All Forum Posts by: Brian Mathews

I think a good source of properties that might be gotten at a deal is with property management companies. They have owners who are in financial distress and might point you in a the direction of a motivated seller. I had one about a year ago here in Round Rock, I didn't have the money at the time, but it was a duplex that was selling for $100K. Renting one side to long term section 8 tenant at $850 and the other side the same rent, not section 8. I've also be given heads up about other properties through the years here and there.

I was talking to my father about this over the weekend. There is a Sun City in Georgetown, about 10 miles away. It would probably be a good place to find motivated sellers. Like from the family of the deceased. There has to be a good size death rate every year since many are fairly old. An out of town family doesn't want to deal with holding a house, so it might be a good way to buy then re-sell to another senior. Most of the places are taken care of, so aside from maybe some painting and new carpet, probably not much to do.

I'd call an electrician and ask them first. I did a job on a large commercial building about 6 months ago. The utilities were included in rent of offices. The one I worked on had separate a/c for a server room and they had to pay their own bill for just that appliance. They had a small meter to monitor just that.

I would fix real issues. Maybe give them some money off price on issues not so crucial and tell them no to ridiculous ones,such as guttering shed.

I'm an a/c guy and have never heard of a way to remotely monitor. They are pretty much throwaway low efficiency units. If you found one, I would think it would be extremely expensive. I think the highest efficient window unit is lower than the lowest minimum allowed conventional split.

Can't see the pictures. It sounds like 2 meters though. You probably need to check with local zoning to see what they think about it going from dupex to single family. If not, they will have 2 meters and 2 different electrical bills.

$10K for a ductless before labor is pretty good. By the time you install a ducted, plus all ducting, labor and fix whatever gets torn up, you're going to be spending pretty much the same amount. Without seeing job, I'm going to predict you will need at least a 12" duct running to the upstairs to suppy enough air for it. Not too mention the difficulty of trying to heat and cool 2 separate floors, you will need a zoning system at the least, maybe 2 units.

He'll no. It's a money grab. Texas big thing for business is its right to work. It's business friendly and not as employee friendly. You still pay sales tax which is 6.25% state and a lot of cities 2%. Then there is franchise tax which they have reduced.

That's the problem, you never know where the line is between federal and state licensing and certifications. Some states will reciprocate with Texas on their licensing. A little side story on how weird the state is. I have this website now, ranked page 1 of Google for my hvac company. I got for free from this guy. Apparently he likes to build websites for the fun of it and see how high he can get them on rankings. He built a website for hvac. He doesn't do any work, doesn't claim too and basically wouldn't do anything with it, but try to get it higher ranked. The state got wind of it and told him to cease and desist. So he calls me, asks me if I want it for free while he continues to work on it and I can have any calls that come in. I've gotten a few off of it, nothing earth shattering, but I've made a few hundred. That's how weird the state is.

I read your other post regarding this. The one guy was waaaaaaayyy too much. I usually end up spending no less than $200 for any drywall repair. I've found that the going rate is $200-$500 depending on how long they are there. That is for a small hole up to an entire sheet. I've got a guy here I use that is a little more expensive than the Craigslist crowd, but he shows up, he does a phenomenal job, you cannot tell where the repair was. And he is nowhere near the $2000. I pay for quality not el cheapo, but won't overpay either, I know the going rates and will pay a little more if necessary, but not over the top. I've got a list of people I use when I can't or don't feel like doing the repairs. They are all quality tradesman, that run legitimate businesses.