All Forum Posts by: Brian Versetti

@Jim K.

I love to help people as much as possible but it is very hard to give an answer about costs that should of been. The reason I say this is all contractors have different overhead costs that are, not always appropriately, figured into a bid as well as each contractor has their way of doing a job which makes cost vary from contractor to contractor. I, for example, do not exactly believe in or follow the minimum building codes because I do not believe they are always sufficient, so I tend to overbuild when codes are considered and that makes my price a bit higher than some others due to added materials and/or labor. I hope this is helpful.

@Lisa Wright

Lisa if I were closer I would come teach you but, since I'm in Pittsburgh, the best I could do is walk you through it legitimately. I have done this in the past for friends and have had a lot of success! If you would like that feel free to let me know!

@Jen Ikuta

Hi Jen, after looking at the pictures that you sent I honestly can only say that the house needs cleaned out. As far as whether or not to demo the whole thing, could you tell me or send pics of the foundation? Framing? Roof structure? Etc...

Also something to consider is if the property has a high enough ARV to justify a full gut and redo or only a good enough ARV to justify updating? The other consideration would be if the land (due to location) would bring more of a return if a new home was constructed on it vs the other two options. I will happily go back and forth with information to help you determine a resolution to your question.

@Eliott Elias

I find from the customers that I've spoken to that it is either a contractor who tends to over promise and under deliver which as Bruce mentioned is usually a relatively bad business manager or the customer had given to much money upfront which allows for the contractor to disappear until they need more. I always recommend, as was mentioned, to get a clear timeline, and also I would suggest on bigger projects to set up different draw points. In other words set up for example after demo the contractor gets so much, then after electrical is rough inspected they get another draw, and so on... I hope this helps!

@Wendy Man Happy to help

@Bruce Woodruff Awesome of you to jump in to help as well!

@Khari F.

Unfortunately I think that the list you are asking for is a bit too comprehensive to simply type up. For example common repairs for a flip? A rental? Multifamily building? I will be happy to try to help, but I'm not sure where to start without more info. Also materials for each repair can very much vary depending on cause of that specific problem, for example a toilet not working could be a shut off valve, a bad flushing valve, a bad seal, etc...

@Wendy Man

The most common mistakes that I have personally heard of from customers who have tried others before me are not getting a complete contract with scope of work, giving too much money to their contractor up-front and not giving a clear deadline for the completed project.

Here in PA the contractor has to have a contractors license number, give a clear and precise scope of work, take no more than a third down, and provide an estimated completion date. I'm not sure how it is in other states but if you use this as a guideline it should help! I hope this was helpful and if you have more questions please let me know.

To all that have replied to my offer for help, I sincerely apologize for my lack of replies, I have not been getting notified of any replies from you guys. I will sit down this evening and attempt to answer the inquiries for you. Again my apologies!

@Jen Ikuta Hi Jen, I could give you an educated thought on it with some pictures and probably asking you a few questions. Feel free to send as many pictures as you would like to give me as much to go on as possible and I will try to help.