All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Mike...Dude... do you know that LA Weekly is an entertainment newspaper? 

 :-]

Back to the reason why being on the ground in the area you invest can be beneficial.

You can be comfortable in LA on a normal salary. You just have to have different priorities than most people. If you are the kind of person that needs a new car and a big house you will be miserable in this city unless you make a ton of money. But if you are the active type that would rather spend your free time at the beach, working out, scuba diving, road biking, hiking, surfing etc then this is paradise. The funnest things to do in Cali are free.

The cost of living in Los Angeles is quite high.  The silver lining for your friend may be the government subsidies provided in California (specifically Los Angeles) are considerably more material than other areas.  I would make sure she takes full advantage of WIC, SNAPS and other State assistance programs.  There should be some housing assistance as well considering she's a single mother with 4 children.  Your friend sounds like the perfect candidate to take advantage of many of the state/city-wide programs.  Best of luck to her.

WoW . . . As someone born and raised in Baltimore, it kills me to see people comment so abrasively when their only exposure to the city is what they've seen on television or read on the internet.  Yes, it is true the city suffers from both abandoned and vacant housing and that this is a major concern and problem, as it is in most major cities, but that picture is laughable at best.  Do your homework; major revitalization is in the works and the remaining vacants don't fit into the new plan.  They're being turned into green space, torn down, or scooped up.   As investors, these are things we need to be aware of, as there are areas in Baltimore where $40k properties are now worth half a mil . . . go figure.  Heck, that's why many of these properties are in such poor condition; owners/investors refuse to sell waiting for the uptick.  It's sickening, but that's another rant. 

It's also true that in Baltimore, as in most major cities, you can find the worst of the worst, as well as the crème de la crème within miles of one another.  While two tenants should always be easier to manage than 12, at $1,395 that's considered middle class here, requiring less management and fewer headaches.  Contrary to opinion and belief, not every Baltimore City resident is poor, on drugs, irresponsible or a management headache, and you don't have to be in the trendy newer areas, to find a stable neighborhood, just have to know where to look. 

As a new investor (still waiting on that first deal), I struggle with whether to play it safe and seek these stable neighborhoods, or go for the properties with lower cost of entry that I know will pose a larger headache.  But for me, it's personal, always will be, it's not just about appreciation or cap rates, but also an investment in my city, and there's no shame in that.  I'm thinking I'll pursue both and I'd advise any serious investor to do the same.  Just my .02

 Spillage into Baltimore will eventually raise housing prices, but what concerns me are: 

(1) the amazing quantity of empty houses (16,000+)

(2) the slow rate of disposing of the empty houses (how many abandoned homes have been rehabbed or torn down in the past 5 years?)

and 

(3) the large number of houses for sale.

All of these are going to drag on appreciation and rent increases for a long time.

Look at the Zillow maps below to give you a relative sense of the number of houses for sale  in Baltimore (pop. 595,000) and Washington, DC (pop 670,000).  These screenshots show the number of houses for sale at less than $150,000 in each city, and between $150,000 and $300,000 in each city:

So Baltimore has 1,455 homes for sale at less than $150,000, while DC has 12 homes for sale in that price range:

In the $150,000 to $300,000 range, we see a similar contrast:

Baltimore has 734 homes for sale in the $150-$300,000 range, while DC has 41 for sale:

These visual comparisons illustrate that Baltimore is oversupplied with inexpensive homes, while DC essentially has no affordable homes for sale (many of the less than $300,000 listings are auctions or very small houses in disrepair).

It's currently a buyer's market for low priced homes in Baltimore, but with so many vacant homes and so many homes for sale, it looks like it will be a buyer's market for several years. 

HUD publishes an estimate of fair market rent data to give a sense of what the Section 8 program pays. For Maryland, that data shows these results for 2017 which show a 3 BR rent to be $1,769:

I will put 1.5 MM as a downpayment for a building, not to buy houses.

@Account Closed :  2 things 

1.) Glad to see Baltimore getting some love.  There is growth here in some areas, & I see a lot of continued potential for the city.

2.) What can I do to help?!  If you go with Baltimore I would love to be involved!

Originally posted by @Mike Fletcher:

Building like that are not that difficult to find here. 

Most people live where they do and how they live by choice. ..