All Forum Posts by: Sam G.

Hi BP. I just passed my MD Salesperson exam earlier today and am wondering what a recommended brokerage affiliation would be if I only intend to access the MLS and occasionally go look at houses that I would consider for personal investment properties. I have no plans to quit my day job or anything like that, but I figured getting my license would give me a little freedom as far as being able to check out the MLS and see houses without coordinating with my realtor.

Alternatively, if this is a stupid idea for a reason that hasn't occurred to me yet, please let me know.

I think that your pre-roommate expenses should be deductible. I'm not a CPA so I could be wrong, but the way that you're describing it is how it worked for me when I had my taxes done professionally last year. I think anyway. My situation was a little different though because I have 2 units, not roommates. 

However, the safe answer is to save all your receipts and paperwork for everything that you think you could possibly write off and then bring them with you when you have your taxes done next year and ask the tax professional then.

I'm currently house hacking a 2-unit building in Federal Hill. I listed it on Zillow, hotpads, apartments.com, and on a local Facebook group (Federal Hill Roommates and Rentals). I listed it for what I believed was a pretty appealing price and had a lot of interest. Once the apartment was in move-in ready condition I had it leased to great tenants within a week or so. 

I think there's probably the most interest in June/July/August, but people are definitely starting to look already based on the conversations that are happening on the Facebook group. I would think that if you get some good pictures and price it correctly, you should have no trouble getting tenants in a very short period of time.

This is my first time renting to someone, so I am by no means an expert, but the tenants that I picked were ones that had good references, good credit scores, and I was able to talk to their previous landlord who gave them a good recommendation. They also met all the other requirements that I had regarding income. The lease that I used was a combination of bits and pieces of a few different Baltimore City leases that I found online or got from other landlords.

Hi BP. So I signed a lease last year that doesn't expire until 8/31/18. Back in April I bought a house and moved out of my old apartment and into my new home at the end of June. I gave property management over 2 months notice before I moved out and they said that they would try to re-rent my unit, but until then, I would still be responsible for my rent per my original lease agreement.

After a month without any contact or updates, I just got an email from property management asking that I return my keys despite the fact that my lease is still active until 8/31/18 and I'll be paying rent until 8/31/18. Obviously I don't need the keys because I'm not living there, but paying rent on a property that I'm physically unable to enter just seemed strange to me. Is this typical for when a tenant vacates the property early?

Thanks for your help and advice

I recently purchased my first property and am going to begin house-hacking in the next couple weeks. Once my inherited tenants have moved out, I'll be moving in and placing new tenants in the unoccupied unit. 

Outside of the normal terms of a lease agreement, is there anything that the veteran landlords of BP recommend adding? This is going to be my first time being a landlord, and I want to be as prepared as possible so as to not get caught off-guard or end up in a bad situation that could have been avoided.

As always, thanks for all the help and advice.

@Ozzy Sirimsi Any idea how late things will go? I'm working till 6 on Thursday but would like to stop by after I'm out if you think it would be worth it.

I would definitely be interested. It would be great to attend in person, but it would depend on the timing with work and things like that. 

@Miriam Seidel Amazing info! Thanks a bunch

I was looking at this property north of Oakhaven Park and wanted to get a local's perspective on it. If I end up moving forward on the property, I will of course head out there and check out the house and the neighborhood myself. I just wanted to check with the local BiggerPockets community to see if it was even worth considering. 

Thanks!

@Rich Ferradino, @John Arendsen, @Rachel H.

Thanks for all the replies! Now that I know it's possible, I'll start doing some more research on this strategy. I imagine that a big barrier would be the MHP rules prohibiting this sort of short term rental, but I'll look around and see how difficult it is to find a park that allows it.