All Forum Posts by: Shadonna N.

That's great!  Congrats Dakota!

@Aaron Smith what @Nick Pisano said.  DC is not like any other jurisdiction in the country.  It is all about finding the right tenant and an iron clad lease and the right tenant is not easy.  The job is the last thing you need to worry about.  If they are not used to living in DC run housing, every issue becomes a big issue and any profit can evaporate.  There is not enough training for tenants and the housing specialists are not social workers.  The cable bill will be paid before your water bill.  There is a freeze on rent increases.  If you submit for a rent increase it will be denied.  If you are in an area where you are stating that the rents are high, you can get a tenant for market rent and you can get that rent.  If the tenant is non subsidized you can increase rent every year.  Remember once the lease ends, the lease goes month to month.  You cannot evict because you want a new tenant.  Running a tenant to court everytime rent is late is not cheap and takes time.  I say all this to say that the program works with the combination of good tenant + solid lease + good management.  The people that run the program are great but can only do so much.  DC has a housing crisis and the unbalanced laws are not changing anytime soon.  Your only fallback is your lease.  For example, a tenant can give you 30 days notice if they are moving but you have to give 90 days notice.   Based on the area check out Zeus or Bungalow.  Get a property manager.   Tread lightly.  Good luck!

You do but that does not have to be a condo.  The condo conversion is definitely a move if you plan to sell off the units eventually but you can convert it to a 2 unit rental and get a certificate of occupancy.  Weigh the options.  If your goal is to have a positive monthly cashflow I don't know if a market rent in Deanwood or East of the River would cover the cost of a condo conversion.  Negative cashflow could be OK too because the property will appreciate.   Either way you have to go through the permitting process, taking it to a condo conversion is just a little more.  Good to have a company take you through it.

If you plan to hold it why go through the expense of a condo conversion?  Can you just make it two units and rent it out.  Would market rents support the expenses.  Granted the property will appreciate.

I was using Cozy and I had a tenant claim their bank account had charges they did not know about and had their account "frozen".  Cozy quickly took the money out of my account.  I had a very difficult time contacting Cozy and never really did get in touch with them.  Since I had used the money this caused my account to bounce.  This was her racket she did not again with my property manager.  I will never use Cozy again.  I know a lot of property managers that will draft/pull the money from the tenants' account.  I don't think that can be reversed.  In the event there is no money in the account, the tenant has to pay with money order.  You also have to be careful with cash.  A tenant can claim the envelope contained an amount and someone stole the missing funds once it left their hands.

@Jay Hinrichs that's great.  I am going to look at your charity.  That is a wonderful gift for our service members who have given so much.  

@Jay Hinrichs now there's a thread!  You donated a house to charity?  What kind a write-off on that.  We don't want to hi-jack this thread but can you share?

@Jay Hinrichs What if you donate the vehicle?

In addition to permits you need to check to see what the zones are in the area.  If this is the direction you are thinking move in and airBnB or keep it empty.  Your timeline is at least a year is stay on top of things.  District Title is a great team.  Do they have a team that will help with a condo conversion?

Regarding reporting to the credit bureaus, you can go to court, get a judgement and sell the judgement to a collection agency for about 30% of the value of the judgement.  In California, there is a way you can get the judgement on the credit report.  There are companies that will report but I don't know the cost.  You see all the commercials where renters can build credit by reporting their rents.  So one-sided.