Contributor

Eric Wohlschlegel

Contributor

I’m Eric Wohlschlegel and for the last 15 years, I have been buying homes and helping many of my friends do the same.

I regularly get asked about renting properties, how to deal with tenants, if it’s a good time to refinance, and how to get started from those I know who are considering transitioning from renting to owning.
I’m not a realtor, accountant, lawyer, contractor, mortgage broker or insurance agent, and I don’t have a business degree. But, I love real estate. It’s been a hobby of mine and something I continue to spend a lot of time on. It’s also been good to me and I now own 5 properties, including my residence on Capitol Hill, another row house on the Hill, a condo in Dupont Circle, a loft in Penn Quarter, and a vacation home in California.

I purchased the last property over six years ago, and at that point I had been buying a property on average about ever two years more or less. I haven’t sold anything and four of the properties are rentals. The rental income pays for most of the mortgages and covers my main residence and vacation home. All of the properties are now worth at least what I paid for them, and some much more.

I know that many people did not do so well during the recent recession, and some had a devastating experience.

Now that we’re starting to make our way out of the one of the worst economic periods in our history, I feel that I can say with some level of comfort that I made it through mostly unscathed.

And, having made it through, I thought that it might be worth sharing some thoughts to other fellow Washingtonians based on some of the lessons I’ve learned.

Not only do I offer my perspective to those looking for some tips and clues about navigating home buying, refinancing, “landlording,” or”tenating”… but I have assembled a few folks I’ve gotten to know over the course of many years and who I’ve worked with or who have helped me along the way. It is from this network that I launched The Cribline. We’re building a network of experts, most of whom are professionals in the industry. They are Cribline advisors.

They include:
· A Mortgage Broker
· A Real Estate Attorney
· A Real Estate Entrepreneur and Investor
· A Realtor
· A Contractor
· An Accountant
· An Inspector
· An Insurance Agent

This team stands ready to take questions from fellow Washingtonians or others to create a two-way dialogue on residential real estate matters. From time to time, other experts may need to be tapped, but the goal is to be a constructive resource for those living and working in Washington, and to help this city thrive in the years ahead.

Submit a tip

Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how.