All Forum Posts by: Bradley​ Lobo

@Bob Stevens your bathroom looks awesome! Did you hire a contractor, is that $10k including labor? What are your floors made of?  

Thanks everyone! Really appreciate the advice. Interesting point @Chris Merchant about the high bidding when they are not actively looking for work. Will definitely watch out for that. I will definitely reach out to get more quotes. When talking to general contractors is it normal to mention a budget to them up front or just ask for a bid, so that they establish the first number in the discussion? Also is a shower remodel typically something that can be completed in 5-7 days as the remodeler in the original post had mentioned. What’s like a realistic expectation of how long a shower remodel may take? 

Hi there,

My wife and I recently bought a house in the King of Prussia area in Pennsylvania. I'm not familiar with bathroom remodel estimates and am trying to get a better sense of how much we should be anticipating spending. We want to replace two walk-in showers that currently have glass doors. 1 shower is 3.5ft by 4.5ft wide by 7.5ft tall. The second shower is 3.0ft by 4.5ft wide by 7.5ft tall. We had one remodeler come out to give us an estimate to redo the two showers. 

They said they would: 

1)take out the old tiles around the shower walls, 

2)replace the floor shower tiles which are currently uneven and result in water pooling in the corners, 

3) and replace the damp drywall behind the tiles on the walls, waterproofing it, and treating any mold before reinstalling high quality acrylic tile boards instead of tiling

We would like them to also add an exhaust to the bathroom that will vent out to the roof but they said they can't do that since they are not licensed in that area. Currently there is no exhaust, so no pre-existing vents to the roof. Also, the house has a flat roof and no attic. Not sure if not having an attic makes it more complex.

They said they offer a lifetime warrantee backed by their company and supported by Good Housekeeping. The quote for two showers was $36k all in (labor and materials), which seems like a lot for two showers (not full bathroom remodels), but I'm not familiar with remodeling costs in general. They said the first bathroom shower space dimensions aren't standard so they require creating a more customized base as well as customized wall acrlyic boards. There definitely is moisture behind the walls. The remodeler pulled out his moisture meter which read 64% on the walls around the shower. The prior owners of the house that had done the bathrooms did the grouting poorly and didn't use the right caulking so it's causing a lot of the tiles to get a little loose. How much can I expect to pay on average per shower (labor and materials combined) in general? Is this price a reasonable price. It's the first quote I've gotten, so it's hard to make out if it's reasonable or not. And how long does a project like this typically take. The remodeler described above mentioned it's a 5-7 day job. This seems fast. 

Appreciate any advice or insight. Thanks

Brad

Hi, I'm Brad. Excited to join the Bigger Pockets community. I'm 24 years old and live in New Jersey, 15 minutes outside of Philly. Growing up I lived in a couple places across the world. Other than the U.S. try to guess the other two countries...

1) This country sells milk in the grocery store in strange plastic pouches

2) This oil rich country bans the sale of bacon in grocery stores. It's not uncommon to see Mercedes police cars and the occasional Lamborghini police car.

Come by my place and you'll hear me listening to the BP podcasts on the regular or see me watching Shark Tank clips on YouTube.

A goal of mine is to become more confident in taking risks and develop more control over my destiny. I'm a first generation American and feel blessed to be a part of such a great country. I aim to be financially free utilizing passive income from real estate to do so.

I always hear people saying they wish they started investing earlier. This got me thinking of what types of investments exist... I was immediately drawn to the tangible nature of real estate. Specifically buy and hold rental property investing.

My goal is to buy my first unit while I'm still 24. Only a few months left.

Would be interested to hear the story behind your first real estate investment. What was the biggest thing you've learned from buying that first unit?

Looking forward to hearing from you and making some new friends in the process.