How to get contractor bids for an occupied property

[Solace Medina]

I just closed on a 4plex that has all the units occupied. The tenants are on month to month leases so 30 day notices are going out. The plan is to rehab all the units at once when the property is vacant. The problem I'm trying to solve is how do I go about getting contractor bids for the work with the tenants still living there? I want to avoid the awkward, weird situation of walking multiple contractors through each unit and discussing the changes I want to make while the tenants are present. As you can imagine, the tenants won't be thrilled to receive the 30 day notices and I can foresee issues with access into the units. I would like to be able to gather bids ASAP so that rehab can start right when the tenants vacate. Has anyone found a great solution to this?! Thanks in advance!!

[Jon Kelly]

@Solace Medina Why give notice to all 4 units? Why not upgrade them on a rolling schedule? Start with unit 1, then unit 2, etc. You can also give tenants the opportunity to move to a newly renovated unit. 

If you still decide to provide notice to all 4 at once, I don't think there's much you can do to avoid the "awkward, weird situation..." You already provided notice so you'll be dealing with unhappy and potentially uncooperative tenants. It's going to be challenging to gain access to all units at the same time for multiple days over the next 30 days. You can try to walk multiple contractors through at the same time. Contractors can also make their bids based on what's known to them. You can get rough estimates based on what they would expect to see and then they can verify and formalize a proposal after tenants vacate.