All Forum Posts by: Aaron Schrader

Hi Soren I am working with a couple of wholesalers off and on here in the Black Hills if you get around to doing deals here let me know!  

@Paul Merriwether I did the same thing on my place in SD.  We have soils here that contribute to uneven floors and foundations, and yes @Carolyn McBride you can relatively simply jack the house up and reestablish fresh contact points for the home on the foundation.  It would also be important to try and understand why the settling happened- around here it is almost always a poor drainage issue that softens the soil against the house and over the years and decades can result in a settle corner or whole side of a home.  Gutters and grading and downspouts would have fixed it before it happened.  I don't know your area or earthquake stuff at all, but that's what fixes things around here. I've seen extensive foundation repairs done to cinder block walls that are bowing from external hydraulic pressure, and they've been repaired with extensive steel beams, tension systems and a drain cut in for around $12,000.
4" is a fair bit of slope and to put in floor leveler...well, that's a lot of floor leveler.  I'd get some other eyes on it and some other quotes, but like I said, for us here we can put in some concrete pads under the house, bottle jack up the corner and put a new pier in place.  

Great advice to have all that detail in the scope of work.  It will give you something to fall back on should the work not be done how you want and gives a contractor clear expectations, which is all-around helpful.  I'd say that in your scope of work to make sure timelines are a part of it as well, and that you make it a goal of yours to never have the house "empty", meaning there's not a day that a worker of some sort isn't scheduled to be in there.  This will help keep the project from dragging on.  Even one day here and two days there can add up to a month pretty quick, a whole month of an empty house.  

It's been worth it for me!  I'd do it again

Talk to @Sarah Kensinger, they do property management and have knowledge of the Hills as well!  

Hey Brady- message me if you'd like, I'm in SD and an agent, I can share with you what I can speak to.  Depending on where this place is at I may not be much help but maybe I can connect you with someone that can help.  And like Rick mentioned, an owner finance sale could be a good option and is not uncommon in SD, I'd be happy to connect you with the escrow companies that can facilitate that.  

It was in Central Oregon which is high desert country.  Drier there for sure, although here in SD lots of people have mini splits.  You are correct though on the cold temps, mine struggled in Oregon under 15º, even though they were rated down to 5º.  In that county in Oregon they required an alternate source of heat per county code, to serve as a backup.  Wasn't a problem on hot temps though.  It handled the AC responsibilities just fine. 

Find a lender that knows the FHA 203K loans to create some marketing material for your house! Here's one

I had a mini split system in my personal residence.  Here's my experience:

Brand- Daiken

Unit was a 30,000 BTU capable of doing three head units, but I only had two.  One unit was on an exterior wall and one was on an interior wall.  They create condensate and that has to be dumped somehow, so the interior wall one was a pain because the installers created a little pump scenario that would pump it out every so often (like a sump pump but smaller) and it would have been better if they figured something else out like a drain tube down the wall into the crawl space and out, or something like that.  

The units themselves were awesome, quiet, efficient.  They've been using these in Europe for decades so they have a long history.  The filters on mine were a fine removable filter that could be rinsed, and I found that an easy task to do as the homeowner and living there.  If renters were tasked to take care of it, forget about it.  Now, there are lots of guys installing these units in extremely dirty environments like wood shops and they're building an extra box above the unit with traditional filters on it, so it pull air through these filters first before getting to the unit.  This seems to be something that's working, just check out "mini split filter box" on YouTube.  These shop guys are also using them for heating/cooling bigger shop spaces and in humid places and they're working well.  I've never experienced mold with mine and had them for 3 years before I sold and moved.  I like the room-to-room zoning you get as well, not having to heat and cool rooms you aren't using.

I absolutely would put mini splits in again if I needed to.  

Those wood tiles look pretty sweet.  I think the stained concrete can look good, and I like it better than painted concrete!  Just depends on how the staining looks.  The wood is cool though because it makes it look sharp then also has the benefit of being removable.