Real estate agent recommendations for Upper Fells? Hey everyone, I'm a first time home buyer looking to buy in Upper Fell's Point or nearby. I've lived here for a few...
dontgooglegoogle replied:
u/bensellshouses
slinkymaster replied:
>any other home buying in the city advice? Property taxes are out of whack for a lot of properties. Don't overlook that. Saw a $200 k house that had $7 k a year in taxes, which is an extra $250 a month on your mortgage than you should be paying for no good reason. Yea, you can contest it, but it's not like there's such a huge variance in houses around here that it's worth fighting it rather than finding another house without that problem.
gitan replied:
Jamie Walker, great agent. She sold my friends house in upper fells in 3 days. Obviously, got lucky a little bit but she is honest and no BS. â€(410) 984-7323‬
utkstryker replied:
Save your money and just use Redfin
ripWallace replied:
u/kenbenejs
theghostofm replied:
I don't have any strong recommendations for agents or home inspectors, but I worked with [Gerald Zapol](https://www.zillow.com/lender-profile/Gerald%20Zapol/) for my mortgage and he was *extremely* good to work with. Easy to get in touch with, knowledgeable, timely.
creyno5 replied:
I'd recommend John Reynolds and Pete Fettig with the Reynolds Fettig Group. They do the majority of their business in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Both of them are Baltimore natives and very knowledgeable about the area. Plus they have years of experience. John also raised an incredibly smart and handsome son who is not above advertising his father's real estate expertise on reddit. Here's their site: [http://www.johnreynoldssellshomes.com/](http://www.johnreynoldssellshomes.com/) Also for inspectors, Pillar to Post is a pretty solid option!
brianlouisw replied:
http://trentwaite.com/ was my landlord first, then realtor. He's a good guy and he lives in Upper Fells also.
P__Squared replied:
Chris Gotsch is a really thorough home inspector. We hired him to check out our old place before we put it on the market and were impressed.
YorickTheCat replied:
For home inspections I've used the following two with good results: Jordan Bird https://www.brickkicker.com/greaterbaltimore/ John Simansky with Buyers Protection Group (BPG). https://www.bpgwi.com/local-teams/md/baltimore-metro-area
Jim Williams at Pillar to Post went up on my roof before I bought my place. Of course inspectors can only see visible flaws, not what's underneath a patch etc. a few doors down did get a huge surprise that the repairs were completely shoddy. http://jimandrachel.pillartopost.com/
Kristen S. replied:
I used Andrew Warde at Prochek LLC who was very thorough. Got up on the roof, into the crawl space in the basement, etc. and his report was very detailed.
Susannah K. replied:
I highly recommend David Bowyer (roofer as well as pastor of Church of God on Hanover street). I don't have his phone # but he's local.
Carrie O. replied:
I second Bill Bitz. Very detailed digital report with pictures and everything.
Mark T. replied:
Terry Heller, residential property inspections, he definitely got up on our first story roof but I'm not sure if he walked the second story or just peeked over the edge. Very satisfied overall.
Brandon M. replied:
We used Avocet Inspections, they did an outstanding job!
Baltimore Home Inspector Recommendations? I'm under contract to buy a rehab in the city that is nearing completion, so I need to select a home inspector soon. I'm...
underwhowhatwhere replied:
Just bought a fixer-upper in Riverside and we used Pillar to Post ( http://jimandrachel.pillartopost.com/home ). They gave a really good inspection, met my gf out at the house, and gave us a VERY detailed report of every minor issue they saw, complete with what we should do to remedy it. They even went into things that weren't neccesarily wrong with the house, but that we could do to decrease the chance of a liability suit, such as adding a railing onto our stoop, changing part of our deck railing, etc. EDIT: submitted before I was done typing.
thom612 replied:
I sold a house to a real estate agent in April and she used John Simansky of BPG inspection services. If i ever bought in Baltimore again I would use him in a second. Apparently he has a reputation as a tough inspector, and based on his findings we had to spend thousands on repairs that a normal inspector probably wouldn't have called out.
Willothwisp replied:
Jack Reilly. We use him in our law office as an expert and he knows his business. http://www.yelp.com/biz/jack-reilly-associates-inc-baltimore
Anonymous replied:
i used a guy named Stephan Quigley for a 100 year old rowhouse with multiple rehabs. he practically wrote me a book.
Anonymous replied:
I unfortunetately can't recommend anyone, but get two. Even the best home inspectors are going to miss things.
As far as basement water issues, you are probably not going to find anything in a rehab. Usually you look for stains on the molding or framing, rotten wood, efflorescence, cracks, carpet stains, lifting tiles and of course odor. But a rehab is going to cover up most if not all of that.
If everything is painted in a bright white paint, it is probably killz. That is a bad sign. If there is carpet and it is new, pull it back and look for stains or rot on the tack strips. They often replace the carpet but not the tack strips. If the walls are exposed and unpainted, cracks are not necessarily an issue, especially in a block foundation. Cracks in the mortar lines of block foundation walls are extremely common. But if the wall is bowed in at the crack, that is a really, really bad sign.
What area is the house in? I do a handful of basement waterproofing inspections a year in the city. I can at least tell you if it is an area that I see a lot of problems in.
Looking for a Baltimore-Based structural engineer. Recommendations? I'm selling my house in Baltimore, and the home inspector is requesting review by a structural...
Anonymous replied:
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Anonymous replied:
Did the inspector say specifically what the concerns were? As said above PEs are not cheap. Some full service engineering firms can use a non-PE inspector to do the actual observation and then just make the recommendation based on their inspector's observations and photos, but it depends on the issue. Also try looking for really small non-full service firms. Their rates will often be lower since they have limited overhead. It is possible the company I work for can help you, but we usually don't do this type of thing.
Kittem replied:
Contact Wallace Montgomery And Associates. 410-494-9093. They are a civil engineering firm based in Towson.
Looking for a really good, thorough home inspector. Recommendations?
Megan M. replied:
Npiweb.com/quigley we used Chris bandy on that page and he was amazingly and crazy thorough. Our realtor warned us ahead of time that we might be scared by his findings because he looked at absolutely positively everything. Well worth it.