All Forum Posts by: Matt Schelberg

The city has an awesome helpline for rental inspection questions (at least by Baltimore standards). They usually have a great attitude and are happy to help. [tried to post the phone number but that is not allowed on BP] If anyone wants it feel free to PM me.

Hey @Daniel Suarez! I agree with @Soren Ager. Tenants who get behind for more than a few months rarely improve. Whenever I feel I've lost the ability to be strict with a tenant, I'll outsource rent collection to a third party. That person (a friend, a PM, etc) should make the expectations clear about when rent is due. Once the expectations are clear, enforce them with the Failure-to-Pay-Rent notice (FTPR). Previous posters mentioned a few vendors that do this. That should fix the problem.

In the past I thought I was being nice to tenants by giving them extra time to pay. It's not nice. It allows them to get deeper in the hole, and can possibly lead to an eviction that will stay on their record forever.

Be firm and fair.

@Dennis Santa Paula I recently owned a property a few blocks from there. Someone broke in and stole all the radiators after I evicted my tenant, but apart from that, it was great!  :)    It is a so-so neighborhood...not terrible and not great. The crime situation is ok -- not an open air drug market. But the thieves that stole my radiators did so in broad daylight. Neighbors watched them and did not call the police.

I can see one reason your PM had trouble getting the tenants out in 2018. The property was not registered as a rental with the city. Can't take the tenants to rent court without that. Your PM didn't register it until mid-2019.

Feel free to PM me.

Baltimore County is great for rentals but the water billing is the absolute worst.  Water bills seem low to tenants, but only because of some slick accounting.  Sewer charges (the most expensive part of the bill...often 3-4x the water bills) are applied to the tax bill the following year.  For a family that uses lots of water it can easily be $1,000/year.  Most tenants can't afford this in one giant lump sum payment so I bill them quarterly based on water consumption. (This also encourages tenants to conserve water.)

The water charges on the most recent Baltimore County property tax bills invoiced owners for sewer charges at a rate of $6.24 per unit of water + $122 flat charge.  

The water bills identify how many units of water were consumed.  So you could bill tenants at $6.24 per unit.

The other crummy way the County bills for water:  there is no online portal for bill retrieval and if you lose a bill you must contact the city to request a water billing history.  (Because the City provides many parts of the County with water.)  

I've attached an image of water billing history as an example. Hope this helps.

Short answer:  Price is the key factor.  

I think that realtor's reasoning is poor.  In my opinion condo status reduces value by X dollars.  Determine what X is in your market and then evaluate.  For the right price I would definitely consider a condo if the association was well managed and had reasonable rules.

[I typed my reply before realizing this post is 7 months old...posting anyway in case others have similar issue.] 

There is a glass replacement company can replace the tempered glass on a sliding door for around $500, including the site visit.

@Chris D. Just seeing this post from one month ago -- how frustrating.  How did you solve this problem?

If you lack the personal funds to close on 2 deals, perhaps look at getting a letter from a hard money lender. A good lender will allow you to close fast.  And the letter will give your agent confidence that you have the ability to offer on multiple properties simultaneously. 

What if you kept it simple and did a 50/50 partnership and then collect a management fee from the LLC for your work? Your contributions in time and labor will vary over the years. Maybe one day he will take a more active role when you are busy. Management fees will adjust for this.

Another cheaper option to create an egress for the basement bedroom is to change the floor plan so that the exterior door is in the bedroom.  Could take part of that laundry room and make it part of the bedroom with framing and sheetrock.