All Forum Posts by: Carl Fredrickson

Ask them to provide documentation about what damage actually exists and what they are doing to repair it. Damage: are they talking scratches, gouges, cracks? Repair: are they applying new enamel, overlaying a new acrylic liner, or doing a full replacement of the tub? Is it being restored to like condition, or are they making other changes like color or style? If they are making changes, you should only be responsible for the portion of the money that brings it back to the condition it was in when you moved in.

Did you take pictures of the bathtub before you moved out? You may be able to argue it’s not in that bad a condition. 

Did you take pictures of the bathtub right after moving in (or was it noted on a condition report when you moved in?) If so and the pictures are similar to what you took right before moving out, you may be able to argue the tub was in that condition when you moved in or you only contributed reasonable wear and tear for which you can’t be charged. 

How old is the tub and what was it made of (I.e. acrylic, cast iron, etc.) You may be able to argue that the tub is at the end of its natural life expectancy. 

Tip: take pictures of the move in and move out conditions of wherever you live. Even if you’re the owner. Even if it’s boring stuff like empty rooms and blank walls. But especially any blemishes like poorly repaired holes. They can come in handy in the when stuff like this comes up. 

You may want to check if the area has a history of mining in general... gold, silver, copper, etc., but even if it does, that doesn’t mean it’d be profitable today.

I did a bit of googling over this thinking that the railroad was trying to keep the minerals, especially coal and iron, for themselves because a lot of steam engines burned coal and the engines and tracks were build from iron or steel (which is mostly iron).

Apparently back when the railroads were built in the 1860s, the government would give the companies 10 square miles of land for every mile of track they built, which the companies could then sell off. But the mineral rights were not included in the land grant.

If I can paste a link, see
https://www.coxrail.com/land-grants.asp 


So the land you’re looking at was probably granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad upon building some stretch of track, and they sold it off as the program was supposed to work. The carve out for mineral rights is not there for NP to keep them, but because they never had them to sell. 

Another question is how do you envision renting it out?... to a single family or to multiple tenants (like college students sharing a house). If the latter, maybe consider subdividing the space with walls so each tenant can have their own lockable storage area. 

Conceptually, raising the ceiling is easy, but as a practical matter, I’m not so sure. If the Sheetrock is fastened directly to the trusses, then you’re going to have to mess with the trusses in order to get a flat ceiling that is high enough, which to me says architect/building engineer and a lot of money.

I suppose another option would be to put the ceiling on top of the trusses’ bottom chords so you end up with an exposed beam look, but I don’t know if this is allowed or practical.

Is there some sort of crawl space above that can be viewed to get a better idea of the structure between the ceiling and the roof? That would help inform your decision. 

I’m guessing one of the reasons it’s harder to find investors is that many of them are no longer accredited due to the drop in the stock market... borderline millionaires are now back to aspiring to be millionaires. 

Random bit of trivia - In the 2008 crisis, one of the reasons the Fed was comfortable cutting interest rates without being too worried about inflation was the unemployment rate was still sufficiently high. 

The thought process was that a big factor in inflation is increased wages, and wages don’t go up until there’s a shortage of workers, and the signal there’s a shortage of workers is a low unemployment rate. 

Extrapolating that to today, the trillion dollar bailout/stimulus/giveaway/whatever you want to call it is being driven by massive unemployment, so I would conclude risk of inflation is low to moderate. 

But this certainly isn’t my area of expertise. 

The basic criteria is net worth greater than $1M (edit: not including your primary residence) or three consecutive years with income over $200K/year. 

Some syndicates basically let you self-certify that you meet that criteria. Others will make you go through a third party to verify. 

You can ask for anything and everything, but I would think you’re limited to actual damages... how are you living in the meantime? Are you essentially camping in a house or staying in a hotel? Are you eating food prepared at home or eating out? Have you rented or purchased anything that you would not have if these problems did not exist (generators, heaters, etc.)? Keep it reasonable and keep your receipts. You can ask to be reimbursed for all of it. 

But I’d be surprised if you get anything more than prorated rent. 

You should also check your lease for anything related to habitability... it may have something limiting how much compensation they will provide.

Edit: By the way, pain and suffering, inconvenience, time off work to see if repairs are done, I wouldn’t bother with.

Do they also want to be paid in cash? They may be trying to avoid creating a paper trail, thus keeping the job off the books. 

ID theft will sometimes result in incorrect addresses in the records.