All Forum Posts by: Aaron Linden

@Bryan Devitt Thank you for your input Bryan. Ill be sure to check for the appropriate language in any of my roofing contracts from here on out. Ill be able to put it to quick use now that I have to hire someone to redo the shoddy work this guy did!

@Bryan Devitt I am with you on this one. He had his 3 so I fired him. He just kept caulking it and it just kept leaking (as expected). To be honest, I do most work myself so I mostly know what I am doing. I have not done a ton of roofing but I know enough to check for flashing and didnt see any so I was pushing this guy hard and he kept doing a crummy job. I have another roofer coming out next week to dig in to the one roof. The other Ill flash out the chimney myself at this point. Sounds like Ill be going to previous jobs here on out. Thank you for the advice. Would you make sure roofers pull a permit for a full roof here on out?

@Wayne Brooks I just tried this. The city is telling me they can't (won't) go after him unless he pulled a permit. His bond is current but since he didn't pull a permit it doesn't mean a thing. I will be ensuring a permit is pulled next time at least then I have some recourse.

@Bryan Devitt He is just tar/caulking things. The leak has to be around the headwall where a window dormer meets the main roofline. No flashing there just a ton of caulk. I suspect water is getting under the shingles from much higher up. I tore the ceiling down inside now and can see the ice and water shield is torn right where the headwall comes down on the one house. the other is around the chimney. Same deal there. No flashing was done and he keeps throwing more caulk on it. Still leaking. He didn't show up yesterday to do the tear off he promised so he is off the job now. It sounds like you are a contractor. If you step out of a contractor's shoes how would you recommend the homeowner make sure the roof is done properly if a city inspection is not performed?

@Tyler Weaver Full tear off, vents, flashing and boots are all supposed to be new per the quote. As written above. No new flashing was put around the chimneys or headwalls.

bump

Hello BP,

I recently hired a roofer to put a new roof on my personal residence and one of my rentals. About two weeks ago I found a leak in the roof of the rental and it has caused some pretty serious damage to the wall in one of the bedrooms. The roofer has been back several times to attempt to fix this leak constantly doing a substandard job and not solving the problem. Last night we had a heavy rain and I found the west side of my personal roof is also leaking. 

When I "screened" this guy, I got his license #, bond #, and three references (all of whom I called and received good recommendations from).

At what point do you walk away and hire another contractor to come fix the job? I have called around, everyone I have found around South Bend is out 2 weeks on a quote and over a month on any work. What would your next steps be? Do you walk away from the $12k spent on the roofs and have them redone? Do you go after his license and bond?

I think I have at least learned the following from this experience:

1. NEVER hire a contractor you have not used before to do more than one job.
2. Baby sit everything a new contractor does
3. Double check with the city to see if a permit was pulled and inspection completed on jobs like this

What else should I be learning from this?

Aaron

@Ryan Palczynski Man if room and board is $16k/yr at Notre Dame I need to raise rents...

@John Warren Haha! Yes it is. I cant imagine anyone will buy it for anywhere near what they are asking. Pretty sure it is listed as being a ton of 1bds too! Totally true though. That is the story of SB. Property values may be low but rents are also low and people are buying some pretty tough properties at high valuations right now. Presumably they are thinking they can push the rents but GL with that in the near NW.

Aaron

@Stephen Sokolow There are really only a few available right now, being a broker I am sure you are aware. The Prairie building seems compelling to me but is right on the borderline of a tough neighborhood and is far overpriced. There are a series of four plexes for sale up in Georgetown but are probably close to $100k overpriced each. Then their is the gigantic apartment for sale on Carroll but that is a no fly zone for me.

Combine this with my post from the other thread on too much A-Class inventory coming on line right now and I think it would be wise to really sit down and figure out real exposure to risk before buying any multifamily around downtown or Notre Dame right now.

Edit: The above was super negative! haha I still think South Bend is up and coming with the South Shore expansion, Notre Dame involvement, employment increases across multiple business categories throughout the entire region, and government support of a revival in downtown. If you can snag the right deal, I think the future is bright right now.

 @Steven Sokolow The market is hot right now making it ridiculously hard to find anything that resembles a deal. Having said that, I am starting to see the market cool a little bit. Houses seem to be sitting a little longer than they were a couple months ago and I am seeing quite a few price reductions on houses (that were originally way overpriced). This is a good sign I think.

As for multifamily, there are not a ton of purpose built small multi families in SB so they are definitely tougher to dig up. The last time I found one that was worth looking at was around October of last year and it turned out it needed a ton of work so I was unable to make a deal at the time.

The SB market in general seems quite promising to me. They are putting in an update to the South Shore rail to Chicago making the commute time to Chicago no more than if one were to live in the burbs. According to this article, the region added 3,348 jobs last year which is quite impressive. We also have several companies in the area expanding or entering the market. The current government is doing what they can to encourage growth and prosperity in the area as well.

Downtown and Notre Dame multifamily does concern me currently, I think they are building far too much premium (A-Class) stock in the area right now. I believe this will drive down their prices as additional A-Class units come online and vacancies creep up. My guess is that this will drive down rents to the point where they would compete with the more traditional apartments in the downtown area. Having said that, my assessment on downtown multifamily is purely my perception and has no basis in data right now.

Aaron