All Forum Posts by: Christopher Alan Rush

Commercial contractor here, our company did the repair work for a warehouse fire that was probably in flames for less than 5 minutes. 

1st of all, does the current owners insurance not cover anything? 

2nd: the repair costs will be based partly on what 1) the engineer will require to be comfortable signing off on the repairs and 2) what the city or AHJ may require. Insurance often tries to pay out only for “matching the original condition”, rarely will you be allowed to actually reconstruct it that way. For reference i think there was ~60 trusses in that roof, with 7 or 8 having visible burn signs, and we had to replace all the trusses… which means all of the ceiling Sheetrock , attic insulation , sheathing , finish roofing, fascia and soffits… also isn’t there water damage from a fire truck? That would be more water damaged materials to replace. 
if your closing in 3 weeks… we’ve worked with a few different insurers. 1 is great. But the majority (especially residential insurers) will most likely take 2-3 months of wanting to go back and forth, get additional estimates, etc before authorizing a contractor to begin or paying the claim.
it would most likely be to your financial benefit to extend the closing date until after insurer-paid repairs are completed. 

Sorry to hear this. Regarding bonding, you might read up on that, I’m not sure how that works with handymen / small residential contractors. In the commercial world, we have to apply for project-specific bid bonds prior to bid date (if required) and usually include a letter from surety that confirms we are eligible for performance and payment bonds. Then if we get the job, we submit that bonding info to the client, and there’s a small bonding fee owed to the surety for that. In that case yes, if we fail to perform, the surety will be on the hook for finding another contractor / assume the risk of completing the work. Sorry I don’t know anything about the generic “licensed bonded insured” catch phrase. Maybe there’s other ways of getting bonding that I’m unfamiliar with. But as a general contractor in commercial work, every job is not automatically bonded/guaranteed by our surety, it’s only bonded if we’ve applied for those bonds for that specific job. 

Hey Blake, I work in town here for a commercial building GC, but we don’t do residential so I don’t have too much first hand knowledge on that, and there’s different pools of subcontractors where some do both commercial and residential, or just cater to one or the other. Construction cost here is outrageously expensive.

What we see commercially here for rates is carpenters $70 to $90/hr, electricians and plumbers around $140, flooring and painting $80-$90/hr.  There’s too much that goes into estimating to try and explain in a forum post. It could be a somewhat futile effort without getting quotes and proposals directly. I would prioritize defining the scope so you can present a list of things you want done for pricing by others. Level of quality, material types, which rooms get what, what brand and model, etc. if you can get a close sketch for your floor plan, that would help immensely too. If i have a limited timeframe to estimate, I’m going to work on getting a proposal out for something where i have a floor plan and a well-defined scope of work, versus needing to spend more time trying to figure that stuff out.

Also, you can have a 100% legit estimate for something like the taping/painting work, or electrical work, etc. but the problem is sometimes you may still not find anyone interested in doing it for those prices, either because their work load is too high, the markup you assumed wasn’t very enticing, there’s no local contractor for it (ie small scale stucco , masonry), etc. 

Sorry if this wasn’t particularly helpful but i really think you should emphasize defining scope so that you can easily solicit a couple different bids and those contractors are apples to apples. Otherwise they’re making their own assumptions. We don’t like making assumptions if we can avoid it. We want the owner to tell us what exactly they want, and then bid accordingly. 

Architect, interior designer, or some contractors can provide a design, almost all will charge for design efforts. They don’t just design it and done, you’ll scrutinize several things about the design and then it gets redesigned until you’re satisfied, which is more time and cost. 

If you have no legitimate design the next best thing would be to itemize a statement of work clearly describing what you want. The more vague you are the more divergence your going to see in contractor bids, because they’ll have to make assumptions. Leaving it to their creativity and picking the lowest bidder, you might not be thrilled with the results.The more specific you can be the better…. I.e don’t vaguely say “repaint kitchen” if you don’t want a 1-coat primer/paint product. Don’t say “new trim” without clarifying that you want painted MDF, or stained oak, etc … the more specific the more you ensure everyone’s on the same page. 

Alternately you could summarize what your looking for and ask for a proposal complete with all the products they’re intending to provide (by make / model / color), and what subcontractors they propose to use (if any). 

Hi all, 

I took a break from looking at anything the last few months and see that nothings changed in the last year or so in terms of, not being able to make the numbers work for anything. Specifically for SFHs and 2 to 4 unit properties. I even experiment with what-if's, like if the purchase price was 10% lower or the rents were higher, or i factor in no property manager, etc. Even in those scenarios the numbers still suck (ie negative IRR and/or negative CoC).

I’ve mostly looked in the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas but occasionally I’ll get curious and look up some of the “really good markets” noted for having good appreciation and cash flow often mentioned here, like Columbus, KC, Austin, etc. i think every time I’ve ever searched Zillow for 2-4 unit rentals in those markets I’ve only ever received 0 results or, results where they’re $1M+ with very poor rental income relative to the price. I am curious how anyone actually finds any deals in that sort of climate? I have seen the driving for dollars , mail flyer campaign, behind on taxes search, abandoned property or senior citizen looking to sell etc ideas. But in those hot markets, aren’t all of the big institutional and foreign investor firms also doing that, as well as dozens if not hundreds of other smaller investors? You’d just be 1 more inquiry on top of dozens of others they’ve received?  I am genuinely curious as to how you’re able to pull off good deals in a world where so many people are willing to buy something even when the numbers show it’s an obviously poor investment.  If it were a good property, wouldn’t they just keep it, or, put it on the market at a very premium price in which case the numbers don’t seem to work if you’re trying to buy it?

Curious of others thoughts or any feedback. Maybe I am not looking in the right places? 

Chris, great name you got there, thanks for the warm welcome! I clicked on your profile and it sounds like you have had a fantastic start on your real estate investing journey! Are you still looking at investing primarily in 4plexes these days? 

Brandi, Thank you for the warm welcome! I am glad you have found success locally in Anchorage. The only hesitation toward Anchorage I have is the current net migration out of Anchorage and no promising signs of an economic rebound in the near future. But I will still consider it; in fact I may be forced to. I am wanting to use an FHA loan on the purchase that I make. I am aware that you have to move into it within 60 days and live in it for at least one year which I would have every intention of doing if I bought something out of state. Problem is, I have heard that lenders will not allow you to pursue an FHA loan if you are not already a resident of the particular state that you want to buy the property in. Do you have any experience with that? The job I work has me traveling/per diem 6 on/1 off; or sometimes working from home - so there is no holdup there as far as moving to a different state to live in a property. As you know, though, it is expensive to move in or out of Alaska and this is where all of our family is - which is why I don't want to move unless I had something under contract and could move in directly to that property.

I am primarily interested in buy and hold. I don't plan on selling anything that I purchase unless doing said sale would allow me to use those funds for a greater purpose (like selling my SFR which would free up my VA where I could then use it to acquire another 2-4unit in the future on better terms and for hopefully better cash flow). What is your strategy for the Anchorage market?

Hello, everyone!

My name is Chris. I have been browsing this website quite a bit the last couple of weeks and figured I should sign up and start getting to know people. I have a background working in project management for commercial building general contractors. At this moment I am in North Pole, AK, although Anchorage, AK is home. 

I don't have any background in real estate, although I do own a SFR in Anchorage that I have been renting out for about a year and a half. At this time I am mostly researching on markets and financing options, and growing my fund for a down payment, before hopefully purchasing a 2-4 unit property later this coming summer. Also I am leaning toward buying something out of state as Alaska doesn't have a very good economic outlook at this time.

I look forward to getting to know you all!

Chris