All Forum Posts by: David Goossens

My grandparents have been buying houses in the Bay Area since the early 60's. When I asked my grandma about buying my next property and looking for deals, she told me to just keep saving my money and wait for prices to correct. Her advice is based on years of dealing with the boom and bust cycles. While there are many people that make great arguments for a strong continuing economy and how good systems will yield good deals in any market, I'm going to take my grandma's advice, increase my cash horde, and when the time is right, I'll strike. That's my personal take on it.

I personally think that a clear glass shower door looks better, but it honestly depends on what your comps look like. If everyone is using a shower door, than chances are that's what the expectation will be for potential buyers.

The electrician is being lazy. Trimming out before Sheetrock is a bad idea. Receptacles and switches will get damaged and cutting out the boxes will be harder for the general. A lot of the time, sheetrockers will screw a piece of Sheetrock to the wall and then use a rotozip to cut around the outlet box. Many times they will miss and plunge straight into the box. If there is a receptacle there it's going to get toasted. Tell your electrician to act like a professional and do the job right. No final payment until the job is completed correctly. 

Congrats on starting your own company! Hopefully some BP members that are in your market can help you book some work. It might be helpful if you posted a quick blurb about your experience and maybe a few pictures of some work that you have done recently. Best of luck!

Definitely read the Set For Life Book and look into house hacking. That is by far the most straight forward and methodical method for getting started in REI.

Welcome to BP! 

Not sure if Loren Thomas is still answering questions so I'll jump in.

@Paul Sandhu

If you perform the voltage drop equation using #12 AWG solid wire (VD=2KID/CM) you will drop approximately 5 volts over the 90 foot distance. If you home is 240v, that brings you down to 235v, which is about a 2% drop. According to NEC 210.19 (A) Informational note 4, branch circuits are allowed a 3% drop in voltage.

The simple answer: You can safely use #12AWG Wire for for your AC unit. Make sure you follow all code requirements when running the Romex and/or conduit.

@Erika G.

@Erika G.

Improper grounding is a little ambiguous, but I'm guess the previous owner replaced old 2-prong outlets with the new 3-prong outlets. This is fairly common. According to NEC 406.4(D)(2)(b) "a nongrounding type receptacle shall be permitted to be replaced with a ground-fault interrupter type receptacle(s). These receptacles shall be marked with "No Equipment Ground."...

The simple Answer: Replace the improperly grounded outlets with GFCI outlets. These can be purchased at any home improvement store. These outlets come with small stickers that read: "No Equipment Ground" Make sure you put that sticker on the trim plate. This is an easy task for a DIY homeowner. However, if you don't feel comfortable doing it, it shouldn't take an electrician long to do it for you.

My life became so much more simple after I stopped accepting checks and started requiring deposits at the local bank. 

As for the late fee, I wouldn't waive it. I know a few people who would even serve a notice to pay or quit after day 5. I guess it depends on how strict you want to be. 

I typically use Zillow to do my comps. 9/10 times my numbers are very close to what the realtor comes up with. 

Pro-Tip: go meet some investors/realtors at your local BP meet up. I've found that most members are willing to help each other out with things like finding comps.  

@Lesley Resnick

I think your level of frugality will depend on how fast you want to achieve your goals. You don't need to eat Ramen Noodles every night, but it is reasonable to set a grocery budget and stick to it. Depending on where you are in life, you can only increase your wealth by making more money and/or by saving more money. So at some point, you need to buckle down and save, even if the frugality is temporary. I'm not sure if you read any of the Mr. Money Mustache blog articles, but here are a few good ones that seem relevant to this discussion:

Also, the new Set For Life book does a fantastic job at explaining the need for tight budgeting at the beginning phases of REI, as well as the mindset that goes along with it.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/11/23/not-extr...

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2016/06/08/happines...

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/29/killing-...