All Forum Posts by: Brendan L.

Plaster and lath

Thanks @Gail K., I was wondering about that today, whether plaster would be more resilient. 

I did think following the @Vern M. method of cutting out the bottom 2' could be reasonable, but then my question would be, could I easily fill that back in with drywall to save myself the hassle of plastering it back up. 

We could smell the cat smell from the other unit's separate section of the attic, so that's probably not a good sign.

@Thomas Williamson Thanks for the heads up!! With great strength comes great responsibility...Can't wait to roll up my sleeves on this badboy. Luckily I don't have to move my stuff in for the first 2 weeks when I'll be working on it.

Thanks everyone!

Plaster walls...

Buying a duplex and the previous tenants on one side let their cats destroy the place. Very strong smell of cat urine. Place is covered in carpet. I'm expecting the replace everything including subfloor in 1000 sq feet. I have a feeling this won't be enough to wipe the smell away permanently. What do you suggest?

@Dean H.

Naw that makes sense. I guess I was wondering what people think is an acceptable time frame for making your money back on:

-capital expenditures that are needed right away

(e.g. drop 10k on roof and boilers to make it habitable, don't make that back until the end of year 2)

-improvements to units that boost income

(e.g. drop 10k to improve, boost rent by $100 = ~8 years to begin profiting)

And with immediate capital expenditures, how do you price those into the sale price? Is it, for example (comp sale price with good roof MINUS the cost a new roof EQUALS offer price)?  And what is reasonable to ask a seller to credit you for? For example, this is an ancient slate roof that needs repairs after last winter, but I want to replace it- so I ask for the money for the repairs for damage during winter.

And with improvements, I like the idea of phasing things in as the current stuff wears out so as to not shock the rentability of the unit in a mediocre rental market. 

I struggle to understand what adds value to a huse. The offer is currently at 95k for a 6/2 3100square ft. In 2007, the height of the market, it sold for 137k in today's dollars, without replacement windows and some cosmetic upgrades. But then it got foreclosed on, sold for 60k in 2009, had some upgrades done, and that's who I'm dealing with.

Ive looked at recently sold comps and I think 95k is in the ballpark, but theres limited data. But when you're considering ARV, do you include capex in there? So if a place needs a new roof and boilers right away, to what extent does replacement contribute to what you could sell it for? Dollar for dollar?

@Jordan Grimstad The DCF analysis went over my head a little bit, I'll take another look, but I get the idea of running different scenarios. I'm thinking it might be a good idea for me to hold off on value increasing "nice to have" improvements and rent out the property just about as is.Then, as pieces wear out, I can replace them with nice stuff and gradually increase value and income, because the numbers work nicely with current actuals. 

There are some things that I think I can very easily ask for- credit for repairing the current slate roof to get me a couple more years before I replace it, credit for cleaning/detoxing the unit currently rented by smokers, and credit for and foundation patching for erosion due to the unadressed grading issues (the seller provided me with a 2009 inspection, funny enough).  

I was probably grossly overestimating, and including costs for an immediate overhaul of parts of each unit. 

Any tips on getting a seller to accept these types of credit requests? I feel like I'm being reasonable by those things I listed, but is there language I can include that would make them agree that I am in fact being reasonable? Or do we just draw it up and hope he agrees?

Ah, so, I'm looking at financing these initial repairs with a 3 year loan, which still amounts to a pretty high monthly payment. I'd feel better, perhaps falsely, if they could get rolled into the 30 year loan. I guess its an unavoidable fact of buying a place that needs work...