Real Estate | Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C.

Should You Be Worried About the Recent Increase in Commercial Real Estate CLOs?

Jay Butchko — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 10:00:26 +0000

So much about the real estate market is unpredictable. No one who was building shared office space, roller skating rinks, and movie theaters in 2019 could have anticipated what the next year would bring. Whenever one family buys one house, they are taking a financial risk, not knowing how much the value of the property will increase, or how easy it will be to sell it when they are ready. If they buy it with an adjustable-rate mortgage, or with the hope of refinancing in the near future, then they could be in for even more unpleasant surprises. Of course, a family’s decision to buy a house to live in is not primarily about money. If they take out a mortgage loan at a high interest rate and it stays high, at least they still have a family home. With commercial real estate, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower. The return on investment is an end in itself, and the amounts of money invested are exponentially bigger. A recent trend is the commercial real estate (CRE) market is causing some investors to worry. If you are buying commercial real estate for the first time, you should do so with the guidance of a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

What Are CLOs, and Why Do They Make People So Nervous?

Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are not new; they have just made a return to prominence after a prolonged absence. A CLO is a high dollar value loan secured by a CRE property that is undergoing renovation; most of them have floating interest rates and terms of repayment less than three years. The borrowers of CLOs are usually medium-sized to large businesses, and they borrow the loans with the goal of selling them before the loans reach maturity. Therefore, banks consider CLOs a risky financial product.

After the housing market crisis of 2008, banks hesitated to issue CLOs at all, and businesses were not interested in borrowing them, so they virtually disappeared from the finance market. They have made a comeback recently, though. As of 2024, the combined total outstanding balance on all the CLOs in the United States is $80 billion, which is only a tiny fraction of the $20 trillion CRE market. Some CRE investors are worried, though, because the percentage of CLOs that are in distress has increased sharply in the past year. The percentage of CLOs in distress more than quadrupled between January 2023 and January 2024, meaning that now 8.6 percent of CLOs are in distress. This could mean a sizable increase in CRE defaults in the near future.

Even if you are not planning on investing in CLOs, a rise in CLO defaults could affect the CRE market as a whole. You should work with a real estate lawyer to understand the risks when investing in commercial real estate.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Commercial Real Estate

A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help you get into the potentially lucrative world of commercial real estate. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

globest.com/2024/03/20/the-cre-clo-problem-is-even-worse-than-it-seemed/?slreturn=20240228163340

Real Estate Transactions Run in the Family

Jay Butchko — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 10:00:08 +0000

Everyone complains that the rich get richer while the rest of us work our whole lives for little or no reward. If you have not thought about this for a while, it speaks well of your financial situation, your ability to be content with what you have, or both. It is easier to feel content with your financial situation if you own your own home; in fact, home ownership is virtually synonymous with financial stability. Among the most common reasons that people aspire to buy their first house is the desire to build generational wealth for their families. Your children are likely to need your help with their first real estate purchase. A generation ago, policies and economic conditions combined to make first time home ownership accessible to large numbers of people, but that world no longer exists. Even if your young adult children have been consistently employed since they graduated from college, the purchase of a house or condo is likely to be out of their reach for years to come. If you are planning to help your children purchase their first home, contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

The Role of the Real Estate Market in Building Generational Wealth

Some journalists flippantly describe homeowners as “nepo babies,” while others claim that the state of the housing market at the time when you first endeavor to buy a house can determine the financial situation of your family for years to come. This means that, today, it is hard for anyone to come up with a big enough down payment for a mortgage they can afford or qualify for. Parents who already own their homes are the obvious choice for a source of funds to add to the down payment. Your own parents will not hold it against you that you have never owned a house before, and they are unlikely to make you pay back the money at all, much less with interest. Journalists may complain about the Baby Boomer dads who visit open houses with prospective homebuyers, but they are just jealous.

If Buying Real Estate Is a Family Affair, Then Why Do You Need a Lawyer?

Of all the factors involved in the current chaotic state of the real estate market, one of them is a court decision signaling a change in the way that real estate agents receive their commissions. This means that your children could face yet another financial hurdle when it comes to first time home ownership. It is possible to buy or sell a house without hiring a real estate agent; you have probably seen signs saying “for sale by owner” in front of houses before. Navigating the real estate market on your own is a challenge, though; it is simpler and less expensive to work with a real estate lawyer.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Family Real Estate Matters

A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help you think through the decisions and plans necessary for helping your children make their first real estate purchase. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/nepo-housing-market-more-third-170559313.html

Everyone Wins When Landlords Help Tenants Boost Their Credit Score

Jay Butchko — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:00:09 +0000

Despite the fact that home ownership is becoming unaffordable for an increasing number of people, the economics of residential rentals please no one, regardless of whether it is a mom-and-pop landlord renting out a finished basement or a large company managing a building with hundreds of units. The rent payments that landlords collect from tenants are barely enough to cover the cost of building maintenance, and tenants struggle to pay the rent, which leads to a situation where everyone complains. Tenants’ biggest grievance is that, despite all the hard work they do to keep up with the cost of rent payments, the credit reporting bureaus do not give them credit for keeping up with their payments week after week and year after year. Today, rent reporting services give tenants a boost to their credit score for consistently making their rent payments on time. To find out more about what landlords can do to make rental arrangements financially beneficial for landlords and tenants, contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

How Do Rent Reporting Services Work?

The three credit reporting bureaus, namely Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion keep track of certain payments by consumers and use these as a basis of the consumers’ credit scores. The payments that count toward your credit score are mostly payments toward loans, such as home mortgage payments, car loan payments, and credit card payments. In other words, you need to have a high enough credit score to qualify for loans, and then making payments on them increases your credit score even more.

Meanwhile, the bills that most of us pay on a regular basis don’t help our credit scores. You can pay your rent and utility bills on time every month for years with little boost to your credit score. Recently, a variety of rent reporting services have appeared. As their names suggest, they report tenants’ rent payments to the credit reporting bureaus so that tenants can get a boost to their credit score by keeping up with their housing payments, much as homeowners do.

Landlords can choose from rent reporting apps such as Zillow Rental Manager, ClearNow, Esusu, and PayYourRent. Other rent reporting apps are available by subscription to tenants rather than to landlords. If you subscribe to a rent reporting service, this can make your rental property more attractive to tenants than other, similarly priced, properties. Reporting tenants’ rent payments to credit reporting bureaus is a win-win situation. For tenants, they can increase their creditworthiness more quickly while renting, giving them lower interest rates on personal loans and freeing up more funds to pay down their credit cards or make a down payment on a car. For landlords, this financial incentive can attract tenants, meaning that the property has fewer vacant units at any given time.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Real Estate Ownership in Tough Times

A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help you incorporate rent reporting services that benefit your tenants into your business strategy. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

cnbc.com/2024/01/20/how-to-use-rent-reporting-services-to-build-improve-credit.html

What Is Legal When It Comes to Screening Prospective Tenants?

Jay Butchko — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:00:09 +0000

Vacancies are a landlord’s worst nightmare, so why is housing so hard to find in Washington, D.C.? Prospective tenants must demonstrate to the landlord that they will consistently be able to make rent payments; this usually means showing proof of employment and income. Sure, every landlord forms a first impression about how much or how little trouble a tenant will cause if they move in. The family with the small children and the big dog will cause more wear and tear to their unit than the retired lady who lives alone with no pets. Everyone deserves a place to live, though, even people who are noisy enough to annoy their neighbors or messy enough that the walls of their apartment will probably need a new paint job after they move out. New Washington, D.C. laws provide more robust protections against housing discrimination, but some tenants claim that landlords have denied their housing applications for prohibited reasons. Late rent payments from tenants are annoying, but housing discrimination lawsuits are worse, both in terms of workload and expense. To ensure that your rental properties are in compliance with current fair housing laws, contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

Two Northwest D.C. Apartment Complexes Face Housing Discrimination Lawsuit

The Equal Rights Center has filed a lawsuit against the property management company Air Communities, alleging that two apartment complexes it manages in Northwest D.C. have illegally discriminated against applicants for housing. The two apartment complexes mentioned in the lawsuit are Latrobe Gardens and Vaughn Place. The lawsuit alleges that the apartment complexes discriminated against applicants based on source of income, meaning that it denied their applications because they have housing vouchers. Source of income is a protected class, according to the fair housing laws of Washington, D.C.

Landlords have the right to run background checks on prospective tenants. If the tenants do not have housing vouchers, the landlords can set minimum income levels in their eligibility requirements; many landlords require applicants to have an income that is at least three times the rent payment. The landlords cannot discriminate based on whether that income comes from employment, public benefits such as Social Security, or other sources such as investment income or payments from a trust.

According to D.C. law, eviction records are sealed after three years. Therefore, a landlord cannot hold it against a prospective tenant if the tenant was evicted from a rental unit more than three years ago. Likewise, a landlord cannot deny a prospective tenant’s application because of an arrest record or conviction record if the arrest or conviction happened more than seven years ago. Landlords have the right to run credit checks, but they cannot discriminate against prospective tenants based on their credit score. Having adequate income or a housing voucher is sufficient proof that you can pay the rent, even if you have a low credit score or no credit history.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Staying on the Right Side of the Law as a Landlord

A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help your rental property comply with fair housing laws. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

wtop.com/dc/2024/02/lawsuit-accuses-dc-property-management-company-of-discriminating-against-potential-tenants/

equalrightscenter.org/voucher-discrimination-new-protections/

Everyone Loses When Landlords of Unlicensed Properties Try to Collect Rent

Jay Butchko — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 11:00:22 +0000

Rent is prohibitively expensive these days. To be approved to rent an apartment in a building managed by a reputable company, you have to be so wealthy that, 15 years ago, your income level would have gotten you approved for a home mortgage. The safest rental agreements are the ones where the landlord and the tenant can do a thorough background check on each other. When tenants rent from a licensed property, they should reasonably expect that the property will continue to keep its license active. What happens if the rental license of a property expires while tenants are still living there? Do tenants have an obligation to continue paying rent after their landlord’s rental license has expired? What legal remedies do landlords have if tenants do not pay rent to live in unlicensed properties? The whole situation is a mess, and the first step that you, as a landlord, should take toward mitigating their financial losses is to renew the rental license on their properties. Meanwhile, to sort out the entire legal and financial mess, you should contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

Maryland Supreme Court Rules That Landlords and Tenants Engage in Shady Rental Agreements at Their Own Risk

In 2022, the Maryland Supreme Court issued a ruling about the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants after the rental license of a real estate property has expired. The Court ruled that landlords have the right to continue accepting rent payments from tenants while the property’s rental license is inactive. Meanwhile, as long as the property’s license is inactive, landlords do not have the right to use the court system to compel tenants to pay overdue rent. In other words, if your rental license expires and your tenants skip paying their rent until your license gets reinstated, then you can ask them nicely to pay their rent, but you cannot file a lawsuit against them in an effort to collect payment.

The court also ruled that, if tenants voluntarily pay rent to a landlord while the property’s rental license is expired, they do not have the right to ask the court system to seek reimbursement for the rent money they paid. In other words, they can ask the landlord nicely to refund the money for the months they paid to live in an unlicensed property or to credit the payments they made during that period toward future months, but they do not have the right to sue.

This month, a group of tenants has filed a class action lawsuit against a landlord that they claim took legal action against them to collect rent payments while the property did not have a valid rental license. They have also named as a defendant a law firm that the landlord hired to help it collect payment.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Disputes Between Landlords and Tenant

A Washington, D.C. real attorney attorney can help you if your tenants claim that they have the right not to pay rent. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

thedailyrecord.com/2023/11/27/law-firm-property-owner-sued-for-collecting-rent-at-unlicensed-apartments/

The Trouble With Unoccupied Real Estate Properties

Jay Butchko — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 11:00:20 +0000

If you own a rental property, nothing stresses you out more than the times when the property is sitting vacant. As annoying as it is when tenants complain about the property you are renting to them, as expensive at it is to repair the properties in a timely fashion, and as exhausting as it is to argue with tenants about paying rent on time and about which of the repairs are your responsibility and which are theirs, the worst tenant is no tenant at all. You as a landlord are responsible for maintaining the property, even though no one is paying rent; if you don’t, your chances of finding a new tenant or selling the property at an agreeable price are slim to none. Prince George’s County, where abandoned real estate properties are abundant, also finds them troublesome, but not for the same reasons as individual landlords do. If you own properties without tenants, and these properties are a thorn in your side, contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.

How Unoccupied Real Estate Properties Cause Problems for Property Owners and the Community

People complain about abandoned real estate properties for a variety of reasons. They can easily fall into disrepair; the longer they remain unoccupied, the more time and money it takes to fix them up so that they are livable again. The presence of unoccupied apartment buildings tends to drive down the standard of living in a neighborhood; the buildings nearby the unoccupied one are less appealing to tenants, and landlords put less work into maintaining them, since no tenants choose to live there unless it is the only thing they can afford.

Prince George’s County imposes fines on landlords whose rental properties remain unoccupied for a certain period of time, but under the current law, the maximum fine the county can impose on landlords is $1,000 per year. This is enough to compel individual landlords to take action, such as by selling the property at whatever price buyers are willing to pay, but for banks and LLCs, which own the majority of the county’s unoccupied real estate, it is chump change. They just pay the fine and continue to neglect the properties.

Prince George’s County Aims to Hold Corporate Owners of Abandoned Properties Accountable

The Department of Permitting, Inspection, and Enforcement (DPIE) in Prince George’s County, is attempting to address the problem of the county’s abandoned real estate properties. The number of abandoned buildings in the county is approximately 4,500, but there is no official registry listing them. DPIE has proposed creating such a registry so that there can be a uniform record of where the properties are located, who owns them, and how long they have remained unoccupied. They also want to find a way to impose daily fees on the landlords of unoccupied buildings, although some county officials have cautioned that applying the daily penalties uniformly could be prohibitively expensive for individual landlords if the fees were enough to be a motivating factor for corporate landlords.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About the Hassles of Being a Landlord

A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help you if a property you own has remained unoccupied for an extended period. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.

Source:

wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2023/10/prince-georges-co-is-ready-to-crack-down-on-owners-of-abandoned-properties-but-it-has-to-find-them/

Which Repairs Are The Tenant’s Responsibility?

Jay Butchko — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:00:05 +0000

If you think that renting out real estate properties will be a painless way to make money in your sleep, you will be sorely disappointed. Your rental properties may or may not be a source of stress while tenants are living there, but they will definitely stress you out every day that they are unoccupied. It is in your best interest as a landlord if the same tenant remains in the same rental unit year after year. The longer your tenants stay, the less often you must go through the time-consuming process of advertising the property and screening prospective tenants. In other words, happy tenant, happy landlord. Maintenance of rental properties can be a point of contention, even between landlords and tenants who generally have a harmonious relationship. Clearly worded lease agreements can help prevent these kinds of disputes. For help preventing or resolving disputes with your tenants over repairs and maintenance, contact a Washington DC real estate lawyer.

Landlords Are Not Obligated to Give a Rental Property Curb Appeal for a Tenant’s Benefit

In general, repairs to rental properties are the landlord’s right and the landlord’s responsibility. Tenants should not attempt to make major changes to the property, such as changing the appliances or changing the location of a wall between rooms, without the landlord’s consent. Likewise, the landlord is responsible for repairing or replacing non-functioning or faulty aspects of the property. For example, landlords must repair leaks, fix broken windows, and replace broken appliances at their own expense.

Some aspects of maintaining the property are the tenant’s prerogative, however. Consider that lease agreements do not tend to include provisions where the landlord pays for cleaning or lawn maintenance services. Maintenance of outdoor spaces is usually the tenant’s responsibility, for example. Likewise, tenants are responsible for repairing any damage that they cause.

Landlords have a legal responsibility to make a property livable, but they are under no obligation to improve its curb appeal or make its interiors look Instagrammable. Cosmetic repairs, such as replacing a cracked floor tile or repainting a wall where the paint looks scuffed or dingy, are not a priority, although they can cause resentment between landlords and tenants.

What to Do in the Event of a Dispute With a Tenant Over Repairs to a Rented Property

It is not always clear whether the cause of a need for repair is the tenant’s carelessness or the landlord’s failure to have the property inspected or maintained. Therefore, your lease agreements should include detailed lists of which repairs are the landlord’s responsibility and which are the tenant’s. The agreement should also include dispute resolution procedures, such as having a contractor with no pre-existing relationship to either party determine the origin of the damage, or going to mediation to resolve the dispute.

Contact Us for Help

A real estate attorney can help you be proactive in addressing disputes with tenants about repairs to your rental properties. Contact Tobin, O’Connor & Ewing for help.

Source:

sports.yahoo.com/repairs-arent-actually-landlords-responsibility-210000560.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE8lwf7P1dE0sUOhzhyIQFtKa5fs2popvCxtAFNJ18pdLxw9iea8HhiAMMU9zo59ciGihPnrfKOrx9mI9KdXvjqJ7idlCvr6Uq4WIAHWzxc7V8J0iT3MzDzIFFQZm7NDIktDJPBYTsNIdFLk-8TOZZ87Yoq0bZIQBavI3TcQmxDx

The Biggest Obstacle To Your Real Estate Empire Could Be Sitting At The Head Of Your Dining Table

Jay Butchko — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 10:00:18 +0000

Years later, it is possible to laugh about how meddlesome members of your family interfered with your plans for your wedding; one can have a sense of humor about a pescetarian mother-in-law who went behind your back to tell the caterers to replace the steak tartare appetizer with sashimi or about the wannabe celebrity cousin who posed for selfies in front of the ice sculptures and posted them on social media even as the wedding ceremony was in progress. The worst consequences of such thoughtless actions is that you and others who attended your wedding had less fun than they would have if not for these self-centered family members. No one suffers six digits or more of financial losses because someone showed their worst side at the wedding; even if one spouse leaves the other at the altar, the guests can still enjoy the feast and the music. When a family member is excessively stubborn, picky, or bossy about a real estate purchase that you are trying to make, however, the resentment can last for years if the deal fell through because your relative wouldn’t butt out of your business. You watch the house appreciating in value on the Zillow listings, and it pains you that it could have been yours if not for your know-it-all father-in-law. For help building the real estate empire your relatives keep inadvertently sabotaging, contact a Washington DC real estate lawyer.

Is Family an Asset or a Liability When Buying Real Estate?

A recent post on Curbed describes the plight of millennials as they endeavor to buy real estate while their Baby Boomer dads run roughshod over their real estate negotiations. For the young generation, one of the few paths to home ownership is to have parents wealthy enough to contribute to a down payment and to accept their contribution, which almost invariably means accepting their advice on your choice of property and on how much the purchase price should be. The real estate brokers in the Curbed article tell of young buyers who found their dream home, only for their fathers to find fault with it or to balk at any price higher than what the property would have sold for in the wake of the 2008 real estate crisis.

Setting Boundaries With Your Family Regarding Real Estate Purchases

A real estate purchase is a business transaction, especially if you do not plan to use the property you are buying as your primary residence. If you and your parents operate a business together, then making real estate purchasing decisions jointly with them might go smoothly; it will be no more and no less stressful than making major financial decisions related to your family business. If you do not ordinarily involve your parents in your professional life, then it is best not to ask your parents to contribute. If they offer you cash gifts with no strings attached, you can accept these and put them toward the purchase of a house or condo.

Reach Out to Us Today

A real estate attorney can help you focus on the legal aspects of a real estate transaction and not let emotions get in the way. Contact Tobin, O’Connor & Ewing for help.

Source:

curbed.com/2023/02/boomer-dads-realtors-nuts-millennial-gen-z-buyers.html

Are Mortgage Buydowns A Win-Win Situation Or A Shady Gimmick?

Jay Butchko — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:00:33 +0000

Nowhere besides the Washington, D.C. area is it more obvious that, during the pandemic, people with cushy, salaried jobs used the months of working from home to save up money to buy real estate. With no commuting expenses and no opportunities for dining out and recreational travel, the upper middle class turned those budget items into down payments on new houses, to be supplemented by the proceeds of selling their old houses. Demand for residential real estate skyrocketed, and with it, housing prices. Combined with rising interest rates, it started to look like a perfect storm for another housing market crash. Housing prices will have to become more affordable somehow, but how? Mortgage buydowns are an increasingly popular incentive to get buyers to agree to a sale, but are they riskier than the sellers, builders, and real estate agents who encourage them make them sound? If you are thinking of using a mortgage buydown to buy or sell a real estate property, contact a Washington DC real estate lawyer.

How Do Mortgage Buydowns Work?

In a mortgage buydown, the mortgage lender approves the mortgage loan at a certain interest rate. Another party, usually the seller, lender, or builder deposits money into an escrow account at closing. Over the course of an agreed upon period, the money gets paid out of the escrow account toward the mortgage loan in monthly installments; during this period, the buyer’s interest rate is lower than it appears in the loan agreement. Once the time period (usually one or two years) ends, the interest rate on the mortgage loan reverts to the rate on which the buyer and the lender originally agreed.

Why Do Mortgage Buydowns Have a Bad Reputation?

Mortgage buydowns are not new. Real estate developers frequently use them to give buyers an incentive to buy newly constructed houses. For the developer, it is worth it to float the buyer some money, because they need to sell houses quickly to avoid becoming delinquent on the construction loans they borrowed to finance the building project. Mortgage buydowns tend to be most popular when housing prices are high; they experienced a surge in popularity in the late 1970s. Because the most recent mortgage buydown boom was right before the housing market crash of 2008, some people think of them as just another adjustable-rate mortgage, a temporary solution with disastrous long-term consequences.

Whether you are asking for trouble by accepting a mortgage buydown depends on your overall financial situation. If you have multiple income streams, such as rental income from several real estate properties, then it is less risky to choose a mortgage buydown than if the real estate property in question were the single biggest purchase of your life.

Let Us Help You Today

A real estate attorney can help you think outside the box about how to be able to afford to purchase your desired real estate property. Contact Tobin, O’Connor & Ewing us today for help.

Source:

axios.com/2023/01/09/mortgage-buydowns-housing-market

Real Estate Investing Is Not A Game

Jay Butchko — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 11:00:56 +0000

Some people approach investing as a game, as if the uncertainty about whether you will gain or lose money from the investment, and how much you will gain or lose, is part of the fun. If this is your approach to investing, then buying real estate properties and renovating them in order to generate rental income from them is not for you. Being a landlord or landlady; even though some people have full-time jobs in addition to owning rental properties, you will be sorely disappointed if you think of real estate properties as a source of passive income. You can earn a considerable amount of money by renting out real estate properties, but doing this takes work; it is an investment of time as well as money, like any business. As with any business venture, you cannot underestimate the importance of trial and error, but a Washington DC real estate lawyer can help you avoid costly mistakes as you get started investing in rental properties.

It Takes a While for Investment Properties to Become Profitable

One of the most exciting parts of real estate investing is buying an inexpensive real estate property and daydreaming about how attractive and valuable it will be after you renovate it. If that is your only reason for being interested in real estate investing, then you should flip houses instead of investing in rental properties. When you buy a fixer upper with the goal of renting it out, your estimate of how much you will have to spend before the property starts bringing in rental income should account for time as well as money. Every month that the renovations are still in progress is a month that you are making a mortgage payment on an unoccupied property.

Being a Landlord Is Not All About Money

Marcia Castro Socas has been earning income from rental properties for decades, and one of the most important lessons she has learned is to focus on your own properties and your own tenants, rather than focusing too much on news and speculation. In her view, a profitable unit is an occupied unit, so the best investment you can make is to build a rapport with your tenants so that they will feel comfortable staying in your units for the long term. For example, during the housing market crash of 2008, conventional wisdom had it that owning real estate was a liability, but as many of her fellow investors were selling off their properties as fast as they could before the value of the properties decreased any further, Castro Socas decided to hold onto hers, since they were occupied. Years later, those units are still generating rental income, and they have rarely been unoccupied in all the intervening years.

Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. About Investing in Residential Real Estate

A Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer can help you navigate the costs and risks associated with investing in residential real estate. Contact Tobin O’Connor Concino P.C. for help.

Source:

businessinsider.com/personal-finance/millionaire-landlord-tips-rental-real-estate-2022-10