All Forum Posts by: Sam Frank

Hi Baltimore Investors,

I am looking for a demolition contractor who is experienced in doing Rowhome Rehabs in Baltimore City.

This project is more or less a full gut, so I want someone who is very familiar with this type of job. 

@Account Closed 

Any recommendations?

Thanks, Sam

Do you guys pay for the premium membership on gosection8.com , so that you can reach out to folks directly? If so, is it worth it?

Hi Baltimore Folks,

I have a property that looks great. It is a 4 unit building I might be able to live in and renovate with an FHA 203K loan. I would like to find Section 8 tenants for the other 3 units. I have never managed a Section 8 rental home before, but understand from people that oftentimes if you go onto gosection8.com or craigslist and price rents accordingly for your neighborhood (I used comparable rents from gosection8.com), that you should be able to find tenants with ease.

I have had listings posted for about a week, since I started diligencing this asset, just to get certainty on how easy it will be to rent this place out, if I were to assume a $2,000 mortgage on the property. I have not gotten many bites.

What do you guys do? @Ned Carey @Account Closed any advice? 

Is it worth the expense to pay someone who professionally screens and places tenants? Will the increased rent amount they get you and the decreased vacancy make up for the fee they are likely to charge you? 

Any insights on slow uptake from tenants? I know it is November - so slow time of year. Would love to buy this property but without assurance of rental income at a certain rate and low vacancy, this investment starts to look dangerous.

Sam

@Account Closed

Thank you both for the clarification. Very helpful.

@Account Closed this is a vacant property that we purchased at auction and would like to turn into a rental.

From speaking to lead contractors over the phone this morning, I understand that you can either get Lead Free Certs or Risk Remediation done. Lead Free costing about $1000 (for the test and the final cert) and Remediation costing closer to $200-300. But with remediation, you have to have it re-inspected after change over of each tenant. Also if you fail your Lead Free inspection, you have to go get the Remediation done anyway.

This house is old, built in 1920, which would lead me to believe it will show positive for Lead if we have the Lead Free test performed. If this is the case, it seems like it would be better to save the money on the Lead Free test, as I will likely test negative and then have to pay for the remediation anyway. We will be doing a full gut, but keeping the interior plaster on the perimeter walls. 

What do you recommend?

Hi Baltimore Community of Investors,

We are looking to perform a BRRR in Baltimore City and would like to hire a company to perform Lead Remediation. Anyone have recommendations for contractors or subs that do this type of work? When operating as a landlord in Baltimore, what are best practices for Lead Certification / how does it work?

Thanks, Sam

@Ned Carey - thank you. This cuts right to the issues I'm having. Appreciate you for breaking it down for me. 

Also please keep posting insightful comments - I can vouch for myself at least - that it's very helpful to have seasoned professionals share their insights on these forums. 

Hi All,

I am a little over a year into starting a company that does real estate investing and contracting work. We are trying to find a good accountant in Baltimore - it has not been easy. We have spoken to 3 different firms, and then went under retainer with one firm, who we have been disappointed with. 

The accountants we have met with don't have enough innovative strategies and/or are not proactive enough.

For instance, I learned through my own studies about a couple great tax strategies. i.e. - Depreciation on rental properties, writing off business meetings and business trips if you look at a piece of real estate. Great tips. Not one accountant that I have met with, has come to me with great strategies or knows many of these best practices in real estate. Meanwhile, I go to the local REIA events and most folks seem to know all the best accounting trade secrets for running their investment businesses.

The other thing, is I would love to be more proficient in quickbooks or if there is a better software we should be using as our business grows / if we do more rental properties (I always hear Brandon pitch a specific software product on the podcasts), then I would love to know from an accountant what that program or strategy would be. The accountant that we are working with now, showed me some best practices for quickbooks but I am by no means a savvy quickbooks user (as I would eventually like to be). Or I'd like to hire a reasonably priced accounting firm to help us get our books looking in beautiful condition.

What are other people's experiences? Any accountant referrals appreciated - I know this is likely a trade secret, but I'd be interested in interviewing some folks around town to see how they could help our business.

Cheers, Sam

Try Absolute Fire Protection.

Ask to speak with a man named Jay Breitenbach. 

I am using them for a new construction project we are doing right now. 

Very responsive. Very professional.

@Ned Carey this is very helpful in explaining to me the distinction