It's My MoCo

 Hello MoCo! It's been a minute. My last post was a la PC, Pre-Covid. Here we are, 9 months later, quarantining in place, protected by masks, working from home, zoom schooling. The new normal is tough to swallow. I've been one of the lucky ones where I can work from home and actually got headhunted to a competitor. Being in real estate default and risk management, my career thrives in a defaulted environment so I'm busier than ever. But again, I've seen both sides of the coin in this pandemic, and I'm curious to see what happens next.

In the multifamily world, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provided payment relief to apartment owners by giving 3 and 6 month forbearances, which allowed their borrowers to defer mortgage payments and allowing them to repay in 1 or 2 year periods. In exchange, owners are not allowed to evict Covid affected renters and reach individual forbearance or payment plans. So what happens after the forbearance periods run out, will these institutions give additional relief, that's ongoing and TBD.

Here in MoCo and Washington Counties, my (single family/condo) rental property demand has been better than ever as well. I've turned 4 separate rental properties in less than a month's marketing time, sometimes sight unseen in less than a day! Although I didn't flip my Hagerstown house, I did secure a long term lease with a non-profit organization that provides safe housing for disabled individuals.

I also actively manage airBnB homes both locally and in upstate New York. AirBnB took an early hit with various state by state travel and quarantine moritoriums. Early on in the year, all of my upstate New York bookings were cancelled due to Covid when traveling was banned. As a result however, there was a significant demand from Manhattan-ites exiting the city to find temporary housing upstate with an abundance of outdoor space and activities. So I secured a summer sublet to a Brooklyn-based couple for 2 months for one of my homes. The upstate New York market was actually so frothy that I purchased another single family home rental and secured a year long lease about 30 days after closing! Locally, I had a home in the Brookmont neighborhood that was temporarily rented to a State Department family for a couple of months. 

As you can see, rental demand is there, supply is limited, values are still high and a lot of deals to be made. Interested in an investment property? Need help with a rental or AirBnb? Let me know, I'd love to discuss.