All Forum Posts by: Will G.

the way I read asbestos potential is that is has to be "friable" to be any danger. in other words say you have raw unpainted ceiling tiles that are falling apart, that asbestos could be considered to getting into the air. Paint it and you limit the fibers ability to go drifting off and cause harm. I cant imagine a situation where you would be in trouble over asbestos in the joint compound only(because it is sealed), except when you go to sell (disclose to buyer) or take on a big remodel (tearing out walls).

I think it is reasonable to include the cost of remediation by a professional company (shockingly expensive to do by the book) in your negotiations on price, as the next buyer will likely do it to you.

Copper/pex and pvc plus modern wiring plus good condition, then age in theory should not be a big concern. But as it gets more and more difficult to get service people (who know what their doing) older(percieved higher maintenance) buildings are going to be taxed in the market with lower values until the demand for trades people is satisfied

you def have increased liability and have to rely on tenants to keep gates shut etc. Also you will have to include an outside maint service to take care of the pool, as tenants will likely let it go

matt risinger!

@Mario Martini What a great name:) , need more info to be of any help, generally turning basement into living s.f. is profitable(with permits) and can return around 65% of your main floor per square foot price. So if county listed living s.f. is say $100 per square, the basement s.f. will be valued at $65 bucks a square. If the mechanicals and plumbing are handy I bet you could finish the basement for $30 per s.f.  Ohh look some equity!

Generally NO, 

Without a large economy of scale building a smallish multifamily will be way more per square foot than older property plus redo, mostly due to the evolution of building codes.

One way around having to step into commercial classification and all that it implies, is to build duplexes (technically residential).

20 foot used container is around $1800 which is over $100 per square foot!

I can build a house for $90 bucks a square, so an empty metal building i would guess would be in the $50 range at most.

So whats the point of doing shipping containers over conventional storage building?

@Michael Guzik Great points and clever to see if a deal cash flows from rents 5 years ago. I would submit that finding a property that would pass that test is nearly impossible in the current environment, still I beat my head against the wall daily in attempt! @Jim K. I see folks get into crazy deals not knowing what things will cost, so good on you for having that skill set and being able to fix everything! I have been considering getting my hvac certification cause of all the money I spend on a/c contractors.

I suspect 5 years from now there are going to be a ton of motivated sellers trying to get out of all these low cap rate, marginal deals.

This problem is largely due to cheap labor! whatever you stance on that, it has created a situation where we (americans) look down on factory built homes.

Without the artificial input I believe we would have giant , efficient, factories in every city pumping out modular homes, that are green, affordable and accepted as "normal" and probably cost as much as a nice new truck.

If you have ever built a new home, the insanity of "site built" becomes apparent as the waste of materials and man hours can be staggering.

@Bart H. I hear Dallas is the new hotspot for california migration and hence the appreciation, true?