Bought First Property - now what?

[DJay Harrell]

I just closed on my first buy and hold property. $35k cash for a 4 Bed, 2 bath that I think would easily command $1,000/mo. post-rehab (9+% cap). I plan to budget about $20-$30k for rehab... updating kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, and paint. My question is, when contacting a GC, how should I prepare. Should I get pictures of finishes, materials etc. that I would want or just tell him I plan to make it a rental and just put install the nice things he would suggest and get estimate based on that? I obviously don't want to tell him my budget, or do I? Any help or advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance! 

[Adam Abdel-Hafez]

DJay Harrell I am assuming you have no experience with rehabbing a house. You need to be the one to determine the contractors scope of work of what the contractor will be doing and you need to be the one that chooses finishes (tile, countertops, vanities, etc). Never let the contractor decide these things unless you have worked with them before or referred and they do this regularly. I create the scope of work, etc for investors all the time on my rehabs, actually I do that most of the time but that's because I know what does and does not need to be done which most contractors won't know.

You also want to make sure that you buy finishes, if you let the contractor do it it will be some cheap knock off or not even what you wanted.

Once you have the scope of work, go get 3 quotes or so from different contractors and compare their price and overall professionalism. Don't mention the price unless they are all over your budget and then you can talk to them to see how you can get it down.