All Forum Posts by: Chris Calabrese

Generally you can close as fast as your closing attorney can get the title work done, as long as the seller is ok with it. I know around here they can rush and get one done in under a week (contract Monday, close Friday).

This is assuming you have no other contingencies, inspections, etc. If you're trying to make attractive cash offers, you should avoid those anyway.

I manage my rentals for the same reasons as most people here. I also find most property managers own their own rentals, which is a huge conflict of interest in my eyes. No way they're placing a tenant in my property before theirs.

Off the top of my head, the things I would like to see most in a PM:

1. Give me the final say on choosing a tenant. Show the property, screen them, but let me sign off.

2. Have a quality repairman on staff that can fix most minor problems at a reasonable cost. Like Ali Boone said, I don't need a $80/hr plumber to fix a running toilet. Call in the big guns for bigger problems.

3. Provide services "a la carte" - tenant placement, rent collection, maintenance, inspections, etc. Some people may want to place tenants and let the PM handle day to day, while others may want to make their own repairs, etc.

I don't even count communication as a requirement, because this is something I require of anyone I do business with. It's not specific to PM's. If you can't return my calls, I want nothing to do with you.

I've had this done many times on cast iron tubs, tile surrounds, and 1-piece fiberglass enclosures. I use a company called Surface Specialists, and I'm pretty sure they're franchised. The finish comes out amazing, and they provide a 25-year warranty, so even though I've sold all of the houses I have to assume it holds up well for them to offer that.

To do a tub and surround, they spend 5-6 hours prepping and about an hour spraying the finish. They charge by the square foot, usually $5-8/SF. A little pricey, but cheaper than replacing and much less work/disturbance. They will also refinish tile floors, countertops, and anything else you could imagine.

I guess I answered the question in your post, but to the title "Good deal?":

Using the 70% rule and the lower end of the ARV range, you would need to be all-in for 70% of 105k, or $73,500. Therefore, your max purchase price would be $53,500 assuming 20k in repairs. So I guess you could buy this sight unseen for that price, but what if the roof is ok and the HVAC works great and you could do the rehab for 12k. You might miss out on a great deal by not bidding higher.

I would never try to make a determination without visiting the property, unless it was a neighborhood I was very familiar with and I had done several flips of similar houses. There are too many variables that you just can't nail down online - quality of surrounding properties, other nuisances, etc. Not to mention the actual repair costs, which could vary widely.

With that said, I do a lot of flips similar to this - 30-40 year old ranches with ARV's from 100-120k, and I know a total rehab on a property like this will cost me between 20-25k every time. A cosmetic rehab will be 10-15k. Your numbers may be different, but my point is after you do a few you will be able to determine a purchase price almost immediately after seeing the "specs" of the house. But until you get a little more experience, I would suggest doing you due diligence on each one or it may end up being your last.

Update - Closed my HARP 2.0 loan yesterday with BoA. This was by far the easiest mortgage process I've ever been through, although it took almost 90 days. We basically provided the application, copies of our ID's, and paid for an appraisal. That was it. Lowered our payment on a rental condo from $1360 to $960/month. We also got the PMI removed based on the original value, even though this loan was at 175% LTV!

One of your responsibilities as a landlord is to provide a safe and functional living environment for your tenants. Part of this involves making repairs when necessary. I agree that tenants are unlikely to make quality repairs, and I don't think most would agree to this type of clause. If they cause damage intentionally or due to negligence, you can deduct the cost from their security deposit at move-out.

I agree with removing the wallpaper, but I've never tried to tile over it. At a minimum I would score it or rough it up and use thinset instead of mastic.

In our lower and mid priced flips, we do the classic white subway tile. Very inexpensive, looks nice and clean, and you could install and grout in a couple of hours. You can get it in other colors of course for a few bucks more. If it's a lower priced rental, I wouldn't go crazy trying to come up with something innovative.

I usually try to time the counter-offers so that I have time to cancel one if another gets accepted. You pretty much know that your initial offer won't be accepted (if it is, you're offering too much), so there is some wiggle room in the counter process.

I also prioritize properties and adjust my offers accordingly to increase my chances of getting the ones I really want. Once you have experience in your local market, you will almost know what will be accepted and what won't. At least that seems to be the case here.

To be honest, we haven't done the yellow letter yet, but my partner and I are both realtors and are planning to do a campaign very soon. I never thought that it would have any effect. In fact, I expect that it will add some legitimacy to our offers. I think that if a seller was reluctant to to a deal with a professional it would be because they were trying to pull something over on me.