All Forum Posts by: Andy Gross

@Jeff Holland , if you haven't done so, listen to some of the podcasts and follow @Ned Carey . He knows the Baltimore market quite well, and I've learned a ton from reading his posts.

I'm going to throw in my 2 cents here. Howard County, to me, has been a stronger homeowner area than it has been a rental area, save for spots in Laurel and Elkridge. Our neighbor was military and rented because he was on a 2-3 year assignment and Columbia was an easy 20 minute commute, but he was in the minority. It would seem that with prices what they are, your cashflow in Howard County will be tough, not leaving much room for CAPEX or routine maintenance.

If you are looking in College Park, some family members and family friends invested there about 10 years ago and it was good at first, but the city has become very anti-landlord. They could collect $2800 rent on a property that was acquired and renovated for $200k, and they were cashflowing nicely. They put money into making them more suitable for college-aged renters, and screened well, but there were still headaches. Then the towers went up, economy went down, and filling the units got harder. I'm not up to date on the goings-on, but I think the city capped rents at a certain percentage of property value falling well short of the 2% rule.

@Brian Beck , where in Columbia? I grew up in Hickory Ridge and went to Wilde Lake HS.

@Ned Carey , makes sense. When you say "no investor lending," do you mean that there is no (or limited) conventional bank financing for investors in Baltimore? If so, why are the banks staying out of the city?

@Brant Richardson , good point. Banks aren't what they are used to be, and if his banker is comfortable, he's probably in good shape.

@Ned Carey , why is it that you are paying so much for money in Baltimore City? It would seem that given the cash flow, the it's a low risk investment.

I'm a newbie as well, so beware my advice. I don't really know what I'm doing either. My concern would be over-leveraging. If both properties go vacant, you could be hurting in short order, between the mortgage and Baltimore's insane property taxes. Jason Hull discusses this in podcast 52 I think. This pitfall is made worse if you are at sea. You could be somewhere in between ports, unable to respond to a crisis. That being said, these interest rates are enticing.

Hello BP Community,

So, I am new to investing and the advice I keep hearing is that becoming a Realtor is the way to go in order to lower overhead and squeeze profits out of a deal.

What about taking it a step further and becoming a broker? I'm eligible to become a broker in MD because of my law degree. I had my RE license years ago in college, but I never used it.

Thoughts?

My goal was to eventually build the FIRE/PIRE model, and I would love to eventually have a few Realtors working for me, doing their own deals, and taking a piece of the pie.

2011 Honda Civic that I bought new after my 1998 civic need a third set of $1500 repairs. It's almost paid for (borrowed at 0.9%), and I hope to keep it for a while. I lust for a Tesla Model S P85, and I could probably swing it, but I've got other goals.

@Ned Carey that's how I found BP! A friend and I were looking to partner up on some tax liens and I wanted to do research, so I found the thread that you speak of, and all of the great info contained it had. I immediately sent some colleague and follow requests because I realized there were some awesome people in that thread who really knew the market. How's your tax lien hunt going this year?

Michael - I was thinking about buying something out here in Hawaii, but I don't know the market, and since I intend on moving back to the east coast in two years, I didn't want to be responsible for property 5000 miles from home.

Anyhow, thanks for the warm welcome!

Cheers,

Andy