All Forum Posts by: Sam Lewis

Thanks man! I know there are quite a few but I don't know them well enough to know who the big players are. I think AJ Billig is a good one - but again, I am definitely no expert here... XD

@Jason Burfordc house hacking is the way to go!

One way is to share a single family home with other people by renting rooms, another option would be to buy a duplex or triplex and have an entire unit to yourself. I would look for an agent who works with investors - ideally someone who is fairly close to your network

Hey folks, I am curious who the big players are for house auctions in Baltimore and Harford counties. Are there a handful that dominate > 80% of available auctioned houses? I'd like to start attending a few as I look for my next BRRRR.

@Bennett Albertson also your name is bad (a)ss

I typically calculate CoC based on the return after exactly 1 year from the purchase. An example using a HELOC at 5% interest with simple numbers:

Purchase price (60K) + repairs of property (15K) = 75K all using HELOC @ 5%. Additional out of pocket fees at 5K using cash. So all-in 80K, new value of property 6 months later is 100K. Cash out refi @ 80% LTV on 100K = 80K, pay off HELOC + 5K back in pocket with 20K tied in equity in property.

In this perfect example, we pay off our principal withdrawal on the HELOC and the original 5K miscellaneous costs upfront. So the only expense we haven't accounted for is the interest paid on 75K over 6 months - roughly 2K. So after refinancing 6 months later, we get our money back, and again, we spent 2K on interest for the 75K @ 5% interest.

For CoC, what did we make 1 year post-purchase? So we will refinance by month 6, and rent for 6 months (however many BRRRRs allow you to rent by month 4). We will still stick with 6 months for simplicity. Assuming we rented out this unit @ $1000/mo (1% rule), and pocketed $500 (50% rule), we made 6 * $500 = $3000.

CoC return = $3000 (net profits after 1 yr) /$2000 (net expenses after 1 yr) = 150%

What's pretty cool is if the deal is really good, and we end up refinancing and getting all of our money back and more, our CoC return becomes infinite!

Hoping this helps...

I know this is a bit delayed however I highly recommend Jett Plumbing if anyone is looking for a recommendation. They have saved me MANY times

Army brat and realtor here - I'm planning to take the Military Relocation Professional (MRP) certification to better help military members purchase and sell homes. 

Can anyone think of ways to reach the military community and tap into this network to help active duty military and veterans out? 

Great points

Hey George, in May I received a letter from Code Enforcement of Baltimore County (headquarters in Towson). Evidently one of my tenants in Parkville was not mowing the lawn, so I received a warning, thankfully not a fine. However the notice also said that debris were left in my backyard... which wasn't true (I had driven past the house that very day).

Answering your questions below:

1, 2, & 3) $2,000 is excessive, I would contact them via phone and be calm, friendly and of course, concerned. This is what worked for me - I was polite, understanding, and they assured they would double check to make sure what they reported was correct. It took a day or two and they removed the warning.

I tried to include the phone number and email for code enforcement, but BP would not let me post it. Just google "baltimore county code enforcement" - it's the first result. 

@Tiesha Mobley my best advice is to drive in the neighborhoods you are considering investing in. That is your best, most up to date data point, as well as crime rates found online.

As an agent I ethically have to be careful about labeling areas as good or bad.