Consider eviction time when buying rental
3 Replies
Jasmine Hu
Rental Property Investor from McLean, VA
posted 8 months ago
Some info:
In Fairfax or entire VA, very easy to evict, 3 weeks to 1 month. In Maryland, generally 60 days. In DC, if you can evict, 90+ days. It is very tenant friendly. I won't touch it unless it is high end, you will have no cash flow or negative cash flow. Or you need a very good PM.
In general touch in any democracy state, easy life in republican state.
PG county I heard needs 5% county tax, a pain. Yet downtown silver spring appears to be interesting.
Nova is more expensive in general due to strong high tech high pay jobs. Remember AMAZON H2Q impact?
Montgomery county is slower. Could consider howard county I feel in MD.
Nick Pisano
Property Manager from Washington, DC
replied 8 months ago
I can only speak to DC, but 90 days is optimistic, especially these days. If you have service issues (common enough, from the time I’ve spend in L&T Court), it can take 4-5 months. Also consider now that filing for evictions has been suspended until recently here in DC, meaning you’ve now got an additional backlog to contend with.
Realistically, investors and PMs just need to deal with this issue up front with tight application screening. Can’t avoid them all, but you can avoid most if you’ve got a decent quality product priced in a way that you can be selective.
Teresa F.
Residential Real Estate Broker from Clinton, MD
replied 8 months ago
While evictions are always a possibility, I try to screen applicants thoroughly including walking through where they currently live. I also spend a significant amount of time going over the lease with the new tenant so that my expectations are clear and their questions get answered. This "front end" work seems to have limited my turnovers, I have one tenant who has been with me since 1999 and most are over five years.
Not sure if that helps but perhaps gives a different perspective when thinking about where to invest.
Best, Teresa
Russell Brazil
(Moderator) -
Real Estate Agent from Washington, D.C.
replied 8 months ago
The tax rate in PG County is 1.3%.
Rent Growth is the highest in DC with an average doubling in 10 years jn the gentifying neighborhoods.
Rent Growth in Montgomery County comes up 2nd for the area.
DC and NoVa have similar yields, but NoVa has stagnated rent growth.