All Forum Posts by: Yasmin Mughal

 Dundalk and Essex prime because of commutability to the city and lower price point. Alternatively the other side of the city (Pikesville, Towson outskirts) still decent rentals but they are farther from employment centers. Halethorpe/Elkridge/Glen Burnie are good as well but your money definitely won't go quite as far as Dundalk and Essex as everyone has hinted about here. 

Good Day Joseph,

I moved to Baltimore in November of last year and currently doing house hacking. Reading some of the previous post and from my experience being here, it really does change from block to block in Baltimore. One thing to be aware of is the higher property taxes to offset some of the city services. Baltimore is a more affordable market for those like myself that work in Metro DC and don’t mind the commute. Try to look around the major hospitals and universities if you can. Let me know if you would like more information.

 I’d try my best to be outside the beltway in Baltimore county, generally the nicer areas, I tend to especially like Towson, lutherville, even parkville is a good value.

I was actually looking for some deals in Hagerstown myself. Do you get any single family opportunities there? 

I'm wondering if it is proper etiquette to contact the listing agent for a property and just make a verbal offer to see if the seller would be interested in my price? I don't want to annoy my own agent by asking her to make a bunch of offers for me that will likely be rejected. If my verbal offer is entertained, then I would contact my agent to have her set up a showing and make a formal offer.

Is this reasonable? Suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

 Your agent works for you, so should be pushing back on the seller's agent's requests if they don't match what you want to do. If the tenant is moving July 31, why do they have to pay another month's rent if you close later in August?  

With an active leak, why don't they have their insurance company dealing with things to get repairs done?  Could you offer to have a pod dropped off where the tenant can store their belongings while still having access to them?  With the leak, I'm sure they'd appreciate a safe, dry place to store them.  If not, then ask that the boxes go in the middle of the room, so that the inspector has access to the walls (also if there is an active leak, the last thing you want is a bunch of cardboard boxes against the wall impeding air flow).

An inspector will not move anything for the inspection and they will miss things because nothing is 100% no matter who does it.  Given you've had problems in the past, there is an active leak and the house is full of stuff, I'd delay the closing until the tenant's stuff is out (and repairs are done assuming that is part of the deal).

It's definitely much more challenging to have the house inspected with all of their stuff around, but they should be able to still look at the main things (foundation, HVAC, electrical panel, hotwater heater, roof, etc.). 

You could ask to simply extend the inspection period and not delay the closing. Then schedule the inspection for August 1st. This way, it's highly unlikely they could keep that close date and do repairs, but if issues come up, you could ask for a credit instead which wouldn't push the close date back at all.

@Yasmin Mughal I do inspections all the time with tenants in them. My inspector has never said a home needs to be 75% empty.

There’s only been 1 unit out of about 90 that we couldn’t get a thorough inspection in because the tenant had so much junk.

Find a new inspector.