All Forum Posts by: M Marie M.

A lawyer.

If that is your major concern, consult a lawyer that has tenant-landlord experience in the District.

If DC landlords (or landlords in any tenant friendly area) could just write a lease to make the headache of tenant friendly laws, they would have.  But what you can have is a lease, while not bulletproof, that will help you when problems arise.

Otherwise, screening is your friend. And I think (I haven't kept up with the legislation) you can't ask an applicant about previous criminal court matters, but there is nothing saying you can't go to dccourts.gov and look them up or the Maryland Court website and look it up yourself.

@Jody Schnurrenberger, there are federal and local tax breaks and grants available, but I don't know enough about it to really bother with it. As I mentioned there are developers who do know how to work the grants and the tax breaks, just as there are developers who know how to work the low-income tax credits when building multi-family properties. They get super bonus points when they mix the historic, low-income and other credits all in one project. There are player who know how to play the game.

@Pat Alford, this is DC, and there was a reason why I put this in the Washington DC Real Estate section, because the District, and surrounding area is chock full of activists. Some activists are good at getting their goals met, and a slew of others are just good at virtue signalling and 'awareness'. 

This is a cautionary tale for "absentee" landlords and property owners who own properties in neighborhoods that are not yet historic districts. My day job and my neighborhood activism gives me knowledge, experience and information that I can't go into in this post for "reasons", but if you want, trust me.

Historic Districts and Historic Landmarks are a thing in the District of Columbia, and depending on the neighborhood, they can derail flipping or development plans, as is the case with one property a little too close to my residence.  When the property, built around 1902, was bought by a development firm, it was not in an historic district. Because the developer wanted to convert the large corner townhome into 2 or 3 units, add a 3rd story, and it sat on over 60% of its F.A.R. the developer needed a zoning variance. To get a variance, the developer needed buy in from the ANC (like a minor alderman) and the neighborhood association.

The developer chose to do something that set off a chain reaction and the reason for this post.

The development firm presented a few options (all bad in my opinion) to the ANC and neighborhood assoc. One was removing the notable turret, which upset myself and another neighborhood activist, and adding a 3rd story. Another was a threat to demolish the structure, as a matter of right, which did not require neighborhood buy in. And that set in motion several actions that I and the other activist did not see going in the direction it wound up going in.

The ANC for that property tried to organize the residents in the area to have meetings with the developer. Those meetings hardly had any neighbors attending, and the development firm put forth another option of a turret on top of the new 3rd floor. I thought it was still ugly, but the ANC and whomever bothered attending the meetings agreed to it, so the neighborhood association voted to approve it. And that, I thought was the end of that.

I should mention, I and the other activist, let some historically minded people know what was going on, via email and that was it. Those interested parties, decided to take action, by applying for historic landmark status for the whole block, not just the property to be developed. I'll also mention, I was involved with changing another development on the same block many years ago, where the developer wanted to add a 3rd story. There was back and forth and a winning solution was found for everyone and the only government involvement was BZA. I was hoping for the same in this case, but no.

I'm not a fan of historic districts and historic landmarks are similar. You can fight historic districting; landmarking, not so much. Someone does not need the buy in or permission of the property owner to file a historic landmark application. The criteria for a successful HL application seems low. While the HL application is being considered, a property owner cannot demolish or essentially do anything to alter the structure.

But what does this have to do with landlords? Well because the whole block was pulled into the application, including properties built in the 21st century, those properties have to follow similar rules as properties in historic districts. In the HL process, property owners are given a 45 day notice that this was happening. This is where being an LLC or hiding your identity may bite you in the rear, because the city used the addresses on file to contact property owners. Some people did not find out until too late that this was happening. And I guess that's why a few other developments on the block quickly finished up some things (that technically were now illegal).

What happened gives me no pleasure. I want to see my neighborhood developed and vacant houses brought back to life. The delay with the HL application has made the project more expensive.

What can anyone learn from this? One, if you are in DC, know what you can do as a 'matter of right' short of demo. Two, if you are hard to reach/find you might not learn until it is too late that some government action is happening (ex. eminent domain, change in zoning). Three, if a property is over 50 years old, and something slightly interesting happened 50+ years ago it is at risk of getting landmarked.

Since I only have one property in Baltimore, it is Pigtown (21230) . If I had a bit more money I might have gone with Ridgley's Delight, provided the place had off street parking. From what I can tell, street parking is hard to come by, and worse so on game days.

If and when I buy another Maryland property, and if I decide to bother with Baltimore (I'm tempted to stick a little closer to home) I might look a little closer to the areas north of Penn Station, or stick with Pigtown.

I like Pigtown. I could afford to buy something and the neighborhood reminded me of Washington DC's Shaw neighborhood circa late 1990s early 2000s. Back then Shaw was sketchy and had nightly gun fire, and today it's hip filled with 20 somethings carrying around yoga mats and starring into their phones. I think Pigtown has potential, and it may take a while before it too has more hipster 20somethings walking around than the non-so hip people.

@Shray Patel and anyone else planning or thinking about dropping out of college, please consider a few things.

• Student loans become due 6 months after you graduate, drop out or drop below 1/2 time.
• If the goal is to finish college and get a degree, figure out the easiest & cheapest way how. Probably talk to an academic advisor to find your options.
• W2 jobs are very helpful when getting loans at favorable rates, and health insurance.

To drop out for a promise of 25 hours a week at $8 is foolish. You could make more waiting tables. You mentioned working 1.5 years for a property manager, can you continue another 1.5 years? Can you figure out a way or find an IT 'internship' with a RE related company?

Yes, you have a developer willing to pay you peanuts for this deal, but what of the next deal? Are you in a strong enough position for the next RE bubble bursting?

@Michael Yan unless the PA lawyer deals with Baltimore a lot, you probably should find a Baltimore lawyer or law office familiar with real estate.

I had a law office recommended to me to do the title work for a property I bought at auction. There is a lot that can be done on-line and via FedEx/UPS so you really don't need (and probably shouldn't need) a lawyer or law office close to where you live.

Even regular retail buyers find that going after a seller to be a fruitless mission. For one it will cost you more in time and effort. Unless the cost of the damage is a significant amount ($100K+ ) it's not worth it, unless you're the kind of person who will take on petty battles for the principle of the matter.

I just discovered this in a Craigslist ad for Baltimore Maryland under "Real Estate Services" I'll just copy paste what they have:

Pay Stubs - 1 for $35. 2 for $60. 3 or more $25 each
Landlord verification - Faxed $25. Verbal $30. Written $40
Employment offer letter - $25

Pay stubs custom. Employer can be given or provided. All stubs are printed on Standard paper, can use higher quality paper upon request and small fee.

- You can pick it up in Baltimore city or West Baltimore county
- We deliver Baltimore City or West Baltimore County
- We can email PDF and you print
- We can mail ( you pay standard postage)

Is this legal?

Before and After Part II, the 2nd floor

So let me wrap this up by looking at the top floor where the most change occurred. 

When I bought the house the 2nd floor, the basement and the backyard were filled with debris. On the second floor the previous auction winner (who didn't close on the house) removed the tub from the bathroom and left it in the hallway, tore off the plaster from the brick walls, pulled off the doors and ripped off the drywall and trim. He left the tub, the plaster, the doors, some of the drywall, a lot of yellow fiberglass insulation, and just general debris all over the 2nd floor. The first floor was fairly bare by comparison.

The differences here are plenty. The inaccessible smoke detector had been moved. The bathroom, which when I got it was non-functioning, went from a full bath to a 3/4 bath. Unfortunately, the contractor wasted the space gained from having a shower over having a tub. I and the architect decide to nix the bathtub because if it isn't a soaking tub, how often do people take baths. I have a clawfoot tub at home and I only use it as a tub maybe once or twice a year. The space that was supposed to be gained.... if someone bothered sticking to the drawings, would have been a small linen closet. 

The drawings also had the bathroom door as a pocket door. Neither my dear contractor Dave nor the contractor who I used liked the idea of a pocket door.  I was okay until I measured out the opening for the bathroom door and expressed my concern regarding the width of the door, because the inward swinging door was going to nearly hit the toilet and or the sink if it were too big. And it was too big. The foreman insisted it had to be 30". If this were DC, I would have called bs. There are plenty of bathroom doors between 20-30" in many a DC rowhouse. But this was Baltimore and I was trusting my contractor. Because there was a 30" door swinging into the tiny bathroom, I had to get a thin IKEA sink.

It works fine with the space.

I had mentioned and shown earlier that the ceiling was raised in the one and only bedroom. I am going to digress a bit and mention this was sold as a two bedroom. I can only guess the second bedroom was in the basement. Okay back to the bedroom. The ceiling was raised so that it followed the slope of the roof. By doing this it made the room seem bigger. The new high wall in the bedroom was where the mini-split unit was placed.

The brick was exposed in the bedroom. One wall had beautiful brick, the other wall, was just butt ugly. Both were kinda sandy and brittle. No problem. I had the same sort of thing in my own residence and we just painted it white. Yes, red brick is cool, but just as white pants make your rear look too big, white makes the room seem bigger and initially both brick walls were painted white...... and then between contractors a painter painted the walls the off white that was supposed to be for the rest of the house. So I wound up painting one wall, the ugly one again. I also patched it up with caulk and a lot of latex paint. While I'm looking at the photos above, I got rid of the sconce and the upper outlets that made no sense. This was the wall of outlets. I (me, with my little girly skills) replaced the corner outlet with a 4 USB outlet. I figured with all those friggin outlets I could lose one for phone and tablet charging.

Yes I removed a closet. A closet that took up a huge chunk of the room that was also hiding the beautiful brick wall. So that was removed and I figured a wardrobe or something could be placed in that space instead. I also thought this would be a great spot for a wall mounted TV, hence the outlet on the wall and the cable hanging. Now I am thinking I already furnished the house with one TV, do I really need two? So the only thing on this wall is a small dresser.

This post is getting long enough so I'll wrap it up.

So when I decided I was done with contractors I did a lot of little things myself. This was empowering and tiring. I also discovered somethings about myself. I discovered I suck at carpentry and drywall. When it comes to simple wiring, I'm pretty okay. I put in a few wireless light switches because despite the previous renovators going cray cray with the outlets and electrical wiring, they didn't bother making 3 way switches where a few three way switches would have made sense, like the stairways. I swear the previous renovators and the contractor did not think of this house as a place where someone would want to live. I'm constantly thinking of how does one live in this space.

I'm also constantly finding more tiny things that need to be fixed or improved. Some of them relate to problems the house had before I got it, several relate to the contractor, and some relate to my limited skills as a handywoman. I've put more money in this than I should, but I see that as tuition in learning about renovations and real estate. It was also an excuse to buy toys at Home Depot.

Anyway the house has been available for rent for about a month now. I know I am asking more than what I've seen neighboring units of similar size. I'm offering it at $1100 a month furnished including utilities and wifi. If I go into October without a renter then it is no problem to turn it into an Airbnb, I'd just have to buy a coffeemaker.... people seem to want coffee. The location is decent for Airbnb, as it is in walking distance to the stadiums and the University of Maryland Medical College. It is also close to downtown, the convention center and near several transportation options. I've come to love the street that it is on and believe it would be a great place to live.

@Account Closed -great guy) but didn't get those deals. Also I should point out it was advertised as being 575 sq ft, so when the living space (tax office doesn't care about living space, it counts the outer envelope) was measured it was a good 100 sq ft less than what I thought I was getting.

I also figured I'd use the small size to my advantage. It screams bachelor pad and limits the occupation to a singleton or a couple. I knew my target market was the University of Maryland Medical Center as I observed people in scrubs wandering their way to the block adjacent to the block where I bought. Those are the people I want as tenants. And I also figured the smaller size might be more manageable.

The location is great. It is on a nice quiet street lacking characters. Characters are great if you are writing a gritty crime series, not so great for living next to or around. Pigtown has characters, this street doesn't them out in the open, except those folks are just walking through. I've met the neighbors and they've been very helpful, especially the owner on one side who has fixed and painted a high wall that looks out on my rear patio. The patio is deep and should I want to in the future I could build up in the back with an addition. There are other things about the location that appeal to me, and things about the eastern part of the neighborhood that appeal to me as well. As I mentioned before Washington Village reminds me of my own Shaw neighborhood in Washington, DC in the 2000s. Shaw was a rough neighborhood with lots of problems but now it has totally gentrified. I know Baltimore is not DC, but I do little signs that parts of Pigtown are changing for the better.