All Forum Posts by: Patrick L.

Does Maryland law also allow you to let a unit sit empty without trying to re-rent it and charge the tenant for the duration of the lease?   Does Maryland law allow you lease the same property to two different tenants and double dip on rent?   Here those are both illegal, I'd have to make a diligent effort re-rent the unit and the tenant would be responsible for the time until a new qualified tenant can be placed in the unit.  I also offer a liquidated damages option for tenants to break the lease for a fee of 1.5-2 months rent depending on the unit.   

 The bank can't sell something they don't own.   A lis pendens means they have filed a foreclosure but until the case is complete and it goes through auction they don't have title and cannot sell it.    Once they take it back it will be listed with an agent, you can't just contact them and have them sell it to you cheap.  

Honestly I wouldn't even use the other two pictured as comps.   Go out a little further and find some similarly constructed houses.    There's no amount of money you can spend on the first house to make it comparable to the other 2.  

 Far more than a $10k deduction.  Block in Florida is a lot more valuable than frame.    Especially if you're trying to compare it to more modern construction vs a 1950's build, which yours looks like.   

If you can't afford to make basic repairs and can't afford an attorney to handle an eviction (I pay around $700) and you're unable to get a loan to make any of these things happen then maybe you'd be best served by selling and cashing out.  It's a seller's market and if you let the property deteriorate by not making any repairs it will eventually become uninhabitable.  

On the mobile home....what if you get liability only insurance?   If it has so little value then I wouldn't worry about carrying replacement cost on it.    Do you have a loan that requires you to carry full coverage on the mobile home....if so will they allow you to tear it down?    

If you caught this on the first month it'd be easy to explain as a scriveners error and you could probably back that up and show what the intended amount was.   Once you let them live there for 11 months and don't make any attempt to collect more than the $0 you've probably set a precedent that the tenant is in fact living there for free.  It's the same as when you don't charge a late fee for a year when the tenant is late every month and then go back and try to collect them all.     Obviously that monthly rent doesn't mean much to do you if you didn't even notice that you weren't collecting anything.   You're 11 months in, send them notice of non-renewal now and end it at 12 months.    I have people that work for me and I don't show units or deal with tenants directly but I'm the only one that writes and signs leases.    

I buy a lot from stockcabinetexpress.com, they have that same RTA Forevermark stuff that most online cabinet stores sell.   Cabinets go together easily and are all solid plywood and well built but are from China.  

Welcome to the landlord business.  Tenants lie and break things.   Going after them in court will generally prove to be a big waste of your money unless you're talking about a high dollar class A property and high income tenants.    Judgements will tend to go uncollected unless your state has favorable garnishment laws (mine does not).  

 I'm glad you don't think that but seem to have nothing to base that opinion on.   Please post back when the title search comes back, my guess is your friend just lost his money.  

I've bought numerous properties at courthouse auctions.  You need to know what you're doing, I've watched many people get burnt by assuming.