All Forum Posts by: M Marie M.

I'll second that @Russell Brazil is a very helpful Realtor who helped me when looking for properties in Baltimore City.

Followup: 

Well she renewed the lease. Worst. move. ever.

The good news is she got rid of the guy. But MIL no longer lives there and guess whose money is funding this 3-4 bedroom rental? Sadly, SIL renewed it for another year, but with MIL not in the house any longer the only adult in the house is one with no steady income and crappy credit history.

We can't advise her, she's not listening and my husband can't get a word in on the phone. I feel badly for the landlord, but he really should not have renewed the lease for a year (unless she paid in advance...).

Have you poked around https://gov.propertyinfo.com/DC-Washington/ (I got it from

http://dcra.dc.gov/node/381242 )? When given an option between sitting around an office or going on-line, I'll pick on-line everytime.

You do need to sign up for the service and if you want to print off a copy (even from your own printer) it's gonna cost you. It doesn't cost a dime to look or do a screen capture. Recently a neighbor needed a copy of a deed for a lot we neighbors had permission from the owner to park on. DDOT was claiming it was public land and ticketed.... long story. Anyway, Once I remembered my password, and was able to get my computer to jive with Java, I could see the the images of the deed. I also looked for my property. It goes back to 1921. If searching by square and lot, use four numbers for square (ex. 0451) and if it is something like Sq. 0123 West, use W0123. 

I don't have any financial ties to the .com mentioned. The .gov takes my money and provides me with joy & frustration.

Thanks @Account Closedfor answering my post. I managed to get the digits of 'a guy' who was working several blocks away, but I'd figure I'd ask here as I like to have options and choices.

I'll need to clean out a small property of construction debris. Does anyone have any recommendations?

It's been a while since I've looked for a vacation rental to rent in wine country, but VBRO had options in Napa way before AirBnb ever showed up.

Places with lotsa tourists tend to have something in place for short term rentals. I remember seeing a specific local rental charge for when we rented a VBRO near/in Luray, VA several (4-5 years ago?) for short term, just there for a week, sort of rentals.

These places that depend on the tourist trade know the score and won't screw themselves. Looking at VBRO there are 16 places available to rent in St. Helena, who knows how many more during the summer.

The best way to promote AirBnB is by normalizing it. Beyonce and Jay-Z used AirBnB for their stay for the Superbowl. Get people to use it, talk about it, and encourage their friends and family to use it.

@Christian Bateman, 'nice' is subjective and unless there is something out there saying what the turnover rate (or any other number) is exactly, that's information you don't really have. But 

@William "W.J" Mencarowmade a good point about not buying a place he wouldn't want to live in, and that seems to be a fairly good barometer. 

If you are not comfortable in areas you consider "ghetto" or places where you start hearing "Dueling Banjos" you won't be comfortable going there, looking around, and checking in on your investment.

Everyone has their definition of a good neighborhood. A lot of people base it on what a middle American nuclear family may want, so you may pay for the good schools and other amenities unless you can snag a deal.

I am not looking for a "good" neighborhood as much as an acceptable neighborhood that fits my own criteria. I look around for people who appear to fit the demographic I hope to appeal to (DINKs & SINKs) and rent to, what neighborhood amenities may appeal and what neighborhood characteristics are a complete turn off. People with no kids and who have no plans to get kids don't care that much about schools. But they like other things such as restaurants, bars, gyms, yoga studios, and coffee shops. 

In DC, particularly my neighborhood, the public schools are 'meh' at best and the charter schools hard to get into, besides childcare is insanely expensive. Crime is still a problem and noise. But there are million dollar condos going up a blocks from my home, you cannot get a seat in one of the local coffee shops (Compass Coffee I'm looking at you), high concept farm2table restaurants keep popping up within a half mile, along with several gyms (parkoor, pilates, barre, etc). Parking is a pain, there are no yards, I already mentioned the schools, so there is little here for the two parents with the 2.5 kids, but if you're some just out of college 20something working for a non-profit or a childless 40something professional couple, we are the bomb.

@Matt F. even if you just sat on it there are still some costs (taxes, insurance-maybe) and right now scrap metal prices are so low (add to it that new plumbing is less copper and more PVC & pex) breaking in might not be worth it.

Then there is the question of how long to sit on it as there is no guarantee that a supposedly up and coming area will come up to the point where fixing up is profitable. How long can you sit on it?

I'm a conservative myself, but many of our friends are all stripes of liberal (blue dog to commies), so in the vein of "if you can't say something nice...."

But it isn't mean to point out that cost of living is higher in many blue states. Nor would it be mean to note that there isn't a lot of truly affordable housing that doesn't require getting on a list in places with rent control and hostile to landlords.

Liberal or conservative or libertarian, city governments should be open and accountable, and make sense.

Welcome to BP @Cheri Cooper Harris!

Listen to the podcasts and engage in the forums. There is a lot to learn here from others.