All Forum Posts by: David Ross

I created en Eventbrite for this:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brewerytown-bp-montly...

Thanks to all who came out to the house Saturday evening. It was great meeting everyone!

It's amazing how many people we've found in the neighborhood and nearby area with advice and support. I look forward to continuing to build the network of BP'ers who are improving Philly!

Hey @Jason B. - I am working on a place in the same neighborhood and think it's a good spot for buy and hold. Of course this only makes sense if you buy it right. Make sure you visit and walk the area, the difference of a few blocks means a lot. Good luck.

Hi @Chris Fisher and welcome to the BP community. 

The empty lots you're seeing for $15-30k on the MLS are overprices and should be more like $10k. New construction costs run about $120-160/sq ft. The sales comps are just not there yet on these small lots, small single family homes (1,000 sq ft) are selling around $130-200 fixed up depending on the block. Once the homes start selling for closer to $250-300k you'll see new SFH construction.

One method we've started to see in the works are small multi-family buildings, so you can pack three (800 sq ft, 2-bed) units onto one lot, and sell each for $150k or so... That's like a 2500 sq ft house for $450k which is more in line with new construction in Graduate Hospital and Fishtown. Just something to think about...

While nothing beats the advice of a local, seasoned realtor, these tools definitely help you refine your ARV estimates and knowledge.

I'll advocate for Redfin being able to create better ARV values and comps than Zillow. Look at the nearby sold properties $/Sq.Ft. it will give you one of the better ballpark ARV estimates.

Good Luck!

Hello @Garrett M. and welcome to BP!

I'm in Fairmount and love the neighborhood as well. Philly is a great place to be. What neighborhoods are you looking to focus on?

For HELOC vs Equity Loans, it's just a matter of wether you want a large lump sum to make deals and a long-fixed term (Equity Loan) or just something you can tap into as needed and pay a slightly higher rate (HELOC). Depends on what your goals are - Probably an equity loan for you since the long-term loan will be offset by rental income.

I'm also interested in the meetup you mentioned - I'll try to catch you there.

Good luck and see you around the site!

Welcome @Brian Yost !

Philly is a great place to be. What neighborhoods are you looking at?

Good luck!

As @Troy Sheets mentioned, getting a drywall team together has turned into more work than expected. The drywall works consists of:

• All of the basement areas we are finishing (6'x6' bathroom and 12'x16' basement)
• First floor where we've made runs for plumbing and electric,
• Second floor about half of the walls we've moved, plus ceiling patching in most of the rooms for where the walls were moved.

This came to about 48 sheets of drywall, or 1,534 sq. ft. In drywall work, quotes are done by square footage or cost per sheet. However, there's always a bit of economies of scale where smaller projects will cost more per sf than larger projects. We were expecting quotes to come in at around $40/sheet, which would be around $1920. So yeah we were a bit frustrated when all of our quotes came in at $3500+.

Troy finally found a respectable quote from an experienced crew - so at least we can get rolling with that.

*****

One funny thing I'm noticing - when I show up dressed for my professional job and meet with contractors - my quotes come in higher.  When I'm looking like Daddy Warbucks contractors feel like they can raise rates and I won't notice.

Note to self: keep jeans, boots, and a used Eagles hoodie for a quick change of wardrobe. Keepin' it real!

Welcome to the site @Riker Blank  

I'm also working on my first project in Brewerytown with @Troy Sheets 

Let's keep in touch. Good Luck!