All Forum Posts by: Richard Mollel

In the same boat as you here.

My gut feeling tells me to stay away, though numbers in some cases seem to work, infact too good to be true at times. These “good” numbers must be compensating for some kind of pain that cannot be quantified on a spreadsheet.

I would summarize it this way: If you can take the pain, the gains will come.

Greetings,

I invest 90% in Bowie as well. I have represented both home buyers and investors purchasing properties in Bowie.

Let me know the best time to reach out to understand your needs. 

Thanks

Ok, not sure about DC, but in PGC, the number you see on their website is the what they will pay, and this has an assumption that the landlord is paying all utilities. If the landlord is not paying utilities (who would, right?), then subtract a reasonable utilities cost from the gross amount, ie. $200-400/month depending on the size of the property.

As for section 8 they only pay over the top in areas with limited inventory available and high demand.
For Bowie, out of the four zip codes, 20715 & 20720 have the highest above market rents, while 20716 pays slightly below market rent, and 20721 is almost at par.

https://www.princegeorgescount...

We are in compressed cap rates in the current market, so 1% rule is harder to come by esp in the a/b class markets that tend to have higher appreciation potential.
The city likely has higher cash flow, but investing there is not for everyone. 

Personally, of the places you mentioned, I find Baltimore County the most appealing. Townhomes in Owings Mills & nearby Reisterstown have decent entry points and returns - mid 200s selling price and upto $2200-$2300 in monthly rental income. Feel free to reach out for more consultation.

Another alternative: Roll over the 401K to your new company, then take a loan, maximum allowable loan $50K or 50% of the value of the 401k, whichever is less. With this short term loan (5yrs), use it as a down payment on a home that cash flows enough to pay for its own mortgage, PLUS the 401K loan and hopefully some maintenance. Tall order, but has been done (not in 2021 market though :- )

Hi, some fixed costs are the same regardless of loan amount. Title search, appraisal + rent schedule, etc would cost the same for a 500K+ vs 100K loan.
Although without a breakdown, it's hard to reason whether 11.8K is reasonable or not. Generally speaking, seems high, unless you are paying points on the loan.
It's best to use alternative loan types for small balance loans, e.g. lines of credit on another property.

Hi, Yap....roofers are the ones that typically deal with installing skylights.

Pay close attention to where the leak is coming from, is it from the Skylight itself or the housing (and thus flushing comes into play) that the skylight sits on?

I recently had a new roof put on one of my rentals, and that is when I realized the skylight literally is mounted on some sort of frame box protruding off the roof plywood, and that, the skylight can replaced without touching the shingles at all.
See first picture on this link: https://www.hometips.com/diy-h...

This link is to an image showing how the skylight sits ontop of the said housing: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/...

Thus, first find out, where is the leak? Is it on the actual skylight, or the housing of it (which would mean the roof job is actually to blame).

In a couple of my rentals I have installed Ecobee smart thermostats, and connected them to the tenant's WiFi network. I get to know of problems at times before the tenant notifies me, e.g. an alert saying "The systems has been calling for heat, but the temperature has dropped by 5 degrees", or summer time, "The system has been calling for cool in the last hr but temperature has risen by 3 degrees", or "High humidity detected" is often a sign of a non-cooling system. You may also add custom alerts, such as for "Change Filter"  for every 90 days and maintenance alerts. I ask the tenant to text me after the filter has been changed so I can update the alert with the change date (all on my phone). They have been pretty good at doing that now, as the alerts goes to the tenant as well as to myself.

The  money I would have spent on a "maintenance contract" is instead saved for when an actual repair is needed. And, if you ever have to install a new HVAC, go with a company that offers 10/10/10 warranty (compressor, other parts, labor), and you will be good for that property for that long.