Investor in Northern California (Silicon Valley)

[Monique Lambert]

I'm on my second listening 'binge' of Brandon's book on Rental Property Investing. I've listened to all of Kiyosaki's books, multiple times. It's been funny hearing how folks in this community have read/listened to Kiyosaki and realized just how plugged into the Matrix we all are (working for the 'man'), and how listening to Kiyosaki created a fundamental shift in the way we think about HOW to achieve financial freedom. My 26 year-old daughter was the one who turned me onto Kiyosaki and I haven't been the same ever since. I take early morning walks into town and I am ALWAYS motivated when listening to Brandon and Kiyosaki, and most recently, the Bigger Pockets podcast. I am currently in the process of rehabbing a triplex investment property. The property has been subject to decades of deferred maintenance. I have great, stable tenants who have enjoyed below market rents for a VERY long time. They know that I am embarking on a total rehab of the property and that they will have to move. I have slogged through the process of getting approval for the building permits (I have lessons that I can share about THAT process), and I am actively interviewing general contractors at the moment. My biggest concern at the moment is being able to estimate costs for the rehab and creating a scope of work so general contractors can provide a reasonably accurate bid. I have read J. Scott's book on Estimating Rehab Costs and I am prepared to invest considerable time and energy into creating the scope of work but in this area, where there is high demand for general contractors working on multi-million dollar projects, it can be challenging to find general contractors who are willing to read a scope of work and put in the time to provide a detailed estimate for those of us with investment properties who aren't CEOs or Senior Executives at Facebook, Uber or Google. I'm looking for practical advice and experience with the rehab cost estimating aspect of real estate investment.