All Forum Posts by: Adam Abdel-Hafez

I work with a management company and have done hundreds of rental turns and turnkey rehabs. Now, these were all on sfr and small mfr and apartments, so I haven't really done any for condos. Typically for rentals, I really try to do as minimal as possible. Anyways, if you do the $10k in upgrades, that would take you 3 years to recover that investment. 

@Matt Mabry unless it is extremely outdated and/or in poor condition then I wouldn't do anything drastic. I am assuming it wasn't too bad since you were living there and had a roommate paying you rent. With that said, if a place is outdated I typically change fixtures (light fixtures, fans, door and cabinet hardware), paint kitchen cabinets, and paint the unit. Depending on the flooring and kitchen appliances you may need to replace those also. Just curious, where is the condo at? That would also dictate what you need to do. Looking at what other people have in their units for rent around would help you figure out what to do. 

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.

Samantha Klein you don't replace joists, you do what's called sistering which basically just means adding a joists right next to the rotted one. You will have to remove the floor so that the contractor will have access. The subfloor probably needs to be replaced anyways if you're saying that many joists need to be replaced. Is the damaged area in a kitchen or bathroom? Usually water damage is the culprit of such damage, so you would need to replace the subfloor anyways. You would also have to jack up the house where it has sunk to make level

If the brick does not look good, then I would paint it. Sounds like the fence is okay, so I wouldn't do anything with it

I never manage/use other people's subs. Typically people have some guy they have heard of/used before and they are never reliable/responsive. I ran into this problem a few times when I first started out and have never let a client do so again. Either I get the entire thing or nothing. As previously stated it is a scheduling nightmare and the quality of work for the price is very poor.

Go with a cheap particle board cabinet like Hampton bay from Home Depot, tenants will mess them up regardless 9 times out of 10

Tiju Abraham , the price point is not as relevant as the surrounding area homes. Are brick homes in the area painted or do people like the original brick look more? How does the brick look on your home? I don't paint brick unless it looks terrible or I am doing some kind of exterior alterations. In regards to the fence, is there an existing fence? If so, does it look bad? Unless it is in the front yard or the fence looks absolutely terrible I probably wouldn't do anything. But again, look at your comps and see what they did

I am not sure about pricing in your area, but with the type of rehab you are talking I would expect in Atlanta about $30-$40k/sqft for interior gut rehab. Then add on probably another $6k for roof and gutters and another $15k for new hvac systems and Ducts for all three units. So, my cost for subbing everything out would be probably somewhere $140k. Now, with that being said, with hiring a gc they would want to charge at least another $15k on top of that.

Ashley Zigler a quote for $26k seems very high for cosmetics. I am finished up a turnkey rehab which includes subfloor replacement in kitchen and 2 baths and replacing tile, carpet, cabinets, countertops, vanities, shower base and surrounds, and freshly paint interior. This along with a few thousand repairs on the exterior and landscaping. I am doing all this for a little over $20k total. This is in Atlanta, not sure about you're pricing