All Forum Posts by: Don Gouge

Insurance agents have found them to be profitable. 

Just look around this site and see all of the new investors willing to take thin deals just to " get into the game".

Don't buy a property with a HOA. End of story.

Let me approach this from a little different angle. How much cash will you have invested in this project? What percentage of the total project cost will be the downpayment to the contractor? I am trying to gauge your cash reserves for this project.

I agree with Matt. Cut the wall open and do it right. It really isnt that big of a job and you will sleep much better.

The way you worded this tells me a lot. Seems like you have found good, honest, reliable contractors in the past but they were expensive. You have also found cheap contractors that were unreliable and dishonest. Seems like the pivotal point has been what you were willing to pay and your definition of fair.

  I will be the first guy to call out a contractor for overcharging but, like anything else, skilled labor is a supply and demand commodity. In this age there are all kinds of people willing to sit behind a desk and draw a big check because they feel they are entitled because they have spent a fortune on college. The problem is that there is no longer anyone to build the desk for them to sit behind.

  I didn't mean to unload on you but the bottom line is that you are either going to have to pay the going rate for quality or learn to do the work by yourself. 

You don't because you should have shortened the chain.

It depends upon the amount of renovation. If you are adding square footage then I say wait. If you are just painting and putting in new windows then I say it makes  no difference. appraisers are concerned with square footage and bedrooms and baths, not fashion.

Sign a one year lease with the option for either side to terminate any time after 6 months with a one month penalty. HOA gets the year lease and you and the tenant get a six month lease.

 Bruce, I guess this might be more of a regional difference in how we do business and the expectations of client and contractor. I have a man I can send out that can easily do that work and leave it clean in 8 hours.  A three man crew will get in each others' way and undoubtedly one will spend 90% of his time standing around outside on his phone smoking a cigarette. Two dump trucks are overkill since it looks like this job wouldn't fill up half of one. 

  I would send one man with my company truck pulling a dump trailer. He can do it in 8 hours @40 an hour insured all of the way. Dump fees are much cheaper here so figure $100. Figure $100 for vehicle. If I add on $400 for the company that brings me to $920. Make the price $1000 and everyone is paid and legit and happy. Perhaps things are done very differently in your neck of the woods and maybe that is why our cost of housing is probably less than half of what it is on the west coast.