All Forum Posts by: John Whittle

My linesman aren’t a hammer either but your obviously not a professional.  

Sewage and sewer gas isn't something you play games with.  

 Something else must be wrong with that companies installs.  Boilers are one of those things no matter what brand if they are installed right they just run and run for decades.  

The most important question, what kind of radiators?  If just fin and tube baseboard get a basic a cast iron boiler from say weil mclain. 

 If you have cast iron or convection radiators go with a modular condensing boiler or two from say rinnai.  Should save you quite a bit on gas over the years.  Even with the higher maintenance costs of the mod con.  Brand is important on these but the installer is even more important than brand, they have to be installed right.

I worked at Cranley's house in price hill before he was mayor, when he was still a councilman years ago and I was working for a company, super nice guy.  I think he offered me everything in the book water, food, beer and he gave me a tip.  I was still green hopefully I didn't screw up his a/c too bad.

Happens all over.  When my buddy was looking for a house to rent he called me about one that seemed odd.  I can't remember all the details but I warned him its most likely one of those scams where they don't own the place.  Sure enough thats what it ended up being.  

As a contractor I get all these weird texts with broken english from people wanting me to do work at their house.  Stuff like do you do lightening fixes, I have a house in the city.  Normally I just ignore them, this last one I was bored and followed through.  He wanted to give me a deposit on a credit card and wanted me to give some of it to the former owner because he was out of state and couldn't get him the money.  Obviously a scam right so I took the credit card number, called the credit card people and the feds on him.  He kept up calling/texting for a week I ignored him from there hopefully he stuck around long enough to be caught.

Should be capitol gains since you held it for a year. 

I don't see why it would be a problem, the issue you'll find is the appraisal. If your buying the house to fix up a lot of banks don't like funding houses in bad shape.  As long as the house is mostly liveable, has working heat, electric, plumbing and a bathroom.  You should be able to find a lender, it might take a few calls and possibly a wasted appraisal fee or two.

I'd get a hold of that bill.  Most likely its some sort of roll over from previous months they couldn't read the meter or they were on even billing and have been going way over all year.  As has been said no way this is from the home inspector running the water for 2 hours.  I think the tenants are trying to pull one over on you.  If you had a leak that big you should know it.  It'd have to be outside and the yard would most likely be a swamp.  If not a swamp there is usually atleast a low spot where the leak is.

As someone who is against all debt but mortgages I agree.  Its especially true for investors.  The more money you can borrow on the house and still make money.  The more money you have for more investments that make more money.  

The catch is not getting caught with your pants down. If you leverage every thing to the hilt and throw all spare cash in more properties. You have no back up if things go wrong. I'd say take the longest term lowest down payment loan you can get. Just make sure you buy right, have reserves and an exit strategy. At the same time I wouldn't do something like get an FHA loan on my personal house. The ultra low down payment isn't worth the added costs.

 Its a half a** fix, the receptacles get loose over time. Loose electrical connections get hot, heat tends to cause things to melt and char if not worse.  $400 is a good price, replace the outlets and do it right.  

Make sure they are qualified or check their work, at that price.  I've seen plenty of handyman/diy receptacle replacements with loose wires that are just as bad as loose outlet connections.

Covers like these are why investors get bad names.  Don't put lipstick on a pig, do it right.

I'm curious why the inspector is in before sale too.  I'm also trying to figure out how a clogged sewer is just standard maintenance. Inspection reports will bring these issues up on 40k houses.  How much you discount or fix depends on what the property is really worth.  Every issue you have listed sounds like very reasonable issues any retail buyer will demand be fixed before they buy it for fair market price.