All Forum Posts by: BOB CRANEY

@Megan Ballard

It’s called Underpinning the foundation and it’s quite complicated, expensive and can be dangerous in older homes. I did it on a duplex, but I owned both sides. If you have an older home and only own 1 side, you often have to get the connecting neighbors to sign off on the approval. You can google to specifics of how you do it and even watch some cool time lapse videos on YOUTUBE. I personally would not do it unless your getting a really good return on the investment. The potential risk of foundation movement and settling in the neighboring unit is high and they will be looking for compensation for any issues your underpinning job causes. If you do have it done, get an engineer and only use an experienced contractor who has done many of these type jobs.

I currently have several 2&3 BR section 8 rentals that do ok in the Baltimore City area. Rents for very nicely renovated units are $1000-1100 for the 2BR apartments and $1325-1450 for the 3BR row homes. I have recently seen a few 4-5 BR section 8 rentals that are only have a few hundred square feet more than my places. They are getting $1700-1800 for the 4BR and $2100 for the 5BR. I assume that more BR = more kids which of course means higher wear and tear. I wanted to know if any else is targeting this higher BR count section 8 tenant profile and how it’s worked out for you. Seems like I could get the same benefit of a higher rent per BR like small multi family produces.

If I can identify properties that could qualify as true 4-5 BR and renovate them with the wear and tear in mind, they should cash flow considerably better than the basic 2-3 BR units. Opinions?

@Ani Kap

You need to educate yourself better on the Costa of the labor and materials separately. Try to find some local suppliers/distributors/dealers for the products you want and price the materials you are looking for. Then ask them for referrals to the top installers/contractors who buy from them. With these 2 pcs of info you can now figure the real cost without a general contractors markup. Some general contractors do certain trade work in house and other smaller guys sub out a lot of things to keep their overhead tight, because they don’t have to carry workers when they don’t have work. It’s easy to manage a few small rehab jobs and purchase your own materials and have subs install them. These types of jobs are easy to compartmentalize and don’t require 3-5 different subs or complicated planning/logistics.

Home Depot and Lowe’s are decent for some materials but the installers they use are the worst low cost providers.

@Asia Jones

If he is related to you, how about using the family connection to apply some pressure to cooperate with your situation.

He is technically under no obligation to sign a new lease changing his lease end date and I don’t see a way you could evict if he has been paying on time and is not violating the lease in some way. Any court is not going to uphold a 60 day notice to cancel a lease before it ends under these circumstances.

You may have pulled the trigger on your sale a bit quick since you didn’t have this monkey wrench worked out first. Maybe offering to help find a new place and pay the first months rent and security will ease the cousin out of your place and into another, so you can close on your preferred date. You can entice more bees to leave the hive with honey than vinegar. 😂

@Luis Rodriguez

If you wanted to do blow in insulation in the floor above yours it would be the easiest and not require you to teal out the whole ceiling of drywall. They cut a few 4” round holes and blow it in tight with long hoses. You have some drywall patching and repaint work but problem will be a lot better. I have this type of insulation in my personal residence and it’s super quiet due to the density.

@Daniel Haberkost

First thing is stop being surprised and start being happy that the flakes done show because that is the first thing they are showing you. “I am a flake and my word cannot be trusted” . There are so many places the SST potential tenants have to choose from that yours is just one of cows in the herd. You have to incentivize a prospect to come to your place out of all the others. One of the best things that works for me is a free application or a rebate of the fee if they are accepted and sign a lease.

I only take and run applications fully from people I have prescreened and if all they told me was true, I would rent to them.

How much do you lose per day, when you are empty? Figure that # out and offer some of that as an incentive for a good qualified prospect. Use it to build traffic since you need to fill the funnel at the top with lots of prospects to be able to select the cream of the crop.

@Jaden Adams

There are certainly a lot of state schools in PA where the instate tuition cost should end up being a lot less than $25k per year. So 2 years at community college, then transfer to finish out the degree.

Your still you enough to get your real estate license and work for 2 years to see if you can make something happen and get a good feel for real sales in general. It only takes a few weeks to get your license. If it doesn’t work out you could always go back to college. I would recommend calling around to some of the bigger teams and talking to them about your plans and how they might be able to use a young hungry go getter on their team. Don’t fool yourself into thinking real Estate sales is easy because it’s not. To actually make a good living and not just survive you have to work hard for several years to a point where it begins to get easier due to referral volume.

@Shaun M.

Found a nice 9MM pistol that was loaded with hollow points in a Baltimore Row house I was wholesaling. One less body on the streets I figure.

Also had a tenant leave a medical device that she had used for her disabled child who had died. She owed me a lot of back rent so I researched it and eventually sold it for $900 to a company who buys them and refurbishes them for resale at $2500!!

@Marian Smith

Why stoop to the tenants low level and go down a path of more lies.

You do not have to renew a tenants lease, whether they pay on time or not. Follow you lease terms to the letter and do not communicate more than is necessary. I’m not a big fan of any verbal contact once things start in heading south. Send your proper lease termination letter and let it play out.

@Tyler Gibson

Why aren't you using a standard board of realtors contract for the area your in. Even if it's a wholesale deal, You can still cross out all the boilerplate that doesn't apply. The EMD is usually held by the title company you select. Don't give it to the seller or you may not get it back if something goes south. If your gut is telling you there is a problem, then start asking more questions and don't stop till you get straight answers.