All Forum Posts by: Rob Gribben

@Josh Caldwell, thank you for the reference.  My take as a landlord is, you should make an effort to ensure that tenants, at least those who sign the lease, are in this country legally.  

I have a rental property in Baltimore in an area where there are a lot of people in the country illegally.  Is there a resource or website where you can determine if potential tenants are in the country legally?  What are landlords responsibility for determining if tenants are legal or not?

I own 3 rentals, and looking for a 4th. I have an umbrella policy, seems a lot simpler than establishing an LLC. I'll probably up the coverage on the policy if I purchase a 4th....

I look at a 10 year timeframe, what's the Net Present Value (NPV) of the investment after renting for 10 years and selling in year 11, and what's the ROI after sale. There's a ton of variables, and a lot of assumptions that you need to make. I try to stay pretty conservative in my analysis. I think it's important to ID a good investment calculator, and tailor if needed to assumptions that you are comfortable with. Using the calculator is a great means to compare investment properties/options.......

Baltimore is in the process of upgrading at least some of the sewer lines now.  I have 2 rentals in Baltimore City, and I keep getting mailings from an insurance company (that I believe the city has partnered with) in regards to insuring sewer and water feed lines.  I think the city anticipates the infrastructure work is likely to cause things like sewer line failures and backups, and so rather than pay for damage, they want owners to buy insurance policies to pay for the damage to their property should it occur.  So yeah, I am somewhat concerned about the crumbling infrastructure in Baltimore.  If you are an owner it's going to affect your wallet one way or another, if not directly, then through increased taxes and fees. 

I would proceed with great caution with scores that low.  If they have any issues paying things like utility bills and car loans, I would more than likely reject them.  If your prospects for getting more qualified tenants are reasonably good, I would reject their application.  

I give tenants my account number and they can either electronically transfer funds into the account or mail a check to the bank, or deposit the check at a branch location.  It's worked well so far.  

Do you know if they actually call employers to verify income and former landlords to verify rental history?  I checked out the site, looks really good, and easy, thanks for the tip.

My concern with following the hedge fund investors is, there may be a bubble created by hedge fund investors.  This is all kind of new, and not sure in the long run what it's going to do to RE prices in those areas where hedge funds are the majority owners.  What if all of a sudden they want out?  

I own two in the Eastwood neighborhood (21224) that I purchased about 3 years ago, one a foreclosure and one a short sale.  They both cash flow well, and a reasonably stable neighborhood, convenient to I-95 and Bayview Hospital.  You may be able to find something in that area that will cash flow. Owings Mills, I don't see much promise for cash flow there.  There are a lot of foreclosures in Parkville (21234) that will cash flow, the only problem is trying to find something that isn't in bad shape.  Personally, I'm looking out of state now, Indiannapolis and Kansas City.  The ratios (price to rent), not to mention taxes, are so much better.