All Forum Posts by: Nate P.

The National Fire Protection Association website has some good educational information and best practices for homeowners: NFPA - Preparing homes for wildfire

A friend in a wildfire-friendly area of California uses a product called Phos-Chek, although I couldn't speak to it other than that. 

@Josh Banwart not a one-stop-shop but you could check out the facebook group Expat Home Owners Germany. It probably could address some basic questions and maybe you could find some folks in your area to network with.  

Hi Chiayu! I'm also new to real estate and am looking into hiring a CPA this year. I was referred by an accountant friend to Hughes Szuberla in Oceanside for their experience with residential real estate. I got a good feel from the initial consultation with respect to them being investor friendly, for example the CPA I spoke to said that their clients often run deals by them before closing to foresee any tax implications. That said I haven't actually worked with them yet so I'll be following along as well to see if others have recommendations for investor-friendly CPAs in the area. Good luck!

Also to anyone else reading this, not sure why it didn't occur to me before but my day job is as a fire protection engineer. If anyone wants a second opinion about an issue you're dealing with with fire inspections, egress, fire alarm, sprinkler, change of use, etc. that's my space so feel free to ask. I'm pretty well equipped to talk about code requirements, less so about cost. 

Hey Seth! Very cool, DC is great. My sister lives there and I'm trying to convince her to house hack a place, probably in SW/SE/Anacostia area. 

Thanks for the recommendation, just figured out how to access the Sun through the VPN so I can tab it. I've seen some other folks on here recommend bizjournals although that seems to require a subscription. I was listening to a podcast recently which led me to justicemap.org, not really sure the best way to apply it yet but it has some really cool data. 

To your question, preferably Class B for both but if I get too fancy price may become a limiting factor. If I had to choose I would probably stick with Class B for property and give up a little on the neighborhood. Reason being lack of rehab experience. That said, this is all assuming I'm in a deal by myself. I've been talking about Baltimore real estate for all of 7 days and come across a friend who also wants to get started and has a contractor in the family who's been doing flips in and around Baltimore for years. A good partnership with an experienced rehabber/contractor would make me consider different types of deals with rehab scope or value-add concepts.

Guten morgen Baltimore,

This is my inaugural post to the forum here and maybe even BP, although I've been consuming content for the past few years. The rest of this post is a little introduction about myself as I plan on getting involved in Baltimore real estate this upcoming year, and hopefully collaborate with some of you along the way!

Background:
Grew up in Ellicott City, graduated from UMD, and spent the next 5 years working in San Diego. I closed on a fix and flip SFH property in San Diego in February this year. It was basically a house hack until I accepted a job offer in Germany, so now I'm an expatriate and a California landlord. I work a civilian government job which is alright (get paid to live in Europe) but it still feels like work so I'd like to stop doing that. Lots of family and friends in the DMV area, I normally visit 1-2 times each year.

Short-Term Goals - as of 3:30pm CEST on Sunday, November 8, 2020:
Obtain net $500/mo. passive income stream by 2022.
- When looking for deals cash flow is going to be my top priority. Appreciation is swell but that's not what I'm focused on right now, especially since San Diego already offers some diversity and opportunity there. The immediate need is securing quit my job money. BRRRR concept is appealing but I consider it riskier due to my inexperience. Maybe this changes in a year.
- Targeting Class B, maybe C, SFH or MFH rental property for buy-and-hold at a sub-$300k price point.
Do one deal per year while I'm overseas (3-5 more years).

Strategy & Risk Mentality:

I'm very comfortable with taking on debt and the long-term prognosis of real estate as an investment. I'm not comfortable financially committing to situations that I'm uneducated about with people I don't know. I plan to take the next 6-12 months while I rebuild capital to educate myself about the local market and develop relationships in the city. My general attitude is that knowledge is the best form of risk mitigation, so if I've done the research, the numbers meet my goals, and I've surrounded myself with smart and experienced people then risk goes way down. 

Regarding Baltimore and my personal circumstances, I'm aware that there will be significant challenges e.g. the block-by-block nature of the city, tenant-friendly laws, finding reliable agents/property managers/contractors/lenders as an out of state investor. While I don't intend to make any bad deals, I look at these first few deals just as much as an investment in my real estate education as they are in my portfolio. I don't expect deals to be perfect or easy and I welcome that, even look forward to taking some hard knocks. Maybe I'll regret saying that. 

The End:

So that's all! What is your top one resource for a new-to-Baltimore, out-of-state, buy-and-hold investor? 

Thanks in advance for welcoming me and I look forward to engaging with the community here! Comments/questions/connections are all appreciated, tell me how dumb my plan is, anything goes. 

If anybody wants to have a zoombeer and talk about how good the ravens are that is something I always have time for. 

Prost, 

Nate