All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Taylor

I would train the tenants to always expect a rate increase at renewal. When I rented myself, every lease renewal there was an increase, as small as $40, but consistently every year.

 Chris, what would you recommend to read to find out exactly why you do this (quoted)? Thanks

I somehow thought the original question was about water heater. Anyway, I put my thoughts above.

I agree that heat pumps are less efficient, but it is not my problem. My problem is liability, and utility bills are tenant's.

I do have a gas line, but I connect it to gas furnace only. Range, dryer, water heater are all electric. It is a rental in Baltimore City, I doubt it requires gourmet kitchen with gas stove. Electric appliances are maintenance free and risk-reduced.

I am not familiar with Baltimore County, but what @Rob Poole has posted above is pretty damn bad. Authorities invent all sort of things that cost landlords money after money (like, arc-fault breakers), and I build a rental that is tenant and authorities proof.

(Did you know that you need to register the burglar alarm with the city???)

Baseboards are not the only alternative. You can install an electric heat pump. I am actually thinking about getting rid of the gas in rentals completely. It makes perfect sense thinking logically.

Back to original question: Electric water heaters are maintenance free, Gas ones are not. No-brainer.

I would go for repeat buyers, not cash buyers.

Most buyers, even if they are "cash buyers", use HML of some sort and it ends up as a mortgage record in MLS. I don't think there is a way to find cash buyers using MLS records, actual cash transactions are rare.

@Shelli Brown, since the problems are known from 2014, and today is 2017, why exactly are you renewing your lease? Let me guess, you won't find anything for that price. Let's renew the lease and stop paying claiming property condition, so it is even cheaper...

@Cody Snow, as you asked for an advice, the only thing you can do with this one now is to clean it up yourself, paint, carpet, repair only what needs to be repaired, NO RENOVATIONS, and put it back for sale. 

Rehabs for $30,000 do not exist, as others have said. Even for $45,000 it is hard to renovate anything but a rowhouse. You really have to know what you are doing, and your contractor should be verified. Your contractor sees that you are a newbie. What is going to happen is when your $30,000 depleted and work is not even half done, you'll be forced to put more money in, or get bankrupt. Everybody will get their profit: HML, contractor, listing and sale agent, BUT YOU.

But most importantly, that house is not a rehab material. 

How did you get the hard money? They should have advised you. Did they approve your scope of work, and agree with you on the ARV? Do they know your contractor? Are they going to inspect the construction in phases? Is that a seasoned HML? Because, most likely, you won't get money from a seasoned HML for that property. And being a newbie, NEVER get into contract relationships with other newbies.

Work with family members. Enough said. You'd better reconsider. Ugly things happen when money disappear and you start talking in negative numbers.

Good luck.

No. The issue that I see consistently is that Sage does not look at the documentation timely. 

Originally I thought that my title agent is doing something wrong (see above), but that turned out not to be true, after I started to micromanage everyone involved. My apologies to unnamed title agent.

The process at Sage is set up the way that when you write an e-mail or submit documents to the portal, you cannot get any feedback. It is designed the way that you can not get any feedback, intentionally. The employees just don't want to be bothered by annoying clients. 

In my recent case, I e-mailed everyone involved - only to find out that nobody cared to reply. And I mean NOBODY. They have one person in charge of the case - case manager? - and we got 3 or 4 of them changed for my specific case, and the only reply I got from the first one was something to the effect of "there is nothing that can be done". This had been sent to us when Sage could not close in time for unknown undisclosed reason. So helpful. (Maybe, there is no "case manager?" Maybe, they have operators on duty who handle the cases in queue one by one until their shift is over? That will explain why every e-mail from Sage was from a different person...)

The agents do not have a phone number in their e-mail signature, purposefully. The 800 customer service number is outsourced to 3rd world country, where they got instructions to reply with only one phrase "Nothing can be done at this point, and I cannot connect your call through to anybody else."

Then, they have special e-mail to send request to extensions - apparently, the separate division of Sage located at Alpha Centauri - those get back to you only once, and only and exclusively at last day before closing date. But they do not care what is being sent to them, and they do not bother to talk to anybody, even Sage's other departments, located, apparently, all over the universe where magnetic waves are shielded very effectively, so they cannot talk to each other. Those denied my extension, even though the extension was requested because of Sage could not accommodate closing timely, and demanded money from the buyer for an extension. During all these, the only time we heard back from anybody from Sage was a day or two before closing date, and, of course, something was missing and we could not close, and they demand money for an extension. When in reality everything was submitted to them properly not later than 5 days before closing date, nobody just bothered to look at it.

And yes, @Disadra Adams, I hear you, everybody around is at fault, not Sage. When I started this all, I already had a "closing company with a registered title ID". How can listing broker help me, if Sage does not read the documentation on time? How can listing broker connect extension department of Sage with everybody else in Sage? Maybe listing broker can teach Sage employee proper work ethics? Replaying to e-mails every once in a blue moon, maybe, instead of just ignoring requests? Declaring their phone numbers at the beginning to everyone involved? Reporting progress and timely resolving issues?

As I mentioned, perfect case. Clear title, cash purchase. Took us one month and 2 extensions to close, when the work of the title agent was done in the first 3 weeks, and the rest time we were searching the way to connect Sage employees together... Now, when everything finally completed, I am wondering what miracle happened. The way Sage works, no case should ever close.

I was thinking that my closing agent played games with me. It turned out, he did not have any information to tell me. And having more than one case like that, I see the bigger picture, and the pattern.