All Forum Posts by: Matt Wagner

Thank you all for the suggestions. I had my landscaper do some work, and I took a photo from what I thought was a better angle. I will hit the grass with some fertilizer to green it up. I like the idea of framing in the columns. Checkout these 2 pics, the first one is the original. The second one I did a little photoshop work to green up the grass and brighten the colors. I sent it to my realtor (before I added the obnoxious text and border for my craigslist ad.)

This is a flip I'm having a hard time selling. It lacks curb appeal. What do you suggest? What do you think of these ideas:

- Small bench on the porch

- Paint the white vinyl siding a tan color (I was thinking just the front section around the door and window, and leave the carport area white.

- Iron medallion on the front?

- Front steps straight out, curved sidewalk out to driveway?

OK, here's a stab at it. Let me know what you guys think and how it could be improved:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/65matty/file/homebuilding-cost-estimator

Excellent points. I'm taking total cost data for what it costs to build an apartment unit in about 40-50 US cities and putting it on the spreadsheet. That should take into account most location differences. Any city requests, make them now before I'm done with it.

I was thinking - the only things that would change are the labor, land, and permit fees. I have national labor multipliers that I use in commercial construction estimating. I just need to breakdown labor from material costs in all those divisions. I will probably start a spreadsheet and work on this further. I'll post results.

edit: I can apply a location multiplier to the whole project to get accurate location costs. I'll post the file here when I'm done and you guys can critique it.

@Jason Rutledge - The way you kill bamboo is to cut it, and inject the new green sprouts with roundup with a syringe.

For everyone out there wanting a breakdown of new construction costs (including me) I found this NAHB average cost breakdown here:

http://www.nahb.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=169974

The longer a foreclosure is on the market, the lower the banks will take for it. I look at it like fruit, ripening on the vine. The longer is sits, the sweeter the deal you can make.