All Forum Posts by: Tim Youse

Welcome. If you're on facebook, check out the Baltimore Investors Network. Lots of local help there. Also, there are some local real estate investment meet-ups that meet several times a month. Join meetup.com and you'll find them. CAZA, Hard Money Bankers, MDREIA, etc. 

go on craigslist and call some tree removal companies for a quote. Call 6 and 2 might show up. Give them the address and they'll drive by and give you an estimate. You don't have to be there.

These are some sold comps for retail flips. Your ARVs on Argonne are going to be a little bit lower since it's a busy street with a view of a brick wall and McDonalds parking lot.

@Khelifa Ahmed - what makes you scared your contractor is going to rip you off? Have you had more than one bid?

I live close enough to your property that I could walk to it. Also, I've had contractors bid on rehabs on properties in the area and for a retail flip I think you will have a tough time getting that done for $40k, unless the home already has central air and a the proper wiring to support it. Not going to say it's impossible though. I would expect a rehab in that area to be closer to $60k, possibly more. Just letting you know so if you get quotes around $60k, they are probably legit. Your ARVs are going to be $165k easy with a few going around $190k on the very high side (those tend to be end units with 1500 sf, 4th bed in finished basement, with at least 2 full baths). 

I've been in your shoes before and have been able to unload deals to other investors, so if you go that route I could give you some names of buyers. When do you close?

After a year of making offers, I finally got my first house under contract earlier this month. There was a vacant property on my street and several months back, I'd made contact with the management company and told them I'd be interested in buying the property whenever the owner was ready to sell. When the time came, they reached out to me and several other investors. When they told me how much they wanted, I felt they were a little optimistic with their asking price and their estimated rehab budget, but after a few rounds of negotiating over text, we agreed on a price that was $15k under their original asking.

The numbers were:

Purchase price: 80k

seller repair estimate: 35k

ARV: 180k to 195k

My hard money lender would only lend up to 65% of the ARV and they chose to go with a conservative number at $175k, so based the 65% rule I had to be all in at $117, so that gave me a budget of $37k.

In a perfect world I would have had a GC give me a quote before I made an offer, but in this case, I was only able to get quotes after the property was under contract. My first bid came in at $70k, so for the next GC, I knocked a few repair items off the list. Their number came in at $50k - but I never would have hit the $180k ARV with the scope of work. Finally, the last GC came in and he walked the property and offered to manage the project for me and would teach my how to be my own GC, so I would learn how to rehab using his subs. This was great, but the only problem was his quote would get back to me 2 days before closing. I needed to make a decision as closing was just over a week out, and I was going to be out of town for the rest of the week. I was worried I'd have to pull out and risk losing my EMD.

Since I lived in the neighborhood, I didn't want this house to be a rental. I wanted to do a retail rehab to keep values up. I reached out to local rehabber who had done several retail flips in the neighborhood. I knew he could close fast, so I offered it to him first. He was very interested and within a few hours, and several texts, emails and phone calls, the deal was done. I didn't even raise the price when I offered it to him, but he cut me a finders fee (which I got in a signed contract) anyway. 

So I'm a little bummed I didn't get to do my first flip, but I'm happy that I was able to control the deal and make sure the house will eventually go to a homeowner instead of a renter. On a positive note, I made some new contacts and learned a few things along the way that I can apply to future deals. Hopefully it wont be too long before I get another deal under contract and many more after.

Just a heads-up Ned, BNI is no more.

"Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. (BNI) will cease operations at the end of August 2018. Read the press release here"

BNI Press release

"The last day that the Tenant Landlord hotline will be taking calls is Friday August 10th."

can you post the #s?  Need more info than just asking price. Property taxes in the city are all over the place.

EDIT: just noticed you posted a link to the analysis. :)

Cash buyer in Baltimore City here and still having trouble getting offers accepted even offering over list. All MLS properties I make offers on (and ones I don't) I keep track of them to see how far off my offers were. In some cases I was only off my a couple grand- in others I've been outbid by as much as $30k. How are you calculating your Maximum Allowable Offers?

Don't give up. Keep making offers. If all our offers are getting accepted, you're offering too much.

Congrats on your rehab! However, I'm not quite sure how the thread title pertains to the content - what do you think you over-rehabbed the house?

What neighborhood is your project in?

Looks like a nice place to me. What does your agent say? 

I went to high school with her and I know she's one of the top agents at her brokerage..

If I had to say one thing that's hurting your sales is it's location. The farther north of Patterson Park and closer to Orleans you get (like your house) the prices seems to drop off. Add to that it's only a 2 bedroom, and your buyers pool really shrinks. That said, it's still a very desirable area for rentals. Is it not cashflowing? Can you refi to improve the rental income?

If I were you though, I would try to see if you could stage the basement as a bedroom and add a wardrobe or even add a closet and call it a 3 bedroom. A lot of folks looking for 3s wont even look at a listing if it only has 2 bedrooms.