that debt. 

I can share several addresses of homes that sold with MORE with solar on the FRONT of your roof. 

My family owned a house and sold for $40k over list price with solar visible from the front… about 10% over list price. Please explain how this didn’t add value? We had 5 offers and sold in a bidding war way before this crazy marketing starting in 2020… 

Quote from @Jonathan R McLaughlin:

a bit like @James Hamling we have work with at least a few populations where there would be a perceived social benefit. We have looked at it, and looked at it....and can't make it work.  With any kind of financing you are essentially adding a lein to the property which has to be assumed or paid off. We have very good accountants who could maximize the tax benefit...still no. Its just not financially viable for us to put that much cash up front. Oh, and every single energy savings estimate we have gotten has been inflated.

Exception? We would definitely buy a home that had it installed if the seller took the hit and paid off the loan or knocked the price down accordingly. May have to wait for a different market cycle.

 I'm not in your market... but in our market we can provide Solar Power Purchase Agreements (similar to a lease), where you lock in a rate for your electricity, coming from clean, green energy on your roof. You can pay as little as $0 down, pay $0 in maintenance, take out $0 in loans, and simply lock in a rate for electricity for 25 years. 

Utility rates have gone up an average of ~4% per year over the past 30 years, and in my area I have noticed my bills go up about 30% from when I bought just a few years ago. 

I had a client that I was able to lower his electricity bill from $315/month on average down to $175/month on average. What tenant wouldn't like that? Plus a FIXED rate, not a variable utility rate. You already locked in a 30 year rate on your mortgage (I assume). Why not lock in a 25 year rate on your electricity 

Happy to chat sometime if you'd like to learn more! 

Also if you buy panels from us, none of our lenders put a lien on your home... sorry for all the mis-information out there or bad solar companies giving us a bad reputation.

Quote from @Kyle Johnson:

Hello All,

I'm just curious. Will getting solar add any value, marketing and/or rental value to your SFH rental? Is it worth doing?

I can see it may add some marketing value but that's it. Curious if other have done this if they have a SFH rental.

Solar can absolutely add value to your home, but it does depend a bit on your market in terms of local incentives as well as local utility rates compared to solar energy rates.. Here are a few ways solar pays for itself and hands down adds value to your home as long as you install good panels from a good contractor...

1) For primary & secondary homes, you can get 30% of the investment into solar back on your federal income tax returns (assuming you qualify)

2) Some states like Maryland have an extra $1000 rebate on top of that. 

3) 8 states including DC, MD, and VA have a Solar Renewable Energy Credit/Certificate Market (SREC) where you can earn passive income by selling your SRECS to the utility companies (through a broker) to meet local 'green' regulations.

4) If you don't want to buy the panels (or take out a loan) you can do a SunPower Power Purchase Agreement where you put $0 down, pay $0 in maintenance, and simply lock in a lower rate vs. the utility company for 25 years. Some other company's solar leases are non-transferrable. SunPower's PPA's are indeed transferrable to the next homeowner. Or you can include them in the cost of your home sale and the next homeowner simply owns the panels. 

5) According to a Zillow study, homes with solar sold for about 4.1% more than homes without solar. 

Feel free to reach out if you have any further questions about going solar and how it can add value to your home. My parents sold their home for about 10% over list price in 2014 and again in 2019 with solar on the FRONT of their roof (visible from the street).

Quote from @Mack K Everly:

Hello, everyone

I recently moved to the Rockville-Gaithersburg area. I am actively and aggressively saving money towards buying a place that I can house-hack in some way (e.g., place with a walk-out basement that could be sealed off from the rest of the house and reno'd into an apartment; place with extra land where I could establish an ADU/tiny-house for rent; or a multi-family where I can rent out the other units). Obviously the usual frustrations are in the way with the high interest rates and nearly inaccessible price of entry to the housing market, but I'm a firm believer that where there's a will there's a way. To that end, I would love to connect with local RE professionals and investors. Are there any meetups in the Rockville or Gaithersburg area?

Thanks and I hope to meet some of you in person soon!

My post was removed by a moderator as I am apparently not allowed to post a link to meetups in this forum, so please message me if you need a new link for our Central MD meetup in Laurel. Or I’d suggest posting in the proper forum for more responses. 

Quote from @Mack K Everly:

Hello, everyone

I recently moved to the Rockville-Gaithersburg area. I am actively and aggressively saving money towards buying a place that I can house-hack in some way (e.g., place with a walk-out basement that could be sealed off from the rest of the house and reno'd into an apartment; place with extra land where I could establish an ADU/tiny-house for rent; or a multi-family where I can rent out the other units). Obviously the usual frustrations are in the way with the high interest rates and nearly inaccessible price of entry to the housing market, but I'm a firm believer that where there's a will there's a way. To that end, I would love to connect with local RE professionals and investors. Are there any meetups in the Rockville or Gaithersburg area?

Thanks and I hope to meet some of you in person soon!

Come out to our meetup in Laurel coming up. The previous host chose this location due to being central to both DC and Baltimore: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/1147707-cent...

Hello fellow investors and lenders...

Do you know of any banks, credit unions, or private lenders offering financing for solar panels (or other home improvement projects)? 

I work in solar energy sales, and I'm looking for additional lenders to send clients to. 

For any private lenders interested in getting into solar loans... these are solid loan products. We have a few preferred lenders currently who offer varying secured and unsecured loans with terms from 1-25 years. Par rates without paying large upfront fees/points are similar to HELOC rates (prime +/- 1-2%). This is better than you'll get right now in a high yield savings account and safer than lending on a fix and flip in my opinion.

If you're interested in discussing further, or if you know of a bank/credit union/lender offering this type of financing in DC, Maryland or Virginia, please let me know or comment below! 

Quote from @Kal Wol:

Very valuable information from all of you. I have taken a tour this weekend just to get the feel of it. Apparently there was some running event going on and was a bit of fun. 

I have been driving around the canton area where a whole lot of row houses are available. Most of them are from the 1904-15 ish but they seem to be in a good shape. The older pipes mentioned in the answer makes more sense. I like the area is near the water and clean, hopefully these things might attract good tenant.

The other valuable insight I see is regarding the insurance. I am thinking to have row house in canton and insurance shall be taken into consideration and if it is high, and make sense, it might eat the slim cash flow and even would make it negative.

Anyone having any issue having those row houses? Like maintenance, regulation issues does it require to have permit for internal re-modelling?

Maintenance isn’t too bad, just budget for a shorter life span on your flat roof compared to a shingle roof. 

I’ve never personally had to evict a tenant, but I’ve heard that can be a nightmare in Baltimore so screening and getting good tenants is key. You likely won’t have as big of an issue with this if you’re sticking to an area like Canton though. 

also keep in mind you’ll need both a lead inspection/register with MDE and a Baltimore city rental inspection. I know a good inspector that does both if you need one when the time comes. 

Quote from @Maxwell Silva:

Hi. I've been wanting to do some renovations since I bought my home 3 years ago, but put it off. Now I'm a little hesitant due to higher interest rates. Would a HELOC be the best best option here or is there some sort of other creative finance I can look into? Mortgage balance is around $390k and value should be around $650-$700 maybe. If HELOC is best way to go, is there a specific bank you recommend?

How much will the home renovations cost?

other creative ways to finance a home improvement project: 401k/TSP loan, 0% interest credit cards, private lender, personal loan, fixed rate home equity loan (as opposed to variable rate HELOC)

some lenders off certain types of secured or unsecured equipment loans. With some of our solar panel lenders for example, you can go as low as ~3.99% (with a high upfront fee) up to ~9.5-10% with no or very low fee. 

hope this helps 

Quote from @Kal Wol:

Baltimore looks nice and homes are somehow affordable the way I see it. But I am not sure what area of Baltimore is good for long hold for rental properties. Any content on that part would be very helpful.

Also what else do you think the investor should know regarding tax, legal and things related to the tenant in the great city of Baltimore. It seems most of the homes are older and wondering what insurance policies would look like also

So if someone can shade some light on these and general Baltimore related investment, that would be great. 

It's hard to answer this question without knowing what sort of budget, risk tolerance, etc. you're working with. I know investors making money in the 'nice' areas like Canton, Fed Hill, etc. and others making money in areas with $100-175k homes. 

Anything near the water is probably the most likely to maintain (or grow) in value, but will be harder to cash flow especially at today's mortgage rates. Being close to a hospital (such as Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Medical Center, Mercy, etc.), a school (UMB, JHU, MICA, etc.), the stadiums, or another anchor employer will help ensure steady tenants will need housing there. Other areas like Upper Fells, near Druid Hill park, and Pigtown I personally believe will improve over time for various reasons.

As others have said, Baltimore has the highest property tax rate in the state (which I hope they eventually change...) and high rate of crime, so you need to be careful and understand where you're buying. Insurance rates are also high because if your neighbor's row home catches fire, there's a good chance yours will too so insurance carriers have to account for that risk. 

That being said, it's not all bad here. We've got great restaurants, sports, water views, and it's much more affordable than living in neighboring cities like DC. 

Quote from @Jack Seiden:

Me and @Kyle Deutschmann are proud to bring back Central MD REI Social. A truly informal meetup of investors of all types and experience levels, No sales pitches (In fact I might talk you out of buying), Good Food, Good Beer and Great People! Come hang out with us!

Thanks for getting this posted Jack! Looking forward to getting everyone together again. 

For anyone who hasn’t come before, we used to average 15-25 people per meetup including investors, agents, lenders, flippers, and first time home buyers. It’s a casual event with no speaker or hidden agenda. Just an opportunity to talk about real estate over a beverage or two since our friends and family are sick of hearing us talk about it!