All Forum Posts by: Russell Brazil

@Joshua Beall

I am a licensed agent who has access to the MLS as well as an investor. I became a licensed agent so that I could get access to the MLS so I could bypass my agent. I do actually use Redfin because I like the interface much more than the MLS....but when I go into really research a property nothing beats the actual MLS. There is a wealth of information that does not make it onto Redfin....there is also likely a wealth of information in the MLS that your agent does not pass along to you. When I as an agent set up emails to a client from the MLS, it does not include a lot of information like seller subsidies, the hidden private agent remarks on a property, information on the comissions and a wealth more of information.

I see a lot of people attempt flips in the Rockville area and fail.  There are severa key mistakes they make.  They do not put in the finishes or attention to detail that your Rockville buyer will expect, and then they overprice the property creating larger holding costs.  This happens time and time again.  Then also they just simply pay too much for the property.  There is a flip on the market in 20851 right now that is guilty of all these sins.

I use the standard Montgomery County lease for my properties in both Montgomery County and Frederick County (With a few small edits for Frederick)

@Thomas Abbott Welcome to BP.  Id be careful with the offer of free work though, might be more than you bargained for lol.  What areas are you looking in to do a 203k loan?

@Leland F

I have a friend that does airbnb rentals in dc. He has a service handle everything for the renyal.  you inbox me I'll ask him when I see. I'm on my cell now, so I will probably forget about this on the forum. 

@J Scott typically when talking about school ratings the only two lists that can be taken to be close to accurate is the Newsweek list and the US News & World Report list.  Also part of understanding the school rankings for MoCo as well as Fairfax county is understanding how in some of the communities they draw the school district line so that certain poorer areas filter into the better schools.  This can be seen in the neighborhood of KenGar in Kensington MD feeding into Walt Whitman high school, one of the top 30 or so high schools in the country.   So you have this small area of $150k shanty type homes sending their kids to a high school with kids from multimillion dollar homes.  This typically brings down the test scores at some of these highly coveted schools.

Generally though the dividing line for the good schools (as well as the affluent areas) is Rock Creek park.  The west side of Rock Creek park typically has your higher incomes and better schools (Walt Whitman, Richard Montgomery, Poolesville, Bethesda-Chevy Chase) while those school and communities that lie east of Rock Creek park have the poorer schools (Wheaton, Kennedy).  This is speaking in very general rules as there are both good and bad schools on each side of that line, I am just speaking in general.  

The affluence divide of Rock Creek does extend all the way down into DC as well, though the eastern side of the park has been up and coming in DC the past decade with Petworth and Columbia Heights turning into desirable neighborhoods.

@Brandy Tingen mentioned maybe the multi families in Takoma Park. I would probably shy away from those for a couple reasons.  Takoma Park has rent control if you have two units or more.  So if you buy one of those 3/4 unit buildings and live in one, you are hit by rent control right off the bat.  Also as is typical with rent controlled areas, peoples houses tend to not be upkept well, which you see in the part of Takoma Park where those are.  The other thing is most of those Takoma Park multis are lead paint houses, so there is that headache to deal with.

@Kenny Fletcher

In PG county you do have the tenant friendly laws that can really drag an eviction out....but if you are screening your tenants properly, hopefully you dont run into that problem.  It will still be quite hard to hit a 1% rule in descent parts of PG county.  You can hit 1% or higher if you go to the southern part of the county, but those will be in some rougher areas.  

If you are looking for cash flowing properties, you might want to consider Frederick County and Baltimore County....though you wont get the type of appreciation you will get closer to DC.

 @Kenny Fletcher...what part of DC is your primary residence in? (Keep in mind in DC after you hit 4 rental units you are subject to rent control)

@Kelley Brown....I actually prefer condos and townhouses to reduce my expenses.  I also find that if I like a property...it makes searching for my next property all the more easier since I just have to wait for another unit in the complex to come up for sale.  

You do want to make sure that the HOA though is being run by a good property management company, and not one that will have random assessments on your property. Having predictable HOA dues is very important.

Also you want to look at complexes that have either a low investor ratio, or a very high. You dont want to invest in one that is on the verge of losing it's FHA approval. Once a complex loses the ability to attract FHA buyers, the price will drop considerably. It is fine if that has already happened and you are getting a deal.

In New England where I am originally from it is customary to collect at lease signing, first months rent, last months rent and security deposit.  I wish that were the case down here in Maryland.  Ive had tenants skip out on last month rent here and told me to keep the security deposit (Which is against the law in  Maryland).  While I have tried to nip this in the but, I usually just chalk it up to the cost of doing business as long as damage to the property is minimal. 

Time and time again I see flippers in the Maryland area lose money when they try to reconfigure floor plans that require a structural engineer.  These houses are always beautiful, and they have created great floor plans...but they end up spending too much money to do this and are not able to recoup it on the back end.