All Forum Posts by: Attila M.

Duval county has a 6% tax and Jax Beaches has some on top of that. From what I know they also started monitoring airbnb-s and are reaching out to those who do not pay.

I think we will go down. Unemployment and uncertainty are not good for the numbers...

@Sarah Shockley reach out to Joe Locklear from http://locklearpartners.com. He does GC work and is very experienced in this area, I worked with him before so I know him to be knowledgeable. Feel free to mention that I told you to reach out to him.

thanks,
Attila

Yes, that's one way to do it. Keep your emergency fund in a place where you can access it if you need it fast but also where it brings some interest... Also, I think differently about the future expenses for properties. As in, I see the properties as a whole (see it like a multi-family unit) and calculate the vacancy, cap ex, etc based on that. Not per property. The difference is that when you have 1 property you would need to keep expenses to cover 100% (1 month vacancy is 100% of your revenue), by the time you have 20 (units), your vacancy will be more like 70% ? And, the properties that do not have vacancy, still bring in income. So adjust your needs by that...

Yes. And the furloughs, and the lay-offs as they start(ed) happening it will become tough to have people  pay the rent. So what do you do as a landlord? I was looking at the covid bill just passed, I see loans for small businesses but I am still not sure how much those will help. I tend to believe in: you are on your own and need to make sure you can survive. And to that point, yes, these are the times when being over leveraged will take you out of business... 

That's awesome resource @Jack Bobeck. Very insightful. Thanks for sharing,

Attila

https://www.investopedia.com/f... this is a good read for you. Regarding the question to pull a permit or not, usually you would go with: if it's visible from the street you most definitely want a permit (windows, roofing, having a dumpster). If it's an extensive rehab: new electrical, re-plumbing, etc. even if not visible from outside, I would pull a permit. It also matters what you plan on doing with the house. If you flip it, the buyers will likely want to know if you had permit. If you plan on keeping it for long term, like rental, you might get away with it but insurance might ask you for records.

You also need to be careful on the order of the work. If say you do plumbing and windows the same time and the inspector comes for the windows, they might notice the other work and ask if you have permit for that and get you in trouble. So plan accordingly.

Lastly, if you did have the contractor pull a permit, make sure to check with the City Building Inspections the status of your permit after they are done. Many times contractors will "forget" to call a final inspection. In this case your Status will show something like: Inactive, instead of Closed or Approved... or put it in the contract you want them to call final inspection as you will not consider the work done until that happened.

As for "Opening the box of worms", I think it is beneficial for you to have an inspector and validate the work done. For the contractors is not, as they are going to be delayed, need to wait for the inspector and if the inspector finds something wrong, they need to fix it and they most definitely can not cut corners. Usually the inspector will know more about how things should be compared to you, so this would benefit you in the end.

I had for example occasions where the electrician said they are done and I thought it's good, but then the inspector came and turned out that some wires were not proper and they had to fix it. Had I not pulled permit, I would have been left with the bad wiring and not even know about it. Would have been an issue from it? Maybe not. But I am happy I had it fixed.

You can check Joe Locklear from http://locklearpartners.com. I worked with him before and unlike manby gc-s he will give you a detailed spreadsheet of work and estimates that are good starting point. If you have your own, that is even better.

thanks,
Attila

I had luck with https://www.trucabinetry.com, Joe Locklear is a good connection for that. I also looked at the IKEA stock kitchen which sells for $500 or so for a setup. Depends what you want to do.

But to a point. Instead of stockpiling paint, why don't you write down the paint color that you use and then get the same paint code every time you have a project?

Unless you know of a sale or something that makes it preferable, I find keeping paint around a hassle.

I always repipe the house and remove the garbage disposal. Ceiling fan install if you call an electrician would run around $125-$200 range I think. They charge just $125 to show up, usually.