All Forum Posts by: Dave Martel

Finally picked up a set today, love these things.

Bingo @Randy F.

@Wes Eaves It has nothing to do with being able to afford upfront costs. Can you name any other business that will deliver thousands of dollars of materials, or labor to your house without a credit check and personal guarantee?

@J Scott

Yes this provides retail pricing and an experienced rehabber will get much better pricing. But a beginner will most likely be paying close to retail and miss more than a few things in the estimate.

As I said above, its just a baseline. Or maybe a better term would be starting point, or better yet, a safe starting point. As real data comes in adjustments should be made. Its always better to be too high than too low, especially for the inexperienced.

I don't have any personal experience that edition but the description sounds like it only provides unit pricing. So a toilet costs x, sink y, and tub z.

The Residential Cost edition provides sf prices and 'assembly' prices also. So a bathroom assembly (which includes a toilet, sink, tub, cabinet, hardware, etc.) cost x . I think it does more of the work for you.

Javon,

As a wholesaler I'm guessing that you don't have to be on the money with your repair costs, you just need to be in the ballpark.

Square footage should work fine for a quick and dirty estimate but not on the total sf of the house. Like Mike G said you have to figure out exactly what needs to be fixed. Then you should be able to apply sf, linear ft, or unit costs to each of those items and add up a total. For example, 500sf wood floor @x/sf + 400sf carpet @y/sf, + (6) interior doors @ z/each, etc. = $XXXXX.00

The best way to find these prices is to ask local installers but if you don't want to do that you can use a construction cost provider like RSMeans. Check out their Residential Cost Data book. (no affiliation) Its like $90 on Amazon.

When using a construction cost data you have to realize that it is just a baseline, its not going to be right on. But if you're thorough on your takeoffs you should be close enough, its been my experience that most of these prices will be higher anyways.

The key to successful estimating is the same for any business, measure and adjust. If you do a deal, follow up with your buyer to see what the rehab ended up costing. How close was your estimate to his/her actual cost? Was it higher or lower? By what %?

Like Tim G said, you'll get the hang of it after a few.

These actually have been around for years, mostly used in manufactured homes to connect the different sections together. They are legit though, code compliant and UL listed.

I personally don't like them because they have a push in style connection. I'd feel better about them if they had a mechanical (screw type) connection since I've run into tons of problems over the years with push in connections on switches and outlets. I'd hate for one to fail and be buried in the wall.

But like I said above, they are UL listed and code compliant so they are good to go.

I don't own any rentals but I've lived in a ski town for 15 years. Since ski towns are seasonal with lots of transient employees you will be better off with a year lease starting in Oct- Nov when everyone is hiring for the ski season. Furnished will probably increase your options.

In the spring all the seasonal employees leave and most locals take long vacations. Not much goes on until Memorial Day when the tourists come back and the trails dry out for hiking, biking, etc.

You can usually get a premium if you rent just for the ski season but just a couple hundred or so and then you run the risk of having it empty for a couple months in the spring. Either way your going to pay your manager to fill it twice.

Check out this wireless lighting control called Hue, by Phillips.

You can basically create a lighting system just by installing new bulbs and setting up scenes on a free app.

They sell them at the apple store. $200 for the starter kit which includes 3 bulbs and the wireless bridge, and $60 each additional bulb. 50 bulbs per wireless bridge.

You can do some cool stuff relatively inexpensive.

Not trying to spam you, I have no affiliation I just think there cool.

Another thing to consider is manpower and contractors. There is a huge difference in craftsmanship from lower to high end and his regular contractors may not cut it. There's usually no hiring off craigslist or the Home Depot parking lot with high end construction.

I have no experience to speak of here, but would marketing to the divorce attorneys be the way to go?