All Forum Posts by: Joe Norman

One other thing to consider is to have documented tenant screening criteria that you apply evenly to all applicants. If you decline an applicants send them an email to state why, specifically. If you have multiple applicants that meet your criteria then offer a lease to the first one who applied. This is all to protect yourself in the case of a Fair Housing complaint.

Good luck!

Personally I would waive the appraisal unless it's a very unique property. A CMA will give you just as accurate of an idea of value.

You nailed it - "it depends"

If you're just looking to do some rough projections, then I would assume a 50/50 split between you and the team (and don't forget to include whatever you owe your broker in your projections). I would expect that the actual split could be 50/50 +/- 20 depending on things like the level of administrative support, lead source, and volume.

Good luck!

As others have said, there has to be a number that the PM doesn't need owner approval to spend each month. What that number is will vary PMC to PMC and market to market - our standard number is $500 but I'm open to lowering that down to around $300 if an owner wants more input/communication.

An owner credit check seems silly to me, and I'm curious about why they have that in their contract - did you ask them?

The other clauses are pretty standard and I think you'll find them with any (reputable) PMC.

Something else to look for is the termination clause - if you aren't happy with the service the PMC is providing, how easy is it to get out of the agreement?

Good luck!

Late to the discussion here, but wanted to weigh in. I've ben using RentVine for about two years now and am very happy with it. As others have noted, it's not perfect (no software solution will be), but It does get the job done. Some of the accounting features are a little clunky, but now that I've got the hang of it everything runs pretty smoothly day-to-day.

The thing I like most about RentVine is their customer support. Whenever I have an issue/question/problem my emails are always answered same day and a solution is usually worked out within 48 hours. The support team is always happy to hop on a Video Call with me to walk me through the solution if I can't understand it via email. Now that they've coached me up I feel very confident using the software and closing out my books each month.

 The rent will depend heavily on location and quality of the house. I recently comp'd a 2 bedroom rental on the east side of Canton (Brewers Hill) and it ranged rom around $2500-3500/month. If you want to PM me the address of the deal you're considering I can give you a more detailed rental analysis.

That depends heavily on where in Baltimore the lot is, as well as what type of home you''ll be building. We will need more details in order to provide any further input on comps. 

$250k will get you a decent house in an A class neighborhood (Canton, Fed Hill, etc) or a fully renovated home in a B class neighborhood like Northwood or Dundalk (probably would pay a little less). 

Rental licenses are required in both Baltimore City and Baltimore County (completely separate jurisdictions as Baltimore City is an Independent City) but are fairly easy to get.

Happy to connect and talk more! I run both a sales team (The Norman Home Team of Keller Williams Gateway) and a separate property management company (Blue Door Residential Property Management).

If you used Maryland Realtors "Purchase Price Escalation Addendum" then there is no gray area here. The seller is required to provide "written evidence of the offer which Seller desires to accept in the form of a proceeds net sheet signed by the Seller and containing an analysis of the net proceeds from the other offer". The seller is required to provide a signed net sheet, not the offer in its entirety. 

Note that this only applies if the Seller is accepting your offer/escalation clause. If they simply counter your offer (which is what I generally advise my Seller clients to do when we receive offers with Escalation Clauses) then they aren't required to provide you with anything.

For Example: House is listed at $300k, you offer $320k with an escalation clause to $350k. If we have no other offers that will net the Seller more then $350k I will generally advise my clients to reject your offer and counter at $350k since you just told us that that is how much you're willing to pay. In this case we are NOT signing/accepting the escalation clause and therefore don't have to provide you with anything. However, if we had an offer that netted us $360k, but still wanted to accept your offer, then I would advice my clients to sign the offer (including escalation clause) and I would send it back to the Buyer along with a Net Sheet detailing the terms of the competing $360k offer. In neither situation are you entitled to actually see the competing offer(s) in their entirety.

Again, this is only applicable if you used Maryland Realtor's "Purchase Price Escalation Addendum", if you used a different escalation clause then consult it to determine what you are entitled to see.

Also, shouldn't your agent know this?

If you're currently cash flowing $1k per month, and have great tenants, then take the win. If its not broke don't fix it.