All Forum Posts by: Tim Jacob

I hear about how horrible LA is and from everything I'm reading its basically trying to solve its homeless situation by burning the landlords via moratorium extensions and calling credit scores unequitable so landlords can no longer use them just like employers can't screen for criminal background.  I really hope that things aren't that stupid but I am truly sorry if you had to endure that and I understand the exodus of landlords and people in general that don't feel like funding excessive welfare and why these policies passed by people with little to no common sense are failing out there.

I would say like others have said about having a team of people established. Networking to develop a team is another great way to start.  Being within driving distance is favorable so you have a little more control.  Try to get a real investors agent.  I would visit your market and specifically the neighborhood you want to invest in atleast once.  Visit not only during business hours but 9 or 10 at night on the weekend to see how things really are.  If someone is telling you you don't need to do that I would immediately not trust them at all.  

Things should be a lot better now but instead of just labeling things the south and midwest be more specific.  Talk to local pm companies with a lot of good google reviews.  Ask them a few questions being quick and concise.  If its just a few minutes most people will be ok.  Good questions are the following.

What neighborhoods do you manage in and why?

What is the current eviction timeline and is it getting any better?  

What is the local policy on utilities like does the water company shutoff for non payment if you transfer the bill into the tenants name?  Can you transfer gas and electric?

Is there any pending local legislation in regards to landlord tenant law and if so what is it?

A really bad question is who are your contractors and give me their contact information.  Think of this from there perspective.  They don't know you at all.  If they share a good contractor and then you wind up name dropping the pm to get their business and then don't pay the contractor you have effectively damaged if not destroyed the relationship between the pm and that contractor and you have not given the pm anything.  

I am in Maryland and I will tell you that even in Baltimore which has a bunch of negative history that legally speaking things will probably return to pre covid normality negating minor gliches by the late summer or early fall.  Considering many landlords are distressed like people are also getting about stocks these days I would consider the fact that in regards to landlording in some places the light is at the end of the tunnel so to speak and when you consider if you get a place with an existing tenant even if they immediately stiff you I would consider the realistic timeline to get them out.  I'd feel a little bad about bumping their rent and try to be fair about that and their is always the potential they could destroy the place in the meantime so I'm not guaranteeing anything and would proceed with caution after consulting locals  but most likely by being professional you could end up just fine if you are in a similar market to mine.  People don't just give things away and this could be a way to get a decent property at an attractive price point.

Hope this helps.  

@Michael Thomas

I'm an investor and agent here in Baltimore as well.  I've owned and managed here as well as in the DMV and areas in between for a while now.  House hacks are how I started and a great way to get going in real estate.  Feel free to reach out if you need any advice on the market or moving forward with deals or related questions.

I assume your lease states that in a certain amount of days from the end of the lease either party can unilaterally tell the other they are not renewing the lease.  You should set yourself up so that if you do have to go to court afterward that you will be able to evict.  Here are some things to look into.

1-  Does your county have a certain number of days required prior to the end of it for non renewal.

2-  Is there a form of notification required for that.  Examples include a time stamped picture of the notice taped to the front door,  Certified mailing ,  and a mailing receipt.

3- Is your county or state one of the places where progressive politics have pushed a "good cause non lease renewal" policy?  If so have you given them one of the specified reasons?

In case things get nasty have a backup plan so you dont go to court and this turns into a tenant from hell long eviction process.

@Damian Smith  In regards to multi family in Baltimore things are looking up.  If you are looking in the city their used to be a horrific backlog that would discourage investment in anything lower than B grade rentals during covid has been drastically cut down leading to something much more favorable.  In the suburban areas known as Baltimore county as well as Anne Arundel county things have been better in regards to that.  I would need to know if you are looking at value add opportunites or something more turnkey.    

To pick from the best pool for facebook do you have fb groups you could market to instead of fb marketplace?  Furthermore many of the unqualified are easy to spot from the fb profile.  Example if they are flicking the camera off in every pick. 

The area near Penn Station especially north of Mt Vernon can fluctuate if you go too far east or west if you are just a couple blocks away you should be alright.    

In regards to not giving court dates for ftpr right now in the city thats because they are FINALLY DOING SOMETHING FOR LANDLORDS.  They are consolidating the court dates.  I have heard they are being compressed into about half the time between the trial date and the middle of May.  Hence if someone doesnt pay in a few weeks gone are the days of 5 plus months to get a court date and in are the days of less than 3 months.  Hopefully at years end it will be normal and less than a month again.     

I'd like to share some experiences on what I have seen in the Baltimore area which is my neck of the woods.

As many know the federal eviction moratorium ceased after a Supreme court ruling on August 26, 2021. One argument against it was the opinion that if it ended there would be a massive tsunami of evictions. This didn't happen. One of the largest reasons is the legal system. A good comparison would be a flood from a dam breaking instead of a tsunami. Since it is now becoming right in certain crowds to call things infrastructure that aren't related to something that most people consider that like a road, bridge, or dam imagine the rent court being the dam. Lets call it legal infrastructure. Once the moratorium ended the courts were not excessively inundated with cases. Prior to the pandemic the court could only handle do many cases at once. Where I live that lead to a 5.5 month backlog between filing and trial time. I went to the court as I was hired for an eviction the other day. The time limit is now only 3 weeks better so by filing a few days before Christmas court will be May13th. I talked to the clerks who Im sure have gotten a lot of complaints and it has to do with courtroom spacing which over the next month will ofcourse get bad again. I was hoping that many cases would either have rental assistance pay or start having judgements be rendered. There is a small section of the suburbs of Baltimire to the south in Anne Arundel county. I am about to be hired there and found that filing to trial time is only a couple weeks. Anne Arundel county has very little poverty. I know reading this will make people say don't come to Baltimore or more blue collar big cities in democratic areas and stay in the less impoverished suburbs. Even in Baltimore if you are in A or B grade areas you are going to be fine. Also news flash just last night the state of Maryland ruled that now the rent court was suspended again. Apparently distancing isn’t good enough for Maryland though a vaccine has been out almost a year. Thus landlords who have patiently waited since summer for a mere court date are once again taken advantage of so tenants handouts can be extended one more time.

On the back end of all of this is screening criteria will be much higher than before. There is no way around that as it directly relates to how much a landlord will lose if they pick the wrong tenant. This will be unfortunate as it will lead to the homelessness the alt left were trying to stop. However a landlord or property manager has a business to run and when an eviction that to 3 to 4 months is now 8 to 10 months things are going to adjust. Apparently the city of Philadelphia doesn't think thats equitable enough for the tenant. There any landlord cannot discriminate against a tenant because of credit score, evictions, or criminal history. If you do they think you should be subject to a $2000 fine. If you reject someone you must show them the reports which is fine but if you do not have another unit available you could have an issue with the fine. New York City proposed similar measures but just for criminal history. That was shot down before it became law. Though I do not work in Philadelphia I feel for the landlords up there. I do think the credit score and eviction laws will be respected about as much as jaywalking and landlords will find ways around it but its the mere thought that someone thought that was ok and that an actual law was passed shows a little where things are headed.

This being all said by the end of next month when covid is expected to start really subsiding for most of the country I think it would be good to track where things are headed on here. I'd like to know how long it takes to get a failure to pay rent case in your neck of the woods now and in the coming months and if there are other avenues like terminating a month to month lease that are faster and a rough estimate of how long it would take to actually evict someone.

I do feel based on how things are going that enough hard working people that are not only landlords but other hard working middle class or upper middle class people are getting beyond sick of the system and the direction things are heading which is a direction towards Marxism which has had catastrophic consequences historically for obvious reasons In other countries.

That being said I would like this post to updated through the year as I expect after next month cases will start to cut down for most if the country. With covid rates lower the court spacing excuse goes away. I understand things take time but I feel a good time to revisit this after initial responses would be october and november. By that time the moratorium will probably be rescinded everywhere as its over 85% right now and will be over 99% gone by the end of January assuming the places its still around don't extend them again, which I understand is an if. Thus by October and November of 2022 we should see an improved filing to trial time for failure to pay rent cases and eviction time lengths dwindling as well. If things have not improved I think october and november would be a great time to let the message get out and conveniently its right before the midterm elections and would help people consider who they want to vote for based on clear evidence.

Do you think a tenant should be able to steal from a landlord for close to a year or do you think 2 to 4 months even with legal representation like it was 2 years ago is equitable for everybody moving forward with covid vaccines available?

Please respond about your part of the country. Looking forward to the responses.

Hi,

I'd like to share some experiences on what I have seen in the Baltimore area which is my neck of the woods.  

As many know the federal eviction moratorium ceased after a Supreme court ruling on August 26, 2021.   One argument against it was the opinion that if it endrd there eould be a massive tsunami of evictions.  This didn't happen.  One of the largest reasons is the legal system.  A good comparison would be a flood from a dam breaking instead of a tsunami.  Since it is now becoming right in certain crowds to call things infrastructure that arent related to something that most people consider that like a road, bridge, or dam  imagine the rent court being the dam.  Lets call it legal infrastructure.  Once the moratorium ended the courts were not excessively inundated with cases.  Prior to the pandemic the court could only handle do many cases at once.  Where I live that lead to a 5.5 month backlog between filing and trial time.   I went to the court as I was hired for an eviction the other day.  The time limit is now only 3 weeks better so by filing a few days before Christmas court will be May13th.  I talked to the clerks who Im sure have gotten a lot of complaints and it has to do with courtroom spacing which over the next month will ofcourse get bad again.  I was hoping that many cases would either have rental assistance pay or start having judgements be rendered.  There is a small section of the suburbs of Baltimire to the south in Anne Arundel county.  I am about to be hired there and found that filing to trial time is only a couple weeks.  Anne Arundel county has very little poverty.  I know reading this will make people say dont come to Baltimore or more blue collar big cities in democratic areas and stay in the less impovershed suburbs.  Even in Baltimore if you are in A or B grade areas you are going to be fine.

On the back end of all of this is screening criteria will be much higher than before.  There is no way around that as it directly relates to how much a landlord will lose if they pick the wrong tenant.  This will be unfortunate as it will lead to the homelessness the alt left were trying to stop.  However a landlord or property manager has a business to run and when an eviction that to 3 to 4 months is now 8 to 10 months things are going to adjust.  Apparently the city of Philadelphia doesn't think thats equitable enough for the tenant.  There any landlord cannot descrimnate against a tenant because of credit score, evictions, or criminal history.  If you do they think you should be subject to a $2000 fine.  If you reject someone you must show them the reports which is fine but if you do not have another unit available you could have an issue with the fine.   New York City proposed similar measures but just for criminal history.  That was shot down before it became law.  Though I do not work in Philadelphia I feel for the landlords up there.  I do think the credit score and eviction laws will be respected about as much as jaywalking and landlords will find ways around it but its the mere thought that someone thought that was ok  and that an actual law was passed shows a little where things are headed.

This being all said by the end of next month when covid is expected to start really subsiding for most of the country I think it would be good to track where things are headed on here.  I'd like to know how long it takes to get a failure to pay rent case in your neck of the woods now and in tbe coming months and if there are other avenues like terminating a month to month lease that are faster and a rough estimate of how long it would take to actually evict someone.  

I do feel based on how things are going that enough hard working people that are not only landlords but other hardworking middle class or upper middle class people are getting beyond sick of the system and the direction things are heading which is a direction towards Marxism which has had catastrophic consequences historically for obvious reasons In other countries.

That being said I would like this post to updated through the year as I expect after next month cases will start to cut down for most if the country.  With covid rates lower the court spacing excuse goes away.  I understand things take time but I feel a good time to revisit this after initial responses would be october and november.  By that time the moratorium will probably be rescinded everywhere as its over 85% right now and will be over 99% gone by the end of January asuming the places its still around dont extend them again, which I understand is an if.  Thus by October and November of 2022  we should see an improved filing to trial time for failure to pay rent cases and eviction time lengths dwindling as well.  If things have not improved I think october and november would be a great time to let the message get out and conveniently its right before the midterm elections and would help people consider who they want to vote for based on clear evidence.

Do you think a tenant shouod be able to steal from a landlord for close to a year or do you think 2 to 4 months even with legal represenration like it was 2 years ago is equitable for everybody moving forward with covid vaccines available?

Please respond about your part of the country.  Looking forward to the responses.

For the areas you are looking its cashflow vs appreciation.  I wouldn't say those neighborhoods in Baltimore are risky.  I can tell you I have seen places in Hampden that bought in 2020 were flipped in 2021 for 200k over what they bought it.  Im sure they sunk a lot into it but no underpinning so Im guessing 100k tops on a large row home.  Thus you could definitely brrr that.  Not saying items easy to get those deals now but just that the area is appreciating as Im sure it is in most of Nova.  Over time it would probably favor DC but no one knows for sure. 

If you have run down properties in bad neighborhoods good luck.  I have not had to file on people through this whole pandemic but have properties in b grade areas and a few c grade ones.  If you have enough d grade stuff being more than a couple even if you do everything right your bound to have payment issues wuth the tenant base and I really feel for those that have had them this pandemic.  Cash for keys is an interesting proposal but dont know how well its going to work with this moratorium. 

Hopefully the moratorium  is repealed.  I dont think the judges will like Biden disregarding the laws they have set bc he and the alt left didnt like it. 

Another annoying thing about this is good paying tenants are looking at the actions of the alt left and their freeloaders and I wonder if thoughts of not paying rent or paying late are starting to creep in.  Now more people are suffering bc of that

This needs to be slammed back in Bidens face with  threat of impeachment if he tries it again.  At what point are we still even in a democracy if he can just do what he wants without regard for the constitution.