All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Cheston

@Anne Gel you got it. Let me know if you want to connect. I'm also a realtor as well as an investor.

Hi All,

I have a connection out in Indiana Orange County that is looking to sell some land. I'm Maryland based and don't know much about the area or market. All terms flexible and right now it's just a conversation. Let me know.

Hi @Anne Gel

Kinda wild seeing this post. Hadn’t bought my first property yet at that point.

I ended up breaking contract because of the roof but the short answer is that if you are going to rent a room in a basement it needs to have egress. In that situation I probably would have paid a contract to install an egress window. Hope that helps.

 @Jerome Thompson, yeah it's easy to feel stuck at this stage in the game. That second or third house is a big leap sometimes but you're close. Honestly my advice is to go to meetups and network with more experienced investors in Baltimore. There's a ton of meetups and mostly for free. It's a gold mine and it's full of investors who just want to see other people succeed. I can go on about other avenues for your situation but it sounds like you need to find your own way and what you gravitate towards.

Hope to see you at one of the meetups. Happy to chat further over the phone if you like. DM me. Best of luck!

 @Reva Schwob of course! hit me with a DM if you'd like to chat sometime. Always like to network with people in our market. Best of luck.

Hi @Jerome Thompson,

I've been there before myself and there's a few strategies to keeping the locomotive going. Definitely a non-exhaustive list and I'm not privy to your exact situation but hopefully this helps.

1. Is there any equity in your current property? Did you do any improvements that increased the value? If so you can look into Cash Re-Fi (not as popular these days with high rates) OR look into Home Equity Loan / Home Equity Line of Credit. I've used both and it really helps to keep your original mortgage rate but still take a little money out. It's essentially a second mortgage. This helped me get my second duplex and then it helps fund some flips I've been doing.

2. Like Brook said, if you find the deal, they will come. I personally would start with family members and ask if they would sign a promissory note with simple interest so that you can take that loan and invest in buy/holds. It may be hard to leverage that money with a lender but they are out there OR you can simply take the money and buy properties cash if the loan is big enough. Lastly, you could get them involved with the deal. This would make lenders more comfortable lending to you, but it may be a harder sell for the family member versus just a promissory note.

3. Move out of your home and buy another home. Keep the house-hack machine going and don't sell your original home. Honestly, I would do this strategy if I could but I have a partner who doesn't want to move. This is a very easy way to keep acquiring properties. Just keep buying and moving out after a year.

4. Pivot to flipping? Find hard money lenders who will lender 80-90% LTV and either refi to DSCR or sell to get some cash in your pocket.

There's unlimited amount of ways but those are a few.

Hello @Edward A Murray Jr, thank you for your service. I house-hacked a duplex in Baltimore in 2021 which really kick started my career. Happy to share learned lessons and provide some tips. Feel free to DM me.

Hello @Ade Akingbade!

I'm in your market and was in your position in few years ago. Some good thoughts already in this thread. I have some additional ones that I think will help.

1. Host an open house and tell everyone to show up then so you're not constantly coordinating with a bunch of different prospects. Give it like 2 weeks out for open house. Too far out and you won't get interest.

2. Everyone has their platforms that they love and swear by. You can use any of them. I personally like Zillow for screening and listing my units then once I have a signed lease, I move them over to Avail which is much more robust for managing tenants (if you're self-managing which I recommend starting out). Zillow is terrible for property management but good for marketing.

3. You can have criteria, but the reality is... just select the best applicant and follow the law. I tell everyone they can apply no matter what their circumstance and if they follow up with questions about why they were not selected then don't expose yourself by telling them their downfalls.

Hope this helps. Feel free to follow up with me if you have more questions. I like connecting with investors in our areas.

Hello @Reva Schwob

I'm in your market and I can say that there's no one proven method for success, but rather it needs to be an ecosystem of a little bit of everything. You need to market yourself on social media, you need to direct-mail (and have an effective strategy because everyone is direct mailing), driving for dollars, hunting on MLS, cold calling (skiptrace), going to the REI meetups and connecting, meeting with realtors, talking with wholesalers (and letting them know you're not a tire kicker), etc.

Baltimore is very relationship based as you may know so having relationships is honestly one of the best ways.

I've been doing all thee above and still I could be better. The real giants in our market do all these things well. Deals come from wherever but you gotta be putting in the work. Hope that helps!

@Elliot Mitchell - so amazing to hear your success!! Really cool to be going on this journey with you as another Baltimore investor. I'll text ya