All Forum Posts by: Elizabeth Guarnieri

Thanks for weighing in Jaysen and James!  Heard a bit more through other channels and I do think that the flat rate is an outlier and not necessarily a trend, but I see why property managers would want to embrace it.  I have more research to do and some other more pressing things to tackle first, but will then do some more extensive research about my options.  

Hi--just learned that my property manager has completely changed its fee structure.  Instead of a percentage based on rental income it's gone to a flat fee per unit.  If I owned more expensive properties, this would be beneficial--but instead my fees are going up considerably for not a significant increase in service as far as I can tell.  Even with a discount offered because of my longstanding relationship with the company, the fees for one of the buildings is going from 8 to 10% and if they were charging the new actual fee without a discount, it would be over 16%.  I've also been told that they can't even guarantee this discounted rate for any amount of time.  

Frustrating to say the least, as there isn't a great margin on any of the properties.  Is anyone else seeing this with their property managers?  They claim that the flat fee per unit model is the new trend so I'm wondering what other people are experiencing.  

Thanks for your thoughts!

Hi--I've been working with Whitney Roddy at the Whitney H. Roddy firm and they've been great.  http://whroddy.com  

They are responsive and have competitive rates.  Hope this helps! 

Betsy Guarnieri

Thanks Jonathan--appreciate it!

Hi--I would love any recommendations for mold remediation companies in the South Jersey area.  Bonus points if you have a mold remediation story to share.  Thank you for your help!!

Betsy

Hi--any general thoughts out there on small mixed use properties?  A few apartments and a small retail space type of mixed use property?  I'm wondering if they are worth the extra cost of a commercial loan (and extra insurance costs) and how difficult it will be to resell down the line.  Thanks!  

Many thanks for all of the advice and wisdom.  Sent my letter canceling the contract today.  The seller sent an "estimate" of what he thought would fix the electrical problems, which not surprisingly didn't cover half of the things my electrician said it needed to be safe.  Then had the gall to suggest that we were being unreasonable because he was offering 5k toward the ridiculous 6,500 estimate that he came up with--so in his view we were walking away over 1.5k.  Through the negotiations it seemed more and more clear that they weren't really being above board about this, so why would I trust any of the work they'd done?  It's disappointing, but clearly there will be other opportunities.  I thought originally that having something that didn't need work would be a good place to start investing, but am rethinking that.  Maybe it's better to buy something cheaper and know the work is being done properly?  Mulling this and reevaluating my ever evolving plan...

And much like David said about other issues popping up--the electrician who did the inspection said that with this kind of amateur work in evidence, there's no telling what you will find when you open up the walls.  

David and Russell--thanks for your input!  Here is the information from the electrical inspection:

Service The service was recently replaced with a new 3-meter pack.There was no sign of permitting, and the old undersized SE cable was not replaced, and there was not proper grounding and bonding.It is not clear if the 3-meter pack is PSEG approved.The ZINSCO sub-fed panel is now considered a safety hazard and needs to be replaced.There is not room for the new conduit to rise up the exterior wall to the point of attachment.The steps and newly laid cement must be torn up and replaced for the service to be replaced.There were several instances of unsafe electrical installations in the basement including a live wire that was laying at the foundation wall.

Price Easily $5000, could go to $6500 not including cement and step repair

2nd Floor Apt. The sub-fed panel has been placed in the stairwell which is in direct violation of the code.The neutral and ground wires are attached to the same buss which is a safety hazard, and needs to be remedied.Nearly all of the lighting and receptacle circuits show evidence of rewiring but the ground wires do not show conductivity to ground.This is evidence of poor electrical installation and possibly using old knob-and-tube wiring to feed these circuits which were found in the basement.Also, there are broken boxes and unsafe wiring practices evident throughout the inspection which led one to believe that the work was performed by an unqualified individual.The cheated wires must be found or the entire ungrounded circuits may need to be rewired.

Pricing to move the sub-fed panel, properly install bonding and grounding, and correct the ungrounded circuits $3500-$6000

Rear apt No entry was gained.The Electrical portion of the Home Inspection report shows ungrounded receptacles and possibly more.Considering the evidence in the rest of the building, it is possible that the circuits are also poorly installed by amateurs. The range to correctly install these circuits is $750-$2000

These prices do not include the patching of plaster or the repair of any other damaged surfaces.

Hi--I'm very new to this site and to investing.  I found a property that sounded like a good deal but I went under contract at a price that I thought it was worth if there was nothing majorly wrong with the property.  I have an inspection contingency and the inspection turned up major electrical problems that could cost close to 20K to fix (fixing electrical and fixing the damage done to fix the electrical).  There are a lot of good things about the property (2 of 3 units are rented; new roof; cosmetic upgrade to one apt w new appliances, cabinets, counters, and in an area that is seeing some significant new development).  We asked the seller to cut the price by 13 (about ten days ago), they came down 5 (just today).  Now I have one day to decide if we exercise our inspection contingency and I'm torn.  Any advice or wisdom would be appreciated! Thanks much!