All Forum Posts by: Kyle Deutschmann

Quote from @Hector Rodas:

Hello,

I am 27 years old. Military vet with two properties using VA and conventional loan both in the state of Maryland. They are both rented out and I have interest rates on both less than 4%. I have equity of close to 100k on one of the properties. I want to continue investing and building a portfolio but I do not know what the best option is. I don't think cash out would be wise and helocs concern me because of current interest rates. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Is either primary? Tower federal credit Union I heard is offering up to 100% LTV on their HELOCs, not sure if they're currently offering that still or not.

Other banks offer investment property HELOCs, but rarely over 80% LTV.

If you can access that cash you can use another conventional or a DSCR loan to buy the next deal then refi once rates come down. That's my plan at least / what I'm currently doing.

Quote from @Darryl Ribeiro Sr.:

Looking for some advice on solar companies. I have recently purchased a 4 unit. I am living in one and will rent out the others. I used to have sunrun for a solar company at my old place. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for us. I recently spoke with momentum. They are offering a 25 year lease with no out of pocket cost or maintenance fees. 2.9% annual raise. 

 I would recommend going with an authorized SunPower installer. SunPower and RECs are easily some of the best panels out there, and they offer a much better warranty than Tesla. They are also the only US based solar company to outlive their 25 year warranty.

I am not in your market, but I would be happy to try to put you in contact with an authorized SunPower installer in your area. 

Buying or leasing panels is a great option, both with different financial benefits. Buying = long term value, leasing or PPAs = immediate cash flow savings while going green and helping the environment. 

Quote from @Natasha Shamoon:

Hi! I am looking for a hard money cash out refi on a property of mine in Baltimore that is ground rent..any advice or references?

 Hey Natasha, I live in Baltimore and know some good local hard money lenders I could connect you with. I'll send you a DM. 

Quote from @Ryan Cretens:

@Kyle Deutschmann doesn't matter the location. 

I work for a licensed, master-certified (and NABCEP certified) SunPower and REC installer in DC, MD, and VA. We're also an authorized "home performance"/energy efficiency contractor for our local utilities BGE and PEPCO. Happy to chat if that's who you're looking for.

Quote from @Phillip J Cole:

Quote from @Kyle Deutschmann:

Quote from @Phillip J Cole:

Quote from @Sara Frank:

Quote from @Paul Georgia:

That's not good at all. PG County is horrible!

Are there exceptions for things like traveling nurses?

 Baltimore City has the same laws. I rent mine on a MTR basis and love it. Typical nursing contract is 13 weeks so 90 day requirement is fine 

Hi Sara and Bonnie. Quick question. I am in process of performing due diligence to set up a similar MTR business model in MD near hospitals and traveling nurses, doctors, caregivers will be my ideal customer. So that I understand correctly, as long as the bookings are greater than 30 days the STR limitations and permitting etc. do not apply because a booking of longer than 30 days is no longer an STR do you agree?

"In Baltimore City, a Short-Term Rental is a rental of all or a portion of your home for periods of less than 90 nights. Both hosted (owner-occupied) and un-hosted (non-owner occupied) units must be registered and licensed.

In order to obtain a rental license to rent your home as Short-Term Rental, the property must; (1) be your principal residence; (2) be deeded in your name (the name of an individual, not a company); and (3) be free of any code violations.

The Baltimore City Council passed Ordinance 19-217 (Council Bill 18-0189) establishing several requirements for Short-Term rentals, including the licensing of such units. These requirements can be found in the Baltimore City Code Article 15, Licensing and Regulation, Subtitle 48, Short-Term Residential Rentals.

All Short-Term rentals must be licensed. about Short-Term rentals and how to obtain a new Short-Term rental license."

 https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/short-term-rentals-0

Thanks. I meant to write 90 days in my original comment not 30. Ive found this language in all of the DMV counties I have researched for STR ordinances except for Frederick County MD so far which makes it challenging to start up a Medium Term Rentals business in the DMV area but could possibly still work with 90 day or longer bookings. Are you familiar if there are any counties near the DMV that are STR or MTR friendly in terms of ordinances. I have been doing my own research county by county for all MD, DC, and VA counties I have only found 1 or 2 so far and they are pretty far out.

I would guess Ocean City and near Deep Creak and areas like that might be more STR friendly, but I don't own anything there so I haven't done the research.. The problem with OC is rising insurance rates and a lot of competition in the summer months when you make most of your money. The problem (I've heard) about Deep Creak is the prices went up so much it's hard to cash flow now.

For medium term rentals, 90 days minimum isn't crazy for a travel nurse or young/corporate traveler like a consultant or someone staying in the city to be near family at one of the hospitals and need a longer term stay vs. a hotel.  It's a strategy I've been considering for my next rental. 

Quote from @Ryan Cretens:

Any local solar ground mount or alternative renewable energy land developers out there?

 Yessir! However, not in your market unfortunately.

However, I'd be happy to try to put you in touch with an authorized SunPower installer in your area, if you are looking for someone local.

Quote from @Al Seward:

My wife and I want to Househack in Baltimore City Maryland. The plan is to live there a year or so with other tenants. Then rent the property. We are looking for a 4 unit. We have heard both good and bad things about Baltimore. Negatives are the crime and and stagnant appreciation values. Positives are the possible cash flow. We are new to all of this is therr anyone who would share some advice, perhaps some Baltimore city investors?

Thanks

AI

 Lots of great advice here overall. For reference, I have lived all over Baltimore on and off since 2017 and just bought my third property here. My comments... 

1) Not all of Baltimore is bad; however, you definitely are taking a risk buying here. There IS crime, the property taxes are high, the insurance rates are high, etc. One part of Pigtown I consider 'safe'. The other half... questionable/block-by-block. Even in the 'safe' areas, there is crime that I have witnessed. You need to have some street smarts and just be cautious. I have never personally been robbed, and I've walked around North Ave, Leakin Park, Carroll Park, Cherry Hill/Middle Branch Park, Lake Montebello, etc..

2) Baltimore is kind of like a low cost penny stock that you hope will 'pop' some day. I personally think that day is coming soon.. The inner harbor is getting redeveloped, both the O's (assuming they sign a new lease) and Ravens are both getting $600 million in renovation funds to upgrade the stadiums, we're about to have our second new concert venue open after CFG Bank Arena was recently opened last year. The convention center is back to pre-pandemic levels, Port Covington (poorly re-branded as "Baltimore Peninsula") is almost done where Under Armour is building a new headquarters, the huge Westport development that hasn't even broken ground yet, a new Top Golf, half a dozen new breweries, and one of the most affordable metro areas in the North East.

3) As everyone else said already, finding a good 4 unit property will be difficult and it's difficult to use an FHA 203k loan for that type of property due to 'self-sufficiency tests' (ask your lender to explain that).

However, you could probably find a row home with a basement with a separate door that you could rent to a long term or short term tenant. I have only done long term rentals, but I know other investors doing short and medium term rentals (medium term generally renting to travel nurses at Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Medical Center, Mercy Hospital, etc.). 

Feel free to reach out if I can help direct you to the right resources and vendors I've used. 

Quote from @Phillip J Cole:

Quote from @Sara Frank:

Quote from @Paul Georgia:

That's not good at all. PG County is horrible!

Are there exceptions for things like traveling nurses?

 Baltimore City has the same laws. I rent mine on a MTR basis and love it. Typical nursing contract is 13 weeks so 90 day requirement is fine 

Hi Sara and Bonnie. Quick question. I am in process of performing due diligence to set up a similar MTR business model in MD near hospitals and traveling nurses, doctors, caregivers will be my ideal customer. So that I understand correctly, as long as the bookings are greater than 30 days the STR limitations and permitting etc. do not apply because a booking of longer than 30 days is no longer an STR do you agree?

"In Baltimore City, a Short-Term Rental is a rental of all or a portion of your home for periods of less than 90 nights. Both hosted (owner-occupied) and un-hosted (non-owner occupied) units must be registered and licensed.

In order to obtain a rental license to rent your home as Short-Term Rental, the property must; (1) be your principal residence; (2) be deeded in your name (the name of an individual, not a company); and (3) be free of any code violations.

The Baltimore City Council passed Ordinance 19-217 (Council Bill 18-0189) establishing several requirements for Short-Term rentals, including the licensing of such units. These requirements can be found in the Baltimore City Code Article 15, Licensing and Regulation, Subtitle 48, Short-Term Residential Rentals.

All Short-Term rentals must be licensed. about Short-Term rentals and how to obtain a new Short-Term rental license."

 https://dhcd.baltimorecity.gov/short-term-rentals-0

Quote from @Kyle Deutschmann:

Quote from @Jack Seiden:

Also in the holiday spirit we are asking that you donate one of your properties to someone less fortunate, in lieu of that we will also accept canned and non-perishable food items.

 In the spirit of "Giving Tuesday", I will match each canned food item (up to 50 cans) and will drop off all of our canned good donations to the Maryland Food Bank: https://mdfoodbank.org/

Homelessness and hunger are always a problem, but I've noticed it become much worse in the Baltimore/DC area over the past few years. Let's do what we can to help out the people in the communities we invest in. 

In lieu of a canned good, please consider donating money here: https://mdfoodbank.fenly.org/teams/biggerpocket-central-md-rei-social/

T-minus 2 days! Don’t forget to invite your local investors, realtors, title agents, lenders, insurance guys, contractors, etc! 

We chose this location to attract investors all the way from Baltimore to Northern VA. Come join us for our final meetup of the year!

looks like we have about 20 people registered on the meetup.com page along with a few others who have yet to RSVP. 

Quote from @Kal Wol:

Hello awesome BPs.

I in the process of planning to rent the rooms of the townhouse, 3BR 2.5Bath with basement. This is in montgomery MD. I wanted to know if there are any legal things I need to know regarding how many people can be rented out in the house? The basement is a walkout and based on what I gathered if it has an external exit, this one doesn't have a window just door, it shall be treated as bedroom provided I provide a closet. I am also thinking to rent the basement.

Also, anything to be aware of regarding the common area sharing, in this case laundry and kitchen? I am just asking to see for anything that I should be looking for from the legal, insurance and some other angle that I should be aware before i jump into it with the assumption someone has already gone with this and have some insight. 

As always, thanks in advance.

 Hey Kal Wol - this would be a good question for the Maryland Investors Network on Facebook. Every county is different... in PG county the last I checked you can have up to 5 unrelated occupants. Baltimore City it's 4. Baltimore County 2. I don't own in MoCo, so I don't know that market in particular, but a smart real estate agent or investor in MoCo could probably tell you pretty quickly how many unrelated occupants you can legally have in your home. Or a local real estate attorney. 

There is definitely an extra layer of liability that you get, however, the benefit is that you typically earn more per room vs. renting the entire house as one unit. Is it worth the headache? Up to you to decide.. In terms of legal considerations/liability - how will you prove who broke something in the living room? Is everyone equally responsible then or how is that worded in the lease? What happens if you have a roommate dispute? 

You should definitely talk to a good insurance broker to ensure you have the proper coverage for your strategy. Happy to put you in contact with the broker I've been using recently.