Ellicott City Realtor Catonsville Realtor

Featured Listing Friday - Spacious Arbutus Split Level in Mineral Hill.
$250,000

Lots to Love about this 3 Bedroom 2 Bathroom Home!

• Updated Kitchen with Newer Cabinets, Countertops and Floors.
• Updated Bathrooms. Generous Sunroom for added Living Space.
• Office/Laundry Room on Bedroom Level.
• Finished Rec Room in Walkout Basement. Large Parking Area for Boat/Camper/RV Storage.
• Large Fenced Rear Yard, Rear Deck, Brick Front Porch.
• Hardwood Floors, Bay Windows.
• Large Parking Area for Additional Vehicle Storage

Tenant Thursday - Maryland Real Estate Investing Advice. A Weekly Series on handling Tenant issues when investing in Real Estate in Maryland.

You’ve found the perfect tenant: a single woman with a clear criminal background, good references and clean credit. She’s signed her one year lease. Things are looking good. You make the appointment for the initial walk through and then it happens. She brings her boyfriend. Oh yeah, and by the way he needs to move in because of some last minute change in his current living situation.

How convenient.

What are you going to do? The most important thing is to know what’s in your lease. This will dictate what you can and cannot do in this situation.

My leases specifically state that anyone who is going to live there must be specified in the lease. Any changes must have my prior written consent. Also, all adults who will be living in the home must have a criminal background check and credit check.

This applies to former spouses who move back in, college age children moving home, parents moving in with their children…everyone. I don’t mean to suggest that I wouldn’t rent to someone because of what shows up on the background check. But as a Landlord, I need to know what I’m getting into.

There are no exceptions to this policy, and it is clearly stated in my lease. Do you know what your lease says about who can live there? And do you enforce it?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umjanedoan/497345293/

Tenant Thursday: But I'm Not a Real Estate Investor.  Yesterday I met a woman who was interested in selling her investment property.  She and her husband purchased this small, multi-family unit in Arbutus many years ago and had been renting it out ever since.

Recently, her husband passed away.  She's simply not able to maintain the property and keep on top of the tenant issues any more.  She knew that I owned a multi family unit nearby, and contacted me to see if I was interested in purchasing her property.

I asked her how being a Real Estate Investor over the years had benefitted her, and she replied, "Oh, but I'm not a Real Estate Investor!"  It made me smile, and I certainly wasn't about to argue with her, but I have news for property owners:  if you own a home (real estate) in which you don't reside, and you use that home to make a profit (invest), you are in fact a Real Estate Investor.

I guess people think that to be considered a 'Real Estate Investor', you must own multiple properties, develop subdivisions, flip homes weekly and possibly have the last name of Trump.  And while those individuals are also Real Estate Investors, so are you, the single property landlord.  I think it's important to keep this distinction in mind, because as you make decisions concerning your property, you have to think of how those decisions will affect your bottom line.  When you forget that your property is an investment, and treat it like your own home, you can run into a lot of trouble.

Attention Real Estate Investors: follow this blog.  On Thursdays, I frequently post advice about Real Estate Investing.  Right now I am doing a series on common Tenant issues, and how to handle them.  You can also find more content under the topics of Real Estate Investing, Thursday Q & A, and Tenant Thursday.  And you can always contact me if you have a topic you'd like to see covered in the blog.

Photo courtesy of: Eric Rhoads