All Forum Posts by: Tim Miller

Maryland Law just changed, for month to month you have to give 60 day notice. For yearly lease agreements you have to give 90 day notice.

https://lusk-law.com/changes-t...

@Mike Warder Personally I wouldn't do anything downtown, the homeless issue, drugs. It's getting really bad and business are threatening to leave because of it. The local city council isn't doing anything to address the problems. Below is a link to the local news paper with an article from a local business.

https://www.heraldmailmedia.co...

@Leo R. Thanks for the information, it's greatly appreciated. I grew up in the Hagerstown area, so my knowledge of Cumberland is limited to the early 90's. I guess we're going to have to take a weekend trip to Cumberland and see firsthand. I looked on Realtor.com & Zillow, the rents are looking promising but that's not any real indicator. The one good thing about this area, property isn't selling fast and that'll allow time for some detective work.

We found a multi family property that has sparked our interest and need some local advise. The unit is near Braddock Rd & Greene St. in Cumberland, MD. (I believe this is consider The West Side neighborhood.) What is the crime rate like in this area and is this an area people like to rent in or is this an up and coming neighborhood? Any insights is greatly appreciated.

I would do as Brad Sand suggest but you didn't say what type of appraisal they did. Is this for a commercial loan or personal? The bank should have order an appraisal based on rental income. Taking all 4 units at $700 a month, the property should have appraised for $252,000 at 7.5 times yearly rent. If they won't budge on this appraisal, either have a new appraisal done or fine a new lender. Good luck.

Everyone is going to love the software they use, my best advise is to pick about 3 to 5 of them and setup test accounts. Then start putting them through your normal processes and see which one will work for you.

We used Avail but it had too many issues for us to keep. We paid the extra $5.00 to get rent payments next day. Well it really didn't happen and wasn't worth it. There were other system issues that hinder accounting process.

Tenant Cloud, we looked at it but you have to sign up to a separate service in order to offer online rental payments. Why? It should be part of the same platform.

We ended up using Innago. It met 85% of our needs and it has a very easy setup process for our tenants. Good Luck.

@Kenisha B. So your tenants are paying less then market rates. You have to ask this question, If these tenants move out right now, can I rent these units at market rates?

Yes, these units are in great shape and will rent for market rate with no issues. If this is the answer, you're golden!

No, these units need work or a complete rehab. Now you have to figure out, how much is this going to cost? Is it worth not renewing all 4 units at once or maybe do one unit at a time.  If no, I would figure out which unit I can make ready the quickest and give them the non-renewal notice. After renting, move to the next unit and so on. Good luck.

@Jeremy Anan In Maryland you have to file for an eviction, just go to the district court and the form has a spot to check (tenant deceased)

I would also suggest that you join a local Landlord association, they will have a ton of information for your local area. 

@Matthew Curtis mendez You can google the local colleges for off campus housing and list your room(s) that way. Below is a link to Cleveland State.

https://www.csuohio.edu/vikesc...

Also check out the following sites for roommates:

https://www.roommates.com/

https://www.roomster.com/#

https://www.roomies.com/

We've had good luck with roomies good luck.

@Kathi Miller If you want to take as much of the liability off yourself, setup an account with PetScreening.com. Make this service a requirement for all of your rentals and let this service determined if the dog is a legal ESA animal or not. If they deny the tenant, then it's on them and you are not liable. We use it and had one tenant go off on us because they were denied. But you have to make sure that this service is used for all of your rentals and for every tenant. That's the only way you can ensure you are protected from any discrimination allegation.