All Forum Posts by: Adam Abdel-Hafez

I would never agree to wait until the house is sold to get my final payment. I do agree with the previous post that getting paid after it passes inspection is feasible, but not until it's sold. It's the contractors job to make sure he fulfills your scope of work and to make the home safe and functional. Whether or not the home sells is a function of the scope of work which is the clients job to do.

The purpose of gutters and downspouts is to move water away from the home and foundation. If the roof rafters have enough overhang and the ground doesn't slope towards the house then I would say you're good. With that being said, most older houses without gutters do not have enough of an overhang which allows water in the home/foundation.

Juan Najar I agree with the two comments above. There is no shortcut on estimating rehabs per sqft. Determine your scope of work first and then get contractors to give you quotes. Once you start doing this, you will start to be able to determine the $/sqft for specific line items on your scope of work and can build a spreadsheet. Once you build a spreadsheet, you should be able to be within 10-15% of the actual costs (not including contingency %) within an hr or so.

The main thing with rental properties is like the others mentioned, making it clean, safe, and functional. To first go through your quesitons, see below.

Siding - leave the siding, just pressure wash it

Bathroom - replace the tub w/ a shower kit. 

Living room - replace the carpet, it is very outdated

Washer and dryer - Depends on your market, but here it Atlanta it is rare to have a W/D included in a home. I would tell tenants like you stated, that they can use it but if it stops working you will not fix it. 

Basement - Most of water problems can be repaired with properly functioning gutters. As I see from the pictures, you do not have gutters and not much of an overhang. I would add gutters and downspouts, make sure gutters are sloped properly, downspouts have water running away from the home, etc. Just board up the cistern, gutters should solve your water problems. 

Kitchen sink and cabinets - leave sink, replace countertops, paint cabinets

In regards to the quote, this seems very high. Again, I am not familiar with your market, but that is a lot more than what you would expect in Atlanta. So, prices listed below are based on Atlanta. 

Exterior painting is very high, at most it should be about half of that. 

Gutters & downspouts should be around $900 for the entire house. There is no need to bury the drain pipe, just add downspout splashes or corrugated pipes to each downspout and run the water away from the home.

Garage door seems fairly priced. 

Interior paint is crazy priced, that should be around $1500 but no more than $2k.

Coat floors, I would not do. If you actually get the gutters done and you still have a problem, then you can look into bigger repairs. Price wise, it is a fair price.

Frame cistern wall, fair price but again I would not do this

Install vinyl flooring, why are replacing tile? Is it that bad? If its not, then i would just leave the tile and replace the carpet. Anyways, $5300 for vinyl flooring is a bit much. It should be around $3-$4/sqft, so that leaves you at no more that $4k.

Install bath toilet, sink, exhaust fan, and gfi should be about half of what they have. Maybe $1k but no more.

Never leave the contractor to be the one to make design decisions. You need to have a vision of what you want and you need to tell the contractor exactly what to do. If you do not do this and do not have a detailed scope, then unfortunately this will probably keep happening.

I would make sure, especially if you use somebody off of craigslist, that they are insured. Once somebody steps foot on a ladder at your property no matter what it is for, they need to be insured unless you know and trust them. When I say insured, they need general liability and workers comp, not just general liability. That is a very easy lawsuit that you will almost always lose.

You got an estimate from an inspector? I am assuming you mean a roofing company that came to assess the roof. 

Just because he stated the windows don't open doesn't mean that it is a major repair. They could just be painted shut, the frame could be bent, etc. which all could be repaired for not much. Unless the windows are the old metal windows, that is the main reason I could see a large expense on windows.

For termites, is that just to treat for termites? What extent is the damage? Are they just in the crawlspace? Does that include repairing framing damage? I can get termites treated for much less in Atlanta. For instance, I just had to duplexes treated for termites that were active in the crawlspace on the sills and joists and paid about $500 for each duplex (around 2000 sqft total building). That does not include framing damage.

To get the property rent ready, just look at the homes in the area for rent and see what they offer. If you do not have as nice of a floor plan, appliances, general condition as other homes in the area then you can either do the necessary repairs to bring it up to par or just put the unit under market rent. I would also check all major systems and appliances (i.e hvac, water heater, sewer/septic tank, etc)

@Kim Bayless My company does rehabs all throughout the Metro Atlanta area and I would love to provide my services to you. Pm me so we can discuss further and setup a date and time for us to meet at the home.

Yea, I would have to agree with @J Scott. That is a large rehab for only a $15k profit. The city of Decatur is also a nightmare to deal with in regards to permits. Not sure what condition the home is in either, but a $50k reno budget seems low for a rehab including a bath addition as well as sqft addition. Again, I am not sure of your scope of work, but for a $61k purchase price, I would expect other repairs needed (cosmetic and non-cosmetic). 

@Alex Cottman I would be glad to assist you with whatever services you need. My company does rehabs for investors as well as maintenance on occupied homes. I currently have a contract with a property management company in Atlanta, which I handle all of the maintenance and rehabs for their portfolio. PM me and we can discuss further on what your needs are and how I can assist you with those.