All Forum Posts by: Brandon Hurlburt

Yeah.. There are no second chances for this guy. Ha. He already admitted he has no intentions on paying rent this month because he's moving out, although the lease states a 60 day notice to move out. Not, "I'm going to move out soon so can I live rent free for a couple weeks?" Haha.

I planned on remodeling all of the units anyways and replacing the roof and a few other things when the weather is better in a couple weeks, so it works out good for me if he actually does move out because I can easily rent the place out for an extra $100 a month with a tenant that actually passes a credit and background check.

I did read that you aren't supposed to, I was just joking. Ha.

Hopefully it doesn't come to the point where i actually have yo evict them. But they do seem like the type that won't pay, then I'll come back in a couple weeks to start remodeling the place and they're sitting on the couch smoking pot.

So we just bought a triplex. It looked like it was fully leased out, so I felt pretty good about it. One person was only there for 6 months, but the owner said he really liked it there and wanted to stay. After buying it I found out that he's been late on is rent almost every month. Lol. So I talked to him yesterday, mainly to see if that would still be a problem. He said he wants to move out (6 months left on lease yet) So I told him I would serve him a 14 day notice to vacate, and if he was out by then, I wouldn't file an eviction and we could call it a wash.

I'm not concerned about missing 1 months rent, especially since the kid looked like a deadbeat anyways. I looked him up on FB and apparently he works at "Real n**** s***" and went to school at the "University of Marijuana".

What happens if on the 15th day I go there and they're still there? Can I file am eviction that same day? I can't change the locks while theyre at work, can I? Lol. I figured I could just play stupid and say I thought they moved out but never got their key back so I changed the lock. Then say I forgot where the key is on the new lock. Haha.

Finally decided to do my first direct mail campaign because I can't find any good deals on the MLS. Seems like any time there is a half way decent deal, something I would still try to get knocked down a good 15%, it has an accepted offer at list price or above by the end of the day.

I wanted to do pre-probates and inheritance leads for my first campaign. But I couldn't find any cheap lists, and to go through county records and scrub all of the junk deals was taking way too much time. So I think I decided on absentee owners for now. The criteria I have set so far is at least 40% equity, and a home value of <100k. I was thinking about also doing a purchase of >10 years ago, but I read that a good majority of motivated sellers are new investors that just want to get out.

Are there any tips that anyone would recommend to get the best ROI? I'm looking to buy them all with cash, so I probably will only be buying 1-2 houses a month if possible. So I don't really need 1,000 leads, just a few high quality ones.

Why can't you run some flex to the exterior? You should use 4" aluminum pipe, but even flex would be fine. If it is a suspended ceiling just pop out a tile and use a hammer drill to drill a hole to the outside. Put a sleeve through and connect the flex to it. If it's a dropped ceiling use a jabsaw to cut and access hole, then when you're done up there, just screw a 1x4 to the cut out piece so it holds back up there level with the other sheet rock and tape, mud, sand, and repaint it. After you're done in there just put a vent cover on the outside to make it look neat.

Very, very true. Absolutely no arguing that and I greatly respect your opinion. Thank you for that. It has definitely made me open my mind to thinking of a different way to do this deal. The only thing I'm wondering now is, I estimated for us to be able to do the necessary work, it would take 4-5 weeks working 5 10 hour days a week, 6 if necessary. If I grossed say 90k, I would be paying him $18,000. If I had him do all the work himself, which he would do, it would probably take closer to 8 weeks. So he's still making roughly $200 an hour. Definitely better than his 30 an hour currently. BUT... if I could just pay some subs $20-40 an hour, I guess I could theoretically get it done evem faster, minimizing holding costs and potentially actually saving myself by cutting him out of the equation. Is it actually kind of easy to hire some scabs at $20ish an hour? Because I'm all for that if it's actually possible. Haha.

I did just find one of your posts about it. I guess when you look at it that way, it doesn't really make much sense to do cheap things you could just pay someone $15-20 an hour for. I just obviously have that small town redneck personality where I hate paying people to do something I can do myself. Ha. At the same time, I've built myself up too high to go back to working for $15 an hour. So you definitely made a good point.

 I'm figuring the work won't take any more than 4-5 weeks for us to do just from past experience. Similar homes are selling almost immediately. So I'm hoping it doesn't sit anymore than 4 month, but if it sits for 6, I guess that's still not bad.

Okay, I will look into your post about it and see your view on it. I'm always open to different perspectives on things. I just figured if I could do it, I might as well. I could try and bid it out though and see how much it would cost, I just figured it would up so much profit it would turn my good deal into more of an okayish deal. That was just my uneducated beginner oponion.

I am a skilled tradesman. I'm a journeyman HVAC tech, with roofing and sheetrock experience. My friend is a carpenter, also was an electrician for 4 years and a roofer also for awhile. We have both done just about everything you could think of in terms of plumbing, electrical, framing, drywall, painting, tile, roofing, etc. I feel very confident with just as good of quality as any other contractor would. So that isn't a concern to me at all. 

We would be doing it full time. Yes, the money saved in labor would count as net profit I would pay him.

So back to my original question. What additional costs are associated with it that I didn't already include? I tried to do all my research on odds and ends, and I thought I had them all. Materials, holding costs, closing costs, realtor fees, and leaving a pretty reasonable amount for unexpected expenses. It would leave us with a gross of almost 100k. I think that is a big enough margin for little things here and there.