All Forum Posts by: Kristin Boekhoff

If you are a Bigger Pockets Pro member, they have free lease agreements for every state that you can download. Also, there were a lot of recent changes to the landlord tenant laws in MD, so make sure you familiarize yourself with those. (For example, you must now include the MD "Tenant Bill of Rights" in all of your lease agreements.) I agree with Brett that if this is your first time, it would be worth hiring an attorney to create a lease agreement for you that you can just reuse...

That can REALLY vary by property. For example, for my last flip property it took me about 3-4 weeks of analyzing and putting in offers to finally get one under contract. The property I put under contract was a foreclosure property, however, and the closing was extended out several times which extended it by over three months. I put another property under contract AFTER that flip property and it closed before the flip property. My team can normally close a deal in three weeks after I get it under contract if the other party is ready. 

Good luck! I also invest in Baltimore and normally analyze 100 deals, put offers in on 15-25, and then (if I'm lucky!) will get under contract.

Good question. I know that if you get a use and occupancy certifcate, the vacant building notice is automatically removed, but I don't know if there is a way to remove one without it. I recommend emailing (don't call, nobody picks up the phone) the inspector on your violation notice. The email "formula" is first name (then a period) last name at (use the symbol, BP won't let me post it) balitmorecity.gov.

Is there a reason you don't want to rent your property?

I am putting a laundry room (coin-operated) and storage units in the basement of my small multifamily. The basement is too low to be rentable SF (unfortunately!), but this allows me to get a bit extra out of it...

Jae,

Diana Khan is a well-known real estate attorney in Baltimore City. She doesn't "specialize" in this per se, but I have used her for several real estate legal issues. You can tell her I referred you if you like.

I am about to close on my first multifamily property (5 units) and I am having a hard time finding an insurance company that can give me any kind of decent rates. The firms that I go to for my single family properties only seem to do residential. Can anyone recommend a good company that does commercial insurance at reasonable rates? (And yes, I know commercial insurance will be more than residential; even my lenders are telling me the rates that I am getting are super high.) 

 Thanks @Sarah Rosko and @Jill F. I have an appointment set up with Buildium tomorrow!

I honestly don't have a clue. Hoping for less than $100/ mo while I am getting started though. I think I pay around $50 now for REI Hub + RentRedi-REI integration...

Hi William!

I would start by checking out a few things:

1) CAN you convert the building into multifamily? Check with your local planning and zoning office to see if that is permitted on your parcel. Just because there are properties nearby that allow multifamily does not mean that it is allowed on YOUR property. You can also hire a local architect to do a regulatory review for you. They can research that for you and can also tell you what things you will need to do to bring it up to code for a multifamily property.

2) If you are not familiar with financial modeling for multifamily, I would recommend a few resources. The first is Brandon Turner's book Multifamily Millionaire (available in the BP store). BP also has a multifamily bootcamp.

3) Create your financial model to see if the deal makes sense. Figure out the gross income the property would bring in (I often use Zillow to see what the rents are in the area BP also has a rent calculator) and and subtract the expenses you will have (i.e. RE taxes, insurance, property management fee, pest control, garbage removal, utilities, repairs and maintenance, vacancy, cap ex, etc.) I am assuming you will use debt to renovate the property, so figure out what your debt service payment would be. Gross income - expenses = net operating income (NOI). NOI/ debt service payment = debt service coverage ratio (DSCR). Most lenders will require a DSCR of at least 1.2 to lend on the property.

This is a rough and simplistic model, but doing these basic calculations will give you an idea if your deal "pencils out" or not. It looks like you are a BP Pro member, so you can also use their Rental Property calculator to help you work through the numbers.

Good luck!