All Forum Posts by: Gabe E.

Thank you Gilbert, one day's work i wouldnt mind helping at the very least. I have zero experience on doing a A/C install so i would need to research it first if i went that route. The prices quoted do not include duct work (although with duct work i was quoted $7k). The home is 1342 sq feet. 

Thank you Roy, the electrician has done 1 phenominal job on circuit breaker work and came in a few hundred under other bids. Quality install. I dont know how he knows the A/C vendor and that is a good point you make. Also, did you pay cash to your A/C guy if you dont mind me asking? Ive heard cash is better than credit since the vendor avoids having to pay that percentage fee. Credit is my preferred option in this case. Anyhow, i could try at bringing the cost down with vendor 1 given your example.

Hi BP community. Here in south Texas an A/C/heater is needed basically year round. That being said my current unit 13 SEER (Goodman) being over 15 years old has a blower that has gone out. This unit is rusted out, has had leaks in the past. Installed by previous homeowner. This will cost about $400 to replace in addition to $350 ive already spent earlier this year to keep in going. I plan to rent this property by early march of next year. 

Ive gotten about 4 replacement quotes ranging from $4775 to $7k, the less expensive 2 being as follows:

Repair vendor 1: Install a 3 ton 16 SEER PAYNE system, 10yr wty for $4775. Less a $375 energy efficient rebate. This vendor was referred to me by my trusted electrician. This vendor is the owner of a very small AC company. No reviews online found of this company good or bad. The more i read about this model PAYNE the more i see it as a 2/5 star system with LOTS of problems down the road. Although the vendor seems genuine to stand by his work. It is a new unit and the vendor/owner seems very experienced.

Repair vendor 2: Install a 3 ton 16 SEER LENNOX system, 10 yr wty (free maintenance checkup twice/yr). This vendor is a bigger company but has rave reviews for workmanship online. This brand also has rave reviews online as well. Same energy efficient rebate. $5,500 installed.

So with 2 new different brand systems and vendors, is it recommended to pay the extra $725 for vendor 2? Or do we keep the costs down and keep vendor 1 hoping the new unit doesnt cause problems later on? OR should i just keep repairing the old unit and cross my fingers?? Are these prices still too high? Im trying to keep costs down but am on the fence on this one, never replaced anything this expensive on properties... what have other investor thought processes been?

chris, thank you for responding. Yes the contractor and I spoke. They are going to replace the hardi with the replica pieces made out of Hardi. We both agreed it would turn out much better overall. The overall project seems to be big enough that we were able to work out an agreement on this one. Although it is good to know in worst case, the #3 option may not be so bad after all. Much appreciated

Hi BP Community,

I have a contractor working on phase1 of 3 on a rental property remodeling. The home exterior is about 75% asbestos (excludes the front of house). One side of the house had fire damage to about 1/3 of the asbestos siding on one side-  and particle board plywood had already been put up to replace the damaged area prior to the home purchase.

Before work was started, I had let the contractor know I wanted to replace the missing asbestos section with a similar looking asbestos pieces to maintain uniformity. What I got so far is the below pic. Now I definitely want to alert them as im not too pleased at them just hanging up hardi siding for that section; not to mention the surfaces being uneven.

(sorry for the night time pic) 

Has anyone run into a similar problem with replacing asbestos pieces? The more I read into it, it seems people are covering the asbestos entirely with new siding. Since this will be a rental, i'd like the siding to at least match; but im not sure if in the long run if it is just better to let them proceed and possibly hardi the rest of the one side. Any ideas on how to proceed?

Thank you Chris and Tim. I hadn't considered a short sale (don't know much about them), but overall it seems clear that sometimes the numbers just wont work in these scenarios. My next option was to get them in touch with a realtor so they can try and sell that way. thanks again!

Hi, have a seller who is looking to get out of their primary residence that they have owned for about 10 years in order to get into another property to accommodate their growing family. They have approached me first in 'selling' their home. Ive used hard money and conventional financing in the past; however this one has numbers that wont work for those and was wondering if there was an option to create a win-win for everyone.

The home is currently valued at $70k conservatively and is in clean condition (just an older roof). The neighborhood comps reflect a sales price range of $70k to $77k, so not too much upside even if I do some upgrades.

Their loan balance= $77k for a $720/mo loan payment. The market rents for that subject property neighborhood, sq. ftg.,  etc is between $900 to $1k/mo.

So basically they are under water on the loan. The interesting part is they are wanting to rent the house from me for a couple of months until they can move into their new property.

Any ideas on this one?