All Forum Posts by: Robert Taylor

Everyone I've known locally who's invested successfully in lower end rentals around here and in any sort of volume has treated it as a full time enterprise, whether they start out that way or I think more often, start out doing it part time, usually in addition to full time work, or as an addition to a career as a real estate agent or similar, rather flexible career where they aren't locked into a 9 to 5, 8 to 4, etc type job and IF their rentals prove to be a successful endeavor, they'll then jump into it as a full time business. Some people have done fairly well at this, however I can't think of any "smashing success stories" off of the top of my head doing this. 

While I'm all for encouraging investment in our city (assuming of course it isn't slumlord type investment, we don't need any more of that) you're talking about what is most likely a full time endeavor and as far as long term appreciation, unless you hit it just right and hit an area that has a big gentrification component down the road, long term appreciation of any substantial amount is unlikely, so you're left with cash flow and when you're normally talking about older to just plain OLD housing stock, thus higher or much higher annual maintenance costs to keep a safe and habitable rental property and keep you off of the city's "slumlord radar" which you DO NOT want to get onto, combined with tenants who are often a real crap shoot (yes, you CAN find great tenants who care about keeping a decent home even in the poorest parts of town, we have decent people in all parts of this city who are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families, yet you will also run into many who don't care, who bring unforeseen issues which seem to ALWAYS=extra, unforeseen costs to the landlord, whether you're here on the ground fixing the issue yourself or DIY plus pro help when necessary, or long distance via a PM (always going to likely cost much more)) and the wonderful looking cash flow component, which due to the very likely lack of any appreciation component, is all that's left for profit potential, also can quickly vaporize in front of you!

For both your doors and window questions, highly recommend stopping by Lisbon Door (abt 50th and Lisbon) they have EXTREMELY knowledgeable staff. also always have a fairly large inventory of old doors and windows in back which is about as organized as you could get a large# of all sorts of shapes, sizes and types of old, reclaimed doors and windows, so its not like you're wasting half the day sifting through a pile of junk! They can also recommend REAL installers, carpenters, etc (like insured, licensed, etc and since we have much older home stock, DO NOT screw yourself on the lead issue(s), not good to get busted on that one!)

Tile? Where do I start??? Every "Handyman Pete" on craplist says he/she can tile everything, call em up and say you bought surplus space shuttle "oh yeah, I did a bunch a dem space shooters, that's extra though!" Depending on budget and time frame (since TRUE tile pro's are usually booked ahead) you can hire full time pro who knows what they're doing, or roll the dice on whoever, some actually are good, many are NOT! (John Bridge Tile Forum is AWESOME source of info either to DIY or to find out if Handyman Pete's claim that greenboard works great in a shower is correct or not!)

Plaster-PLEASE let me know if you find someone good who skips the gold additive (that was a good one!!!) I'll need a good plaster guy in a month or two for a smaller job.

Good Luck!!!!

First off, HUGE THANK YOU to @Chris C., @Kyle Cabral and @Micah Dickson, I VERY MUCH appreciate the excellent info and its answers like these that continue to keep me coming back to BP when I've got some random free time (not exactly something that happens often!) but not to look for info to improve my own biz, but just to surf through the various areas I feel well qualified to answer questions on, often from "newbies" who may need just a little pointing in the right direction or other times, unfortunately may need to be given the tough to give answer that they need to reconsider their entire plan, ideas, etc as it may very likely result in money I assume they've worked hard for, going away like a puff of smoke! I'd rather give that occasional tough answer than to see anyone, especially with kids to support or whatever, endure a major hardship due to watching too many of those "we ride around in our fancy truck and make huge $$$ flipping homes" shows, which are often I now know insidiously linked to the "spend a massive amount at our weekend seminar" type deals too. It is advice like this that makes me want to reciprocate and pass advice on to someone else in the group, as you all have for me!

I've got a busy day going today, but had a few minutes to briefly check out Podio as well as Micah's first suggestion, Pro Workflow and all of them look great at first glance and I'm excited to do some more in depth research on all of them, as well as Micah's two other suggestions. I'll keep you updated once I get someplace meaningful on this and thanks again for the help!

So, looking into personal time management software for myself, I kept seeing people all over the web talking about Evernote, as if I should just already know all about it, simply by seeing the word "Evernote"! Of course, I had to look into it, found out how widely it is used and how it has achieved a near cult-like status! I also saw the "works across ALL platforms" part (smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, pc, mac, iphone, android) and was sold, which was easy of course, since the basic download is free, downloaded it and have been hooked for the last few months. 

Fast forward to today and realizing the amazing amount of time I spend DAILY not only coordinating projects (which if you can't stand, this is not a career for you) but what is maddening in when I'm simply the conduit to pass very minor bits of info between contractors and as we all know, screwing up on some seemingly minor piece of that info that for instance may seem very minor to myself and lets say the carpenter and electrician, BUT causes a MAJOR hang up for the plumber (and assuming you're pulling permits as I do, toss in an additional delay for the inspector to be re-scheduled and now this formerly minor point has just hung up a big part of a project for days, maybe longer. 

After getting myself into a big backlog and mess where i had too much going on and that caused one very inefficient day after the next, I'm all about now remaking an efficient operation and I'm NOT dreaming of some "auto pilot" type deal, where I can work a couple of hours a day if that and magically have huge sue of money flow in regularly, I fully expect to continue working long hours, but want to eliminate being the relay service for these silly go betweens. 

I know there's various "house flipping" dedicated software out there, but I want to avoid it, as I don't know how long I'd be concentrated on this slice of the RE biz, I could be in a different part of RE in a few years, or in some unrelated biz and I like Evernote for that, but it requires going from the way I'm using it now, as a personal, one man organizer to getting more people involved in using it, but I also like it for the massive number of 3rd party tutorials, etc available to anyone needing to learn to use this software.

I'd greatly appreciate ANY thoughts or suggestions on how anyone else has used tech to streamline their operations, thanks!

Lastly, I'll say that @Rick Bassett I don't disagree with you at all, even in a perfectly rehabbed or even new home, the insane tenant can and will make life hell!

@Account Closed's comment popped up while I was typing mine, so I saw it once mine was up and don't want to pile on, but I do agree with Art, but must add on to the mold issue, which I didn't see in the OP, till now. 

I also agree with @Jay Hinrichs mold is usually created by a tenant, but also sometimes by an owner being neglectful, but whatever it is it is one of those issues for my renovation biz, even though I now know much more on mold (got great info from a mold removal guy here on BP too) and even though most mold is NOT the toxic strain, can be cleaned up relatively easily and IF the moisture source is eliminated, will not return. Yet, try telling that to a buyer who does the usual thing majority of them do simply hearing the word "mold", they run right out the door and will NEVER even consider buying my well rehabbed, usually higher end home. 

For a landlord, I know it all too well as my brother was put through hell by a totally bogus mold claim from an insane tenant, who went so far as to even claim in her long list of horrible maladies that her newborn son had a deformed, ummm well you know, the one part guys really don't want to be born with it deformed! Now, he had the best possible outcome, his ins co happened to have a $50k mold claim coverage included and they covered ALL legal fees and case was dismissed with prejudice, since it was so obviously BS.

Yet, I had to watch my brother go through about a year of often pure hell, since as this unfolded, he had no clue if he'd lose and who knows, when you're talking about things like a baby born with a deformed you know what (later conclusively proven to be a totally unrelated birth defect!) you can easily blow right through 50 grand when the verdict and judgement amounts are announced and after 50k, he's paying out of pocket. It even took a toll on me and rest of my family, knowing our brother who' worked his a** off to get where he is could soon be bankrupt, due to this nutjob and her mold money grab BS!! (AND guess which county it was in the jurisdiction of here? Yep, the one where the judges hate landlords and LOVE tenants!) MOLD AIN'T NO JOKE, even though several good mold testers told me they can find mold in EVERY home!

Had nothing to do with YOUR particular case @Rick Bassett, I wasn't trying to make any point related to whatever your circumstances are/were, but instead making a whole different point related much more to the jurisdiction ANY property is located in. We've probably all heard the oft repeated one about (fill in some current celebrity here) who rents some swanky pad in Beverly Hills or some fancy part of LA and proceeds to completely trash this multi million dollar home.

Instead, I'm talking jurisdiction and my point is borne out well by the comments here on page two. The first three comments are all asking about specific landlord/tenant issues or strategies-and they live in three different states!!! Not even looking up those state's laws, I'll bet Texas is a hell of a lot more landlord friendly than WA or certainly CA, where I do know (thanks to one of the times I can count on one hand that I watched a "reality tv" show end to end, just 30 min about some crazy dude who was the last resort for frustrated as hell LA area landlords! Thing was, crazy dude got results but apparently in CA, if you get stuck with gamer tenants like one landlord client of the crazy eviction dude had with his beachfront condo and the 20 or so squatters there, common practice according to crzy eviction dude, who even found an illegal hooch still inside and called LAPD, is STILL PAYING THEM TO LEAVE! It was great for 30 min, never watched it again though!)

If someone is in one state, sure you can get ideas from out of state landlords, but sure as hell better run em by your attorney first, since what may fly just fine in TX may get you whacked upside the head by the judge in CA! Beyond that, my whole point is even here in WI, two counties bordering each other and just these two make up 85% of the metro area's population and they're court rulings are NIGHT AND DAY DIFFERENT. You need to know that inside and out before even considering eviction or even contacting tenants about a possibly sticky situation, unless you like lighting hundred dollar bills on fire for fun!

Here in WI, I know that at least based on my reading, our landlord tenant related laws are maybe in the middle as far as all 50 states go, not like some where crafty, game the system tenants can really make investing a bad proposition, but also not quite as sane as some other states. (often with the assistance of well meaning "tenant advocacy" type groups who are normally CLUELESS to the fact that a good deal of their efforts are NOT stopping the proverbial "greedy slumlords" who do exist, but I think in far smaller #'s than many of the anti-landlord crowd imagine and their efforts and waste of money that's either taxpayer $$ via grants, etc or charitable donations and it all goes so often to HELP some grifter sleazebag tenant who's just gaming the system and has done it many times before. Often it is info passed on from relatives too!)

I'm still amazed at the #s of people from thousands of miles away who want to invest here as residential landlords and I'm normally all for encouraging investment here, where I've lived for all but just a bit of my 32, oops 42 years! (I swear I look 32 though, or try to convince myself I do!) 

I attended a landlord bootcamp which I HIGHLY, 100% RECOMMEND even well experienced landlords go to, not the city run one, which I also have been to and came away thinking it should be called the "tiny bit of good info and LOTS of veiled threats if you're a future slumlord class" but its from the Apartment Assoc of SE WI (I'm a member for full disclosure) but you'll get 8 or 9 hours of PRICELESS info directly from the attorney who my usual, general practice lawyer said is hands down the one to call for any bad eviction or potentially big liability type deals and he'll go through things that the city for one, would never dream of telling you, such as how in Milwaukee Cty, our judiciary is very biased to the left side of politics as you'd guess for a generally left leaning county, but that many of these judges take those political stances right into their courtrooms and you sure as hell better be prepared for rulings that fly in the face of the current laws, especially the changes made a few years back when the GOP gained TOTAL control of state gov't in legislature as well as the governor seat and as was national news at the time, went like a machete through the law books and fixed a lot of things needing fixing, including several relatively minor aspects of landlord/tenant laws that COULD be exploited, as well as stuff that didn't make sense anymore, etc. It wasn't anything radical and unlike the changes to other areas like the public sector union laws, did not cause a massive protest in Madison, etc

Well, that was great but one thing I learned that day, or half day as I had to leave early due to semi-emergency at jobsite but still got the massive binder of awesome info too, I learned that apparently in Milwaukee Cty (where ALL of these incredibly cheaply priced but getting decent rent places are that you coasties are foaming at the mouth about!) we have a majority or near totality of judges who simply ignore those new laws, changes, etc as well as whatever else they don't like and just rule for tenant, maybe short of evicting the next Jeff Dahmer type scumbag who hopefully never does come around here again. He gave one example after the next from his 5 days a week normally spent not dreaming about whatever, but practicing law IN THE MKE CTY COURTHOUSE and it was one after the next where reading the law and hearing both sides, any rational person would say "sounds like landlord wins"-WRONG!!!!! TENANT WINS, SORRY MR/MS LANDLORD BUT YOU JUST GOT SCREWED! It was one heck of an eye opener, as well as hearing that right next door, where I grew up but choose to live in Milwaukee Cty for the more urban life although its getting old at times, but next door in Waukesha Cty, which is middle class to very high end in certain parts, but on average a far more affluent county and actually along with two other neighboring burb counties with far less population, are three of the most conservative voting counties in entire USA, they actually have judges who rule based on the laws as written, whether they like them or not (hey it is THE LAW!) and where landlords will very often get the EXACT OPPOSITE outcome in court! 

Of course, you're NOT going to find ANY $20k "hot deal" duplexes in Waukesha Cty like we have by the bundle here in MKE Cty. The city of Waukesha itself is generally the only part where you'd find much under $100k and then venturing into the other burbs, it goes straight up from there, well into 7 figures for lakefront stuff in the lake country as well as a few areas like Elm Grove, where one neighborhood that's the spot to be there and now teardown heaven has a $5M listing and I think at least 2 more well over $1M, which for this market is RARE! I doubt the cash flows and other ratios work out nearly as well over there though!!!

Ok, I've found stuff that makes my head spin in nearly every comment here, except Dawn's which was right on the money. I'm not here to troll or flame, just occasionally talk shop, so here's not list of names and arguments, but a few points that are all screwed up here about MKE, which I will at least agree could use better leadership in many ways, but honestly the only elected official who makes clear sense to me often is our now nationally famous sheriff, but I honestly think he sees a clear path to a big time TV or radio show ahead and won't be surprised one bit if he gets it and the big $$$ that comes along as well and we'll be left with the hiding mayor, downright INSANE county board, etc its a big leadership vacuum but not a total disaster either!

Schools-MPS (city of MKE public system) overall yes does score LOW, but I know a bunch of people around my age raising kids and sending them to MPS when they have the means for private schools because MPS is a mix of some excellent schools and also many terrible schools, but 100% of what I hear is IF you are an involved parent (who the hell wouldnt be? Apparently a LOT of them!) and pick right schools in MPS, etc they've got good choices, PLUS we are a pioneer here in school choice/voucher schools and some of them like St Marcus turn out incredibly great results from kids who don't have the many advantages wealthy parents bring to them, just the opposite. If WI ever slips back to full Democrat party rule though, they'll cancel that entire program with glee, the unions, etc HATE SCHOOL CHOICE!!!

Also, Milwaukee is economically very diverse, from well below poverty line to very wealthy (nearly all of the top end is either in BIG $$$ condos downtown in high rises and 3rd Ward or mansions along lake north of DT on the trendy for decades "east side")

If you're yet another person wooed in by the seemingly amazingly low buy in prices and decent sounding rents, which seems to happen every 8 minutes or so on here now, I'd advise to proceed with caution, old stock that's beat to hell and city has been burned by too many slumlords, so even if they think its a 5% chance some out of state buyer could be slumlord in waiting, they'll drop a hammer on you and hard and as I've said 100x, they can write code violations exterior on 98% of the homes, but pick and choose when to do so. Those fines can mount like crazy and become a civil court judgement and ruin credit reports!

Yep, I saw the same thing @Joel Owens back in 2005-2007 or so when I quit going, what had been a room in the basement that would ALWAYS have many open seats and tables had steadily become standing room only and even some weeks with some of usually the regulars out in the hallway since we'd know depending on the law firm handling the sale, an approximate time it would come up. Even though it started at 1030, we knew that the biggest one went last and would never start before 1130, sometimes after noon. New faces were EVERYWHERE and it quickly became a head shaking exercise weekly as we had max bids (and if anything, you'd think an experienced person could go a bit higher than a newbie) since almost certainly we could get it done for less and I was still part time then, even the full timers who could knock em out real quick and efficiently were amazed at how high so many went, there was NO WAY there was profit there.

I did the same thing, moved upmarket, but if it weren't for years of experience and years of reading about what those buyers want, not just in near perfect quality, or perfection on the high end, but also the features they want. For the home I'm buying the parts and fixtures for now for two full baths completely gutted, which will be not upper middle or higher end for this market but high end with a incredible older (1938) home that's been updated with a very high end kitchen and more but two original and very obsolete baths upstairs, for the shower for instance, I'm quite sure a normal mixer and shower head, even if its a nice set, won't cut it. Based on my own research and more importantly nearby comps, they'll expect a shower system with body jets, rainfall head etc and I don't mean one of those panels that has all that on a single panel, they want a luxury shower! Also, while Kohler is one US company (and 40 miles up the road) that's been into luxury bath for years, now Delta, Moen, etc are jumping in but especially in this area is not going to be what they're looking for, its either Kohler or a Euro brand and I think I'm going with Grohe. Point is, when renovators jump up in the market, they need to truly spend time learning the price point they're jumping into!