All Forum Posts by: Sean Carroll

@Paul Sian is great, hustler and very responsive. Also goes above and beyond 

@Nathan Wiebe its more of an inspection report. Doesn't really give you pricing or anything like that.

@Nathan Wiebe 9/10 I do it before I buy the property, he's not a home inspector but I made a form for him to make marks on so he doesn't accidentally forget to check the electrical panel for instance. Then he gives me a cost of what it would take for labor and then an estimation of materials, so I can submit my offer quickly. 

The big ones I make sure of are the roof, electrical, mechanicals, foundation, structural. These are the big-ticket items that can destroy the budget. otherwise, I know what finishes I want to use so I can estimate the square footage based off where the materials would go.

@Brandon Lewis if you are flipping I would look time on market, crime, school ratings, which neighborhoods are desired over others, the median price of homes, the price of homes in certain neighborhoods you are looking at, population growth, the top employers and how their business is doing, any city projects planned to boost growth, any large private projects.

@Nathan Wiebe with a great team, You really only need a great agent which I recommend @Paul Sian if you're looking in the Cincinnati area. I would also recommend a good general contractor who has a good eye for things and is organized, I pay mine $100 to go look at the distressed property and take a walk through video and tell me what needs replacing such as subfloors, mechanicals, roof, ect. But if I hire him to do the work then the $100 is subtracted from the final payment.

@Gabriel D. Zapata it is a great site but unfortunately they are not in Ohio yet

@Jim Jaworowicz it comes down to your own preference. You can either put 20% down every so often to buy a rent ready house or rehab the house to gain immediate equity by being a good negotiator or good project manager to save on labor and materials. 

If you go the rehab part then you can either hire individual subcontractors and manage the project your self, say hire a handyman to do the demo, and carpenter to do framing and finish work, a drywall contractor to do the drywall and so on. Or you could hire a general contractor to handle all of that and give you weekly updates. It is really how much you want to be involved and how much personal time you want to put into it. All about your current priorities and future goals.

@Brian Pulaski maybe a trip to home depot is in order to pick out the floor you want then walk over to the stains and compare colors. The paint department may also be able to help match the exact color. I have a local paint shop near one of my houses that if I bring them an example they will match the color

@Steven Mitchell NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! I could see 1 time a week. Say the Monday after work has been completed the previous week and you can line item it or just have a list of things to be completed and if 3/4 is done then 3/4 is to be paid. That's what we do at Gear'd at least. Also we handle the materials and invoice you once they are delivered to the job site. So you will get to separate invoices from us, 1 for labor and 1 for materials 

@Brian Pulaski just to confirm the addition is the Living room I am seeing on your plans? If that is the case I like my house to flow throughout, so I would use the same flooring and color you use in the other main areas of the house. Otherwise you could do a nice pergo/laminate floor that is quick and cheap and have the remainder hardwood floors stained to match the color of the different type of flooring.